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The FDA announced Thursday that there is no safe level of partially hydrogenated oils. The move — unusually bold for an agency that typically leaves additive safety to the private sector — is the first step in what could be a long road to removing trans fats, which are still widely used to improve the texture and shelf stability of processed foods like frosting, doughnuts and crackers. There is no safe level of consumption of artificial trans fats, Hamburg stressed. Consumer advocates are applauding the FDA’s actions.

Bill Still makes the case that given that QE injections ARE COUNTED in GDP growth, and 3Q GDP growth has been roughly $196 billion during the last quarter while QE injections are $85 billion per month or $255 billion. Meaning: The US actually shrunk $59 billion during the last quarter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qK6ftzkX7xc

He’s calling it “America’s Most Pivotal Senate Race,” and Thom Tillis is bringing in the big guns. John Frank of Under the Dome reported Thursday morning that GOP strategist and longtime Republican king-maker Karl Rove will be traveling to North Carolina later this month to attend three fundraisers for US Senate candidate Thom Tillis. These three events will be in Cary, Fayetteville, and Charlotte. This really isn’t surprising considering Tillis attended an American Crossroads meeting last month, and the group launched a web campaign this week targeting Kay Hagan. American Crossroads is the political action committee ran by Rove which...

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz made his late night television debut Friday, where he and Tonight Show host Jay Leno talked about his opinions on Obamacare, same-sex marriage and his future ambitions. Leno wasn't easy on the freshman senator, who has become one of the loudest critics of Obamacare, and whose efforts to defund the president's health insurance plan was one of the factors leading to October's partial government shutdown, CNN reports. "Don't believe everything you read," Cruz told Leno, in response to questions about complaints from both Democrats and Republicans that he is "aggressive, arrogant and abrasive." "What I’m...

Casting broad generalizations about the state of American Catholicism is a hazardous business. Yet from where I sit in the pew, pulpits are experiencing the phenomena of Sherlock Holmes’ hound that doesn’t bark. More specifically, I am getting a sinking feeling that in this age of ideological political partisanship, bishops and priests are succumbing to excessive self-censorship and are failing to educate their parishioners on the fundamental tenets of the faith, and how politics can be informed by that faith. As Pope Francis noted in a daily homily, “A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself, so...

Cold Fusion Energy: What to Expect and How Close We Are by Dr. Stoyan Sarg October 30, 2013 What are the expected major advantages of the new energy of cold fusion? One, obtaining cheaper and small nuclear energy reactors; and, two, avoiding the hazardous radioactive waste. Achieving the first one without solving the second will be a problem. Presently, management of the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants is quite expensive, but it is part of the maintenance and the problem is considered solved. At least, it appears to be solved because the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe is a result of...

Man shot during bigfoot hunt in Oklahoma CATOOSA, Okla., Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Authorities in Oklahoma said one person was shot and three were arrested in an apparent sasquatch hunting mishap. Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said Omar Pineda, 21, shot his friend in the back accidentally while the two were out hunting for the legendary ape, but it took a lot of questioning before deputies could uncover the truth, KXTV, Oklahoma City, reported Tuesday. Pineda, 21, was arrested for reckless conduct with a firearm and obstruction. The wounded man is expected to survive. Perry Don James, 53, Pineda's father-in-law,...

Modern Whig Party candidate Robert “Heshy” Bucholtz, a 39-year old software engineer, was voted in as an election judge in the Democratic bastion of Rhawnhurst in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Tuesday. This is one of the first Whig candidates elected since the party became defunct in the 1860’s, and Bucholtz is the only Modern Whig currently in office. The last Whig politician to serve in Philadelphia was Robert Conrad, who was mayor of the city from 1854-1856.Bucholtz won by a vote of 36-24. He is now responsible for overseeing equipment and procedures at the polls.The Modern Whig Party portrays itself as the...

Update #2 after numerous requests from readers to update this story. The original posting is here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3079644/posts Update #1 is here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3083078/posts And now, update #2: The last contact I made was on October 31st, asking why the promised call back after 2 business days hadn't happened. I was told that they'd escalate it again and I'd get a call back within 48 hours, not including weekends. On November 6th I called in o tell them that those two days had elapsed and no call back had occurred. I asked for a supervisor who told me that the callback standard...

New York Times columnist David Brooks always knows he's sitting on a liberal Democrat set at the PBS NewsHour. PBS viewers don't want a real conservative that makes conservative arguments. Only insults are welcome. So in praising Chris Christie on Friday's show, he said the 2012 GOP presidential debates were "Looney Tunes." He was dead serious. But when the subject turned to liberal Democrats in New York City, he made a very mild crack about the "Democratic intelligentsia, such as it is," and immediately retracted and apologized:

Duval County School Board members voted unanimously Friday to start the process that likely would remove the name Nathan B. Forrest from one of its high schools. All seven board members voted to formally accept the written request of District 5 board member Constance Hall to begin the name-change procedure.

Homeschoolers whose children were recently seized by the German government are now not allowed to emigrate to a country that allows homeschooling. In August, the children of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich were seized at gunpoint by German officials because the Wunderlich's refused to send their children to the public school. In mid-September, the Wunderlichs were reunited with their children, but only after they promised to send their kids to public school. The Wunderlichs then requested that they be allowed to leave the country so that they could go to a country that will allow them to homeschool. A judge told...

Recently declared Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis had a really, really bad opening round of campaign appearances. Naturally, the national press, which swooned over the Fort Worth Democrat's ultimately failed filibuster against a common-sense pro-life law in the Lone Star State's legislature, pretended not to notice. They had local help. On Wednesday, At The Monitor in McAllen, Texas, in an item mirrored at the Brownsville Herald, "reporter" Ty Johnson opened with six paragraphs of fanboy fawning about Davis's Tuesday campaign appearance in Brownville, and then buried Davis's galling attempt to portray herself as "pro-life" in Paragraph 23. Also, stay tuned...

Don't you believe that President Obama's lies that people could keep their health insurance plans and doctors were his only lies about Obamacare or that these and the other lies were not demonstrably false when he uttered them. In my book "Crimes Against Liberty," I chronicled Obama's multitudinous lies about Obamacare and many other subjects, from earmarks to tax increases. Please allow me to revisit some of my reporting on the Obamacare lies in light of the recent furor over Obama's dissembling concerning health care. Let's start with the particularly galling declaration Obama made after Congress' partisan passage of Obamacare...

It took 11 years, but Judicial Watch recently received a response to a 2002 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that revealed another major missed opportunity by the Clinton administration to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, which is part of perhaps the most catastrophic failure in the history of U.S. intelligence. The new document reads like a Robert Ludlum spy novel, replete with exotic locales and sinister plots. Its pages explode with intricate twists and international intrigue. The villains are palpably evil; their plans, pernicious and deadly. But the good guys seemed largely oblivious to their machinations. The...

Benedict XVI, Bishop Schneider, and Communion in the hand The auxiliary bishop of Astana (Kazakhstan), Bishop Athanasius Schneider, was among the organizers of the CISP (International Coordination Summorum Pontifcum) pilgrimage that brought a thousand traditional-minded Catholics from around the world to Rome the weekend of October 24-27, 2013. Bishop Schneider was the celebrant of one of the three pontifical Masses that were celebrated in the extraordinary form (he did so in the traditional parish church of Santissima TrinitÀ dei Pellegrini, while the other two took place in St. Peter’s Basilica and in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, with...

A Polish tourist comes back home after visiting the USSR. He carries two very large and heavy suitcases. On his wrist is a new Soviet-made watch. He tells the customs man: "This is a new Soviet watch. It's a wonder unknown in the capitalist countries. You see, it shows time, the rate of your pulse beats, the phases of the Moon, the weather in Warsaw, Moscow, and New York, and more and more!" "Yes, it's a wonder," the customs man agrees. "And what is it you have in these big suitcases?" "Oh, it's just the batteries for that watch." ...........................................

Delaware, Vice President Joe Biden's home state, just spent $1 million per person to enroll four people in Obamacare. That's a big f---ng deal. More than a month after the launch of Delaware's health insurance exchange, officials report only four Delawareans enrolled for insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. As of Tuesday, Delaware's marketplace guide organizations reported four enrollments, 31 enrollment applications completed and 218 accounts created for possible enrollment. Four community organizations were hired to provide marketplace guides, using a $4 million federal grant.

I have some bad news. No one gives you a job because you deserve one. No one gives you a job because you need one. Not because you are a good person, not because you are breathing, can fog a mirror, and/or are entitled. The 'free market' doesn't mean you get stuff for free. You get a job because someone needs some work done and is willing and able to pay you for it. Let's elaborate just a bit. Someone needs some work done and is willing and able to compensate you with wages, working conditions, benefits, opportunities for advancement...

Orangeburg attorney and U.S. Army veteran Bill Connor – who lost the 2010 Republican runoff for lieutenant governor to Ken Ard – has filed to run against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in next June’s Republican primary, according to federal election documents. Connor did not return requests for comment Friday. However, he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday, indicating he plans to run. Connor is the fourth Republican to oppose Graham in the primary, joining state Sen. Lee Bright of Spartanburg, Easley businessman Richard Cash and Charleston public-relations executive Nancy Mace. Unlike Bright, Cash and Mace, Connor has run...