Free Republic

ATLANTA -- A widely reported government study that said obesity is about to overtake smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in the United States contained statistical errors and may have overstated the problem, health officials acknowledged today. The government is working on a rare correction to the study. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in March in a study co-authored by its director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, that a poor diet and physical inactivity were responsible for 400,000 deaths in 2000, a 33 percent jump from 1990. However, the CDC admitted today that it made an error...

BOSTON, Mass.— When Bill Richardson and his entourage move through Boston— the site of next month's Democratic National Convention— people notice. On Wednesday, Richardson, chairman of the convention, arrived for a quick visit to prepare for next month's event. The city's notorious rush-hour traffic jams relented, if only for a moment, to make way for the New Mexico governor's Massachusetts state police-powered motorcade. And when Richardson, a former minor league baseball pitcher, arrived at historic Fenway Park for a sold-out Red Sox game, team officials hustled him through the players' entrance to a second-row seat on the first baseline, where...