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An obese Florida man named George Jolicoeur was spared from jail time because he is too fat. The Obese man was arrested for scamming a number of restaurants, but now he doesn't need any alibi to save him from incarceration as prosecutors are now considering to set him free on account of his very obese form. According to a New York Daily News report, Jolicoeur was arrested in 2007 for scamming several restaurants. The Orlando Sentinel stated that the obese Florida man was offered a plea deal after prosecutors and authorities discovered that it would be too expensive to send...

(CNN) -- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has intervened to help a man who has become one of the heaviest people in the world. The king ordered Khalid bin Mohsen Shaari, who weighs 1,345 pounds (610kg) and is unable to move by himself, be transferred from the Southern border province of Jazan to the country's capital Riyadh to undergo treatment. ..... According to the official spokesman for Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health, Shaari was due to arrive in Riyadh either later Monday or on Tuesday. Pictures showed a fork-lift truck lifting him in is bed. The spokesman said Shaari is...

Chris Christie is immensely popular and is a huge favorite for reelection in New Jersey this year, with voters from across the political spectrum giving him the thumbs up. When it comes to the national conservative base, though, the governor is at risk of earning a different one-finger salute. Christie is already on probation with some conservatives for his praise of President Obama’s work on Hurricane Sandy in the closing days of the 2012 election — something a few critics have even suggested put the president over the top. Now the potential 2016 presidential contender has lashed out at the...

A British man who at one time was the fattest in the world is pleading with the NHS to remove unsightly flaps of flesh after he managed to lose more than half of his body weight. Paul Mason, 50, who weighed 60 stone two years ago, underwent a gastric bypass after he was told he otherwise faced certain death. But he has been left with rolls of unsightly excess skin after the extreme weight loss and now needs an operation to remove the flaps hanging from his stomach, arms and legs. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2066094/Former-worlds-fattest-man-begs-NHS-operation-remove-folds-skin-losing-40-STONE.html#ixzz1emYFobsi

A 600-pound man accepts plea deal for cheating numerous restaurants and stores out of junk food, The Orlando Sentinel reports. A 600-pound Florida man pleaded no contest to scamming numerous restaurants and stores out of food -- and will avoid jail because it's too expensive for the state to pay his medical bills, The Orlando Sentinel reports. George Jolicoeur, 38, was charged with felony petty theft for allegedly demanding refunds in restaurants and stores for spoiled or defective food -- after he had eaten all or most of it. His attorney says he's been in a nursing facility for months...

A 272kg man accused of stealing food and scamming restaurants has been unable to face his charges in court because he is too sick and fat. George Jolicoeur, 38, remained in a bed in his nursing home while his lawyer pleaded no contest to five petty theft charges in an Orlando court in the US state of Texas, the Palm Beach Post reports. The offences were all committed in 2007, when a more mobile Jolicoeur on five occasions walked into a restaurant or food store and claimed he had been sold substandard food. On each of the occasions, Jolicoeur demanded...

Jerri Gray Has Been Charged With Neglecting Her Teenage Son Alex A mother is being charged with neglecting her obese teenage son, raising issues about whether the government has the right to intervene in one's family life. Born and raised in South Carolina, Alexander Draper grew up to reach a dangerous 555 pounds by the age of 14. That's when law enforcement stepped in. "The first and foremost concern is Alexander's health," Lt. Shea Smith told CBS News. Alexander's mother, Jerri Gray, was charged with unlawful neglect of a child for allowing him to become obese. "There have been opportunities...

Larry Armstrong has been volunteering with his local Boy Scout branch for years, chaperoning trips, serving on the council committee, even becoming certified in archery instruction for a day camp. But Armstrong, at 6-foot, 2-inches tall and about 370 pounds, may no longer qualify for some scout outings because he's overweight, part of a new push by the national organization to ensure the scouts and their volunteers are healthy. A new mandatory weight requirement by the national Boy Scouts of America that will take effect next January has some longtime volunteers concerned they will be left out of trips they've...

(CBS) CBS11 in Dallas/Fort Worth has the story of a chronically obese woman's desperate plea for help. Karen Ferguson is leave her trailer home in northwest Tarrant County, Texas. The last thing she wanted is attention, but she is reaching out for help. "I would never bring myself down to go on the news looking like this," Ferguson said. "I would wish it'd be for a cure or that I'm doing good or something. But not like this. It's hard on the family." Ferguson estimates she weighs 700 pounds. She said it's because of her diabetes. Several years ago, at...

In India the LAP-BAND System has been proven the safest, simplest and effective way to treat severe obesity. If you are seriously overweight, the LAP-BAND System can help you achieve a happier, healthier life! In India the Lap-Band system is the least invasive of all weight loss surgeries. The system includes an adjustable silicon elastic band that is surgically placed around the stomach. The band induces weight loss by restricting food intake; when eating less, your body draws from its own fat to get the energy it needs. The Lap-Band is the only adjustable weight loss surgery; in fact, band...

HAVANA - Michael Moore's new documentary film "SiCKO" has given Cuba's free health system its best publicity since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, a Cuban doctor who hosted the filmmaker's visit said on Monday. Moore took eight Americans sickened after volunteering for the September 11, 2001, rescue efforts for free treatment in Cuba in March in order to extol the Communist state's universal care in his film, which attacks the U.S. health system for being driven by profits and leaving millions uninsured. "SiCKO" has stirred heated debate in the United States since opening in June due to its scathing indictment of...

PETA has a message for Michael Moore: You’re the Sicko. The animal-rights group is blasting the filmmaker as a hypocrite for criticizing the U.S. healthcare system in his new documentary, “Sicko,” because they say he’s in such poor health himself. “There’s an elephant in the room, and it is you,” PETA president Ingrid Newkirk wrote in a letter to Moore. Newkirk urged the rotund Moore to become a vegetarian, which many nutritionists say is a good way to lose weight, and visit PETA’s Web site GoVeg.com for veggie recipes. Writes Newkirk: “As they say at Nike (sorry!): ‘Just do it.”

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Director Michael Moore says the U.S. health care system is driven by greed in his new documentary "SiCKO", and asks of Americans in general, "Where is our soul?" He also said he could go to jail for taking a group of volunteers suffering ill health after helping in the September 11, 2001 rescue efforts on an unauthorized trip to Cuba, where they received exemplary treatment at virtually no cost. The controversial film maker is back in Cannes, where he won the film festival's highest honor in 2004 with his anti-Bush polemic "Fahrenheit 9/11". In "SiCKO" he...

US filmmaker Michael Moore has challenged Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson for a debate over health care issues. Both of them have been taking a dig at each other ever since Thompson wrote in the National Review on May 2, an article on the Treasury Department's investigation into whether Moore violated the US trade embargo against Cuba by seeking free treatment for 9/11 responders there. Moore has now blasted Thompson in a letter over his fondness for Cuban-made Montecristo cigars. "While I will leave it up to the conservatives to debate your hypocrisy and the Treasury Department to determine whether...

Until she came to Houston's Renaissance Hospital two weeks ago, Renee Williams hadn't left her bed in three years. It took eight people to get her in and out of the ambulance. At her first weigh-in at the hospital, she tipped 850 pounds. Williams this week became what's thought to be the largest female patient to undergo laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery, the increasingly popular solution to morbid obesity. Her doctor said he's optimistic her weight may drop to as low as 200 pounds in two years.

Town N Country, Florida – A woman is in stable condition after being ejected through the sunroof of her SUV during an accident. Thirty-seven-year-old Ruth Matthews told paramedics that another vehicle cut her off in traffic, and she took evasive action to avoid a crash. Her Isuzu Amigo rolled over and she was thrown through the sunroof and onto the roadway. Investigators say she was not wearing her seatbelt. Paramedics initially tried to fly Matthews to Tampa General Hospital, but her weight, estimated at 600 pounds, made it impossible. Emergency crews were able to transport her to St. Joseph’s Hospital,...

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) - A 420-pound man was charged with felony robbery, accused of stealing beer from the same store he stole from in January, authorities said. Levi Timbana, 23, of Fort Hall was accused of walking into the Cowboy Oil store Aug. 9 and taking a swing at a clerk who refused to sell him beer after hours. Prosecutors say the clerk held Timbana at bay with a metal pipe until police arrived; Timbana's companion allegedly fled with two cases of beer. Police said Timbana punched a different clerk at the store during a January beer heist. He spent...

There may soon be less of Michael Moore. The portly propagandist is doing a stint at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Aventura, Fla. — also known as the "fat farm for the rich." Moore is learning how to cook healthy meals and exercise and attending classes on "life re-education." The program starts at $3,800 a week and promises enrolees they'll "learn a new approach to eating," "never have to diet again," and can lose up to 12 pounds in the first three weeks.

Here are some post-election comments from Michael F. Moore: THEY say that in life you get what you deserve. Well, today America has deservedly got a lawless cowboy to lead them further into carnage and isolation and the unreserved contempt of most of the rest of the world. This once-great country has pulled up its drawbridge for another four years and stuck a finger up to the billions of us forced to share the same air. And in doing so, it has shown itself to be a fearful, backward-looking and very small nation. This should have been the day when...

  Breadmakers feel pain from Atkins diet By DAVID SHARPThe Associated Press11/8/2003, 1:18 p.m. ETPORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Some bakers around the country are seeing a similar drop in business: With millions of people trying the diet created by the late low-carb guru Dr. Robert Atkins, overall bread sales are flat or down slightly, while bread-bashing seems to be at an all-time high. A sign in Stephen Lanzalotta's bakery reads, "Senza il pane tutto diventa orfano." In Italian, that means, "Without bread everyone's an orphan." But fewer customers are buying his European-style breads and pastries these days — thanks to...