Free Republic

New taxes, deep cuts to education and health care, and a restructuring of the state's economic development programs will be hallmarks of Gov. David Paterson's first budget plan to be released in two days, according to interviews of people briefed on components. The plan will come with a host of revenue raisers — increased taxes on hospitals and insurance policies, for instance — and at least one new assessment, a so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise $404 million. The governor also is contemplating requiring new license plates to raise cash, reviving sales tax on clothing purchases, removing the...

Attacks on nuclear power stations, oil and gas terminals, Canary Wharf and Heathrow’s control tower were being considered by leaders of the plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-flight, a court was told yesterday. Documents found on computer memory sticks at the home of an alleged terrorist ringleader contained a list of targets across Britain – including the gas pipeline between Britain and Belgium. The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised. Peter Wright, QC,...

Pepsi, Coke rivalry becomes physical Fri Oct 12, 9:46 PM ET The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said. The two deliverymen were "apparently bickering back and forth" while unloading their wares at the Indiana County store, police said. When the Coke deliveryman left the store, his counterpart allegedly punched him in the face three times, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye, police said. No charges have been filed, but police characterized the...

Two foods once thought healthy — sushi and diet soda — pose grave health threats, according to two studies released yesterday. The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is launching a campaign against sushi, encouraging women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning to have children in the near future to stop eating raw fish and cut down on their intake of even cooked fish with high levels of mercury. The campaign was prompted by a citywide survey that showed that women of childbearing age in New York had three times the level of mercury in their blood stream as...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Adults who consume at least one soft drink a day are more likely to develop risk factors for heart disease than those who don't, even if the beverage is diet, according to a study published today in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers studying about 3,500 middle-aged men and women as part of a larger, long-term heart study found an association between daily soft drink consumption and an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome. People with metabolic syndrome -- a combination of factors like high blood pressure and elevated triglycerides -- are more likely to...

The days when children consume two orders of French fries in the school cafeteria and call it lunch may be numbered. A bipartisan group in Congress plans to introduce legislation today that would prohibit the sale in school not only of French fries but also of other fatty or sugary foods, including soft drinks. Under the bill, an amendment to the National School Lunch Act, high nutritional standards would be required of all food sold on school premises. That means not just in cafeterias but in vending machines, school stores and snack bars as well, even at fund-raising events. The...

WASHINGTON - Cancer-causing benzene has been found in soft drinks at levels above the limit considered safe for drinking water, the Food and Drug Administration acknowledged Wednesday. Even so, the FDA still believes there are no safety concerns about benzene in soft drinks, or sodas, said Laura Tarantino, the agency's director of food additive safety. "We haven't changed our view that right now, there is not a safety concern, not a public health concern," she said. "But what we need to do is understand how benzene forms and to ensure the industry is doing everything to avoid those circumstances." The...

The next generation may not be the Pepsi generation — or the Coke generation, for that matter. For years, soda has been the quintessential American drink, considered the perfect thirst quencher, morning pick-me-up or accompaniment to lunch or dinner. But that is slowly changing. As Americans look for greater variety in their drinks and strive for healthier diets, consumption of soda — with its 250 calories and 67 grams of sugar in a 20-ounce bottle — is slipping. Data released yesterday by Beverage Digest, the industry trade publication, shows that for the first time in 20 years, the number of...

Drinking at least one sugar-sweetened soft drink or fruit punch daily nearly doubles the risk of diabetes, according to the first large study to examine the suggested link. Women who drank less than one of the beverages a month had half the risk of developing diabetes than those who drank one a day, according to the study of 91,000 nurses. The results have been published in The Journal Of The American Medical Association. Women who increased the amount of sugar-sweetened drinks they consumed from one or less than that a week to one or more daily were also most likely...

Non-Diet Drinks Also Increase Risk of Diabetes, Study Shows Women who drink non-diet soda or fruit punch every day gain weight quickly and face a sharply elevated risk of diabetes, according to a major study released yesterday. The study of more than 50,000 U.S. nurses found that those who drank just one serving of soda or fruit punch a day tended to gain much more weight than those who drank less than one a month, and had more than an 80 percent increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The risk pertained to...

<p>West Salem cheerleader Andrea Boyes holds water bottles she designed to sell as a school fund-raiser. Pepsi, which has an exclusive contract with the school district, nixed the plan.</p> <p>A West Salem cheerleader’s plan to sell water violates a contract.</p>

The phenomenal Coca-Cola Company has always fascinated me. This hundred-year-old organization has a history of internecine corporate intrigues, shenanigans by its wealthy families and ongoing conflicts with the government. By taking a brief look at its history as well as two of the skirmishes between Coca-Cola and Washington, the first in 1906 and the second in 2000, we can see how our country has changed in the last century. The story of this multi-national corporation began in the 1880s, when the dispensation of medicine was only loosely monitored. An Atlanta druggist named John Pemberton frequently concocted potions to relieve his...

A soft-drink tax to fight flab?California lawmaker pushes the ideaBy Rhonda L. Rundle THE WALL STREET JOURNALApril 12 — Americans are generally resigned to paying sin taxes on booze and cigarettes. Are we ready for a tax on Coke and Pepsi?A CALIFORNIA state lawmaker wants to raise an estimated $350 million a year to fight childhood obesity through a proposed tax on soda pop. The state measure faces an uphill battle, but it is already roiling the soft-drink industry while winning plaudits from public health organizations. Proponents hope it will intensify the national debate on obesity and the role that...

A Pennslyvania pensioner who cleans and reuses dental floss has been named the Cheapskate of the Year.Peter Nowak washes a strip of floss and sterilses it with alcohol after each use for 14 days.He beat off competition from a man who cools soft drink cans in his toilet tank to win the First Annual Philadelphia Inquirer Cheapskate contest.The newspaper says the 300 entries had to be 'eye opening,' 'clever,' 'detailed,' and 'legal.'