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Beverage industry douses tax on soft drinks
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-soda-tax7-2010feb07,0,282916.story
The idea had been floated as a way to finance a healthcare overhaul while combating obesity. But the industry has lobbied key lawmakers and financed scientific studies favorable to its position.
Reporting from Washington - Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry has smothered a plan to tax sugared beverages -- a plan advocates said would have reduced obesity and helped finance healthcare reform.
Only months ago, public health advocates thought the tax would be a natural for congressional Democrats looking for revenues to fund expanded health insurance coverage. The soaring costs of treating ailments related to excess weight -- including diabetes and heart disease -- added urgency to the issue.
But the White House staff reviewing funding options never embraced the idea even after President Obama expressed interest last summer. A key congressional committee, after initially seeming receptive, ended up refusing to consider it. Several minority advocacy groups, including some committed to fighting obesity, lined up against the tax after years of receiving financial support from the industry.
There is no sign that First Lady Michelle Obama will mention taxes Tuesday when she unveils her new healthy eating initiative, which had input from fast food and soft drink representatives.
Meanwhile, beverage lobbyists attacked some of the country''''s most distinguished nutrition scientists, accusing them of bias and distorting available evidence. The beverage industry also financed research that reached conclusions favorable to its position.
No one underestimated the difficulty of getting new taxes approved, but Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood), a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said, "We thought we had a chance to punch through."
That was before the industry unlimbered its guns.
Targeting lawmakers
From the beginning, fast food and beverage company executives were uneasy about President Obama. He and his wife were known advocates of healthy eating. The executives were also concerned that the promised Obama healthcare initiative might include taxes or other incentives to reduce consumption of fast food and high-calorie beverages.
Coupled with similar initiatives in such states as California, the industry faced the possibility of a full-scale national debate on sweetened soft drinks and their effect on health -- and the nation''''s ever-higher medical bill.
Another alarm sounded last May, when the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from public health advocates who proposed using a soda tax to help finance healthcare legislation.
Analysts at Yale University have calculated that a penny-an-ounce tax would induce a 23% drop in consumption, and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a smaller tax could raise $50 billion over ten years. Although the extent to which such a tax might drive down obesity rates is scientifically unclear, nutrition experts argue that it would, at the least, improve health by discouraging consumption of sodas, which have no nutritional value but are packed with calories.
A few weeks later, soda tax advocates in the House Ways and Means Committee reported initially favorable responses from colleagues during closed-door meetings. And in July, President Obama told a Men''''s Health magazine reporter that such a tax was an "idea that we should be exploring."
Sanchez, who was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes, was one of the committee members who pushed for consideration of the idea. She told a closed-door meeting of committee Democrats that it would be a political winner: "We are on the moral high ground here," she said. "We can improve health outcomes and get more revenue."
At the beginning, several other Democrats expressed support, including six-term Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey and freshman Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz of Pennsylvania, the daughter of a dentist.
Beverage lobbyists immediately went to work, enlisting other industries to help pressure members of Ways and Means.
"The industries in our coalition realized that this is a slippery slope, that once government reaches into the grocery cart, your business could be next," said Kevin Keane, senior vice president, public affairs for the American Beverage Assn.
The coalition, operating under the name Americans Against Food Taxes, included the soft drink makers, their suppliers, and such mass marketers as McDonald''''s and Domino''''s Pizza.
Using the argument that higher food and drink taxes would unfairly burden the poor, the coalition recruited a bevy of Latino groups, among them the Hispanic Alliance for Prosperity Institute, the National Hispana Leadership Institute, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Public health analysts were surprised to find that the list included the National Hispanic Medical Assn., which represents 36,000 Latino doctors and focuses on health issues, such as obesity-related diabetes, that hit Latino youth especially hard.
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Posted by Admin on Saturday, February 06 @ 21:06:40 MST (4 reads)
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Effort underway to suspend California's global-warming law
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ballot-warming6-2010feb06,0,5959308.story
Conservatives propose an initiative that would delay curbs on greenhouse gas emissions until the state''s unemployment rate drops to 5.5%, a level not seen since 2007.
Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California''s landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations.
Supporters say they have "solid commitments" of nearly $600,000 to pay signature gatherers for a November initiative aimed at delaying curbs on the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants and factories until the state''s unemployment rate drops.
GOP gubernatorial candidates and Tea Party organizers paint the 2006 law, considered a model for other state and federal efforts, as a job-killing interference in the economy. Talk radio is flailing at what John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, drive-time hosts on Los Angeles'' KFI-AM (640), call "the global-warming final solution act" promoted by "fascist, Nazi" officials.
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Posted by Admin on Saturday, February 06 @ 21:00:56 MST (5 reads)
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Government's switched on energy move (Australia)
February 07, 2010 3:59AM
- $1,500 energy assessment
- Applies to all types of properties
- ''''A positive move for the industry''''
ALL Australian homes will soon have to undergo a mandatory energy-efficiency assessment costing up to $1500 per property. The assessment has to be done before any property can be sold or rented under new laws to tackle carbon emissions.
The mandatory assessment - being drafted into law by the federal and state governments - will rate homes by an energy efficiency star system, similar to the ratings given to fridges and washing machines.
It will apply to all commercial properties from later this year and to all residential properties from May 2011, Adelaide Now reports.
A spokesman for State Energy Minister Pat Conlon said the ratings would inform prospective owners or tenants of a building''''s energy use, so they could factor it in to their buying or rental decision.
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Posted by Admin on Saturday, February 06 @ 20:47:10 MST (6 reads)
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U.S. Senator Lieberman: Impose sanctions on Iran or attack it
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147872.html
| Last update - 21:21 06/02/2010 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
| ![]() | | U.S. Senator Lieberman: Impose sanctions on Iran or attack it | ![]() | | By News Agencies | ![]() | | | IAEA chief seeks accelerated talks with Tehran over proposed uranium enrichment outside Iran.
The world faces a stark choice between imposing tough sanctions on Iran to stop its nuclear program, or attacking it, United States Senator Joe Lieberman said Saturday.
Lieberman is the influential chairman of the Senate committee on homeland security. He was speaking a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that his country was ready to accept an international swap of uranium, but only under certain conditions.
"We have a choice here: to go to tough economic sanctions to make diplomacy work or we will face the prospect of military action against Iran," Lieberman told the annual Munich Security Conference.
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Posted by Admin on Saturday, February 06 @ 20:39:21 MST (7 reads)
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Swine flu activity continues to be low as WHO defends actions
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/01/swine-flu-activity-continues-to-be-low.html
January 29, 2010 | 4:29 pm  Activity of the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus continues to ebb in the United States, with no states reporting widespread flu activity in the week ending Jan. 23 and only five states reporting regional activity. Hospitalization rates have leveled off, and very few hospitalizations for confirmed swine flu were reported during the week. The proportion of visits to doctors'' offices for influenza-like illness was 1.7%, below the baseline level of 2.3% for an epidemic. The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza increased slightly from the previous week and is higher than is normally expected at this time of year. The higher rate is thought to result from an increase in pneumonia-related deaths in older people and is not necessarily related to influenza. Five new pediatric deaths were reported during the week, four from swine flu and one from a type A influenza that was not subtyped. That brings the total of laboratory-confirmed deaths related to flu to 312 since last April, when the pandemic began. Virtually all of the flu viruses tested in laboratories have been confirmed to be swine flu, and its composition remains virtually identical to the virus used in preparing the vaccine. A few cases of resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu were observed, but most viruses seen remained susceptible to the drug. As of Thursday morning, 147.3 million doses of the swine flu vaccine were available and about 119 million had been shipped. Most public health authorities are now recommending that the vaccine be given to anyone who wants it. In other swine flu news: -- The World Health Organization this week vehemently denied charges that it had been swayed by pharmaceutical companies in its response to the pandemic. Some critics in the Council of Europe had charged that the WHO had overreacted to the outbreak of swine flu virus, causing public health bodies to waste $18 billion on excessive stocks of vaccines. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, special advisor on flu to the WHO director-general, told the body: "Let me state clearly for the record. The influenza pandemic policies and responses recommended and taken by WHO were not improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry." He conceded that the agency''s response was not perfect but noted, "We do not wait until [global outbreaks] have developed and we see that lots of people are dying. What we try and do is take preventive action." -- Serbia and Japan joined the list of countries that have tried to cancel part of their orders for swine flu vaccine in light of a tepid response among the public. But vaccine manufacturers such as Novartis warned countries not to cancel their orders, stressing that priority for vaccines in a future epidemic would be given to those countries that honored their contractual obligations. Canada said it would reduce its oversupply of vaccines by donating 5 million doses to the WHO to support vaccination efforts in developing countries, and would contribute $6 million to help distribute the vaccines. -- Thomas H. Maugh II |
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Posted by Admin on Saturday, February 06 @ 20:32:29 MST (8 reads)
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U.S. unemployment rate falls unexpectedly, but job losses continue
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jobs6-2010feb06,0,4287218.story
The jobless rate declines to 9.7% in January from 10% in December. However, employers cut a net 20,000 jobs last month.
By Don Lee February 6, 2010 Reporting from Washington - U.S. workers and the Obama administration finally got some good news on the job front Friday as the unemployment rate unexpectedly tumbled out of double-digit terrain for the first time in four months.
In addition to the jobless rate''''s drop to 9.7% in January from 10% in December, the Labor Department report offers a number of signs pointing to a turnaround in the employment market and a continuing, gradual recovery in the overall economy. Among those signs was the first increase in factory jobs in three years.
A sharp decline in the number of people working part time involuntarily was "the most promising news out of today''''s report," said John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Overall, we are definitely heading toward a job market recovery."
The positive news was tempered by newly revised data showing the country lost a staggering 8.4 million jobs in the last two years -- about four times the net job losses in the recession of the early 1980s and 1.2 million more than previously estimated. |
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Posted by Admin on Saturday, February 06 @ 20:27:53 MST (5 reads)
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Winter Olympics to demo lighting controlled by thoughtsBy Priya Ganapati, Wired
(WIRED) -- Along with the figure skating, ice hockey and snowboarding, another event will compete for attention at the Winter Olympics in Canada this month.
A Canadian company has created what it calls the "largest thought-controlled computing installation." It''s an experiment that lets visitors to the Olympics use their brainwaves to control the lights at three major landmarks in Canada, including Niagara Falls.
"When people put on the headsets and find themselves increasing the brightness of the lights by just thinking about it, you can almost see their brains explode," says Trevor Coleman, chief operating officer for InteraXon, the company that has created this installation.
As consumers get more comfortable with going beyond the keyboard and the mouse to interact with their computers, companies are looking for alternate ways to make the experience better.
Already, touch and voice recognition have become a major part of the user interface in smartphones, and harnessing brainwaves or other biological data is slowly emerging as a third option, especially in gaming.
InteraXon''s installation is spread across three sites: Toronto''s CN Tower, Ottawa''s Parliament Buildings and Niagara Falls. All three locations have two chairs set up, each with its own headset.
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Posted by Admin on Saturday, February 06 @ 20:08:10 MST (6 reads)
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