Oct 11th, 2012
DANVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) – Vice President Joe Biden and rival Republican Paul Ryan battled fiercely over foreign policy and the economy in a lively debate on Thursday, with Biden aggressively defending the administration’s policies and dismissing Ryan’s criticism.
Seeking to win back the momentum for the Democrats’ campaign after a poor debate performance by President Barack Obama last...
Oct 3rd, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births fell for the fourth year in a row, the government reported Wednesday, with experts calling it more proof that the weak economy has continued to dampen enthusiasm for having children.
But there may be a silver lining: The decline in 2011 was just 1 percent — not as sharp a fall-off as the 2 to 3 percent drop seen in other recent years.
“It may be that the effect of the recession...
Sep 23rd, 2012
New research powerfully strengthens the case against soda and other sugary drinks as culprits in the obesity epidemic.
A huge, decades-long study involving more than 33,000 Americans has yielded the first clear proof that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, amplifying a person’s risk of obesity beyond what it would be from heredity alone.
This means that such drinks are...
Sep 23rd, 2012
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Call it the Keystone of coal: a regulatory and public relations battle between environmentalists and U.S. coal miners akin to the one that has defined the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline.
Instead of blocking an import, however, this fight is over whether to allow a growing surplus of coal to be exported to Asia, a decision that would throw miners a lifeline by effectively offshoring...
Sep 18th, 2012
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If Americans stick to their eating and exercise habits, future historians will look back on the early 21st century as a golden age of svelte.
The latest in a long string of reports on the obesity epidemic in the United States presents the usual glum picture of the present, when 35.7 percent of adults and 16.9 percent of children age 2 to 19 are obese, as the Centers for Disease Control...
Sep 15th, 2012
A Southern California filmmaker linked to an anti-Islamic movie inflaming protests across the Middle East was interviewed by federal probation officers at a Los Angeles sheriff’s station but was not arrested or detained, authorities said early Saturday.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was interviewed at the station in his hometown of Cerritos, Calif., Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Don Walker...
Sep 10th, 2012
(Reuters) – Chicago teachers walking picket lines on Monday, in a strike that has closed schools across the city, are taking on not just their combative mayor but a powerful education reform movement that is transforming public schools across the United States.
The new vision, championed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who used to run Chicago’s schools, calls for...
Aug 29th, 2012
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Heavy rain from Hurricane Isaac will stall the harvest of U.S. crops but also add valuable soil moisture ahead of autumn seeding of winter wheat and boost river water levels, aiding waterway transport, an agricultural meteorologist said on Wednesday.
Isaac made landfall early Wednesday and topped a levee near New Orleans, triggering life-threatening flooding seven years to the day after...
