County Closes 7-Year-Old's Lemonade Stand

County chair: 7-year-old is free to open shop

(NEWSER) - The top elected official of the Oregon county that closed a 7-year-old girl's lemonade stand says he's sorry inspectors soured her business, and she won't be asked to produce a $120 permit next time. Running a lemonade stand "is a classic, iconic American kid thing to do," and he used to run lemonade stands himself, Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen told the Oregonian . More»

US must get a handle on public health crisis

(NEWSER) - A widespread vice has a negative effect on Americans' health, and it's up to the government to do something about it. That approach worked for tobacco, David Lazarus writes for the LA Times , and it can work for obesity, too. "The answer seems obvious," he argues. "If we want to protect ourselves from a deadly epidemic of heart disease, diabetes and other ailments, just as we've taken steps to protect ourselves from an epidemic of lung cancer, we need to act." More»

(AP) - Congress struck the US government's strongest anti-smoking blow in decades today with a Senate vote to give regulators new power to limit nicotine in cigarettes, drastically curtail ads, and ban candied tobacco products aimed at young people. Cigarette foes say the changes could cut into the 400,000 deaths every year caused by smoking and reduce the $100 billion in annual health-care costs linked to tobacco. More»

Mayor proposes 16-ounce limit at restaurants, movie theaters

(NEWSER) - Michael Bloomberg wants to boot big, sugary drinks out of the Big Apple. The New York City mayor has unveiled a plan to ban the sale of any cup of bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 ounces at restaurants, arenas, movie theaters, and street carts, reports the New York Times . The 16-ounce limit—about the size of a medium coffee—would not apply to diet drinks, fruit juices, milkshakes, or alcoholic drinks. More»

300K in US have potentially fatal tropical disease

(NEWSER) - An insect-borne disease many people have never heard of is quickly becoming the "new AIDS of the Americas," researchers warn. Chagas disease, caused by parasites carried by blood-sucking insects, infects up to 8 million people in the Americas. Many carriers never show symptoms but close to a quarter eventually develop potentially fatal enlarged hearts or intestines. Most sufferers live in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, but there are some 300,000 in the US, many of them immigrants, the New York Times reports. The number of cases in European countries, now home to many Latin American immigrants, is also on the rise. More»