What’s the Point of Regulating Lemonade Stands?

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Photo Credit: Jim Weber/ZUMA Press/CorbisOver the last 30 years, it seems like it has gotten a little tougher for kids to start that most Norman Rockwell of ventures, the lemonade stand.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s there were a few instances of local governments shutting kids’ stands down for various reasons, although officials typically bowed to public pressure and allowed them to reopen.

In 1983, 6-year-old Ali Thorn’s lemonade stand in Belleair, Fla., was closed down after police received an anonymous complaint that her sign did not comply with city ordinances, but was quickly allowed to reopen.

In 1988, 9-year-old Max Schilling’s seven-foot high lemonade stand in Watchung, N.J., was shuttered after city officials claimed it was a permanent structure that sat too close to the street and threatened to fine him $500 a day. After a brief legal fight, Schilling’s stand was allowed to reopen.

In 1993, 12-year-old Sarah Knott and 13-year-old Margaret Johnson’s stand in Charleston, S.C., was shut down by police officers because they didn’t have a peddler’s license. However, after a public outcry, the city apologized to the girls and allowed them to continue.

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Starnes: You Can’t Celebrate America, School Says

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Photo Credit: WND Students and parents at a Colorado high school are outraged after administrators turned down their request for a spirit week day honoring America because it might offend non-Americans.

“They said they didn’t want to offend anyone from other countries or immigrants,” a 16-year-old member of the student council told me. “They just really did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”

The student council at Fort Collins High School had proposed having a day to celebrate the United States during next week’s Winter Spirit Week. The young people pitched “’Merica Monday” – and invited their classmates to dress in patriotic colors. Their proposal was promptly shot down by administrators.

“They said they didn’t want to be exclusive to any other country,” a 17-year-old member of the student council told me.

The students and parents who talked to me about this incident have asked to remain anonymous. The parents feared their children might face reprisals from liberal educators.

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Eating Too Much Added Sugar May Be Killing You

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Photo Credit: Allison Joyce, Getty ImagesSugar not only makes you fat, it may be killing you.

Consuming too much added sugar — in regular soda, cakes, cookies and candy — increases your risk of death from heart disease, according to a new study, the largest of its type.

“The risk of cardiovascular disease death increases exponentially as you increase your consumption of added sugar,” says the study’s lead author, Quanhe Yang, a senior scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On average, adults in the USA in 2010 consumed about 15% of their daily calories — about 300 calories a day, based on a 2,000-calorie diet — from added sugars. That’s far more than the American Heart Association’s recommendation that women consume no more than 100 calories a day from added sugars, or about 6 teaspoons of sugar; and men consume no more than 150 calories a day, or about 9 teaspoons. The World Health Organization recommends consuming less than 10% of calories from added sugars.

One can of regular soda contains about 140 calories of added sugar. That’s about 7% of the daily calories of someone eating 2,000 calories a day, Yang says.

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Parents Warned: Big Brother Owns Your Children

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Photo Credit: WNDThe U.S. Constitution reserves the power of public education to the states and local governments.

But today in the United States, the long-time aim of many leftists to give the federal government control over the minds of the next generation is nearly a done deal.

“For decades liberals have tried to seize control of public school curriculum,” author and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly warned the attendees of The Constitutional Coalition’s 25th annual Education Policy Conference in St. Louis, Mo., this weekend. “Now [President] Obama’s mighty pen can achieve that goal.”

Schlafly, referring to Obama’s recent boast that his “pen” can bypass Congress via executive orders, explained her warning to hundreds of assembled teachers, school administrators, parents and activists at the Educational Policy Conference, or EPC, this weekend. Piggybacking on what several EPC speakers contended through dozens of shocking examples, Schlafly warned that the federal “Common Core” standards for public education not only blatantly violate the Constitution, but also indoctrinate students in leftist thinking, violate personal privacy and pave the way for a socialist society.

Already 45 states have adopted the federal Common Core standards for English and math, with similar programs in the works for science and social studies, while the content of the Core standards is filtering down into standardized college entrance and advanced placement examinations.

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Fox Sets May 5 Premiere for ‘24: Live Another Day’

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Photo Credit: Variety The clock starts again May 5 for Jack Bauer as Fox unveils its reboot of “24″ with a two-hour premiere episode.

“24: Live Another Day” will settle into its 9 p.m. Monday time period the following week for the rest of its 12-episode run. Fox is mounting a massive promo push for the return of the real-time drama thriller, the session for which will open Fox’s portion of the Television Critics Assn. press tour on Monday.

Fox is giving “American Idol” launchpads to two other midseason series, family comedy “Surviving Jack” and gritty cop drama “Gang Related.”

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Dylan Farrow: Woody Allen Sexually Assaulted Me

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Photo Credit: APDylan Farrow renewed molestation allegations against Woody Allen, claiming the movie director sexually assaulted her when she was 7 after he and actress Mia Farrow adopted her.

In an open-letter to The New York Times posted online Saturday, Dylan Farrow made her first public comments about the 1992 incident. In a letter to op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof, she said she was moved to speak out because of Hollywood’s continued embrace of Allen.

“That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up,” wrote Farrow. “I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls.”

The New York Times reported that Allen declined comment. Also, representatives for Allen and for former partner Mia Farrow also did not immediately return requests for comment Saturday from The Associated Press. Allen has long maintained his innocence.

In the letter, Dylan Farrow claims that in 1992 at the family’s Connecticut home, Allen led her to a “dim, closet-like attic” and “then he sexually assaulted me.” Farrow didn’t specify Allen’s actions, but described other abusive behavior.

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Experts Warn Of ‘Caffeine Use Disorder’

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Photo Credit: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

Photo Credit: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

A new study has found that more people are dependent on caffeine to the point experts are issuing a “caffeine use disorder” warning.

The study, coauthored by American University psychology professor Laura Juliano, shows that more people are suffering withdrawl symptoms and are unable to reduce caffeine consumption which is causes the “caffeine use disorder.”

“There is misconception among professionals and lay people alike that caffeine is not difficult to give up. However, in population-based studies, more than 50 percent of regular caffeine consumers report that they have had difficulty quitting or reducing caffeine use,” Juliano said in a press release. ”Through our research, we have observed that people who have been unable to quit or cut back on caffeine on their own would be interested in receiving formal treatment—similar to the outside assistance people can turn to if they want to quit smoking or tobacco use.”

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Christian Film Stripped of ‘Best Song’ Oscar Nomination

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Photo Credit: Matt Sayles

Photo Credit: Matt Sayles

This year’s most-obscure Oscar nominee is no more.

At a meeting this week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors decided to strip the surprise nomination for Best Song from “Alone Yet Not Alone,” which appears in the independent Christian-produced film of the same name.

Writer Bruce Broughton, a former member of the board of governors and currently on the music branch’s executive committee, violated the Academy’s rules against lobbying by personally e-mailing “members of the branch to make them aware of his submission during the nominations voting period,” according to a statement released by the governors Wednesday.

The nomination of “Alone Yet Not Alone” raised the eyebrows (and hackles) of many veteran Oscar-watchers when the nominations were announced Jan. 16. The film had a public profile more associated with obscure foreign films and nobody had tipped it as a possible nominee in any category.

“Alone Yet Not Alone” played on 11 screens nationwide for one week in October and grossed less than $135,000, BoxOfficeMojo.com said. As of Wednesday evening, fewer than 100 people had rated it on the Internet Movie Database. By comparison, the Sandra Bullock October release “Gravity,” which was nominated for 10 Oscars, has grossed more than $260 million and been rated by more than 250,000 IMDb users.

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Endorsement of Wendy Davis Triggers National Boycott of Girl Scout Cookies

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

A part of every Thin Mint and Do-Si-Do, every Samoa and Savannah Smile goes to support abortion advocacy. So say John Pisciotta, who runs a tiny pro-life organization in Waco, Texas, and a dozen national pro-life organizations he has convinced to join him in a national boycott of Girl Scout cookies that will be announced in Texas tomorrow.

A few weeks ago, the Girl Scouts designated Wendy Davis as an “incredible woman” who deserved to be on the list of 2013 “Women of the Year.” Only a month earlier, the organization promoted Kathleen Sebelius as a woman of “courage” on its Facebook page.

Davis is not known for much more than exaggerating her life story and for her filibuster of a pro-life bill in the Texas legislature. Her critics point out that the bill she filibustered was one that limited abortions after viability.

Kathleen Sebelius has been the bête noir of the pro-life movement for her role in Obamacare and mandating abortion coverage even for religious entities, what some Catholic bishops have called the largest expansion of abortion in the country since Roe v. Wade.

All this was too much for Pisciotta, who will ask families across America not to participate in the Girl Scouts’ fundraising through cookie sales.

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Dad With Cancer Writes Daughter 826 Notes to Read Throughout High School

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Photo Credit: GARTH CALLAGHAN

Photo Credit: GARTH CALLAGHAN

Ever since his daughter Emma started kindergarten, Garth Callaghan has been making her a lunch to take to school every day.

“I went to lunch with her at school one day,” Callaghan, from Richmond, Va., told FoxNews.com. “I actually chose to buy lunch with her, and I thought, ‘This is really not delicious.’ So we decided as a family we were going to limit the time Emma bought lunch and make lunch as much as possible.”

When Callaghan first started putting together his daughter’s lunches, he wanted to do a little something extra for her. So each day, he would write a special note on a napkin and leave it in her lunch sack.

Initially the notes started off as sketches or easy phrases she could understand, but as she grew older, the messages slowly evolved into thoughtful quotes or words of inspiration.

“The notes took on more sophistication,” Callaghan said. “I wanted her to be more supported. I really wanted to her have a strong sense of self…. So I started to search out quotes and things that were positive. I was actually spending more time putting together her napkin than putting together her lunch.”

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