Feds Spending $1.5 Million on ‘Bicycle Trains,’ ‘Walking School Buses’ to Get Kids to Lose Weight

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The federal government is spending more than $1.5 million to research how “bicycle trains” and “walking school buses” can help obese children lose weight.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is currently funding two studies to a researcher at Seattle Children’s Hospital, both of which aim to get more children to stop riding the school bus.

Dr. Jason Mendoza has received $405,835 for a pilot study on “bicycle trains,” or a group of kids who bike to school with adult chaperons. The project is billed as a “low-cost, practical program to reduce risk of obesity for at-risk children.”

The study, which just got underway in two Seattle elementary schools, is focusing on “low-income and ethnic minority children,” who are at the highest risk for obesity, according to the grant.

The project first received funding in February 2013, and will continue until next January. Mendoza, a pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, is following 80 fourth and fifth graders for the “pilot cluster.”

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Judge Nap: Idea of Chaplain for Atheist Soldiers Is ‘Political Correctness Gone Crazy’

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

The Department of Defense may soon consider adding a chaplain for atheist service members. A source told Fox News that the Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers planned to make the request today, floating its president Jason Torpy as the proposed chaplain.

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who last year opposed the creation of such a position, also voiced concerns about the planned request. He told FoxNews.com he’s got to wait and see how the proposal plays out, but threatened to use legislation to block it if necessary.

“We’re only finding out about this now,” he said. Fleming said the law is clear that any chaplain needs to have an “endorsing agency” and questioned whether the applicant would have that here. “We just don’t see any avenue, but you know we’ve been surprised before by the military.”

The move would come after lawmakers, including Fleming, battled over the same issue last year.

Democrats tried, unsuccessfully, to pass legislation creating such a post in 2013. In response, Republicans offered up a measure of their own to prohibit the Pentagon from naming such a chaplain. The House approved the measure in July.

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Eric Holder: No Plans at DOJ to Investigate Secret Waiting Lists and Veteran Deaths at VA Hospitals

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Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Department of Justice doesn’t have any plans to investigate allegations that veterans placed on secret waiting lists at VA hospitals died while waiting for care.

“Well, obviously these reports if they’re true are unacceptable, and the allegations are being taken very seriously by the administration. But I don’t have any announcements at this time with regard to anything that the Justice Department is doing,” Holder told reporters at a press conference.

“This is something on our radar screen at this point, but there is an investigation being done by the [VA] inspector general, and we’ll see what happens as a result of that inquiry and other information that comes to light in some form or fashion,” Holder added.

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Russia to Ban US from Using Space Station

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Photo Credit: Camera Press / Ria Novosti

Photo Credit: Camera Press / Ria Novosti

Russia is to deny the US future use of the International Space Station beyond 2020 and will also bar its rocket engines from launching US military satellites as it hits back at American sanctions imposed over Ukraine crisis.

Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced a series of punitive measures on Tuesday against the US in response to sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Crimea.

The two countries have long cooperated closely on space exploration despite their clashes in foreign policy.

The Space Station is manned by both American and Russian crew, but the only way to reach it is by using Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

The US is keen to keep the $100 billion (£600) ISS flying until at least 2024, four years beyond its original target.

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Former Madam Claims Hawaii ICE Agent Raped, Abused Her in Graphic Civil Suit

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

The plaintiff, Malia Arciero, outlined a string of serious allegations in the 18-page complaint filed against ICE special agent Ryan Faulkner.

The 33-year-old Arciero’s most graphic claim involves an undated incident in which he allegedly handcuffed her in an ICE storage room and forced her to perform oral sex, according to the suit filed March 27 in a Honolulu court.

Her attorney, Gary V. Dubin, told FoxNews.com that two regional officers from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are coming to Hawaii this week to interview his client and look into the allegations.

“They have to,” Dubin said. “ICE is too big. There’s lots of money, graft, corruption and self-interest.” He also said attorneys will start submitting pretrial motions in the coming weeks. Arciero’s complaint had requested a trial.

An ICE official declined to comment directly when asked about the case and about Dubin’s claim that regional officers would be visiting, saying they could not discuss pending litigation. The agency stressed that it places the “highest priority on protecting the safety of those it serves” and has “strict safeguards and protocols in place” to ensure security of agents and those they deal with.

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Tea Party-Backed Candidate Sasse Wins GOP Senate Primary in Nebraska

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Tea Party favorite Ben Sasse won the Republican nomination for an open Senate seat in Nebraska Tuesday night, after a heated and costly primary battle that drew heavy national attention.

Sasse, a university president, was able to hold off former state treasurer Shane Osborn, and dark horse candidate Sid Dinsdale who had begun to surge in recent weeks. Sasse grabbed 48 percent of the vote with Dinsdale finishing second and Osborn finishing third, according to preliminary returns.

“We were never doing this because we need another job,” said Sasse. “We were only going to do this if we were going to talk about big bold conservative ideas.”

The win makes Sasse a huge favorite in November’s general election, where he’ll face Democrat Dave Domina, an Omaha attorney. The winner will replace Republican Mike Johanns, who didn’t seek a second term.

Sasse, the president of Midland University, had steadily gained the backing of some of the most influential conservative groups and figures. His victory is a huge win for the Tea Party as the movement has struggled to gain traction this year in the primaries.

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Arlington National Cemetery Marks 150 Years

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Photo Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty

Photo Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty

ANC 150, the five-week commemoration of 150 years of Arlington National Cemetery, kicked off Tuesday with an Army wreath-laying ceremony at the grave site of Army Pvt. William Christman, the first military burial at Arlington.

Christman enlisted in the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry on March 25, 1864, at the age of 20. He was hospitalized for measles five weeks later and died. Christman was buried at Arlington on May 13 of that year.

After the wreath ceremony, members of the Christman family will spend time at his grave. Rick Bodenschatz, representing the Tobyhanna Township Historical Association, will also place a stone of remembrance from the original Christman home. The family home, located in Pocono Lake, Pa., was built from funds received from Christman’s Army service.

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Senate Republicans Block Energy Bill, Forfeit Keystone Vote

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Photo Credit: shannonpatrick17

Photo Credit: shannonpatrick17

U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday blocked an energy-efficiency bill backed by manufacturers and environmentalists, forfeiting a chance to vote on the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline.

On a nearly party-line vote of 55-36, President Barack Obama’s Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bipartisan energy bill supported by the White House.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, had offered a vote on a separate bill to take the final decision on Keystone out of Obama’s hands and give it to Congress if Republicans allowed passage of the energy bill.

But Republicans refused. They complained that Reid barred them from offering amendments to the bill, including one that would have reined in emissions-cutting regulations on coal-fired power plants, a top strategy in Obama’s fight against climate change.

The blocked energy-efficiency bill would cut electricity use by imposing tough building codes and requiring federal data centers to find ways to consolidate and become more efficient.

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Rep. David Schweikert: VA Scandal Likely ‘Nationwide’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Veterans Administration controversy that already has been linked to the deaths of some 40 veterans appears to be spilling over to other VA offices nationwide, with members of Congress bracing for repercussions in states around the country as more details emerge regarding extremely long waiting periods for veterans seeking medical care.

What began as a scandal over duplicitous document keeping at the VA office in Phoenix – a scheme apparently intended to conceal the fact that veterans were being left to languish in some cases over a year on waiting lists before getting access to a doctor — has already blown up into an Inspector General probe involving offices in Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, Arizona, and possibly other states as well.

As many as 40 veterans are said to have died while awaiting medical care.

On Monday, GOP Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona told “America’s Forum” that the revelations so far may be just the tip of the iceberg.

“Be prepared,” Schweikert ominously advised “America’s Forum” hosts John Bachmann and J.D. Hayworth on Monday on Newsmax TV. “There’s going to be more and more of this as the investigation gets deeper and deeper.”

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Rand Paul Threatens to Hold Federal Reserve Nominees Unless His Fed Audit Gets A Vote

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Photo Credit: Darren McCollester / Getty

Photo Credit: Darren McCollester / Getty

Sen. Rand Paul threatened Monday to place a hold on three nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors unless his bill to subject the Fed to an audit gets a vote in the Senate.

It’s a replay of a maneuver the libertarian Republican and Fed critic attempted last year when current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s nomination was under consideration.

In a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, Paul wrote that “there is no more appropriate time to provide Congress with additional oversight and scrutiny of the actions and decisions of the central banks” than during the Senate’s consideration of the nominees, whom the Senate Banking Committee approved in late April. The candidates are Stanley Fischer, the former top Israeli central banker nominated to be the Fed’s vice chairman, former Obama Treasury official Lael Brainard, and Jerome Powell, a current member of the board seeking a second term.

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