Judge Halts New York City Ban on Large Sugary Drinks

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New York City’s planned ban on the sale of large sugary drinks won’t go into effect Tuesday after a state judge blocked the restrictions, calling them “arbitrary and capricious.”

“The court finds that the regulation … is laden with exceptions based on economic and political concerns,” Justice Milton Tingling wrote. Mayor Michael Bloomberg quickly vowed to appeal the decision, countering that the city’s health department has the legal authority to use the ban to fight an obesity epidemic.

“We believe that the judge’s decision was clearly in error and that we will prevail on appeal,” Bloomberg told reporters.

Scheduled to begin at midnight, the law would have restricted the sale of sugary drinks to no more than 16 ounces in restaurants, fast-food eateries, movie theaters and stadiums. But the law would have exempted a variety of retailers, including 7-Eleven, seller of the iconic “Big Gulp” drinks, because it is regulated by the state, not the city.

“The effect would be a person is unable to buy a drink larger than 16 ounces at one establishment but may be able to buy it at another establishment that may be located right next door,” Tingling wrote.

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Dennis Rodman: I’m Going On Vacation With North Korea’s Kim (+video)

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Photo Credit: OPEN Sports

NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman plans to return to North Korea in August, CNN affiliate KXJB reported Monday.

Rodman, who recently visited the communist nation, said he plans to vacation with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“I don’t condone what he does, but he’s my friend,” Rodman told KXJB while in Fargo, North Dakota, for a promotional appearance. Rodman, who was giddy throughout the interview, insisted the North Korean leader doesn’t want war.

A spokesman for Rodman said Kim extended the offer during Rodman’s visit a few weeks ago.

Rodman and Kim sat next to each other February 28, watching an unusual basketball exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Watch video here:

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House GOP Leaders: We Can Pass Gun Control, Immigration Without Republican Support

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With more and more conservatives in the House rebelling against John Boehner’s increasingly questionable Speakership, Republican House leadership is now moving to quash in-house concerns by reaching across the aisle for support. Leadership is moving in the wake of a surprising move by 16 House Republicans to vote against a Republican leadership-crafted closed rule on a government funding bill. The rule was designed to limit amendments to the government funding bill, but some House conservatives, concerned over the Boehner team’s refusal to consider a floor vote on an amendment to defund Obamacare implementation, bucked Boehner on the rule.

After undergoing that unpleasant shock, House leadership hasn’t responded by listening to the concerns of the more conservative members of its caucus. Instead, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Sunday that he would be open to ramming through bills without the support of a majority of his own Republican caucus. Not just on small bills. On issues like immigration and gun control, McCarthy said, he’d be open to taking rogue Republicans across the aisle to work with Democrats.

“It is better if the House does their work,” said McCarthy. “We should be sending bills to the Senate.” As CNN host Candy Crowley pointed out, McCarthy refused to give a straight answer on whether he would continue to uphold the so-called Hastert Rule, under which Republican leadership moves forward with bills only if they have a majority of Republican support.

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The Revolt Against FEMA: Sandy Victims Criticize FEMA Flood Maps, Slow Progress

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Some New Jersey hurricane victims are complaining that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is doing more harm than Superstorm Sandy did when it hit over four months ago and washed away their homes and businesses.

“FEMA has caused more damage to the shore than Sandy did,” said George Kasimos, a flood victim from Toms River, N.J.

He is the founder of the growing grassroots group, Stop FEMA Now. The group feels FEMA is responsible for suffering and uncertainty for many Sandy victims who cannot start to rebuild.

FEMA issued Advisory Base Flood Elevation Maps as a provision of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which was signed by President Barack Obama last July. That act expands flood zones, doubles flood insurance premiums, and requires those in certain flood zones to elevate their homes.

Stop FEMA Now is calling on Congress to revise the Biggert-Waters Act and curb FEMA’s power. “We need answers,” Kasimos said.

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Veterans Forced To Prove They’re Worthy Of Gun Rights

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Photo Credit: WND

The Obama administration insists it’s routine for officials to send out letters informing veterans that an unidentified “report” indicates they may be declared incompetent and consequently stripped of their Second Amendment rights.

It’s the same administration that in 2009 warned that “returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists.”

The 2009 report, from the Department of Homeland Security, was called “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.” It also said Obama’s governmental managers were “concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.”

So when hundreds, perhaps thousands, of veterans began receiving letters like the one dispatched from the Portland, Ore., office of the Department of Veterans Affairs, alarm bells went off.

WND reported only days ago that a veteran in Oregon received a letter informing him of “a report from Portland VA Medical Center on December 3, 2012.” Evidence already in The letter warned the vet that “evidence indicates that you are not able to handle your VA benefit payments because of a physical or mental condition.”

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Florida Bill Would Require Anger Management Courses For Bullet Buyers

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A Florida legislator wants anyone trying to buy ammunition to complete an anger management program first, in what critics say is the latest example of local lawmakers reaching for constitutionally-dubious solutions to the problem of gun violence.

The bill filed Saturday by state Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, would require a three-day waiting period for the sale of any firearm and the sale of ammunition to anyone who has not completed anger management courses. The proposal would require ammo buyers to take the anger management courses every 10 years.

“This is not about guns,” Gibson said. “This is about ammunition and not only for the safety of the general community, but also for the safety of law enforcement.”

Gibson said she’s concerned with citizens stockpiling ammunition, potentially creating dangerous situations should those individuals ever come in contact with law enforcement agencies or criminals.

“It’s about getting people to think, really, about how much ammunition they need,” Gibson said. “It’s a step, I think, in a safer direction. It’s about getting people to think before they buy.”

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House Conservatives: GOP Leadership Killed Measure To Defund Obamacare

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As Republican senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and James Inhofe prepare to introduce a measure to defund Obamacare — and threaten to hold up a continuing resolution to fund the U.S. government if the measure is not given a vote — some conservatives are unhappy that the House, controlled by Republicans, did not do the same thing.

It wasn’t for lack of effort, at least on the part of some conservative Republicans. As the House prepared to consider its own version of the continuing resolution last week — it ultimately passed 267 to 151 — more than two dozen conservative GOP lawmakers signed on to an amendment that would have defunded Obamacare. They submitted the amendment and hoped it would receive a vote but were stymied when the House leadership declared that no amendments would be allowed.

“If that amendment had gone to the floor, far and above a majority of the conference would have voted for it,” said Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon, one of the supporters, in an interview Saturday. “I think everyone in the conference would have voted for it,” added Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis, another supporter.

Nevertheless, the Republican leadership did not allow the amendment to be considered. And that, Salmon, DeSantis, and other conservative Republicans believe, is a measure of the leadership’s uneasiness with continuing the legislative fight against Obamacare. Some Republicans — lawmakers who might have felt pressure to vote to defund Obamacare — believe privately that the fight is essentially over, and that the GOP should come to terms with the reality of national health care.

“I do think there’s a feeling in the conference among some folks who think that the 2012 election settled Obamacare, that we kind of need to move on,” said DeSantis. “I’m on the other side. I don’t think it did, because I don’t think it was a major issue in the campaign.”

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NFIB: Small Businesses Want Simpler Tax Code

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As lawmakers contemplate tax reform, a new survey of small businesses suggests owners want lower rates and fewer deductions.

“More than half (52 percent) of small businesses believe that simplifying the tax code should be a top priority out of all potential revision options,” a survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business found.

An overwhelming majority of small businesses, 85 percent of those polled, want to see an overhaul of the tax code; 78 percent of those polled prefer a tax code with less preferential treatment.

“By an overwhelming margin, small-business owners indicated that they prefer lower individual tax rates and a simpler tax code,” said study author and NFIB senior research fellow William Dennis.

“They see economic possibility in growing their businesses, not in growing government revenue through tax increases,” Dennis continued. “In fact, their sentiment that spending cuts must take priority is overwhelming, with 81 percent preferring spending cuts to tax increases by at least three dollars in cuts for every dollar in revenues. Virtually no respondent in the survey favored increasing taxes over cutting spending.”

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Climate Change Science Poised To Enter Nation’s Classrooms

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New national science standards that make the teaching of global warming part of the public school curriculum are slated to be released this month, potentially ending an era in which climate skepticism has been allowed to seep into the nation’s classrooms.

The Next Generation Science Standards were developed by the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nonprofit Achieve and more than two dozen states. The latest draft recommends that educators teach the evidence for man-made climate change starting as early as elementary school and incorporate it into all science classes, ranging from earth science to chemistry. By eighth grade, students should understand that “human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming),” the standards say.

They’re “revolutionary,” said Mark McCaffrey, programs and policy director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a nonprofit that defends evolution and climate education and opposes the teaching of religious views as science.

The 26 states that helped write the standards are expected to adopt them. Another 15 or so have indicated they may accept them—meaning climate change instruction could make its way into classrooms in 40-plus states.

James Taylor, a senior fellow at the conservative Heartland Institute, which is developing a school curriculum that promotes climate skepticism, said the standards’ stance on climate change is based on “unscientific speculation and hype.” But he also said the group has no plans to fight their adoption by the states.

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Rep. Paul Ryan: House Budget Will Assume the Repeal Of ObamaCare

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House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday said he will not back down from the battle to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act even though some Republicans think the party should move on.

Ryan dismissed criticism that House Republicans have virtually no chance of dismantling the signature legislative accomplishment of Obama’s first term and their efforts might be better expended elsewhere.

He said his budget assumes the repeal of the healthcare law, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

When host Chris Wallace challenged him on that assumption, Ryan said he would not give up the fight.
“That’s not going to happen,” said Wallace.

“We believe it should,” Ryan shot back. “That’s the point. This is what budgeting is all about. It’s about making tough choices to fix our country’s problems. We believe ‘ObamaCare’ is a program that will not work.

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