Congress’ new school lunch policy changes health standards
By Mary Whitfill Features Editor The Congress of the United States is currently pushing a bill that will keep pizza and french fries in school lunch lines and fight the attempts of the Obama administration to take unhealthy foods out of schools. The final version of a spending bill released Monday would override the school lunch standards proposed by the Agriculture Department (USDA) earlier this year. The proposed standards would have limited the use of potatoes and called for the use of more whole grains. The standards would have also defined that in order for tomato paste on pizza to be counted as a vegetable, one half of a cup must be used per serving….
Censorship bill faces opposition from internet companies, users
By Mary Whitfill Features Editor Popular social networking sites in the last 24 hours have been flooded with users angry over the recent SOPA act; a bill that many are claiming would lead to Internet censorship. The bill stands to put artists in a tight spot: on one hand, it protects their originally produced works, but on the other, it could prohibit the collaborative creativity enabled by the Internet. The controversial Stop Internet Piracy Act was recently presented in the House of Representatives (along side its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act) as a way to prevent the illegal copyright violation of products owned by movie studios, record labels and other commonly copied media online….
Health summit a war of attrition
There was no progress at the bipartisan health care summit today, although no one was really expecting any. I predicted a political slug-fest in this post two weeks ago, and it would seem I was correct. Both Republicans and Democrats have used the televised summit to beat each other over the heads with their own talking points. Democrats have attempted to label the GOP as obstructionist, and Republicans have accused Democrats of acting against the will of the nation. Some speculate that, because of the lack of cooperation, Democrats will attempt to push the bill through the Senate by a process known as reconciliation, which only requires bills have 51 votes to pass. Commentators, who…