Free Republic

A Portland activist died after being hit by an SUV early Saturday near a Northeast Portland cidery and left-wing hangout, according to multiple people who knew him. Police identified Sean D. Kealiher, a 23-year-old Portland resident, as the man who was hit after leaving Cider Riot, a Couch Street gathering place for antifascists, anarchists and other leftists. Shots were fired at the car after it hit Kealiher, and the vehicle crashed into a building.

A preschool in Hawaii is taking a closer look at its snack policy after three children took sips of Pine-Sol. Officials say a classroom assistant at a Honolulu preschool mistook the household cleaner for apple juice. Paramedics were called to the Kilohana United Methodist Church Preschool to evaluate three girls, ages 4 and 5, on Tuesday morning. Paramedics found no signs of trauma or sickness, and the girls' parents declined to take them to the hospital.

Arsenic has long been recognized as a poison and a contaminant in drinking water, but now concerns are growing about arsenic in foods, especially in fruit juices that are a mainstay for children. Controversy over arsenic in apple juice made headlines as the school year began when Mehmet Oz, M.D., host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” told viewers that tests he’d commissioned found 10 of three dozen apple-juice samples with total arsenic levels exceeding 10 parts per billion (ppb). There’s no federal arsenic threshold for juice or most foods, though the limit for bottled and public water is 10 ppb....

The top of the frozen apple juice can was stamped with the date, then the word "China." I could not believe it. China? I live in the Shenandoah Valley, at one time the biggest apple producer in the world, and my apple juice comes from China? Maybe it's just this store brand, I thought. But a visit to another grocery store confirmed it. They stocked a name brand, the top of it stamped with the date and the words "from China." I googled "China and apples." Stories and reports came up confirming my ... yes, fear. I hadn't been paying...

While it may seem as American as apple pie, much of the apple juice filling those juice boxes and jugs on U.S. grocery shelves comes from China. Over the past 10 years, China, which produces up to 65 percent of the world's apples, has become the top supplier of concentrate used in apple juice sold in the U.S., contributing more than 40 percent of the juice consumed here, compared with 22 percent from domestically produced apples, according to the U.S. Apple Association trade group...... ......As a matter of fact, American consumers, especially those with young children, have been drinking juice...

LOWELL – For those who think that apple juice is a kid’s drink, think again. Apples and apple juice may be among the best foods that baby boomers and senior citizens could add to their diet, according to new research that demonstrates how apple products can help boost brain function similar to medication.  Animal research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) indicates that apple juice consumption may actually increase the production in the brain of the essential neurotransmitter acetylcholine, resulting in improved memory.Neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine are chemicals released from nerve cells that transmit messages to other nerve cells. ...