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Kerry: Obama 'Will Go Down in History' for 'Highest Standards of Transparency and Accountability' Jeryl Bier May 23, 2014 8:21 AM The same day President Obama held a press conference about the growing scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary of State John Kerry faced the press in Mexico at a joint appearance with Mexican foreign secretary Jose Antonio Meade. Kerry was in the country to discuss trade, economic growth, higher education, and security cooperation, but a reporter asked Kerry some pointed questions about President Obama and his policies and actions regarding surveillance and deportation. Kerry responded with unequivocal...

Kerry to warn of climate threats to national security in speech By Laura Barron-Lopez - 05/14/14 11:43 AM EDT Secretary of State John Kerry plans to give a major speech on the connection between climate change and national security this summer. In an interview with the New York Times, Kerry said the speech would also be an opportunity to build political support for President Obama's climate agenda. “We’re going to try to lay out to people legitimate options for action that are not bank-breaking or negative," Kerry said. A central part of that agenda are regulations to curb carbon emissions...

Fire put out in Waterville, MaineA tractor-trailer carrying 40,000 pounds of french fries caught fire in a Walmart parking lot in the Maine city of Waterville. The city's fire chief says overheated brakes were the suspected cause of the blaze in the middle of the busy parking lot. The driver said he pulled over when he smelled smoke from the back of the truck. The Portland Press Herald reports that nobody was injured in the fire. The driver was on his way from the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island to New Jersey to deliver the fries to a nearby...

A woman trashed a Flatiron diner — smashing glass ketchup bottles against a mirror and TV in a videotaped rampage — after a manager asked her to leave for screaming into her cellphone for 30 minutes, the NYPD said. Latima Brown, 22, was having a loud, profane phone conversation when she entered Malibu Diner at 163 W. 23rd St. with a friend about 5:10 a.m. April 2, police and owner Alex Grimpas said. “She was yelling and very upset and very verbal,” Grimpas, who wasn't present at the time, said about the incident caught on the restaurant's surveillance cameras. “We’re...

Today the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council launched a bracket to determine the Official Hot Dog Condiment Champion. Their bracket separates wet and dry condiments, but in the end there will only be one winner of these 16 competitors: sauerkraut, ketchup, mustard, cole slaw, chili, BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, onions, cheese, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, bacon, pickles and pulled pork. John Del Signore refuses to even dignify this "competition" with a comment, but has firmly declared his anti-ketchup stance during some casual office talk. Yakas took his silence as an opportunity to take one last swing for ketchup, however:...

Secretary of State John Kerry warned the U.S. and its allies will pursue a "serious series of steps" against Russia if a referendum on Crimea's status goes forward as planned this weekend. --SNIP-- The secretary also said the European community will meet on Monday, and that Obama had indicated he has a strong list of sanctions at the ready in the event that diplomacy doesn't break the stalemate over Ukraine and the Russian incursion into Crimea.

Argentinia's Ketchup Crisis must not go to waste. It requires immediate Senate confirmation of President Obama's appointment of Noah Bryson Mamet as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. It has not been a good start of the year for Argentineans [sic.]: a collapsing currency value, rampant inflation, Lionel Messi losing out on his fourth straight FIFA Ballon d'Or and, maybe worst of all, the great McDonald’s ketchup shortage of 2014. The fast food giant sent a message out via Twitter earlier this week apologizing for the inconvenience that Argentineans [sic.] will have to suffer through their Big Mac and French fries without the pre-requisite...

A squadron of Hindenburgs? A flotilla of Titanics? A rash of Hurricane Sandys on steroids? Any might have been a better analogy for the monumental mess that is Obamacare than the lame one Jon Meacham proposed on today's Morning Joe. The presidential historian somehow sought to analogize the Obamacare fiasco to . . . the classification of ketchup as a vegetable. Huh? View the video here.

McDonald’s has lost its taste for Heinz ketchup. The fast-food giant said in a statement Friday that it is cutting ties with the condiment company after 40 years due to management changes there. A former Burger King CEO became head of Heinz in June after the company was bought by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital. 3G, a Brazilian investment firm, also controls Burger King. The impact of the change may be tasted more overseas. In the U.S., McDonald’s uses Heinz products only in Pittsburgh and Minneapolis restaurants. …

America's top diplomat warned on Thursday that the United States could suffer more lasting damage to its influence abroad if the next round of budget talks in a few months lead to another breakdown. "What we do in Washington matters deeply to them, and that is why a self-inflicted wound like the shutdown that we just endured can never happen again," Kerry told the Center of American Progress policy think tank.

Tortillas and salsa are now outselling popular American foods like burger and hot dog buns, and ketchup. Experts say that as the Hispanic population in the U.S. grows, the consumption of Latin American foods, and Mexican foods in particular, continues to increase as well. This is similar to the way that Italian food became integrated into U.S. culture. “When you think about pizza and spaghetti, it's the same thing,” said Jim Kabbani, CEO of the Tortilla Industry Association. “People consider them American, not ethnic. It's the same with tortillas.” According to consumer research firm Packaged Facts, Latin American foods and...

The State Department is hitting back at what it calls false accusations that Russian President Vladimir Putin made about Secretary of State John Kerry. Jen Psaki is a department spokeswoman. She says Kerry is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam war and has had more than words aimed at him. Psaki says Kerry is not losing sleep because of Putin's quote preposterous comment that was based on an inaccurate rendering of what Kerry said.

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday he hoped proposed U.S. talks with the Taliban are put back on track after this week's delays, and warned that a recently opened Taliban office in Qatar may have to close if peace talks do not proceed. "We need to see if we can get back on track," Kerry told a news conference.

Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian Islamist politician Hussam Abu Al-Bukhari, which was posted on the Internet on March 4, 2013. Hussam Abu Al-Bukhari: We are completely unaware that we are in a real conflict – a religious conflict, a cultural conflict, a conflict over countries, over values, over everything. Since we are talking about America, we should consider how it came into being. America was founded through the genocide of the indigenous people of North America, South America, and Australia. American civilization was founded only after their complete annihilation. I’ve brought a very important book with me,...

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is dipping into the ketchup business as part of $23.3 billion deal to buy the Heinz ketchup company. H.J. Heinz Co. says it’s the largest deal ever in the food industry. The company, based in Pittsburgh, also makes Classico spaghetti sauces, Ore-Ida potatoes and Smart Ones frozen meals. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and its partner on the deal—3G Capital, the investment firm that bought Burger King in 2010—say Heinz will remain headquartered in Pittsburgh. Heinz CEO William Johnson said in a statement that the company “will have an opportunity to drive further growth” as a private enterprise....

When it comes to those last globs of ketchup inevitably stuck to every bottle of Heinz, most people either violently shake the container in hopes of eking out another drop or two, or perform the "secret" trick: smacking the "57" logo on the bottle’s neck. But not MIT PhD candidate Dave Smith. He and a team of mechanical engineers and nano-technologists at the Varanasi Research Group have been held up in an MIT lab for the last two months addressing this common dining problem. The result? LiquiGlide, a "super slippery" coating made up of nontoxic materials that can be applied...

A hired hit man in Brazil never got the job done. Instead, he fell in love with his victim and conjured a plan to fake her death with the help of some ketchup, the U.K. Daily Mail reports. Carlos Roberto de Jesus was hired by Maria Nilza Simoes to murder Iranildes Aguiar Araujo, whom she suspected of having an affair with her husband. But the plan went awry when de Jesus fell in love at first sight with his intended victim and confessed the plot. The pair then conjured up a plan to fool his employer into believing he had...

Ingredients 2 pounds sliced beef liver 1 1/2 cups milk, or as needed 1/4 cup butter, divided 2 large Vidalia onions, sliced into rings 2 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed salt and pepper to taste Directions 1. Gently rinse liver slices under cold water, and place in a medium bowl. Pour in enough milk to cover. Let stand while preparing onions. (I like to soak up to an hour or two - whatever you have time for.) This step is SO important in taking the bitter taste of the liver out. 2. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a...

<p>Your fries may never taste the same again!</p> <p>For the first time in 40 years, Heinz ketchup is changing its famous recipe -- by lowering the salt content in an effort to appeal to more health-conscious consumers, the company said yesterday.</p>

<p>PORTLAND, Ore. --The ketchup packet has been around for more than 40 years, and complaints about it for nearly as long: too messy, too small, too hard to open. Now ketchup giant H.J. Heinz Co. is unveiling the first major packaging change to the to-go condiment.</p>