Free Republic

With Congress saying “get the lead out,” local retailers and librarians are wondering if common sense gets chucked along with it. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which goes into effect Feb. 10, is meant to protect children from lead-laden products. But when the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission gave libraries two options, get rid of all your children’s books or ban anyone under 12 from entering the library, librarians across the country waited for the punch line. But it never came. “I was speechless,” said Mary Beth Revels, director of the St. Joseph Public Library. “To know it wasn’t...

Lincoln, NE (AHN) - Nebraska Sen. Tony Fulton filed the Ultrasound Bill which seeks to require a pregnant woman contemplating abortion to undergo an ultrasound and see her fetus before she undergoes the procedure.Fulton explained that the aim of the legislation is to have an informed consent, especially for young women who are on the verge of making grave choices prior to an abortion. Nebraska is just one of 11 states contemplating on a mandated ultrasound. The other states include Indiana and Texas. Earlier, Wyoming legislators attempted to pass a similar law, but were defeated on the state House committee...

Evans/Associated Press PROTEST Hundreds objected to the mandated flu vaccinations. THE state’s new law requiring young children attending licensed pre-school and child care centers to get flu vaccinations will be tested this week when thousands of children return to classrooms and playrooms after the long holiday break. New Jersey, the first state in the nation to require flu shots for young schoolchildren, set a Dec. 31 deadline for parents to obtain flu vaccinations for their children. It was part of a new policy requiring a total of four additional immunizations for schoolchildren over the objections of some parents who...

December 15, 2008, 4:00 a.m. He’s No RudyBloomberg busies himself with meddlesome gestures while ignoring his core responsibilities. By Deroy Murdock The winner of the 2008 Nero’s Fiddle Award is New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. The richest guy in Gotham recently visited the Eugene O’Neill Theater on West 49th Street to promote an initiative called Broadway Goes Green. The Great White Way’s marquees soon will feature 30,000 more compact-fluorescent light bulbs, the mayor marveled. Playbills and sets will be recycled. Also, costumes will be washed in cold water, not hot. “That is going to have an impact that...

"Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Health Protection, Nikolai Gerasimenko, suggested the introduction of childlessness tax to improve the demographic situation in Russia. “It is about time we should think about childlessness tax. If you do not want to think about your social duty for your fatherland than you will have to pay for it,” Gerasimenko said. The official added that State Duma deputies were currently considering the issue about the introduction of such a tax in Russia. As soon as deputies think the idea through, the law-makers will develop an adequate document on the matter. "

WASHINGTON -- Quietly leaving his post as surgeon general, Dr. Richard Carmona said he would judge himself successful if he had persuaded one student to make good health choices or one mother to stop smoking. Carmona's report condemning secondhand smoke was a hallmark of his tenure as the nation's 17th surgeon general.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Retired slugger Mark McGwire Thursday told a congressional panel investigating drugs in baseball that he would not "participate in naming names" of players who used steroids. McGwire did not say in his opening statement to the House Government Reform Committee whether he used steroids. Two current players, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, said they never used steroids. That duo and McGwire were accused of using performance-enhancing drugs by Jose Canseco in a best-selling book that helped prompt the hearing. In a tense scene, Canseco sat at the same table as the other players as he told the...

AUSTIN - A state senator who wants to eliminate from the market drugs that contain mainly pseudoephedrine has introduced a series of four bills for returning lawmakers. Under the legislation by Sen. Craig Estes, no one would be able to buy drugs like Sudafed in Texas. But he said consumers could still buy other congestion remedies containing the decongestant, as long as it is mixed into capsules and cough syrups. "We hope the general public will realize that a little inconvenience will go a long way," Estes, R-Wichita Falls, told the Scripps Howard Austin bureau in Monday's editions of the...