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A local news anchor took the air Tuesday to blast a viewer who attacked her for being overweight. Jennifer Livingston of WKBT in La Crosse, Wis., slammed the viewer on-air after he wrote in to complain that Livingston wasn't "a suitable example for this community's young people, girls in particular" because of her size. "I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn't improved for many years," the viewer wrote in the email titled "Community Responsibility." "I leave you this note hoping that you'll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A condemned Ohio inmate who weighs at least 480 pounds wants his upcoming execution delayed, saying his weight could lead to a "torturous and lingering death." Ronald Post, who shot and killed a hotel clerk in northern Ohio almost 30 years ago, said his weight, vein access, scar tissue and other medical problems raise the likelihood his executioners would encounter severe problems. He's also so big that the execution gurney might not hold him, lawyers for Post said in federal court papers filed Friday. "Indeed, given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A cat that got national attention for tipping the scales at 39 pounds has died. The Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society said Monday that the orange and white tabby named Meow died over the weekend, likely from complications from his morbid obesity.

The extra pounds that propelled Meow the shelter cat to national celebrity have killed him. The 5-year-old, 39-pound cat died Saturday of respiratory complications related to his girth, Santa Fe Animal Shelter executive director Mary Martin said Monday. The huge but personable feline became the subject of nationwide fame last month after appearing with Anderson Cooper and on the “Today” show — where Meow met actor Hugh Grant — as part of a media blitz to warn pet owners of the dangers of pet obesity. Meow traveled between Santa Fe and the East Coast for his TV appearances by airplane...

Can't make it out for a Whopper? Burger King just might bring it to you. The fast-food chain has begun delivering to homes in Washington, D.C., USA Today reports. If the test goes well, the King may expand the service to other cities. Home delivery has always been a challenge for the food and beverage business. Pizza restaurants obviously have found success, but burgers and fries don't hold up quite as well in transit. They also lose some appeal in the microwave. Finally, the size of a fast-food order isn't normally large enough to justify the expense of delivery. So...

Case of 200-pound 8-year-old in Ohio renews question: Should parents of obese lose custody?Article by: THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Updated: November 29, 2011 - 7:16 AM CLEVELAND - The case of an 8-year-old Cleveland Heights boy taken from his family because he weighs more than 200 pounds has renewed a debate on whether parents should lose custody if a child is severely obese. The boy was removed from his family and was placed in foster care in October after county case workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight. The boy, at his weight, is considered...

Gov. Rick Snyder recently proposed an unprecedented plan to have doctors report the Body Mass Index of individual children into a state database and tracking system (the Michigan Care Improvement Registry). Contrary to the governor’s claim, this is not anonymous reporting. The records in this database would be accessible not just to doctors and nurses, but also to schools, day care providers and insurance companies — all without parental consent. Specific children could be tracked over time, as could their compliance (or lack thereof) with a doctor's recommendations. The scientific and statistical reality of this intrusiveness is impossible to ignore....

HOUSTON — Ronald Kratz II, who weighed as much as 680 pounds while he was working at BAE Systems in Sealy, says his obesity never kept him from doing his job or receiving high performance ratings during his 16-year career. But one day two years ago, when he reported for an overtime shift on his materials handling job, Kratz was told that he was too heavy to continue performing the work. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday, Kratz said he was called into the human resources office and told he was being terminated because company officials thought...

Canadian doctors are considering a policy that would bar obese women from trying to have babies through fertility treatments – provoking debate over whether the fat have the same reproductive rights as the thin. Some studies find obese women face higher risks of medical complications while trying to become pregnant through in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The science is not certain and some believe a ban would be tantamount to discrimination, yet a growing number of fertility doctors worldwide already bar treatment based on a woman’s Body Mass Index. “We’ve had many angry patients say to us, ‘This is discriminatory’ and I...

NEW YORK -- In Tiffany Spaulding's 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry, she has worked for three companies, two of which no longer exist, and relocated to four states. Now 39 and living in Brookfield, Conn., she hasn't had a promotion in five years and says she sees no chance to advance, stuck behind a wall of baby boomers. She would quit and turn her hobby of jewelry design into a business, she says, if not for the home and school loans that eat up half her salary. Spaulding, according to a new report, is a typical member of the...

AKELAND - Two and half months is a long time to be stuck in the hospital, especially if you don't really have to be there. Yvonne Gallimore has been living at Lakeland Regional Medical Center because she had no place else to go. Now, she finally does. Gallimore just moved into a duplex provided by the Lakeland Housing Authority. It's a big improvement, but not easy living yet. It has big, French doors, so she can get out quickly in case of an emergency. "I was glad to get out of there," she said on Monday. When emergency workers took...

An Illinois lawmaker says parents who have obese children should lose their state tax deduction. "It's the parents' responsibility that have obese kids," said state Sen. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga. "Take the tax deduction away for parents that have obese kids." Cultra has not introduced legislation to deny parents the $2,000 standard tax deduction, but he floated the idea Tuesday, when lawmakers took a shot at solving the state's obesity epidemic.

Morbidly Obese Man Dies After Two Years in the Same Chair Ohio Man Reported Stuck to Chair With His Own Waste; Later Died at Hospital A morbidly obese man has died after being stuck in a chair at home that he had been unable to leave for two years, ABC affiliate WRTF reported and ABC News has confirmed. Watch: Tilikum's Big Comeback at Sea World The Bellaire, Ohio man, who has not been publicly identified, was a patient at Wheeling Hospital in West Virginia, ABC Affiliate WTRF reported. On Sunday, the 43-year-old man's two roommates discovered him unconscious. They called...

WGN Brothers denied flight due to size Southwest Airlines kicks Chicago teens off flight because one was too big Lourdes Duarte WGN News 9:41 PM CST, November 29, 2010 Two Chicago brothers say Southwest Airlines made things too difficult for them when it required one of them to buy a second ticket. The twin brothers were headed to Minnesota to visit their aunt on Thanksgiving night when one of them was told he was too big to fit in a seat and needed a second ticket. The 18-year-old brothers had no cash or credit cards on them so they called...

Although the clip below from CBS’s Face The Nation is not as confrontational as the title to this post might suggest, it’s actually much funnier. Bob Schieffer annually hosts a roundtable in an attempt to bring together for an intellectual conversation four authors who wrote serious historical or political books. This year authors Ron Chernow (Washington: A Life), Arianna Huffington (Third World America), Edmund Morris (Colonel Roosevelt), and Bob Woodward (Obama’s Wars) participated in the thoughtful and sedate conversation, that is until a sound rarely, if ever, heard on a Sunday morning news show caught all viewers by surprise:

At 285 pounds and 5 feet 7 inches, I may not be the tallest, but I am almost always one of the biggest passengers on a plane. That’s “one of”: as anyone with even the most tangential relationship with news headlines over the last several years knows, Americans are getting fatter and fatter. .. “How many kilos you weigh?” asked a customs officer at Ho Chi Minh Airport when I visited Vietnam a few years ago. “Is that a question on the form?” I responded, slightly unnerved. Smiling, she told me no. She was apparently just curious. After giving me...

BANGKOK -- A 603-pound (274-kilogram) woman believed to be the heaviest in Thailand left her apartment for the first time in three years Thursday with the help of Bangkok city hall and a forklift. Neighbors of 40-year-old Umnuayporn Tongprapai contacted the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority when they learned she needed medical attention to remove a tumor in her right leg.

A sword-wielding man died early this morning hours after being Tased twice by police. Police identified him later Friday as Hatchel Pate Adams III, 36, of the first block of Overlook Court in Hampton. According to a news release from Hampton Police, officers responded to a complaint involving an emergency custody order in the 1st block of Overlook Court about 11 p.m. Thursday. Officers tried to make contact with Adams, but he refused to come to the door, police said. They went inside after calling one of the man's relatives, who came to the scene. Adams, carrying a Samurai-style sword,...

LAS VEGAS — The head of Sony Pictures suggested Monday that movie theaters offer healthier snacks to help fight obesity and give audiences a broader range of food choices.

An obese mother in the US is trying to put on weight in order to become the world's fattest woman. Donna Simpson, from New Jersey, weighs 273kg but told the Daily Mail newspaper she had her heart set on reaching her goal weight of 1000lb (450kg) in two years. The 42-year-old already holds the title of the world's fattest mother after giving birth to her daughter in 2007 when she weighed 241kg. "I'd love to be 1000lb ... it might be hard though, running after my daughter keeps my weight down," Ms Simpson told the Daily Mail.