New York City health commissioner: scold or lifesaver?

New York City health commissioner: scold or lifesaver?
Scandal-hit Penn State starts new football season
Pilot killed in Iowa air show crash
Senior immigration official resigns amid misconduct allegations
Motorists swallow sky-high Labor Day weekend gas prices
Author and aviator Richard Bach injured in plane crash
White House releases Obama beer recipes after calls from public
Pilot whales come ashore in Florida, 17 dead
Fan plunges to death at college football game
Friends mourn teenager killed in New Jersey party bus accident
California slaughterhouse shut over cow cruelty resumes full operations
California lawmakers overhaul workplace injury insurance
Senior immigration official resigns amid misconduct allegations
White House releases Obama beer recipes after calls from public
Scandal-hit Penn State starts new football season
Pilot whales come ashore in Florida, 17 dead
Author and aviator Richard Bach injured in plane crash
Pilot killed in Iowa air show crash
Fan plunges to death at college football game
Friends mourn teenager killed in New Jersey party bus accident
Motorists swallow sky-high Labor Day weekend gas prices

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 10:48 AM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Critics call him a puritanical scold, Gotham's Dr. No and a nursemaid to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's nanny state. Meet Thomas Farley, New York City's health commissioner. Farley, a pediatrician and endurance athlete, says they are wrong about his efforts to help New Yorkers eat better, smoke less and exercise more -- moves that have been linked to New York's recent gains in average life expectancy, the biggest gains of any metro area in the country. "Anybody who is first at doing something is going to get a lot of criticism. ...

Scandal-hit Penn State starts new football season

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 04:36 PM PDT

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Penn State began a new football season on Saturday as it tries to come to grips with a child sex abuse scandal centered on former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and the death and fall from grace of head coach Joe Paterno. The game opened with a "moment of reflection" for victims of sexual abuse. With Bill O'Brien replacing Paterno on the sidelines as the team's first new head coach in 47 years, Penn State lost 24-14 to Ohio University. ...

Pilot killed in Iowa air show crash

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 02:40 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A Soviet-era military training jet crashed and burst into flames during an air show in Iowa on Saturday, killing the pilot in an accident that occurred near a busy interstate highway, authorities said. Corporal Jacob Pries of the Davenport Police Department said the accident involving the L-39 jet, developed in the former Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s, occurred about 1:30 p.m. during the annual Quad-City Air Show. The jet was flying in formation shortly before it crashed alongside the I-80 highway. ...

Senior immigration official resigns amid misconduct allegations

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 06:02 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior appointee at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, stepped down on Saturday amid allegations of discrimination and sexual misconduct lodged by an employee. Suzanne Barr, chief of staff to ICE Director John Morton, resigned, the agency said. She was cited in a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by a senior ICE official in May. In the lawsuit, James T. Hayes Jr. ...

Motorists swallow sky-high Labor Day weekend gas prices

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 11:29 AM PDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Motorists hit the road in large numbers this Labor Day weekend, undeterred by gas prices that are the highest ever heading into the holiday in part due to Hurricane Isaac, which forced the closure of oil refineries on the Gulf Coast. The average price of regular gas nationally was $3.83 per gallon on Friday, 21 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA. And the price on Monday will likely easily beat the Labor Day record of $3.68 set in 2008, the non-profit automobile association said. The weekend is one of the busiest on American roads. ...

Author and aviator Richard Bach injured in plane crash

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 03:05 PM PDT

CAMANO ISLAND, Washington (Reuters) - Richard Bach, a pilot and author of the 1970s bestselling book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," was seriously injured when he flipped his small aircraft on landing at an island in northwestern Washington state, authorities said on Saturday. Bach, 76, clipped power lines with the landing gear of his 2008 Easton Gilbert Searey as he tried to land on a grass airstrip on San Juan Island , said Michael McElrath, the dispatcher for the San Juan County Sheriff's Office. ...

White House releases Obama beer recipes after calls from public

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 05:26 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Bowing to growing pressure from thirsty and curious Americans in both parties, the White House on Saturday released the recipes for President Barack Obama's homemade beers, revealing the executive branch's penchant for honey-flavored brews. In a blog post entitled "Ale to the Chief," White House Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass said that "with public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it. ...

Pilot whales come ashore in Florida, 17 dead

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 04:28 PM PDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - Twenty-two short-finned pilot whales beached themselves along Florida's Atlantic coast on Saturday, and 17 died despite a day-long effort to save them, authorities said. Five calves and juveniles were rescued and taken to a nearby rehabilitation center, according to Carli Segelson of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. She said the others, males and females, died of natural causes or were euthanized. The creatures, which are the biggest in the dolphin family after killer whales, came ashore near Fort Pierce, on Florida's south-central Atlantic coast. The U. ...

Fan plunges to death at college football game

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 02:31 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A Tennessee man fell to his death from the upper deck of the Georgia Dome stadium during a college football game, in the second fatality this week stemming from a fall at a stadium, authorities said on Saturday. Isaac Grubb, 20, of Lenoir City, Tennessee, died late on Friday at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital following a 35-foot (11-metre) fall, said Laura Salm, an investigator from the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office. Grubb fell from the upper deck of the stadium, apparently injuring another fan seated in the mezzanine area. ...

Friends mourn teenager killed in New Jersey party bus accident

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 11:33 AM PDT

(Reuters) - Hundred of teenagers took to social media overnight to mourn a popular New Jersey high school student who was killed on Friday after he stuck his head out of the emergency roof hatch of a double-decker party bus and hit a highway overpass in New Jersey. "My eyes are still swollen from crying, but I know you're in a better place," wrote classmate Joanna VanWynGarden on a Facebook page created to honor Daniel Fernandez, 16, of Sayreville, New Jersey. ...

California slaughterhouse shut over cow cruelty resumes full operations

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:33 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - A California slaughterhouse ordered shut down for a week by federal regulators over a graphic video showing mistreatment of cows there said on Friday it had resumed full operations after passing a government food safety inspection. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allowed the Central Valley Meat Company to reopen its plant on Monday after operators of the facility agreed to improve their handling of animals in the slaughtering process. But the USDA said at the time that an investigation into possible food safety violations was continuing. ...

California lawmakers overhaul workplace injury insurance

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 12:28 AM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California lawmakers on Friday approved a bill supported by business and labor groups to overhaul the state's insurance system for workers injured on the job. The bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Democrat-led legislature and was approved just ahead of the end of their session for the year, increases disability benefits by more than $700 million a year. At the same time, the bill aims to rein in the rising cost of workers' compensation insurance premiums as well as lawsuits over injury claims. ...