Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.

With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.

"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.

City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.

"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.

Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.

"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.

Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.

While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.

Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.

Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.

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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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S&P 500 gains more than 1 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 rose more than 1 percent on Tuesday as stronger-than-expected earnings helped the outlook for profit growth while the Nasdaq also traded more than 1 percent higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 121.55 points, or 0.88 percent, at 14,001.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 16.25 points, or 1.09 percent, at 1,511.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 38.08 points, or 1.22 percent, at 3,169.25.

(Reporting By Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Baby Girl on the Way for Kathryn Fiore

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

02/04/2013 at 01:00 PM ET

Courtesy Katheryn Fiore

Cue the lullaby: The Wedding Band is prepping for its littlest fan yet.

Actress Kathryn Fiore, 33, and her husband, actor Gabriel Tigerman, 32, are expecting a daughter in late May, her rep confirms to PEOPLE exclusively.

“We are expecting a baby girl!” the couple tell PEOPLE. “This is our first and we are over the moon excited!”

Fiore — who is also known for her sketch comedy on MADtv — and Tigerman, who has had roles on Supernatural and Journeyman, tied the knot at Malibu’s Pepperdine University in October 2008.

Her godfather, movie critic Rex Reed, served as their officiant.

– Anya Leon

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APNewsBreak: Catholic hospital acknowledges error

DENVER (AP) — A Catholic hospital on Monday acknowledged it was "morally wrong" for its attorneys to argue in court that a fetus is not a human being under Colorado law.

The admission comes after executives of Catholic Healthcare Initiatives met with Colorado's Roman Catholic bishops to discuss its defense in a wrongful death lawsuit filed after a mother and her unborn twins died in the emergency room of St Thomas More Medical Center in Canon City in 2006.

Disclosure of the hospital's successful legal arguments last month drew sharp criticism because they appeared to contradict church doctrine that life begins at conception. Colorado's bishops vowed to review the case. Catholic Healthcare Initiatives operates Thomas More and dozens of other Catholic hospitals.

In joint statements released Monday morning, the Bishops and CHI said the operation was "unaware" of the lawyers' legal arguments. They said that CHI executives acknowledged "it was morally wrong" to make that contention because it "directly contradicts the moral teachings of the Church."

The statements also noted that, while the legal status of the fetus was key to getting the case dismissed before trial, the hospital also won on appeal by arguing there was no proof that medical error caused the fetuses' deaths. The father of the unborn children is asking the Colorado Supreme Court to hear the case.

The Bishops and CHI extended their condolences to the family. They also pledged to pursue stronger legal protections for unborn children.

"Catholic healthcare institutions are, and should, be held to the high standard of Jesus Christ himself, who is our divine and eternal healer," said the Bishops' statement.

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Wall Street retreats from five-year high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Monday after a disappointing report on factory orders, retreating from gains in the prior session that left the S&P 500 at a five-year high and the Dow above 14,000.

Investors also grew wary on political uncertainty in the euro zone, leading to a sharp rise in Spanish government bond yields.

Chevron and Wal-Mart were among the biggest drags on the Dow after analyst downgrades.

"S&P technicals are at overbought levels, and risk-off harbingers, such as Spanish 10-year yields, which are much more difficult for central bankers to tame, have bounced off recent lows," said Peter Cecchini, managing director at New York-based Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

Spanish and Italian bond yields rose, renewing worries about the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis. Spain's prime minister faced calls to resign over a corruption scandal, while a probe of alleged misconduct involving an Italian bank was expected to widen three weeks before a national election.

The benchmark S&P 500 rose on Friday, leaving it roughly 60 points away from its all-time intraday high of 1,576.09, while the Dow's march above 14,000 was the highest for the index since October 2007.

The S&P index <.spx> is up 5.5 percent for the year, with nearly half of the gains coming after U.S. legislators temporarily sidestepped the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

Data from the Commerce Department showed overall factory orders rose 1.8 percent in December, below economists' expectations. The report said capital goods orders outside of the defense and aircraft industries, edged 0.3 percent lower. The category is seen as a gauge of U.S. business investment plans.

Economic data has pointed to a modest U.S. recovery, but the data have not been strong enough to upset investor expectations the Federal Reserve will continue its stimulus policy that has buoyed stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 117.19 points, or 0.84 percent, at 13,892.60. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 13.72 points, or 0.91 percent, at 1,499.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 37.77 points, or 1.19 percent, at 3,141.33.

The CBOE Volatility index VIX <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, jumped more than 10 percent to 14.48 by afternoon trade.

Chevron Corp dipped 1 percent to $115.34 after UBS cut its rating to neutral, while Wal-Mart Stores Inc shed 1.5 percent to $69.46 after JP Morgan lowered its rating on the world's largest retailer and reduced its price target.

Oracle Corp lost 2.6 percent to $35.28 after the company agreed to buy network gear maker Acme Packet Inc for about $1.9 billion. Acme Packet shares surged 22 percent to $29.20.

Shares of household products company Clorox rose 1.3 percent to $80.23 after quarterly profit beat analysts' estimates as a severe flu season boosted sales of disinfecting wipes.

Earnings are due from Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Yum! Brands Inc , owner of fast-food chains, after the closing bell.

According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 256 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Monday morning, 68.4 percent have reported earnings above analyst expectations compared with the 62 percent average since 1994 and the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.

S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are expected to rise 4.4 percent, according to the data. That estimate is above the 1.9 percent forecast at the start of earnings season, but well below the 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings forecast on October 1.

Herbalife Ltd slumped 3 percent to $34.03 after the New York Post newspaper reported the seller of weight loss products is facing a probe by the Federal Trade Commission.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

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Lino Oviedo, Candidate in Paraguay, Dies in Crash

RIO DE JANEIRO — Lino Oviedo, a candidate in Paraguay’s presidential elections and one of the country’s most polarizing political figures, was killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday night while returning from a political rally in northern Paraguay, government officials said Sunday.

The fiery crash, which killed Mr. Oviedo, 69, an aide and the pilot of the helicopter, opens a new phase of uncertainty in Paraguay, one of Latin America’s most politically unstable countries. After authorities confirmed his death and called it an accident, officials in his party, the National Union of Ethical Citizens, immediately questioned whether Mr. Oviedo had been assassinated.

The death of Mr. Oviedo, a retired general who had led Paraguay’s army, brought an end to a tumultuous political career.

He initially gained prominence in 1989, when he helped topple Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, the dictator who ruled Paraguay for 35 years.

Mr. Oviedo fled the country in 1996, seeking exile first in Argentina then in Brazil, after being charged of organizing an aborted coup attempt against Juan Carlos Wasmosy, then Paraguay’s president.

The authorities also indicted Mr. Oviedo on charges of masterminding the assassination of Luis María Argaña, the vice president who was killed by gunmen outside Asunción in March 1999. But after Mr. Oviedo returned to Paraguay in 2004 and served time in prison in connection to the coup-plotting conviction, Paraguay’s Supreme Court absolved him of the various charges.

He then took up a hard-charging political career, campaigning as a populist who nimbly used Guaraní, Paraguay’s widely-spoken indigenous language, in his speeches. He became known as the “bonsai horseman,” in a nod to his short stature, and came in third in the country’s last presidential vote, in 2008.

Paraguay was officially commemorating Stroessner’s overthrow on Sunday, making the timing of the helicopter crash questionable for some of Mr. Oviedo’s political supporters. Paraguayan aviation authorities, while claiming that the helicopter went down in an area of northern Paraguay with stormy weather on Saturday night, said they would investigate the causes of the crash.

“Twenty-four years ago today General Oviedo overthrew the dictatorship,” César Durand, a spokesman for Mr. Oviedo’s party, told Radio Ñanduti. “This is a message from the mafia,” he said, employing a blanket term often used by Paraguayans to refer to shadowy organizations involved in drug trafficking and the contraband of pirated goods into neighboring Brazil.

Mr. Oviedo’s chances of winning Paraguay’s presidential election, scheduled for April, appeared to be slim, political analysts said. According to recent polls, support for Mr. Oviedo remained in the single digits, placing him far behind the front-runner in the race, Horacio Cartes, a banking and tobacco magnate.

The election comes after a stretch of political turmoil in Paraguay in which Paraguay’s Senate hastily ousted the president, Fernando Lugo, from office in June. Mr. Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, had ended six decades of one-party rule when he was elected, but faced fierce opposition from lawmakers to his attempts to reduce Paraguay’s disparity in landholdings.

If Mr. Cartes, 56, holds his lead, the presidency will return to the Colorado Party which long dominated Paraguay. Still, his campaign is facing questions over his business dealings. State Department diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks revealed claims in 2007 that a bank under Mr. Cartes’s control was involved in a great deal of Paraguay’s money-laundering activities.

Mr. Cartes has rejected the money-laundering claims, calling them “laughable rubbish.”

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Innovative Ways the Autism Community Uses iPads

The iPad has proven to be an especially useful communication tool for young people with autism. It provides a way to express themselves through words and images; it can be used to teach them about everyday scenarios and give them more independence. It’s also far less bulky than some communication devices of the past.

Autism Spectrum Disorders are developmental disabilities that affect about one in every 88 children, and one in 54 boys.

[More from Mashable: 10 Essential Tools for the Lean Web Developer]

Jonathan Izak‘s 12-year-old autistic brother inspired him to develop the AutisMate app for iPad. His brother, Oriel, is mostly nonverbal and used to struggle to communicate, sometimes throwing tantrums when he was unable to get his point across, Izak tells Mashable.

At 7 years old, Oriel had to wear a heavy communication device around his neck, which further set him apart from other children at school. Now, Oriel carries an iPad and uses the app his brother developed to communicate and learn new behaviors like how to act in specific social situations.

[More from Mashable: Tablet Shipments Hit Record Levels While Apple’s Market Share Declines]

With AutisMate, parents or caretakers take and upload photos of their child’s bedroom, the kitchen, his or her school to the app. When the app launches, the iPad’s GPS will know where the user is and allows them to tap pictures of their surrounding environment. The child can tap the refrigerator, for instance, to express that he or she is hungry.

Izak says these visual tools for communication don’t become a permanent crutch but rather promote speech and communication.

It’s not uncommon for children with autism to be nonverbal and need the iPad to communicate. AutismSpeaks.org says it’s estimated that 25% of people with autism are completely nonverbal.

Izak explains that, for someone with autism, the unknowns in life can be scary, so to prepare that person for the world, apps like AutisMate show scenes of how to do everyday things like go to a restaurant or the doctor’s office.

Parents, caretakers and doctors know early intervention with autism is a key factor to increasing their child’s likelihood of communicating, which is probably why most autism apps focus on children. iPad apps to help children with autism develop their communication skills are part of a rapidly growing market and have proved to be effective tools. Check out some of the apps we found and others recommended to us. Let us know if you know of any other useful apps for people with autism.

Click here to view the gallery: Autism Apps

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, UrsaHoogle

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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The Duchess of Cambridge Reveals Royal Baby Bump

By Maggie Coughlan

02/03/2013 at 01:20 PM EST

Royal baby-watchers, rejoice: Here's comes the bump!

Although she was wearing an oversize, tartan-print cape, Kate stepped out on Wednesday in West London revealing a new curve – and we're not just talking about her smile!

With her hair back in a ponytail, the Duchess of Cambridge, 30, pulled her look together with a black scarf, black leggings and riding boots.

The mother-to-be was also recently spotted in London's Chelsea neighborhood shopping for jeggings at the Gap.

The public outings show that Kate's health is on the upswing after being hospitalized with severe morning sickness in the early days of her pregnancy.

The baby is due in July.

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New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.

For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.

Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated.

"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools and to 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.

The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.

The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.

"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.

Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.

The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.

Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.

Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said surveys by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.

"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.

A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories that kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.

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Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights.

That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January.

Late-stage bull markets are typically marked by an influx of small investors coming late to the party - such as when your waiter starts giving you stock tips. For that to happen you need a good story. The "great rotation," with its monumental tone, is the perfect narrative to make you feel like you're missing out.

Even if something approaching a "great rotation" has begun, it is not necessarily bullish for markets. Those who think they are coming early to the party may actually be arriving late.

Investors pumped $20.7 billion into stocks in the first four weeks of the year, the strongest four-week run since April 2000, according to Lipper. But that pales in comparison with the $410 billion yanked from those funds since the start of 2008.

"I'm not sure you want to take a couple of weeks and extrapolate it into whatever trend you want," said Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "We have had instances where equity flows have picked up in the last two, three, four years when markets have picked up. They've generally not been signals of a continuation of that trend."

The S&P 500 rose 5 percent in January, its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997, driving speculation that retail investors were flooding back into the stock market.

Heading into another busy week of earnings, the equity market is knocking on the door of all-time highs due to positive sentiment in stocks, and that can't be ignored entirely. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ended the week about 4 percent from an all-time high touched in October 2007.

Next week will bring results from insurers Allstate and The Hartford , as well as from Walt Disney , Coca-Cola Enterprises and Visa .

But a comparison of flows in January, a seasonal strong month for the stock market, shows that this January, while strong, is not that unusual. In January 2011 investors moved $23.9 billion into stock funds and $28.6 billion in 2006, but neither foreshadowed massive inflows the rest of that year. Furthermore, in 2006 the market gained more than 13 percent while in 2011 it was flat.

Strong inflows in January can happen for a number of reasons. There were a lot of special dividends issued in December that need reinvesting, and some of the funds raised in December tax-selling also find their way back into the market.

During the height of the tech bubble in 2000, when retail investors were really embracing stocks, a staggering $42.7 billion flowed into equities in January of that year, double the amount that flowed in this January. That didn't end well, as stocks peaked in March of that year before dropping over the next two-plus years.

MOM AND POP STILL WARY

Arguing against a 'great rotation' is not necessarily a bearish argument against stocks. The stock market has done well since the crisis. Despite the huge outflows, the S&P 500 has risen more than 120 percent since March 2009 on a slowly improving economy and corporate earnings.

This earnings season, a majority of S&P 500 companies are beating earnings forecast. That's also the case for revenue, which is a departure from the previous two reporting periods where less than 50 percent of companies beat revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Meanwhile, those on the front lines say mom and pop investors are still wary of equities after the financial crisis.

"A lot of people I talk to are very reluctant to make an emotional commitment to the stock market and regardless of income activity in January, I think that's still the case," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $571 billion.

Joy, speaking from a conference in Phoenix, says most of the people asking him about the "great rotation" are fund management industry insiders who are interested in the extra business a flood of stock investors would bring.

He also pointed out that flows into bond funds were positive in the month of January, hardly an indication of a rotation.

Citi's Levkovich also argues that bond investors are unlikely to give up a 30-year rally in bonds so quickly. He said stocks only began to see consistent outflows 26 months after the tech bubble burst in March 2000. By that reading it could be another year before a serious rotation begins.

On top of that, substantial flows continue to make their way into bonds, even if it isn't low-yielding government debt. January 2013 was the second best January on record for the issuance of U.S. high-grade debt, with $111.725 billion issued during the month, according to International Finance Review.

Bill Gross, who runs the $285 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, commented on Twitter on Thursday that "January flows at Pimco show few signs of bond/stock rotation," adding that cash and money markets may be the source of inflows into stocks.

Indeed, the evidence suggests some of the money that went into stock funds in January came from money markets after a period in December when investors, worried about the budget uncertainty in Washington, started parking money in late 2012.

Data from iMoneyNet shows investors placed $123 billion in money market funds in the last two months of the year. In two weeks in January investors withdrew $31.45 billion of that, the most since March 2012. But later in the month money actually started flowing back.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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