Wednesday, November 30, 2011

High arsenic levels in apple & grape juice, Horse meat may be back on the menu, and how a homeless man turned his life around

When one-in-10 apple or grape juice samples have high levels of dangerous arsenic in them something needs to be done.

   Good Morning Humboldt County!

There you are…c’mon in and join me for a cup of hot Joe and the news of the day.

I’m concerned about this new study (which backs up prior ones) on apple and grape juice containing high levels of arsenic.

The guy from the FDA that’s defending their position that every thing is just fine with the juices, tried to claim the levels were okay, despite all the evidence that is cropping up showing otherwise.

Now I have to think twice before drinking either juice or start watering them down as one consumer group suggested.

Horse meat may be back on the menu

Horses could soon be butchered in the U.S. for human consumption after Congress quietly lifted a 5-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections, and activists say slaughterhouses could be up and running in as little as a month.

Slaughter opponents pushed a measure cutting off funding for horse meat inspections through Congress in 2006 after other efforts to pass outright bans on horse slaughter failed in previous years. Congress lifted the ban in a spending bill President Barack Obama signed into law Nov. 18 to keep the government afloat until mid-December.

The USDA issued a statement Tuesday saying there are no slaughterhouses in the U.S. that butcher horses for human consumption now, but if one were to open, it would conduct inspections to make sure federal laws were being followed.

Homeless man's decision to return $3,300 changed his life

About a year ago, a homeless man in Arizona found a bag full of cash and made a fateful decision: He returned it. The Arizona Republic published a feel-good story today that actually feels good about the future of 49-year-old Dave Tally (photo left) of Tempe.

Tally was in debt, unemployed and had lost his driver's license for DUI violations. Homeless, he was sleeping on a mat in a church-based homeless shelter when he found $3,300 in a backpack at a local light-rail station.

That could have gotten Tally out of his hole, but he decided that was the wrong thing to do. Instead, he tracked down the owner of the cash, a college kid named Bryan Berlanger who had planned to use the money to buy a car to replace one he'd lost in an accident.

"Meeting Belanger and hearing the student thank and praise him for his honesty and kindness made Tally feel good about himself, he says," writes Republic reporter Dianna M. Nanez. "He hadn't had that feeling in awhile." When word got out that Tally had turned in the cash instead of keeping it, the national media came looking for him.

Donations poured in, and Tally suddenly found himself with $10,000. But he was determined not to fritter it away. He began paying off his bills, clearing up his driving record, and taking the long road back. He even moved into a no-frills apartment across from the shelter as "a reminder of where I've been and where I'm not going back again."

One year later, Tally has landed his "dream job," managing a community garden. Recently, The Republic reports, Tally started overseeing an internship program that allows people who are homeless to volunteer in the garden. But he doesn't preach to anyone. "I let them know that when they're ready to make changes, it's possible," he says.

Time to walk on down the road…

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