WASHINGTON — Calling obesity an epidemic and one of the greatest threats to America's health and economy, first lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday that she would launch a major initiative next month to combat the problem in childhood.
Obama, speaking at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said the idea was simple: "To put in place common-sense initiatives and solutions that empower families and communities to make healthy decisions for their kids."
The initiative will involve the federal government working with local officials and leaders in the business and non-profit sectors, she said, to provide more nutritious food in schools, allow more opportunities for kidsto be physically active and give more communities access to affordable, healthful food.
Obama has said she hopes one of her legacies will be her work in reducing childhood obesity, an effort she already has begun by planting the White House garden and joining in physical activities with children.
She told the mayors that as much as she has read and talked about the problem, "the statistics never fail to take my breath away."
About 32% of children and adolescents are obese or overweight, government statistics show. Almost 20% of children ages 6 to 11 and 18% of those ages 12 to 19 are obese. Such children are at a greater risk for weight-related health problems such as high cholesterol and diabetes, and they have an increased chance of becoming obese adults.
Yesterday, Scott Brown pulled off a tremendous political upset. The Massachusetts Republican beat out Democrat Martha Coakley for the Senate seat left vacant by the late Democrat Ted Kennedy. On this, the day after Brown's improbable victory, the Web searches are pouring in on everything from Sen. Brown's victory speech to his daughter's Hollywood aspirations to his humorous defense of pickup trucks.
The victory speech
He may be a United States senator, but he's still Dad. During his victory speech, with his wife and daughters standing behind him, Brown thanked his family for their support. And then things got a little awkward. As his shocked daughters looked on, Sen. Brown said that both of his daughters were "available."
Quoting Dad: "Just in case anyone who's watching throughout the country, yes, they're both available." He then backed off his comments as the crowd hooted and hollered. "No, no. No. Only kidding, only kidding. Only kidding, only kidding," he said. "Arianna... Arianna's definitely not available." He then added, "But Ayla is."
Brown, the professional
BOSTON — On the eve of the Senate election that could determine the fate of President Obama's agenda, Democrats scrambled to build a firebreak around the candidacy of Martha Coakley against the phenomenon of Scott Brown, the Republican Massachusetts state senator whose underdog campaign has surged as the vessel for national opposition to the Democrats' supermajority in the chamber.
Both teams, reinforced by senior political operatives from Washington and bevies of volunteers from beyond Massachusetts, made ardent appeals to supporters to brave freezing temperatures and vote in today's special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.
"Extra" caught up with all of Hollywood's hottest stars at the Golden Globes.
BEIJING (AP) — Google on Tuesday postponed the planned launch of its mobile phone in China amid a dispute with the government over Internet censorship and e-mail hacking that the search giant says may force it to leave the country.
"It is postponed," Google Inc. spokeswoman Marsha Wang said. She said a launch ceremony planned for Wednesday was canceled but declined to give a reason for the decision or to say when the launch might be rescheduled.
Also Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the search giant must obey China's laws and traditions, suggesting the government was giving no ground in talks over Internet censorship and Google's threat to pull out of the country.
WASHINGTON – The FBI violated the law in collecting thousands of U.S. telephone records during the Bush administration, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Citing internal memos and interviews, the Post said the FBI invoked nonexistent terrorism emergencies or persuaded phone companies to provide information as it illegally gathered more than 2,000 records between 2002 and 2006.
The bureau said in 2007 that it had improperly obtained some phone records, and the Justice Department inspector general is expected to release a report this month detailing the extent of the problem.
The best-actress winner for The Blind Side wore a sheer, purple Bottega Veneta gown. "The shape of her dress suited her body so well, and the color was perfect for her skin tone," Yalof Schwartz says. The actress also considered her look a victory: "The minute I put this on, it felt like me."
With husband Jesse James holding her umbrella high, Sandra Bullock looks lovely on the rainy red carpet at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday (January 17) in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The 45-year-old actress wore a violet Bottega Venetta gown and Casadei’s signature 3504 triple platform pump. Her hair was created by Frederic Fekkai stylist Adir Abergel.
Sandra is nominated for both of her leading roles in The Blind Side and The Proposal at tonight’s ceremony. She most recently tied with Meryl Streep at the 2010 Critics’ Choice Movie Awards for Best Actress and sealed it with a kiss!
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the United States of using the earthquake in Haiti as a pretext to occupy the devastated Caribbean country and offered to send fuel from his OPEC nation.
"I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that's what the United States should send," Chavez said on his weekly television show. "They are occupying Haiti undercover."
"On top of that, you don't see them in the streets. Are they picking up bodies? ... Are they looking for the injured? You don't see them. I haven't seen them. Where are they?"
Chavez promised to send as much gasoline as Haiti needs for electricity generation and transport.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Earthquake victims, writhing in pain and grasping at life, watched doctors and nurses walk away from a field hospital Friday night after a Belgian medical team evacuated the area, saying it was concerned about security.
The decision left CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta as the only doctor at the hospital to get the patients through the night.
CNN initially reported, based on conversations with some of the doctors, that the United Nations ordered the Belgian First Aid and Support Team to evacuate. However, Belgian Chief Coordinator Geert Gijs, a doctor who was at the hospital with 60 Belgian medical personnel, said it was his decision to pull the team out for the night. Gijs said he requested U.N. security personnel to staff the hospital overnight, but was told that peacekeepers would only be able to evacuate the team.
TOKYO (AP) -- The head of the IMF said China and other developing Asian economies are leading a global recovery that is faster and stronger than expected, but warned that money rushing into emerging markets could lead to asset bubbles.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, strongly suggested Monday that the IMF would raise its 2010 global growth forecast from the 3.1 percent it projected in October.
China, India and other emerging Asian economies were close to returning to their pre-crisis growth rates, while rebounds in the U.S., Japan and other advanced economies remained "sluggish," he said.
"The forecasts we're going to release in a couple of days will show that this recovery is going faster and stronger than we expected" several months ago, Strauss-Kahn told reporters in Tokyo.
While the IMF doesn't forecast a "double-dip," or second recession, risks remain, he said. "We have to very cautious because this recovery remains very fragile."
Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, her costar in the upcoming "The Bounty Hunter," presented at the Golden Globes. In the press room afterward Aniston's otherwise boring black dress revealed a high thigh slit
Jessica Chobot became an overnight internet sensation when a tongue-in-cheek modeling photo of her appeared online licking the Sony PSP in 2005. The photo has been widely parodied since, even appearing on Sony-branded advertising.
Supplementing her love of videogames is an obsession with Japanese culture, specifically anime and manga. In 2006 Chobot was hired full-time by IGN.com to take over hosting responsibilities for the network's IGN Weekly show which is no longer running. Her segments included stand-up introductions as well as "woman-on-the-street" pieces. She now hosts a daily show entitled , "IGN Daily Fix", the first episode aired March 23, 2009. While Chobot is the main host of the show Fran Mirabella and more commonly Daemon Hatfield have been known to host as well. The show does a weekly Friday giveaway asking questions about random fun video facts, the winner receiving a video game. In addition, she contributes columns, features and reviews and her IGN blog is one of the most visited on the site. Chobot is also a former contributor to FHM UK, Mania.com and has made multiple appearances on G4's "Filter" and "Attack of the Show." She has also hosted a videogame preview segment for Fuel TV’s, “The Daily Habit,” and co-hosts on Lifeskool TV’s, “Gamer’s Dojo.” She also contributes as a weekly guest on Maxim Radio, where she answers caller questions for an hour each Monday.
America’s First Lady Michelle Obama is jealous of her husband’s close friendship with Oprah Winfrey.
America’s First Lady Michelle Obama is jealous of her husband’s close friendship with Oprah Winfrey.Michelle and Barack Obama's marriage is under pressure due to the First Lady's ‘jealousy' of her husband's friendship with Oprah Winfrey, the National Enquirer reports. "Their marriage has been like a war zone lately," a source claims. "In public, they put on a united, smiling front but behind closed doors, the gloves come off. If they're not screaming at each other, they're glaring or stomping off in different directions. Michelle is intensely jealous of the time Barack spends with Oprah.
"Since the election, Michelle has privately given Oprah the cold shoulder. She once said: ‘There's only room for one First Lady in the White House - and that's me!' Believe me, she means it."
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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The science-fiction blockbuster "Avatar" won best drama at the Golden Globes and picked up the directing honor for James Cameron on Sunday, raising the "Titanic" filmmaker's prospects for another Academy Awards triumph.
It was a repeat of Cameron's Globes night 12 years ago, when "Titanic" won best drama and the directing prize on its way to dominating the Oscars.
This time, though, instead of being "king of the world," as Cameron declared at the Oscars, he has become king of an alien landscape, elevating space fantasy to enormous critical acclaim.
"'Avatar' asks us to see that everything is connected, all human beings to each other, and us to the Earth. And if you have to go four and a half light years to another, made-up planet to appreciate this miracle of the world that we have right here, well, you know what, that's the wonder of cinema right there, that's the magic," Cameron said.
Winning the dramatic-acting honors were Sandra Bullock for the football tale "The Blind Side" and Jeff Bridges for the country-music story "Crazy Heart." The crowd gave a standing ovation to Bridges, a beloved veteran generally overlooked for key Hollywood honors.
SYDNEY (AFP) – Rival Australian news crews said Monday that saving a life came before doing their jobs when they rescued an 18-month-old baby from underneath the rubble in earthquake-devastated Haiti.
The little girl was lying alongside the bodies of her dead parents who were killed in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake which hit Port-au-Prince on January 12 when the camera crews heard her moans and began to dig her out on Friday. Related article: Haitians pray in ruins Richard Moran, a cameraman with the commercial Nine Network, put down his camera and lifted pieces of concrete out of the way while Nine's interpreter and fixer Deiby Celestino climbed into the tangled mess to retrieve the child.
Not even growth that's a few weeks away from matching Brad Pitt's scraggly beard could stop Jon Hamm from being dashing as ever. The "Mad Men" hunk showed at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's premiere screening of Kirk Douglas' autobiographical film "Before I Forget" on Wednesday night in Los Angeles with actress and screenwriter Jennifer Westfeldt on his arm.
Hamm and Westfeldt chatted with the acting legend at a pre-screening reception hosted by Netflix, where the Golden Globe nominee mingled with the likes of Kellan Lutz and director-producer Adam Shankman. While Shankman was enthused over Douglas' retrospective flick, he imparted to me his all-time favorite performance from the master thesp:
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama expressed confidence Saturday that lawmakers would approve his proposed tax on banks to recover bailout money, despite opposition from Republicans and the financial industry.
"Like clockwork, the banks and politicians who curry their favor are already trying to stop this fee from going into effect," he said, using his weekly radio and Internet addresses to promote the plan he announced this past week.
"The very same firms reaping billions of dollars in profits, and reportedly handing out more money in bonuses and compensation than ever before in history, are now pleading poverty. It's a sight to see."
If banks can afford to pay out all those bonuses, he said, then they can repay taxpayers, too.
We're not going to let Wall Street take the money and run. We're going to pass this fee into law," he said.
At 18 years of age, Melanie Oudin’s physique is similar to Belgium’s 27-year old Justine Henin. They are both 5’6”. Melanie outweighs Justine by a muscular 4 pounds.
Henin has navigated the tour quite successfully, thank you. Even after her nearly two-year layoff, Henin has banked more than $19 million in tour earnings. After a limited year on the tour, Melanie Oudin banked a cool $450,000. She’s pretty happy about that.
All along Oudin has viewed Henin as her role model. Joined by their need to overcome their vertical challenges, the Georgia native sees to be mirroring Justine’s career path. Eventually, she will develop a serve that will be more offensive than defensive. With experience, she will learn the other competitor’s nuances.
En route to her seven Grand Slam titles, Henin has had to travel the same path. She learned to serve. She learned to spot weaknesses and turn disadvantage to advantage.
