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Nation in brief

Scientists: Junk food industry should stop marketing to kids

By wire services
Published December 7, 2005

WASHINGTON - SpongeBob SquarePants and characters like him should promote only healthy food for kids, a panel of scientists said Tuesday.

Food marketing strongly influences what children eat, the Institute of Medicine said in a comprehensive review of scientific evidence on the issue. Overwhelmingly, food and drinks marketed to kids are high in calories and low in nutrition, the report said.

"It's putting our children at risk," said panel member Ellen A. Wartella, a professor at the University of California at Riverside.

The report said the food industry should spend its marketing dollars on nutritious food and drinks - and that characters such as SpongeBob, animated star of the Nickelodeon TV network, should endorse only good-for-you food.

Some advocacy groups said the recommendations don't go far enough and called for a ban on junk food marketing to children.

The panel said marketing has grown more sophisticated, evolving beyond TV commercials to Internet games, coupons and store events, placement in supermarkets and word-of-mouth campaigns.

Obesity rates have tripled over the past 40 years for kids and adolescents from ages 6 through 19, raising their risk of risks of type 2 diabetes and a range of other diseases.

SpongeBob has helped sell spinach and carrots as part of a Nickelodeon campaign to get kids to eat healthy food. But SpongeBob also has appeared on ice cream, Pop-Tarts, candy bars, lollipops, Pez and other products.

These likable, kid-friendly characters are "being used to manipulate vulnerable children to make unhealthy choices," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Politics and history will not be on Stanley Tookie Williams' side Thursday when the founder of the murderous Crips gang asks Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to spare his life for killing four people during two robberies 26 years ago.

Except for Illinois Gov. George Ryan's 2003 decision to clear out death row in his final hours in office, clemency is a gubernatorial option rarely exercised in today's tough-on-crime climate.

Excluding the 167 Illinois inmates whose death sentences were commuted in 2003, only 63 lives have been spared since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Williams, 51, is scheduled to die by injection just after midnight Monday for gunning down four people at a convenience store and a motel in 1979. Every court that reviewed his case has refused to reopen it.

SAN FRANCISCO - The eventual recovery of the gaping ozone hole over Antarctica, discovered two decades ago, could take years longer than previously predicted, scientists said Tuesday.

Researchers said that could be because of all the older model refrigerators and car air-conditioning systems in the United States and Canada that are still releasing ozone-killing chemicals. Both countries curbed those chemicals in newer products.

If scientists are right, that means longer-term exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation, which raises the risk of skin cancer and cataracts for people.

Current computer models suggest the ozone hole should recover globally by 2040 or 2050, but Tuesday's analysis suggests the hole won't heal until about 2065.

NASHVILLE - The commander of the Tennessee Highway Patrol was forced to resign Tuesday amid allegations of political favoritism and departmental corruption, including an attempt by the officer to buy a fishing boat that had been seized by troopers.

Col. Lynn Pitts, a 31-year veteran of the patrol, violated state law by trying to buy the boat, which had been put up for sale as surplus state property, Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips said.

The transaction was first reported by the Tennessean newspaper, which has run a series of stories about problems inside the Highway Patrol.

After questions were raised by the Tennessean, Gov. Phil Bredesen ordered the state to do background checks on all 855 troopers last week and found that 48 had criminal charges in their background.

YORK, Pa. - The children and sisters of a black woman who was killed during race riots in this central Pennsylvania city 36 years ago will share in a $2-million settlement announced Tuesday by York city officials.

The deal would settle the lawsuit that Lillie Belle Allen's family filed against the city and five former police officers.

Allen, 27, who lived in Aiken, S.C., was visiting relatives when she was was confronted by a mob of white youths as she drove into the city on July 21, 1969, and was shot.

[Last modified December 7, 2005, 00:34:15]