Pepsi vs Coke - Who Has More Lead?

Photo Credit: Pepsi-Town.com

It is kind of a trick question. The lead is contained in the printing of the labels applied to the bottles and PEPSI has just settled a lawsuit.

Excerpts from the Los Angeles Times -

Pepsi Agrees to Get the Lead Out of Labels
L.A. and the state sued because bottles from Mexican plants contain the substance and some businesses sell them in Southern California.
By Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writer - April 22, 2006

Settling a lawsuit by the city of Los Angeles and the state, PepsiCo Inc. has agreed to eliminate labels containing lead on bottled soft drinks imported from Mexico and will pay a $1-million civil penalty, officials announced Friday.

The lawsuit alleged that the soft-drink maker violated Proposition 65 by failing to warn consumers that the labels contained lead.

"This is a landmark result which will protect the health of our children and make our communities safer," City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said at a City Hall news conference. "Pepsi is here with us today doing the responsible thing."
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Under the settlement, filed in court Friday, PepsiCo will begin phasing out labels containing lead and will remove existing soda bottled in Mexico from shelves in California.

In addition to the $1-million civil penalty, the company could face an additional $4.25 million in penalties if it fails to phase out 95% of the labels with lead within 10 years.

PepsiCo also will pay $500,000 to a fund for monitoring whether Mexican Pepsi bottles are coming into California and to other programs on lead abatement in food.

The firm also will pay $750,000 to reimburse investigative and attorney costs, Delgadillo said.
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The CocaCola Co. issued a statement saying it "is already — and voluntarily — doing what this settlement requires Pepsi to do in the future, at a cost to the CocaCola system in excess of $25 million."

The firm said all of its bottles made in Mexico are lead-free.
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20th Highjacker Trial Goes To Jury

This artist's rendering shows court appointed physician Dr. Raymond Patterson, center, being questioned by U.S. Attorney David Novak, right, as Zacarias Moussaoui, left, and U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema listen in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, April 20, 2006. Patterson was called by the prosecution as a rebuttal witness to the defenses psychiatric experts who say that Moussaoui is mentally ill. Photo Credit: AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren

This from AP via Yahoo! News -

Jury Takes Up Moussaoui's Fate
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer - 1 hour, 18 minutes ago

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Zacarias Moussaoui's fate was placed Monday afternoon in the hands of a jury that will decide whether he is executed for his part in the deaths of Sept. 11, 2001.

Jurors opened deliberations at 2:26 p.m. EDT, after final pleadings from the prosecution to "put an end to his hatred and venom" by opting for execution, and from the defense to spare him the martyr's death he seeks and send him to prison for life instead.

The jury decided in 15 hours of deliberations over four days earlier this month that Moussaoui, 37, the only man charged in this country in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was responsible for deaths that day even though he was in jail. That qualified him for the death penalty. The question now before jurors is whether he deserves it.
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This story was posted because the watercolor art was compelling.

Oh yeah, Maxine believes that he's goin' down ... to bad it won't be as fast as Flight 93!

UPDATE: This from Reuters -

Moussaoui gets life in jail
By Deborah Charles 40 minutes ago (5-3-2006, 1:40 pm PST)

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in a U.S. court in connection with September 11, should spend his life in prison instead of being executed for his role in the hijacked airliner attacks, a jury decided on Wednesday.
"America you lost!" Moussaoui shouted as he left the courtroom after hearing the verdict. He clapped his hands and yelled, "I won!"

The 37-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent will be formally sentenced on Thursday.
The verdict was read by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, not far from the Pentagon, the site of one of the 2001 attacks. It was read simultaneously before television cameras outside the courthouse by spokesman Edward Adams.

At the White House, President George W. Bush hailed the sentencing of the man he said "openly rejoiced" at the deaths on September 11 and said "evil" had been vanquished.
"The end of this trial represents the end of this case, but not an end to the fight against terror," Bush said. "...And we can be confident. Our cause is right, and the outcome is certain: Justice will be served. Evil will not have the final say."
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Well, we can still hope for a Jeffrey Dahmer type of outcome, otherwise we all can look forward to about 30+ years of having to hear his name.

This from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -

Dahmer served his time at the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin. On 28th November, 1994, fellow inmate Christopher Scarver, a double murderer, beat Dahmer and another inmate, Jesse Anderson, to death with a bench-press bar from the prison's weight room. All three were on work detail cleaning a bathroom in the guards' quarters at the time (Because of this incident, American maximum security prisons no longer have a free-weight room). Scarver stated that he was the "son of God" and was acting out his "Father's" commands to kill Dahmer and the other inmate during cleaning duties.

CIA Leaker Was Clinton Appointee & More

Photo Credit: floppingaces.net

A senior Clinton Administration figure (appointed June 16, 1998) became a "mole" in the CIA and illegally leaked classified material to a Washington Post reporter in order to embarrass the Bush Administration. This is as astonishing as it is troubling. You can not make this stuff up.

CIA leaker was a contributor to the Democrats - The New York Times article on the CIA leak case mentions that the leaker, one Mary O. McCarthy, gave $2,000 to Kerry (which, by the way, is the maximum amount she could give). This in light of the fact that she grossly underplays her political involvement. Look it up.

More links put together at Free Republic.

The Lewis 'Scooter' Libbey defense team must be toasting the out of control Dems and the tainted Pulitzer Prize winning MSM right about now.

UPDATE, 4-24-2006, 6:13 AM: The defense of McCarthy has begun in the MSM. This morning on MSNBC's Don Imus program, Andrea Mitchell speculated clearly that the reporter (Dana Priest) had developed the story from many resources.

Further, that the reporter had earned her Pulitzer in that Mary McCarthy was only one of many resources and that Dana Priest probably contacted Mary McCarthy for confirmation of information developed through these other resources - ("THUD!" - the sound of a jaw hitting the floor in un-speculative disbelief).

WHAT? Thank you Andrea Mitchell. Maybe, she should read the above links?

This quote from the American Digest -

Dana Priest: "Well, actually, the media is not breaking the law by publishing classified information. That's still a safeguard we have in the law. The person/s who turn it over are breaking the law, technically. But the courts and the body politic have always looked at this as the cost of democracy and that is one huge reason why reporters have not be pursued previously." -- National Security and Intelligence

Schumacher Takes 2006 San Marino GP

Lap 25 and the leading players in the San Marino Grand Prix have made their first pit stops. The order is Michael Schumacher leading Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, with Felipe Massa and Juan Pablo Montoya running close together in fourth and fifth. Photo Credit: UpdateSport.Com

Former 1999 FedEx Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), and IRL's 2000 Indianapolis 500 champion, Juan Pablo Montoya, posts a podium finish by finishing third for Team McLaren Mercedes.

This from the Official Formula 1 Website -

Schumacher hangs on to victory
23 April 2006

By the end of the San Marino Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso must have been thoroughly sick of staring at the back of Michael Schumacher’s car.

For much of the second half of the race the pair were separated by barely half a second. But however much the Spanish world champion wanted to find a way past, Schumacher’s dogged defence of his position proved impregnable. And by the closing stages of the race, it was clear that Alonso had settled for second place and the eight points that go with it.

Juan Pablo Montoya claimed the third step of the podium for McLaren - but the team will have been demoralised by a relative lack of pace that prevented their drivers from getting on terms with Alonso and Schumacher. Felipe Massa ended the race in fourth place with the second Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen was fifth and Mark Webber deserves mention for a strong drive to sixth in the Williams.
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This from Reuters -

UPDATE 1-Schumacher a winner again for Ferrari
Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:09 PM BST
By Alan Baldwin

IMOLA, Italy, April 23 (Reuters) - Michael Schumacher won the San Marino Grand Prix for his and Ferrari's first victory of the Formula One season on Sunday.

It was the seven-times world champion's 85th career success, and seventh at Ferrari's home circuit, but he was harried all the way by Renault's world champion Fernando Alonso.

In a repeat of last year's nose-to-tail thriller only in reverse order, with that race won by Alonso with Schumacher failing to find a way past, the German held on to win by 2.0 seconds.

Schumacher's last victory was at the six-car U.S. Grand Prix last June, a race that turned into a fiasco when all the Michelin teams pulled out before the start.

His last real win was the Japanese Grand Prix in October 2004, a season he dominated with 13 victories.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya was third for McLaren, ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa for Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen in another McLaren.

Australian Mark Webber was sixth for Williams, with Briton Jenson Button seventh for Honda and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella taking the last point for Renault.

Alonso, winner of two of the season's first three races, extended his championship lead by one point to 15 with Schumacher moving up to second overall.

The Spaniard has 36 points, Schumacher 21 and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen 18. Renault lead the constructors' standings with 51 points to McLaren's 33 and Ferrari's 30.
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Record F1 Qualifying Mark Set In Imola, Italy

Ayrton Senna ponders what might have been after dropping out of the Canadian Grand Prix, June 2nd 1991. Photo Credit: Artemis Images - ©Steve Mohlenkamp (ht: wikipedia.org)

On Saturday afternoon, Michael Schumacher broke a near sacred pole qualifying position record held by racing legend Ayrton Senna by marking his 66th pole starting position while qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix race to be run today. Incidentally, Senna's last pole position (#65) was achieved and career ending crash came at this very same racing circuit on May 1, 1994.

This from the Official Formula 1 Website -

Michael Schumacher and Ferrari gave their fans what they wanted in qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola this afternoon, taking pole position and thus breaking the record he held jointly with the late Ayrton Senna.

However, the final 20-minute shootout was a close-run thing with Jenson Button putting his Honda on the front row close to the end of the session.

On the lap that Schumacher stopped the clocks in 1m 22.795s, Button banged in a 1m 22.988s to push aside team mate Rubens Barrichello.

The Brazilian subsequently lapped his RA106 in 1m 23.242s to take third place away from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

The younger Brazilian had an off-course moment exiting the Variante Alta chicane, but made amends with 1m 23.702s.
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Japan Makes A Great Tune-Up For May's INDY 500

Helio Castroneves climbs fence in win at Japan’s Twin Ring Motegi racetrack – Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney, IRL

At Honda's home track, Castroneves and Penske make a strong statement of readiness for a record matching run at Indianapolis next month.

With this season’s second win in a row, Helio Castroneves showed that he is ready to be counted among the rare club of drivers that can lay claim to winning the Indianapolis 500 open-wheel automobile race three times, with a win in the 500 this May. He currently leads in the 2006 season race points and has shown the consistency by winning two of the three races run this season.

Excerpts from Indycar.com -

Saturday, April 22, 2006
Castroneves wins second consecutive race, adds to points lead
By Dave Lewandowski - indycar.com

MOTEGI, Japan – Helio Castroneves showed his powerful hand in practice sessions at Twin Ring Motegi. When the stakes were higher in the fourth Indy Japan 300, he took the pot.

Oh, there were plenty of others in the game – including runner-up Dan Wheldon and third-place finisher Tony Kanaan, who both acknowledged they didn’t have enough to catch Castroneves near the end of the 200-lap race on the 1.5-mile egg-shaped oval.

They really didn’t have any answers from the midpoint onward. How dominating was Castroneves, who climbed the fence for the second consecutive race? Well, here are a few examples:

● He led 184 laps.
● His fastest race lap was 190 (199.910 mph; 27.3723 seconds).
● His second-fastest lap was 180 (199.847 mph).
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"What a team, what a team,” said Castroneves, who was whisked with champagne bottle in hand from Victory Circle to team owner Roger Penske’s plane for the flight to Phoenix to catch the Team Penske cars in the NASCAR Nextel Cup race the same day (the International Date Line is a wonderful thing heading east).

It was Castroneves’ fourth IndyCar Series victory from the pole and ninth overall (eight on ovals).
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Global Warming Is Less Alarming, Scientists Say

Photo Credit: NASA

It is OK to feel better about the prospects about our planet on this coming observance of Earth Day 2006. It turns out that our Earth is not warming as fast as all of the alarmists, who are able to grab media attention, say it is warming.

A study released by scientists, using data, organic evidence (tree rings), and computer models, tells us that we should not buy in to the scare tactics used by opportunists who are trying to profit economically or politically from the potential of a dramatic rise in the Earth's temperature.

Excerpts from The Washington Times -

Scientists cool outlook on global warming
By Jennifer Harper - THE WASHINGTON TIMES - April 21, 2006

Global warming may not be as dramatic as some scientists have predicted.

Using temperature readings from the past 100 years, 1,000 computer simulations and the evidence left in ancient tree rings, Duke University scientists announced yesterday that "the magnitude of future global warming will likely fall well short of current highest predictions."
Supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, the Duke researchers noted that some observational studies predicted that the Earth's temperature could rise as much as 16 degrees in this century because of an increase in carbon dioxide or other so-called greenhouse gases.

The Duke estimates show the chances that the planet's temperature will rise even by 11 degrees is only 5 percent, which falls in line with previous, less-alarming predictions that meteorologists made almost three decades ago.
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The topic of global warming, meanwhile, will be framed dramatically in "An Inconvenient Truth," a 94-minute documentary featuring former Vice President Al Gore, who has deemed rising temperatures "a planetary emergency." The Hollywood production will be released to theaters in May and is billed by producer Davis Guggenheim as "the most terrifying film you will ever see."

The production also recommends that viewers take "political action." On Tuesday, Mr. Gore paid Roy Neel, a longtime Democratic adviser, $40,000 to help him create a public outreach program on global warming, the New York Daily News reported.

The American Spectator and columnist Jonah Goldberg have accused Mr. Gore of "green" scaremongering.
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MAXINE says .. It's OK to enjoy the day, on Earth Day!

#2 Responds To #1 E85 FlexFuel Ground Swell

"SWITCHGRASS" - Release Name, El Reno - Scientific Name, Bouteloua curtipendula - Common Name, sideoats grama - This is only one of many switchgrass varieties - Photo Credit: USDA

Toyota, the world's #2 automaker, has begun discussions to consider offering E85 capable cars. General Motors, the world's #1 automaker, has offered E85 FlexFuel cars since 1999 and has the most extensive line of automobile form factors that are able to make use of this fuel alternative.

Ford and Chrysler have models available and ready for the market, but Chrysler currently only offers its E85 car in its fleet sales division.

Toyota may be able to offer an E85 car in the marketplace by 2008. Toyota is currently deeply committed to its electric/gas hybrid technology powered automobiles that use electric motors to assist a petrol gas powered engine to achieve greater fuel economy.

The main problem with a hybrid technology approach, given the current geo-political problems that surround the cost and availability of oil, is that it still requires and consumes a greater amount of petrol based fuel than an E85 powered vehicle would require and consume.

The main problem with E85 is distribution. Once distribution is established, the problem will be production with the key structure being local, in-country resources. America does not need to purchase ethanol from foreign resources so that we then become dependent on other countries for our fuel needs (the problem we now have with our petrol fuel needs).

Excerpts from the Daily Breeze -

Report: Toyota plans on ethanol
U.S. sales of alternative-fuel vehicles from the Japanese company would start by 2008, financial newspaper says.
By Muhammed El-Hasan - Daily Breeze

Toyota Motor Corp. will announce in a few months its plans for vehicles powered by ethanol, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Financial Times reported Wednesday that the Japanese automaker plans to sell ethanol- powered vehicles in the United States by 2008, citing an unnamed company executive.

Cindy Knight, a spokeswoman for Toyota's North American sales and marketing arm in Torrance, said she could not confirm the Financial Times report. Knight did say that the company was studying the technology.

"Toyota is looking at a range of alternatives for cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles. And ethanol is one of many," Knight said. "It's something that we are looking at doing. But we haven't made an official decision on what vehicles we'll offer it in and when. That decision will come in the next few months."
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California has only four stations that sell E85, and not all of them are open to the public, Barthmus said. GM is pushing to make E85 available more broadly, including in California. GM ran TV ads during Super Bowl XL and the Winter Olympics to promote ethanol with the slogan "Live Green Go Yellow."

E85 may be scarce in California, but much of the gasoline the state's residents use already has ethanol, spokeswoman Carolin Keith said.

ExxonMobil's Torrance refinery bought ethanol to mix with the gasoline it sells. The ethanol is used as a substitute for MTBE, which was phased out in California in 2004 because of concerns it polluted groundwater. The Torrance refinery phased out MTBE in 2003.
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"I think things are changing with ethanol and biofuel," Knight (Toyota spokesperson) said. "So I think you'll see more of that in California because we've got the agriculture."
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The sooner we get to E85 as a standard for our automobile fuel needs, the sooner we will be on a stronger "war footing", we will get a cleaner burning fuel alternative as a bonus!

ICE Begins Crack Down

Demonstrators march through the streets of Los Angeles to protest against legislation that cracks down against illegal immigrants, April 15, 2006. Almost 1,200 illegal immigrants and seven current or former managers at a Netherlands-based firm that hired them were arrested as part of a national crackdown, authorities said on Thursday. (Photo Credit: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Dutch company feels frostbitten as ICE (the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement department) begins crackdown. Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security states that this is only the beginning.

The effort is aimed at those who are "exploiting illegal aliens'' and "who adopt as a business model the systematic violation of immigration laws,'' Chertoff told reporters in Washington. The government will "make sure we come down as hard as possible.''

Excerpts from Reuters via Yahoo! News -

Workers, managers arrested in immigration case
By James Vicini - Thu Apr 20, 12:58 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Almost 1,200 illegal immigrants and seven current or former managers at a Netherlands-based firm that hired them were arrested as part of a national crackdown, U.S. authorities said on Thursday.

Raids were carried out this week in 26 states at plants operated by IFCO Systems North America, which is based in Houston and makes wooden pallets and crates.
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IFCO said in a statement that it is cooperating fully with the investigation and that it hopes "to have this matter resolved as soon as possible." The North American operation is a unit IFCO Systems, based in Amsterdam.

About half of the firm's 5,800 U.S. employees in 2005 had invalid or mismatched Social Security numbers, federal officials said.
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So doing the math, ICE still has a little more work to do (about another 1,200 illegal aliens to go) at IFCO. Jobs open up in 26 states for high jobless segments of our society.

Help Wanted! ... from U.S. citizens!

DNC Chief Becomes The New Republican

Howard Dean – Photo Credit: AP

Boy, we all would really love to believe this stated change in position. I do not feel we can trust the Democrats (or the Republicans for that matter) to clamp down on illegal immigration because all politicians look at a body, any body, as a future vote. They do tend to forget that 1) we are at war, and 2) Nearly 80% of the voting citizens of this country want the borders tightened up and the illegal immigrant problem to be solved through enforcement of our laws.

Excerpts from The Washington Times -

Dean calls the border top priority
By Ralph Z. Hallow - THE WASHINGTON TIMES - April 20, 2006

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean yesterday called border security his party's top immigration priority for November.

"The first thing we want is tough border control," he said. "We have to do a much better job on our borders than George Bush has done. And then we can go to the policy disagreements about how to get it done."
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"If Dean means what he says about border enforcement, that would put the Democrats somewhere to the right of President Bush on immigration," said Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican.

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee dismissed Mr. Dean's "newfound commitment to border security" as "not believable."
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Mr. Dean said he wants "immigrants who obey the law and pay taxes to be able to apply for citizenship. We support earned legalization vigorously. And, much to my surprise, so do the American people."
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Speaking yesterday at a breakfast for political reporters at the St. Regis Hotel, hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Mr. Dean told reporters that Democrats would attack Republicans on "values" in this fall's midterm elections.
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"Don't forget -- the Republicans have been in power for five years. They've had the House and Senate and the White House most of that time. And they have done nothing about immigration."

Not true, said Mr. King, who represents a district along the Missouri River in western Iowa. He said 200 Democrats voted against a bill passed by the House in December that mandates stronger border security.

"If Dean and his Democrats in the Senate are serious, they could force the president to make a decision to sign or veto an enforcement-only package," he said. Mr. Bush and several Senate Republicans have sought to tie border enforcement to a guest-worker plan -- a program that many of the Republican Party's conservative supporters sharply criticized.
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"I have no intention of losing this battle," he said. "They started it, and we are going to win it." Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz yesterday responded scornfully to Mr. Dean's immigration rhetoric.

"Someone should remind Howard Dean that it was [Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid [Nevada Democrat] who obstructed immigration reform, underscoring the fact that Democrats would rather manipulate the issue than reform it," he said. "President Bush and Republicans in Congress have increased border-security funding by more than 65 percent, expanded the number of border agents by 30 percent and significantly upgraded technology on the border."
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This may be good news for all of us citizens out here if the politics of the situation forces the Democrat and Republican parties to fall all over themselves and appeal to the wishes of the "voting" public.

We Will See!

The Convenience Of Swords And Stars

Extreme Fang - Huge One Hand Weapon - Photo Credit: excaliburbrothers.com

The neighborhood standards council in Tacoma, Washington is all up in arms about the sales of "Arms" in convenience stores. It seems that the local convenience stores in the area have been able to identify a niche market in the area for swords, throwing stars, and crossbows. It sounds like the renaissance faire might be just around the corner.

Excerpts from Convenience Store News Daily -

Washington C-Stores Encounter 'Sword Fight'
From Associated Press

TACOMA, Wash. -- Some government officials are crusading to get cheap versions of medieval weapons off the shelves of local Washington convenience stores because the appearance of collectible swords, crossbows and throwing stars is upsetting some customers, reported the Associated Press.

The city’s lawyers are having a difficult time, however, figuring out how to revise Tacoma’s “dangerous weapons” ordinance to stop the stores from selling collectible swords without also making it illegal for grocery stores to sell bread knives or camping stores to offer hunting knives, according to the report.
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“I see no reason for a weapon to be convenient,” Fred Brookshire, chairman of the South End Neighborhood Council, told the AP.
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At MAXINE, we are willing to guess that this "Starbucks" guzzling neighborhood council chairman has never been to South Central Los Angeles, say ... after a court verdict.