All the bad press finally got to them. In a statement tonight, the drink makers, Phusion Projects, announced they’d be losing caffeine, guarana and taurine from the controversial “blackout-in-a-can” beverage. The company’s three co-founders explain it like so: “We are taking this step after trying – unsuccessfully – to navigate a difficult and politically-charged regulatory environment at both the state and federal levels.” They say they have readily worked with regulators to ensure that their product was legal. The steadfastly claim, however, “that the combination of alcohol and caffeine is safe. If it were unsafe, popular drinks like rum and colas or Irish coffees that have been consumed safely and responsibly for years would face the same scrutiny that our products have recently faced.” Either way, Four Loko is now One Loko – alcohol. source
I neglected some things that matter to a lot of people, and rightly so: maintaining a bipartisan tone in Washington. I think, moving forward, I’m going to redouble my efforts to go back to some of those first principles. And the fact that we are out of crisis – although still, obviously, in a difficult time – I think will give me the capacity to do that.
Barack Obama • Explaining the other day how he managed to lose his grip on bipartisanship during his first two years in office, and his desire to regroup and find it again. It’s OK man, and kind of understandable. The other side wasn’t looking for bipartisanship, either. Though we do admit that we kinda hoped that you would’ve kept more of a level head going into office. Get your fresh start dude. source
Dick Cheney, February 2010Earlier this year at CPAC, the former vice president gave a notable speech that put him in front of the public eye very notably. Soon after, his well-documented health problems crept back, leading to a lengthy hospital stay in July that led to months of speculation.
Dick Cheney, today At George W. Bush’s groundbreaking for his presidential library, Cheney showed up looking a heckuva lot thinner and a tad bit like C. Montgomery Burns. What happened? He lost a ton of weight in the hospital. But he’s reportedly doing a lot better. source
The bad news is that this is probably the final straw for Cooks Source. We have never been a great money-maker even with all the good we do for businesses. Having a black mark wont help … and now, our black mark will become our shroud.
Cooks Source founder Judith Griggs • Admitting the internet campaign against her publication did it in. Griggs, who became infamous for ripping off a writer’s online article and then justifying it by saying that nothing on the Internet is subject to copyright, had few kind words to say to Monica Gaudio, letting out her full rage over the incident in her latest open letter: “If my apology to Monica seemed shallow it was because I was angry about the harm she has inflicted on others on behalf of her own agenda.” The real lesson here, and one that Griggs didn’t admit in her own self-serving letter: Acting unethically will do you in – in the end. source
Commuters in New Joisey, you aren’t screwed yet. Weeks ago, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced he was killing off a massive public works project to get a subway line under the Hudson River into New York City. While fiscal conservatives feted the decision, many long-suffering commuters felt burned. New York City is considering coming to the rescue, offering to extend a subway line out of the city and into New Jersey – at a fraction of the shuttered plan’s cost:
$11.4
billionthe estimated cost (with overruns) of the New Jersey subway project that Gov. Chris Christie killed
$5.3
billionthe estimated cost of New York extending the No. 7 subway line under the Hudson River source
» Agreement still needed: While Michael Bloomberg’s administration is spearheading this, incoming NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, along with Christie, would have to come to terms with the plan, which, while less expensive, definitely isn’t cheap. But the long-term benefits could prove worth it.
Our long national nightmare is over. Will Charlie Rangel be kicked out of Congress? Do we even care? We’ll find out in the next episode of “Lame Duck Congress.”
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You don’t want to just go out there and throw beer into a marketplace and hope you succeed, because it’s a formula for failure, in our opinion.
Dick Yuengling • Explaining why his family’s very popular beer, known all along the East Coast, hasn’t gone national yet, and doesn’t look like it’s going to. All you crazy cats in California are missing out, because it’s widely distributed over here to the point that that it’s a very common (and very good) alternative to your standard Budweiser product. That’s not to say it’s not expanding greatly – it is – but it has a major difference between your Budweiser and Miller beers. See, it’s American-owned – and family owned – still. source