Just remember: by the time the FDA is admitting something, it's pretty bad. Now let's see if the companies making this stuff manage to "K" (as in K Street) out of this:

The Food and Drug Administration has reversed its position on the safety of Bisphenol A, a chemical found in plastic bottles, soda cans, food containers and thousands of consumer goods, saying it now has concerns about health risks.

Growing scientific evidence has linked the chemical to a host of problems, including cancer, sexual dysfunction and heart disease. Federal officials said they are particularly concerned about BPA's effect on the development of fetuses, infants and young children.

"We have some concern, which leads us to recommend reasonable steps the public can take to reduce exposure to BPA," said Joshua Sharfstein, FDA's deputy commissioner, in a conference call to reporters Friday.

Regulators stopped short of banning the compound or even requiring manufacturers to label products containing BPA, saying that current data are not clear enough to support a legal crackdown. FDA officials also said they were hamstrung from dealing quickly with BPA by an outdated regulatory framework.

Sharfstein said the agency is conducting "targeted" studies of BPA, part of a two-year, $30 million effort by the administration to answer key questions about the chemical that will help determine what action, if any, is necessary to protect public health. The Obama administration pledged to take a "fresh look" at the chemical.

BPA, used to harden plastics, is so prevalent that more than 90 percent of the U.S. population has traces of it in its urine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers have found that BPA leaches from containers into food and beverages, even at cold temperatures.

The FDA's announcement came after extensive talks between federal agencies and the White House about the best approach to an issue that has become a significant concern for consumers and the chemical industry.

Paul Newman, 1925 - 2008 RIP

["Plastic Jesus" written by Ed Rush and George Cromarty, and sung by Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke." h/t Driftglass.]

Ned Lamont pays tribute to Paul Newman

It looks like we found where Saddam hid those weapons of mass destruction...or do you suppose John Bolton was planning on taking out those ten stories he scoffed at?

CNN:

Workers found vials believed to contain the poison gas phosgene at a U.N. office building in New York Thursday.

U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said U.N. chemical weapons experts quickly secured the toxic material.

U.N. archivists for UNMOVIC, the U.N. chemical weapons agency, unexpectedly turned up samples of material from an Iraqi chemical weapons plant in old files.

The samples were in weapons inspectors' files dating back to the 1990s, but the substance is not believed to pose any immediate danger, U.N. officials said Thursday.

The building where the samples turned up is several blocks away from main U.N. Secretariat building along New York's East River. Tests found no toxic vapors in the offices, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. [..]

The material was taken from al-Muthanna chemical weapons plant north of Baghdad. The samples are sealed and have been there since 1996.

The samples were in containers that ranged in size "from small vials to tubes the length of a pen," Okabe said.

Ewan Buchanan, a spokesman for UNMOVIC, said the substances are in a sealed metal box and wrapped in a plastic bag, "so there is no immediate danger."

YahooNews:

Toy-maker Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys - including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters - because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead.

The worldwide recall being announced Thursday involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August. It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products.[..]

Fisher-Price and the commission issued statements saying parents should keep suspect toys away from children and contact the company.[..]

Owners of a recalled toy can exchange it for a voucher for another product of the same value. To see pictures of the recalled toys, visit http://www.service.mattel.com. For more information, call Mattel's recall hot line at 800-916-4498.

This has always been the most ludicrous talking point to me. For every Barbra Streisand and Michael Moore that the right loves to demonize--and Lord knows they do, every chance they get--the left could more credibly point out Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Charlton Heston--in positions to actually make a difference--as "Hollywood Values". However, this story demonstrates quite well why Hollywood values are nothing to scoff at.

Reuters AlertNet :

The rich and famous in the West are getting into Africa in a big way these days, and we're not just talking about adopting babies.

The latest trend for Hollywood players fresh from filming in Africa is setting up funds and trusts to give something back to the communities where they've been working, Christian Science Monitor reports. The Constant Gardener Trust is the brainchild of the makers of "The Constant Gardener", filmed in Nairobi's Kibera slum. The trust has already done some work in Kibera - one of the biggest slums in the world - building a few new sanitation facilities with toilets and showers. It may not sound very generous from a group awash with money, but in a place where "flying toilets" - plastic bags in which people defecate and then dump in the ditches - are the norm, new facilities are a welcome change. Other projects, including mobile clinics, are in the pipeline. Read on...

And then, just as I finished up this post, I get a tip from reader GM with the searing question: Who Would Jesus Give A Cauliflower Ear To? So maybe we should scoff, just a little.

Early Warning: More troops?!! Come on...remember when our frighteningly unbalanced president claimed he would be guided by the advice of his generals? Forgot that sh#t and just go shopping

Women's E-News: The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tests the "body burden" of chemicals every two years, finds the average American now has 116 synthetic compounds in her body, including dioxin (produced by burning plastic), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (found in auto exhaust) and organochlorine pesticides (found in farming areas).

Truly Equal: The invasion of Iraq has changed the status of Iraqi women for the worse. They're now being used to settle vendettas

The Poor Man Institute: The Official Official Golden Winger Nominations

Mick LaSalle: It's tough being an American abroad these days. I noticed it in 2005. Mick, more recently

HOLY CRAP: Mainline churches need to wake up and smell the concrete! Could Pope Benedict be any lighter in his..um...bejeweled slippers? James Dobson distorts research..again! Teaching religion in public schools...Our bigotry is more important than your safety

Atrios:

Hillary Clinton's Republican challenger is getting personal and it's not pretty: He says the senator used to be ugly - and speculates she got "millions of dollars" in plastic surgery. "You ever see a picture of her back then? Whew," said John Spencer of Clinton's younger days.

"I don't know why Bill married her," he said of the Clintons, who celebrated their 31st anniversary this month.

Noting Hillary Clinton looks much different now, he chalked it up to "millions of dollars" of "work" - plastic surgery.

"She looks good now," he said.

Spencer's bizarre comments came during a conversation with a reporter seated beside him and his wife, Kathy, on the 10:30 a.m. JetBlue flight Friday to Rochester, the site of the race's first debate.

Classless.

Donkephant: 115 Billion Down the Drain

MyDD:The Definition of Plagiarism

Roger Ailes: The Democrats retake Congress. Gitmo is cleared out to make room for all the convicted Congressional Republicans.

BlondeSense: "I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I have my plastic Jesus. . ."

Informed Comment: US Air Power to Replace Infantry in Iraq...Distant President Trapped in Utopianism
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Informed Comment: US Air Power to Replace Infantry in Iraq...Distant President Trapped in Utopianism

Pharyngula: "Further signs of the dumbening of America: Half a century ago the creationists noticed they were losing credibility, so they put on lab coats and started calling themselves 'scientific creationists'. Now they've added a bag of cheap plastic toy dinosaurs to the costume. It would be comical if it weren't for all the dumb-as-rocks journalists falling for the disguise....read on"

via Jesus General

It's about kindergarten criminals, tasers, choke holds and Florida justice:

Read the following from the Tallahassee Democrat and I think you'll see what I mean:

A 5-year-old girl was arrested, cuffed and put in back of a police cruiser after an outburst at school where she threw books and boxes, kicked a teacher in the shins, smashed a candy dish, hit an assistant principal in the stomach and drew on the walls.

The students were counting jelly beans as part of a math exercise at Fairmount Park Elementary School when the little girl began acting silly. That's when her teacher took away her jelly beans, outraging the child.

Minutes later, the 40-pound girl was in the back of a police cruiser, under arrest for battery. Her hands were bound with plastic ties, her ankles in handcuffs.

"I don't want to go to jail," she said moments after her arrest Monday. read on

You can't make this stuff up!