The group that would sell most of that alcohol, the Connecticut Package Stores Association, has blocked Sunday sales multiple times during the past five years in one of the most heavily lobbied issues at the Capitol. The association says the extra day would not mean any extra money for the state or the stores because it would simply spread existing sales over seven days instead of six — while adding an extra day of operating costs.

Geographically, all three cities — Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven — are located far from the border. The mayors hope repeal will stop Sunday six-pack runs across state lines, with the resulting tax revenue trickling back to them. Failing that, the mayors say they’ll seek exceptions for their cities. I have to wonder if that isn’t their true goal: the cities would become wet islands, attracting folks from satellite towns. The mayors could then enact local taxes on the sales without having to wait for the money to first filter through the capital.

It’s a silent, often overlooked danger that kills dozens of children every year, and it’s easily preventable: choking to death on food.

Now the largest pediatrician group in the United States is calling for warning labels on foods that pose the highest risk for choking.

The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates at least one child in the United States dies every five days from choking on food. The academy rates choking as the leading cause of death among children 14 and younger.

The group is issuing a new policy statement calling on the government and manufacturers to implement a food labeling system warning parents of these risks.

“This is a call to action,” said Dr. Gary Smith, a pediatrician and immediate past chairman of the Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Also, the nation’s largest pediatric care group announces that it would like to see someone invent a choke-proof hot dog. (Reason.com and Reason.tv editor Nick Gillespie asks: “Isn’t that just baloney?”)

Until the regulatory state can grind into action, however, the pediatricians have some tips:

• Cut hot dogs lengthwise and grapes in quarters. This changes the dangerous shape of the food, which can block throats of young children and even teenagers.

• Avoid giving toddlers other high-risk foods such as hard candy, nuts, seeds and raw carrots.

Oh yeah, America’s teens are going to love it when their moms start cutting their grapes into quarters at restaurants.

Crossposted at Reason.com.

Among the many proposals under heated debate between the House and Senate health care bills is one provision both sides will likely support: a national law mandating calorie labels on chain restaurant menus and in vending machines.

Advocates have described the measure as a symbolically important step against obesity and have spun recent research in their favor, but a closer look reveals a weak case for labeling.

Read the whole thing here.

The owners of Chocolate Moose, which sells quirky gifts and jewelry as well as candy, were certain the tax didn’t apply to them. Although they received the notice the district sent to all retail food establishments, candy accounts for just 10% or 20% of sales, says co-owner Marcia Levi. “I don’t consider myself a food establishment,” she says. When another store owner asked what she was going to do about the regulation, she decided to call the city, just to be on the safe side. “I explained to them the situation—that only a small part of my business is food,” she said. “They said it does not matter.”

I can’t imagine the headaches this bantamweight bean counting must be inducing in store owners:

Stores keep one cent of every five cents they charge for bags, and two cents if they give customers a credit of at least five cents for each bag (of any sort) that they bring to the store. That provision forced clerks at one local Giant supermarket to intervene in every purchase at every self-check-out terminal to authorize the credit. Under no circumstances, the law says, are stores allowed to pick up the five-cent fee for their customers.

Now imagine your check-out isn’t automated and you have to keep track of how many bags leave your shop so you know how much to pay John Q. Law — or be fined.

At least DC has the manzanas to call it a “tax.” In Connecticut, an identical “fee” was introduced last year by Representative Kim Fawcett but it fell by the wayside once Fawcett, a Democrat, pissed away her political capital voting against gay marriage — this in a state where the Republican governor signed it into law. Fawcett then promptly ran over her own daughter. Man, that was a crazy spring.

Although it is not illegal to consume raw milk in Canada, selling or distributing violates laws that require pasteurization of most commercial milk products.

The Schmidt case, which began when his farm was raided in 2006, has captivated food-rights academics and advocates in Canada, and around the world, who argue the court’s decision will ripple well beyond the raw-milk community. At its crux, they argue, the case is really about the extent to which consumers should be free to buy foods, however rarefied, and whether constitutional rights stretch as far as the grocery basket, farmer’s market and the people who own shares in – but do not live on – food-producing farms.

[Thanks to Kimberly Hartke for the tip. My article on raw milk for Reason is here, and a visit to a Virginia cow share program here.]

A study of New York City’s pioneering law on posting calories in restaurant chains suggests that when it comes to deciding what to order, people’s stomachs are more powerful than their brains.

April Matos, 24, bought a Happy Meal at a McDonald’s for her 3-year-old son, Amari, and a Snack Wrap for herself. “Life is short,” she said. “I started eating everything now I’m pregnant.”

The study, by several professors at New York University and Yale, tracked customers at four fast-food chains — McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken — in poor neighborhoods of New York City where there are high rates of obesity.

It found that about half the customers noticed the calorie counts, which were prominently posted on menu boards. About 28 percent of those who noticed them said the information had influenced their ordering, and 9 out of 10 of those said they had made healthier choices as a result.

But when the researchers checked receipts afterward, they found that people had, in fact, ordered slightly more calories than the typical customer had before the labeling law went into effect, in July 2008.

All this makes the stand of the upscale (and very good) Houston’s chain against New York City’s menu-labeling requirements all the more excellent.

More from the NYT here. When I interviewed the fantastic Brian Wansink, a professor, author, and former USDA official, for Reason.com earlier this year, he noted that menu-labeling laws and other such meddling have

“…either been ineffective or disturbingly counterproductive,” he says. “All the data we’ve seen about menu labeling doesn’t show a consistent answer at all.

“Trying to change capitalism is a lot of work,” he adds, “and it won’t work.”

Indeed it won’t. Hear that, Ezra? Hear that, Mr. Brownell?

curriculum specializing in the law of food, agriculture and the environment. Each year, the Graduate Program in Agricultural Law prepares a small number of carefully selected attorneys as specialists in the complex legal issues involving food and agriculture. The Program attracts candidates from throughout the United States and the world. Our alumni currently work in 35 different states and 15 foreign countries, serving as leaders in private practice, government, agribusiness, public policy, and academia.

I’ve been lucky enough to earn a full tuition assistantship, along with a modest stipend to work as a research assistant. This means I’m pretty much done accumulating student loans, and I’ll hopefully get to do some interesting food research and writing over the school year.

To the best of my recollection, my ten classmates hail from Arkansas, Virginia, India, Colombia, Nigeria, and Russia. Sounds like a pretty interesting mix.

Afterwards? Who knows. I certainly plan to work in some free market, food-related legal capacity. As my plans firm up, I’ll keep everyone y’all informed. In the meantime, I’m back to regular blogging duties here at Crispy.

But serious Old Dominion boozehounds see a ray of hope in their tequila sunrises: Former state attorney general and current Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell proposed privatizing the whole mess in a press conference yesterday, conducted (seriously!) in a parking garage.

The idea is win-win. End 75 years of incompetent state alcohol sales management and the state gets a bunch of cash for transportation spending when it sells off the rights to run a private liquor store.

In case you’re waffling on whether this is a good idea, go spend 5 minutes on Virginia’s weirdly self-congratulatory booze biz website. Historic photos celebrate milestones. Like 1970, when the first lady clerk, Betty Wilson, was hired. Thank goodness government was running that rum, how would we have achieved gender equality otherwise? (Note: I think the guy in my local liquor store in nearby Alexandria is still wearing her coat.) Lady boozemongers were an innovation that appeared just a couple of years after Virginia started licensing sales of “liquor by the drink” in bars.

In its early history, Virginia ABC agents were also enforcers of anti-bootlegging and moonshining laws, allowing the government run stores to deal very effectively with private competition.

Cross-posted at Reason.com.

Health care and financial markets are not enough. The Obamas are now going to lead us on the path of righteous eating, for  the children of course.

A self-described libertarian anarchist hates Coke. Interesting. The ones I know enjoy capitalism. Is it because he’s English?

Speaking of capitalism and marketing, here’s an example of it modern style courtesy of Chipolte, providing you hefty calories with INTEGRITY.

Whether it’s  from calories with integrity or those without, we’re fat. The world is getting fat.  So let the modern  hand wringing begin: Write a book!

People are too fat, but food still costs too much in the developing world.   It’s not particularly cheap  either  in these cities.

An economist walks into a bar…

Sainbury’s spokeswoman Lucy Maclennan said: “We are delighted to have played a part in winning the wonky veg war against these bonkers EU regulations.”

Tesco spokesman Adam Fisher said: “It’s not before time. We welcome this move.”

And last night it was predicted the change could see some prices fall by 40 PER CENT.

More here. We here at Crispy let you know about plans to lift the ban last June.