Overlawyered » trans-fats

February 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:38:55 +0000

Many of the best New Jersey sledding slopes are off limits now: “Litigators ruin pretty much everything” [Bainbridge]
Granola bar trans-fat lawsuit leaves Russell Jackson unimpressed;
“Criminal barbering”: license lapse gets 82-year-old Oregon hair-cutter in legal trouble [Perry]
Tomorrow’s economy won’t thrive if municipal authorities strangle innovative businesses where they incubate [Conor Friedersdorf, City Journal]
Need to bring property taxes under control? Try litigation reform [NJLRA]
Convicted at height of 90s child-abuse prosecution fever, Ohio pair seek to reopen case [Briefcase] More: Balko.
Here’s an idea: “Let the shareholders decide if SOX is worth the costs.” [Ribstein]
Retired Massachusetts attorney found in possession of stolen art trove [five years ago on Overlawyered] Updates courtesy reader Ronald Stimbert: Legal Blog Watch 2008 (attorney convicted); Cape Cod Times 2010 (paintings returned to owner).

Tags: child abuse, New Jersey, Ohio, recreation, Sarbanes-Oxley, small business, taxpayers, trans-fats

Stossel on the food police

Walter Olson — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:16:40 +0000

Last night’s show.

Tags: food safety, John Stossel, nanny state, obesity, salt, trans-fats

California trans fats: Terminator Nanny

Walter Olson — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:31:49 +0000

Governor Schwarzenegger has signed into law the first statewide ban on the use of the maligned ingredient by restaurants and food service facilities. (Samantha Sondag, “Gov. signs nation’s first statewide ban on trans fats in restaurants”, San Francisco Chronicle, Jul. 25).

P.S. Speaking of the nanny state in California, Los Angeles is moving to ban new fast food restaurants from poorer sections of South Central L.A. on the explicitly paternalistic grounds that it knows better than local residents what they should be eating. Prof. Bainbridge has more.

Tags: California, Los Angeles, nanny state, obesity, restaurants, trans-fats

“Welcome to the Nanny State Nation”

Walter Olson — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:04:15 +0000

It’s going on from California to New York City: a Drew Carey feature for Reason.tv.

Tags: baseball bats, California, nanny state, NYC, smoking bans, trans-fats

And more May 17 updates

Ted Frank — Thu, 17 May 2007 10:32:07 +0000

Google beats Perfect 10 in Ninth Circuit appeal over copyright suit over thumbnail images. (Earlier: Feb. 06, Jul. 05, Nov. 04.) [LA Times; WaPo; Bashman; Perfect 10 v. Amazon (9th Cir. 2007)]
Judge thinks better over Brent Coon’s attempt to intimidate local press through subpoenas. Earlier: Apr. 24. [WSJ Law Blog]
US Supreme Court throws out punitive damages ruling in Buell-Wilson case, lets rest of decision stand. Earlier: Jan. 4 and links therein. Beck and Herrmann also discussed the case in March in the context of a larger discussion of the appropriateness of issuing punitive damages against a company that relied on government safety standards in good faith. [LA Times; AP].
Big LA Times piece on the still-pending Extreme Makeover suit, where a family seeks to hold ABC responsible for an intra-household dispute over the spoils of a reality show. Earlier: Mar. 4, Aug. 12, 2005. [LA Times]
KFC may have won on trans-fats litigation, as David reported May 3, but they capitulate to Jerry Brown’s pursuit of Lockyer’s equally bogus acrylamide suit over the naturally-occurring chemical in potatoes (Oct. 05, Aug. 05, Aug. 05, May 05, Apr. 04, etc.). KFC will pay a nuisance settlement of $341,000 and will add a meaningless warning in California stores. (Tim Reiterman, “KFC to tell customers of chemical in potatoes”, LA Times Apr. 25).
McDonald’s sued over hot coffee. Again. One of the allegations is that McDonald’s failed to secure the lid, which is a legitimate negligence suit, but there’s also a bogus “failure to warn me that coffee is hot” count. [Southeast Texas Record; and a Southeast Texas Record op-ed that plainly read Overlawyered on the subject]

Tags: acrylamide, Beaumont, Bill Lockyer, Brent Coon, Buell-Wilson v. Ford, copyright, Extreme Makeover, failure to warn, Ford Motor, French fries, Google, hot coffee, Jerry Brown, McDonald's, punitive damages, roundups, trans-fats

I can’t believe it’s not (legal) butter

Walter Olson — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:15:35 +0000

“In a twist of science, the law and what some call trans-fat hysteria, [New York City] wholesale bakers are being forced to substitute processed fats like palm oil and margarine for good old-fashioned butter because of the small amounts of natural trans fat butter contains.” (Kim Severson, “Trans Fat Fight Claims Butter as a Victim”, New York Times, Mar. 7). More: Feb. 15, 2005; Jun. 14, Jul. 30, Sept. 27, Oct. 16, Dec. 5, Dec. 10, 2006; Mar. 3, 2007.

Tags: Thomas Frieden, trans-fats

“Back to basics, Dr. Frieden”

Walter Olson — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 08:02:18 +0000

While the NYC Health Commissioner was squandering the city’s credibility on trans fats (”totally replaceable“, you betcha) and hatching Big Brother schemes for diabetic-watching, the traditional and basic functions of his office, like keeping rats out of restaurants, were going untended, notes an editorial in the Post. “The Taco Bell in question had received a, you should pardon the expression, clean bill of health from one of Frieden’s restaurant inspectors 24 hours before the rats were taped doing their “Happy Feet” impressions last Thursday morning. …Of course, if the Taco Bell rats had been smoking, Frieden would have been there to nail the door shut himself.” Andrew Stuttaford at NRO thinks it’s long past time for Frieden to go. (cross-posted from Point of Law).

Tags: NYC, trans-fats

Letter to the editor, WSJ

Walter Olson — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 03:37:05 +0000

Today’s WSJ (sub-only) carries a letter from senior fellow Maureen Martin of Chicago’s Heartland Institute mentioning this site, and quoting from Greg Dwyer’s “letter from a new father” of Nov. 14, all in the course of arguing that a backlash may be afoot against the new food nannyism typified by Mayor Bloomberg’s trans fat ban.

Tags: about the site, NYC, trans-fats

The war on trans fats

Walter Olson — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 04:04:03 +0000

Ann Althouse detects aesthetic, rather than paternalistic, origins (Dec. 9). More: Steve Chapman, “New York’s food police ride to the rescue”, syndicated/Chicago Tribune, Dec. 11; and more Althouse.

Tags: trans-fats

WHYY Philadelphia, “Radio Times”

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:03:26 +0000

I was a guest this morning on host Marty Moss-Coane’s radio program, debating Yale professor Kelly Brownell on proposed trans fat bans. For more information on that and other food issues, see this site’s Eat Drink & Be Merry page.

P.S.: Prof. Brownell claimed the proposed New York City regulation banning most uses of trans fats wouldn’t be burdensome to restaurant owners, and quoted the owner of the Carnegie Deli, which has managed to dispense with most (though not all) use of those fats. Through the miracle of Google I was able to track down the New York Times’s coverage as we spoke and so was able to read the audience the entire quote from Carnegie Deli owner Sanford Levine, which included a portion Prof. Brownell was not so eager to quote: “They shouldn’t tell a businessman how to run a business,” Levine said. “They can make suggestions, but I don’t think it should be the law.” Prof. Brownell also claimed that there had been no great outcry in New York over the rules. The Times’s headline told a different story: “Big Brother in the Kitchen? New Yorkers Balk“.

Tags: about the site, Philadelphia, trans-fats

Overlawyered » trans-fats

February 2 roundup

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California trans fats: Terminator Nanny

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