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March 28, 2017 at 11:19 pm
Bottled water is starting to seem more like soda, and sometimes taste like it, too.
As bottled water surges in popularity, Coke, Pepsi and other companies are using celebrity endorsements, stylish packaging and fancy filtration processes like “reverse osmosis” to sell people on expanding variations of what comes out of the tap. They’re also adding flourishes like bubbles, flavors or sweeteners that can blur the lines between what is water and what is soda.
For this year’s Super Bowl, PepsiCo even ran an ad for its new Lifewtr, promoting the drink in a spotlight typically reserved for sodas. Also running their first Super Bowl ads were Fiji and Bai Brands, which sell “enhanced waters” made with fruit juice and stevia sweetener.
Michael Simon, Bai&rsquo...
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March 28, 2017 at 11:18 pm
In the behind-the-scenes drama of who’s up and who’s down in Donald Trump’s White House, chief of staff Reince Priebus is playing a starring role.
Priebus, a genial Midwesterner with deep ties to the Republican establishment that Trump toppled, has faced questions about his future since the day he set foot in the White House. And the focus on him is intensifying following Trump’s failure to get enough GOP lawmakers to support a White House-backed health care bill, an embarrassing blow for the new president.
There’s blame to spare for the health care debacle at both the White House and on Capitol Hill. But Priebus is a particularly rich target, given that his value to Trump is tied to his relationships with GOP lawmakers, many of whom were elected during his ...
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March 28, 2017 at 11:18 pm
Amazon is testing a grocery pickup service in Seattle.
The AmazonFresh Pickup service is currently open only to Amazon employees. Eventually, members of Amazon’s $99-a-year Prime loyalty program will be able to order groceries online and drive to a pickup location, where crews will deliver items to the car.
Amazon says orders will be ready in as little as 15 minutes after being placed. The service is being tested in two locations in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered.
The service is the latest way Amazon is testing new ways to shop. At an Amazon Go convenience store in Seattle, items selected are automatically monitored and added to a virtual cart so shoppers can skip the checkout. That store is also open only to Amazon employees so far.
Amazon already has a grocery delivery ...
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March 28, 2017 at 11:17 pm
Senate Republicans and the White House sounded ready to abandon efforts to repeal and replace the nation’s health care law, at least for now, even as House Republicans insisted on Tuesday they were not ready to give up on their years-long quest.
The intraparty dispute came in the wake of last Friday’s collapse of health care legislation in the House, a GOP humiliation at the climactic moment of seven years of promises to get rid of former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made his views clear after a closed-door lunch with fellow Senate Republicans and Vice President Mike Pence.
“It’s pretty obvious we were not able, in the House, to pass a replacement. Our Democratic friends ought to be pretty happ...
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March 28, 2017 at 11:14 pm
U.S. regulators have approved the first powerful, injected medicine to treat serious cases of the skin condition eczema.
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Dupixent for moderate or severe eczema, which causes red, fiercely itchy rashes on the face, arms and legs.
In three studies of the drug including a total of 2,119 participants, one-third to two-thirds achieved clear or nearly clear skin. About 4 in 10 had itching decrease sharply, bringing better sleep and reducing anxiety and depression.
Dupixent will have an initial list price of $37,000 per year, according to Paris, France-based Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of Tarrytown, New York, which developed the drug.
Eczema treatments have generally been limited to topical medications, steroid creams, moisturiz...
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March 28, 2017 at 11:13 pm
A government watchdog will examine the taxpayer-funded travel costs when President Donald Trump travels to the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and the security procedures surrounding those trips, several congressional Democrats announced Tuesday.
The lawmakers requested the inquiry by the Government Accountability Office after reports that Trump, accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, openly discussed North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile while at the resort. They also raised concerns about the cost to taxpayers.
In a March 24 letter to the lawmakers, GAO said it will examine how the president’s communications and classified information are secured when he’s traveling, including whether a secure space exists at Mar-a-Lago.
During the 2016 presidential ca...
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March 28, 2017 at 7:00 pm
Dozens of volunteers and laborers launched the restoration of toppled and damaged headstones at a Philadelphia Jewish cemetery.
Experts in grave restoration are overseeing the work at the Mount Carmel Cemetery, which began Tuesday, the local Fox affiliate reported. Two Philadelphia labor unions offered to provide free repairs and added security.
The work will include setting and gluing the stones, fixing the cemetery fence and increasing the lighting for security purposes.
The damage to about 175 gravestones was discovered in late February, days after a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis was vandalized. No suspects have been identified.
Meanwhile, most of the 154 toppled gravestones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in St. Louis have been righted and resealed to their bases, ...
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March 28, 2017 at 6:41 pm
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March 28, 2017 at 6:19 pm
Illegal Arab road being built in Binyamin poses safety hazard for drivers on adjacent main road, but work continues nevertheless.
An illegal road has been paved in recent weeks by Arabs in West Binyamin, near the Rantis Junction and the town of Beit Aryeh.
These works are carried out within Area C, which is under full Israeli civil and security control, by Arabs from the village of Luban, and includes land preparation for construction and preparations for paving a road to a nearby village.
Two weeks ago, members of the "Regavim" lands preservation movement sent an urgent appeal to the Civil Administration that the work being carried out without a permit is also a very serious safety hazard, since it is located adjacent to the Trans-Binyamin Highway, the main road in the area.
...
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March 28, 2017 at 6:18 pm
British Prime Minister signs letter that will formally begin the UK's departure from the European Union.
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday night signed the letter that will formally begin the UK's departure from the European Union, the BBC reports.
Giving official notice under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the letter will be delivered to European Council president Donald Tusk on Wednesday.
In a statement in the Commons, May will then tell MPs this marks "the moment for the country to come together".
The move follows June's referendum which resulted in a vote to leave the EU.
May's letter will be delivered to Tusk at 12:30 p.m. Britain time on Wednesday by the British ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, according to the ...
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March 28, 2017 at 6:14 pm
Shas chairman calls on opposition leader to join the government. Herzog responds and calls on Deri to join alternative coalition.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) on Tuesday evening called on opposition leader and Zionist Union chairman Yitzhak Herzog to join the government.
"In light of the challenges facing the State, Herzog and his party must join the government," Deri wrote on Twitter.
The tweet came hours after Herzog and Deri met and spoke during the Bar Mitzvah celebration of the son of the Director General of the Negev and Galilee Ministry, Ariel Mishal.
Herzog later responded to Deri’s tweet and suggested that, instead of him joining the coalition, Deri and Shas should join an alternative government that he will form.
"Come and join the alternative government, th...
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March 28, 2017 at 5:52 pm
The Israeli widower who became a key symbol of the surge of Palestinian terrorism that began at the end of 2015 announced on social media that he is remarrying, the Hebrew news site Walla reported on Tuesday.
Natan Meir, husband of Dafna – a 38-year-old nurse and mother-of-six (two of whom are foster children) who was stabbed to death at the entrance to the family home in the West Bank settlement of Otniel just over a year ago – announced his engagement on Facebook on Monday, the report said.
His announcement – which came a mere month after his daughter, Renana, 18, who witnessed and tried to prevent a teenage terrorist from murdering her mother, got engaged — was accompanied by a photo with his betrothed, Zohar Morgenstern, an e...
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March 28, 2017 at 5:50 pm
House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes rebuffed calls to step aside from the Russia investigation Tuesday as demands grew for him to recuse himself as head of that probe.
“Why would I?” Nunes said. The calls for him to resign came after revelations about his meeting with a secret source on White House grounds raised questions about his and the panel’s independence.
Nunes, R-Calif., said the pressure for him to resign was typical politics.
“It’s the same thing as always around this place — a lot of politics, people get heated, but I’m not going to involve myself with that,” he said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan continued to express confidence in Nunes Tuesday, saying there is no need for the chairman to resign.
Nunes acknowledged Monday that ...
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March 28, 2017 at 5:49 pm
New York - Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly apologized Tuesday for saying he had a hard time concentrating on California Rep. Maxine Waters during a speech because he was distracted by her “James Brown wig.”
O’Reilly said that his jest about her hair was dumb. “I apologize,” he said in a statement.
He had made his statement during an appearance earlier on “Fox & Friends,” after a clip was shown of the Democratic representative speaking in the House of Representatives. O’Reilly, as he watched, appeared to mouth the words “right on” and give a clenched-fist salute.
After the clip, he said, “I didn’t hear a word she said. I was looking at the James Brown wig.” Fox’s Ainsley Earhardt defended Wat...
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March 28, 2017 at 5:45 pm
A crash that caused an Uber self-driving SUV to flip onto its side in a Phoenix suburb serves as a stark reminder of the challenges surrounding autonomous vehicles in Arizona, a state that has gone all-in to entice the company by promising minimal government regulation.
Friday night’s crash was blamed on the driver of an oncoming SUV that turned left in front of the Uber vehicle carrying two test drivers and no passengers. There were no serious injuries and the driver of the other car was cited for a moving violation. But images of Uber’s Volvo SUV rolled onto its side reverberated heavily on social media.
Uber responded by briefly suspending its self-driving cars in its three testing locations — Arizona, San Francisco and Pittsburgh — as it investigated the accid...
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March 28, 2017 at 5:44 pm
Waze’s traffic navigation app already shows ads prodding drivers to swing by fast-food joints like Dunkin’ Donuts. Now it’s adding a new item to its menu — the ability to place orders at some shops.
On Tuesday, the Google-owned app will start letting drivers purchase coffee and other items from Dunkin’ Donuts for pickup along their way. It’s the first time that Waze has offered this kind of “order ahead” option, but unlikely to be the last.
If all goes well with the Dunkin’ Donuts test, Waze plans to team up with other merchants so its millions of users can order pizza, reserve parking spaces, fill prescriptions and even buy groceries without having to open another app on their phones.
“It could be almost anything that a driver...
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March 28, 2017 at 5:44 pm
Ignoring fresh threats from the White House, city leaders across the U.S. are vowing to intensify their fight against President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on so-called “sanctuary cities” despite the financial risks.
“We are going to become this administration’s worst nightmare,” New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said Monday during a gathering of municipal officials from urban centers such as San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago and Philadelphia.
As is the case in several sanctuary cities, they promised to continue blocking cooperation between city police departments and federal immigration authorities. They also vowed to prevent federal agents from accessing their schools and school records, and they openly contemplated empl...
