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Excerpts of what our online commentators are saying:

CURB FAT IN AMERICA

Americans are dining away from home more than ever, 4.8 meals per week on average. But when a reservation is what you’re making for dinner, the odds of finding a meal that won’t increase your weight and risk of chronic diseases are pretty slim. Most restaurants create conditions that encourage eating food that contains more calories, salt, sugar and fat than recommended for consumption at a single meal.

An analysis of 30,923 menu items from 245 restaurant chains showed that 96% of meals served do not meet USDA nutritional guidelines. Beyond serving extralarge portions and failing to offer fruits or vegetables other than potatoes with most meals, many restaurants compound the threat by adding limitless quantities of bread or chips and providing free refills of sodas.

That’s why a group of 21 experts in the areas of nutrition, public health, obesity, law and business recently developed restaurant performance standards intended to protect consumers from harmful serving practices.

Deborah Cohen

RAND Corporation, natural scientist

INVEST IN FUGITIVE HUNT

As former associate director of operations of the U. S. Marshals Service, and former New York City police commissioner, I have attended too many funerals of hero police officers murdered by fugitives who should have been in custody.

Fugitive hunters in the U. S. Marshals Service are some of the finest investigators in the world. Along with their state and local counterparts in over 100 fugitive task forces throughout the United States, they arrest about 85,000 criminals each year.

But sadly, after the brave men and women from law enforcement agencies throughout the country have put their lives on the line to apprehend felons, the criminals are set free because the jurisdiction that holds the warrant lacks the funds or the resources to prosecute them. Is a police officer or a citizen's life worth the few thousand dollars that it would cost to transport a fugitive back to where he is wanted? I certainly think so.

Howard Safir

Vigilant Resources International CEO