Group wants soda
kept from children
WASHINGTON (AP) - They say
the danger is real, even if it fizzes
when you pour it over ice.
Soda pop has long been the den
tist’s scourge, but now a consumer
group wants it banned from schools,
taxes placed on its sale and an end put
i to ads for it that target children.
Industry groups say it’s just the
“food police” up to their old tricks.
The Center for Science in the
Public Interest on Wednesday sought
1 to pop the lid off the sugary drinks it
says make up a dangerous portion of
the American diet.
“The average American is drink
ing twice as much soda pop as in
I 1974,” said the center’s executive
j director, Michael Jacobson. And one
I fourth of the teen-agers who drink
soda get 25 percent or more of their
calories from it, he said.
‘Those calories, of course, come
from sugar, and teens consume two to
i three times as much sugar as govem
| ment guidelines recommend,”
Jacobson said.
Standing next to a wall of gleam
ing red, blue, green and silver alu
| minum cans, Jacobson urged states to
tax soda sales to pay for health educa
tion campaigns. He called on soft
drink makers to end their marketing
i to young people and denounced deals
that soda companies with schools,
such as the University of Nebraska
Lincoln, to place vending machines
on campuses.
Soda industry executives were
quick to accuse the group of promot
ing “unfounded consumer alarm.”
“Soft drinks have never pretended
to be anything more than a nice
refreshment product. They make no
u
Soft drinks have
never pretended to
be anything more
than a nice
refreshment product.
They make no
nutrition claim.”
Jim Finkelstein
National Soft Drink Association.
nutrition claim,” said Jim Finkelstein
of the National Soft Drink
Association. “Consumers are smart
enough to make their own choices.”
Another industry group, the
Grocery Manufacturers of America,
dismissed the anti-soda campaign as
“another tiresome tirade” by the cen
ter, which has previously decried the
dangers it sees in Big Macs, eggs,
saccharin and the fat substitute
olestra, as well as Chinese food and
theater popcorn.
Jacobson said he’s not “telling
people that they will die if they ever
drink a can of soda pop.”
But he linked soda consumption
to obesity, kidney stones, heart dis
ease and calcium deficiency in teen
agers, although he offered little sci
entific evidence. The statistics on
how much soda people drink came
from surveys by the Agriculture
Department, he said.
Puerto Rico’s politics
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -
When Hurricane Georges demol
i ished thousands of Puerto Rican
homes, it also handed supporters of
statehood a valuable gift: a chance to
prove that it pays handsomely to be
part of the United States.
The federal government’s mighty
relief effort — at $1.5 billion and
counting - has been caught up in a
political storm, with critics accusing
Gov. Pedro Rossello of exploiting it
to boost the statehood side in an
upcoming vote on the island’s status.
Statehood supporters, mean
while, dismissed opposition calls that
the Dec. 13 vote be put off until the
island recovers.
Asked about the charges and
countercharges during visit last
week, James Lee Witt, the head of the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency, said relief efforts always are
i. susceptible to use by politicians in
their propaganda, but cannot be a fac
tor in his agency’s actions. f\
The Sept 21 hurricane - consid
ered the worst to hit Puerto Rico in 70
years - came as the island is prepar
ing for a referendum on whether to
continue its current status or opt for
statehood or independence.
The United States, which has
controlled Puerto Rico since driving
out the Spanish a century ago, is not
bound by the vote, but President
Clinton has said Congress should
honor the result. The current lawmak
ing body, however, appears unlikely
to approve of expanding the union.
Tlie last referendum, in 1993, was
narrowly won by supporters of the
current “commonwealth” status,
whereby Puerto Ricans are U.S. citi
zens with limited rights and duties.
Only a tiny minority supports inde
pendence.
. Statehood supporters deride
being a commonwealth as a colonial
status, noting that islanders cannot
vote for president or for Congress,
which has ultimate control here.
Commonwealth supporters fear
statehood would dilute their Hispanic
culture and make English the domi
nant language.
Toy-maker recalls cars
prone to catching fire
WASHINGTON (AP) - In one of
the biggest toy recalls ever, Fisher
Price is telling Power Wheels owners
their battery-operated hot rods could
burst into flames if not repaired. ■ -
Fisher-Price, the toys’ maker, has
agreed to make free repairs on up to
10 million Power Wheels cars and
trucks sold in the last 14 years.
The Consumer Product Safety
Commission said the flawed electri-'
cal systems have sparked 150 fires
that burned nine children and caused
• $300,000 in property damage to 22
homes and garages.
The safety agency also has anoth
er 700 reports of electrical compo
nents failing or overheating, causing
smoke or melted parts, and com
plaints about the toys failing to stop
when the foot pedal is released.
Parents were told to remove the 6
volt batteries and take the toy to a
Fisher-Price repair shop for a free
overhaul. Sold since 1984, the toys
are designed for children ages 2 to 7
and carry such names as Barbie Jeep,
Big Jake and Extreme Machine.
IRS may create tax on tips
Restaurant owners protest law they say infringes on code of honor
WASHINGTON (AP) - Uncle
. Sam doesn’t serve the food or the
wine, but the government is insist
ing on its share of the tip.
The Internal Revenue Service
has won another round in its long
court battle to force restaurants to
cough up payroll taxes on tips, even
if they’re not reported to employers
as required by waiters, waitresses,
busboys and bartenders.
Although the IRS insists its new
focus is a voluntary program based
on educating restaurant employees,
the recent U.S. Court of Appeals
decision marks the second time a
federal appellate court has certified
the government’s authority over
tips.
The National Restaurant
Association promised Thursday to
continue the fight, both in court and
in Congress, to shift the IRS tax
burden to the employees.
“They shouldn’t be able to go
after the employers for something
that is clearly the employees’
responsibility,” said Kathleen
O’Leary, lobbyist for the 175,000
restaurant organization.
At stake are billions of dollars
in cash tips plunked down on tables
at eateries and taverns that do $250
billion in business each year. No
one is sure how much people dole
They shouldn’t be able to go after the
employers for something that is clearly
the employees ’ responsibilityf
Kathleen O’Leary
National Restaurant Association lobbyist
out in cash tips, because unlike in
credit card transactions, few
records are kept.
In 1996, the most recent year
complete records are available,
$6.2 billion in tips were reported to
the IRS from food and beverage
establishments - an amount the
agency believes is less than one
third the real amount.
Employees are supposed to
report all tip income to their
employers each month so that both
can contribute their proper shares
of payroll taxes into the Social
Security fund.
“The tipped employees are, in
effect, bound by an honor system,”
observed a three-judge panel of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit in its decision last
week.
When the employees fail to
keep their end of the bargain, how
ever, the judges said the law still
makes employers liable for payroll
taxes. The panel upheld the IRS’ *
power to use a formula to estimate
what the business should owe,
without trying to track down the
employees first.
“Congress specifically contem
plated the assessment of an
employer-only (payroll) tax when
employees do not accurately report
their tips,” the judges wrote.
But representatives from the
National Restaurant Association
said the IRS is overstepping its
boundaries.
“We believe Congress never
meant to give the IRS a way to force
restaurant owners to become, the tip
police,” said Herman Qain, chief of
the National Restaurant Assoc
iation. ^ "
A Free National Satellite Teleconference
Hosted By The University of Nebraska-Uncoln
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Date: October 28,1988
Loeatlon: City Campus Union or East Campus Union
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