Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

USAHitman | Conspiracy News

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• Companies getting fat off profits from unhealthy school lunch ads
• 1 in 5 US children live below poverty line, more than during Great Recession
• Florida gun store owner announces ‘Muslim-free zone,’ DOJ called to investigate
• 7.5 million Americans paid Obamacare penalty – IRS

Companies getting fat off profits from unhealthy school lunch ads Posted: 21 Jul 2015 05:16 PM PDT School lunches across the US have become a big business, and companies are profiting off serving American kids unhealthy meals. Now they’re spending big bucks to lobby Congress to keep obesity-causing ingredients on cafeteria menus. Lawmakers are set to update funding for National School Lunch and National School Breakfast Programs via the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 2010, which will expire on September 30. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers these programs, which contain fruit and vegetable requirements and set limits on saturated fat. The school meal programs allowed the USDA to buy $500 million worth of food from 62 meat and dairy producers. Over half of that money ‒ a combined $331 million ‒ went to just six companies, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The schools then purchase the meat and dairy items from the federal government at much cheaper rates than if they were to buy them directly from the businesses, Mother Jones reported. Thanks to the nutritional regulations laid out in 2010 update to the Child Nutrition Act and a push by First Lady Michelle Obama to make school lunches healthier, many companies have retooled their ingredients to meet the minimum federal requirements. But that’s not preventing companies from spending big bucks to advertise unhealthy foods to those school and school district employees in charge of purchasing ingredients. The Physicians Committee analyzed the ads found in each of the School Nutrition Association’s magazine issues from 2014, to see how many faux-healthy foods companies were marketing. The organization is comprised of 55,000 school food service members. The analysis found that ads for healthy foods like pasta, beans blueberries and pasta were far outnumbered by those for junk food. “Of 106 ads for unhealthful meat and dairy products, 23 were full-page ads for Domino’s or Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza,” the Physicians Committee wrote. “Pizza is the number-two source of calories for children and adolescents ages 2-18, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It is also the second-leading source of saturated fat and the third-leading source of sodium.” Other ads for unhealthy foods targeting school-food purchasers included chicken nuggets and other processed meats, macaroni and cheese and cheese-filled breadsticks. The promotional material was paid for by 20 different companies, including the American Egg Board, ConAgra Foodservice, General Mills Food Service, Jennie-O Turkey Store LLC, Land O’Lakes Foodservice, Sara Lee Foodservice and Tyson Foods. Sponsored Links Source The post Companies getting fat off profits from unhealthy school lunch ads appeared first on USAHM Conspiracy News.

1 in 5 US children live below poverty line, more than during Great Recession Posted: 21 Jul 2015 05:12 PM PDT Around 22 percent of American children lived below the federal poverty line in 2013, up from 18 percent in 2008, according to a new report. Black, Hispanic, and American Indian children were twice as likely to live in poverty as whites. The 2015 Kids Count Data Book ‒ released Tuesday by the non-profit group Annie E. Casey Foundation ‒ was compiled using federal government data collected from 2008 to 2013 to determine state-based trends pertaining to 16 factors related to quality of life for young children. Those factors include health, family life, community, and education. The 16.1 million children living in poverty in 2013 counts for nearly 3 million more than those living in poverty in 2008, the beginning of the Great Recession. More than two million more children live in areas of concentrated poverty compared to 2006 to 2010, the report found. The federal poverty line in 2013 was considered to be $23,624 income for a family with two adults and two children. “Although we are several years past the end of the recession, millions of families still have not benefited from the economic recovery,” said Patrick McCarthy, president and CEO of the Casey Foundation. “While we’ve seen an increase in employment in recent years, many of these jobs are low-wage and cannot support even basic family expenses. Far too many families are still struggling to provide for the day-to-day needs of their children, notably for the 16 million kids who are living in poverty.” One in four US children, or about 18.7 million kids, lived in low-income households in 2013, the report found. Those households were defined as those that use more than 30 percent of pre-tax income for housing. Though the unemployment rate has gone down from 7.5 percent in June 2013 to 5.3 percent now, Laura Speer, associate director for policy reform and advocacy at the Casey Foundation, said it’s unlikely that fewer children live in low-income households. “It’s a much bigger issue that’s happening relating to residential segregation, the cost of housing and other factors,” Speer told USA Today. The report found that black, Hispanic, and American-Indian children were more than twice as likely to live in poverty than white children. With only a “few exceptions” the report stated that “on nearly all of the measures” it analyzed “African-American, American Indian and Latino children continued to experience negative outcomes at rates that were higher than the national average.” Almost 40 percent of African-American children live in poverty, the report found, echoing findings released by the Pew Research Center this month. Only 14 percent of white children lived in poverty. Unemployment for African-Americans sits at 11 percent, 2.4 percentage points higher than just before the recession in 2008. “The national averages belie the stark reality that millions of children, particularly African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians live on the precipice of poverty. Today, as the economy recovers, we see a widening gap between the living standards of many children of color and other kids,” Speer said. Read More Here The post 1 in 5 US children live below poverty line, more than during Great Recession appeared first on USAHM Conspiracy News.

Florida gun store owner announces ‘Muslim-free zone,’ DOJ called to investigate Posted: 20 Jul 2015 05:23 PM PDT With a Confederate flag behind him, Florida gun store owner Andy Hallinan released a video calling for “his fellow patriots” to reject accusations of intolerance and racism, all while announcing a ban on Muslims at his store. Hallinan, owner of Florida Gun Supply in central Florida, said he made his decision following the fatal shooting of five people at a Naval Reserve center in Tennessee last week. Hallinan began the video saying, “The leaders of this country want you to believe that this flag represents white supremacy, hatred, and intolerance. But that’s not true,” adding that it represented “nothing but the rich heritage of the South, and a willingness for patriots to stand up against tyranny of all sorts.” He insisted he celebrates the flag “not because I’m a racist. Because I’m not.” He added that “racism was on the decline in America until Obama took office” and that national “leaders are trying to tell you that anytime a black man is shot by a white cop, it’s because of race.” He shifted to his collective view of all Muslims following the attack by Muslim gunman Mohammed Abdulazeez that killed four US marines and one sailor in Chattanooga, Tennessee last week. He said the Tennessee attack is not an isolated incident but rather related to other “terrorist attacks.” He said his store would offer free concealed-carry classes and shooting range visits, imploring viewers to “take this opportunity to get armed, get trained, and carry daily.” To meet a “moral and legal responsibility to ensure the safety of all patriots in my community,” he declared his store a “Muslim-free zone.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement in response to the video, calling on the US Department of Justice to investigate any possible federal civil rights violations by businesses in Florida and New Hampshire seeking to ban Muslims. “These bigoted declarations are no different than ‘whites only’ signs posted in businesses during a period of our nation’s history that we had hoped was over,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “The Department of Justice must investigate these hate-filled and un-American business practices to determine whether federal civil rights laws are being violated.” A supposedly “Muslim-free” shooting range in Hot Springs, Arkansas made news last year for openly profiling customers after turning away a pair of Hindu men who came to use the firing range. Source The post Florida gun store owner announces ‘Muslim-free zone,’ DOJ called to investigate appeared first on USAHM Conspiracy News.

7.5 million Americans paid Obamacare penalty – IRS Posted: 20 Jul 2015 05:11 PM PDT 2014 was the first year Americans have had to deal with tax credits and penalties pertaining to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Approximately 7.5 million taxpayers reported paying a total of $1.5 billion in penalties. More Americans paid the penalty for not having healthcare coverage in 2014 than the tax authorities originally estimated, the IRS commissioner confirmed in a letter to members of Congress. The vast majority of US taxpayers had qualifying health coverage. Following “numerous requests” from members of Congress, Internal Revenue Service commissioner John Koskinen sent out a four-page letter with the data the agency has collected so far, after processing about 135 million out of the estimated 150 million tax returns for 2014. Out of those returns, Koskinen wrote, approximately 7.5 million taxpayers reported a total of $1.5 billion in “individual shared responsibility payments,” as the penalty for not having qualifying health insurance is called under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Government estimates from earlier this year predicted that number of returns affected by the penalty would range from $3-6 million, according to NPR. Under the ACA, also known as Obamacare, the 2014 individual tax penalty for not having health insurance is 1 percent of one’s annual income or $95, whichever is greater. According to the IRS commissioner, the penalties were “relatively small,” with the average payment around $200. He said 85 percent of the taxpayers who reported a penalty still got a tax refund. Approximately 300,000 taxpayers who reported a penalty payment were in the low-income group that should have claimed an exemption, Koskinen wrote, noting that the IRS would reach out to them and urge them to file an amended tax return. About 76 percent of taxpayers – approximately 102 million tax returns – checked the box indicating they had qualifying coverage all year. Another 12 million taxpayers claimed an exemption, including people whose incomes were too low and Native Americans. There were 5.1 million returns in 2014 that did not claim qualifying coverage, an exemption, or a penalty. “We are analyzing these cases to determine their status,” Commissioner Koskinen wrote. Reporting on the federal subsidies for qualified taxpayers, the IRS chief said about 2.7 million taxpayers claimed approximately $9 billion, with an average subsidy amounting to $3,400. Out of that number, only 20 percent reported subsidies of $5,000 or more, while the rest were split evenly between those receiving less than $2,000 and those receiving between $2,000 and $5,000 in federal tax credits. Source The post 7.5 million Americans paid Obamacare penalty – IRS appeared first on USAHM Conspiracy News.