On July 1, the 10 percent tanning tax was officially put into action. Snooki of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” has already expressed her dislike of the new regulations, saying “I don’t go tanning anymore because Obama put a 10 percent tax on tanning. He did that because of us. McCain would never put a 10 percent tax on tanning. Because he’s pale and he’d probably want to be tan.” She may not go tanning anymore, but there’s a bit more to the tax than just “no tanning.”
Here’s a cheat sheet to …

In case you haven’t heard already, the new health care act has expanded coverage for young Americans and it’s about time. According to a report from the Commonwealth Fund, 13.7 million young Americans who are uninsured could get medical insurance coverage by 2014 when Obama’s health care bill goes into full effect. To put this into perspective, about one-third of the 46 million uninsured are young adults between the ages of 19 to 29.

Public school lunch is comfort food at its best–sloppy joes, tater tots, pizza and ice cream. Today’s schoolchildren, however, can kiss such tasty, but extremely unhealthy, dishes goodbye.  First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign recently introduced “Chefs Move to Schools” as part of the campaign’s efforts to fight the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic. The program encourages chefs to adopt a local school and work with administrators and teachers to educate students about making healthier eating choices, as well as to develop nutritious cafeteria menus.

This strikingly cheery advertisement (photo to the right) of 10 smiling Asian American women beautifully dressed in traditional gowns becomes instantly sobering when you glance at the bold question printed on the bottom left: “Which one deserves to die?”
According to health officials, as many as one in 10 residents of Asian descent in San Francisco are infected with hepatitis B, a virus that attacks the liver. Leaders in the Asian American community have said that it’s been difficult to communicate the severity of the disease because people don’t want to …

Puberty—the wonderful stage of cracked voices, clothes that are too tight, profound changes in “body composition,” and a healthy dose of out-of-whack hormones. Now add stupidity to the list.
In an interesting new study conducted by the State University of New York’s Downstate Medical Center, mice who were in the middle of puberty took a significantly longer time to complete a complex task compared to other prepubescent and post-pubescent mice. Professor Sheryl Smith concluded that a specific hormone released during times of great stress (read: puberty) affects a region of the brain …