Pennsylvania joins calls to ban food dyes in schools
Pennsylvania schools could soon be banned from offering students food with common food dyes.
The big picture: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration have launched bids to eliminate synthetic dyes from the food supply and revamp what Americans eat.
State of play: The artificial dye ban proposed in the state House would prevent public schools from serving food with the following substances:
Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6.
Zoom out: Such bans have been a growing trend at the state level.
After California passed a first-in-the-nation food dye law two years ago, at least two dozen states have taken up similar legislation.
That includes West Virginia, which recently passed a law to ban nine synthetic dyes and additives from food sold in the state.
Plus: The FDA recently approved three natural color additives in its effort to eliminate synthetic dyes in foods.
Between the lines: Republican state Rep. Natalie Mihalek, who serves part of Allegheny and Washington counties, filed her food-dye ban bill as part of a legislative package of proposals that address the state's food supply.
Those proposals include the disclosure of certain chemicals on food labels.
Another proposal in the Pennsylvania Senate seeks to allow schools to offer whole and 2% milk that's produced in Pennsylvania.
What they're saying: Mihalek tells Axios she became interested in banning food dyes over concerns about what her three school-aged children were eating.
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San Francisco Chronicle
34 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
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A federal judge has approved terms of a sprawling $2.8 billion antitrust settlement that will upend the way college sports have been run for more than a century. In short, schools can now directly pay players through licensing deals — a concept that goes against the foundation of amateurism that college sports was built upon. Some questions and answers about this monumental change for college athletics: Q: What is the House settlement and why does it matter? A: Grant House is a former Arizona State swimmer who sued the defendants (the NCAA and the five biggest athletic conferences in the nation). His lawsuit and two others were combined and over several years the dispute wound up with the settlement that ends a decades-old prohibition on schools cutting checks directly to athletes. Now, each school will be able to make payments to athletes for use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). For reference, there are nearly 200,000 athletes and 350 schools in Division I alone and 500,000 and 1,100 schools across the entire NCAA. Q: How much will the schools pay the athletes and where will the money come from? A: In Year 1, each school can share up to about $20.5 million with their athletes, a number that represents 22% of their revenue from things like media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne famously told Congress 'those are resources and revenues that don't exist.' Some of the money will come via ever-growing TV rights packages, especially for the College Football Playoff. But some schools are increasing costs to fans through 'talent fees,' concession price hikes and 'athletic fees' added to tuition costs. Q: What about scholarships? Wasn't that like paying the athletes? 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- New York Post
Vance says Musk's public feud with Trump is a ‘huge mistake,' hopes billionaire ‘comes back into fold'
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