In This America...

Elementary school pupils in Georgia are to be weighed twice a year under a new state law that requires schools to track kid's body mass indexes and post the aggregated information on a website.

Critics are says that the testing is a violation of the children's privacy and may be traumatic. "Sally, step into the office, step onto the scale, that's about as invasive as it gets," remarked State Senator Joseph Carter in a Feb. 29 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Does the long arm of the government belong in our lives like this? Senator Preston Smith, a Republican from Rome, says no.

What say you?

 

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In This America...

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has asked that a man awaiting trial for cannibalism be forced to become a vegetarian. 

Christopher McCuin was arrested and charged earlier this month with killing, cooking, and partially eating his girlfriend. In a letter from PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich (pictured on right) to prison officials, Bruce asks that Christopher be put on a strict vegan diet to prevent him from contributing to any more suffering and death.

The request will not be honored, prison officials said. McCuin will be fed like any other prisoner.

 

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In This America...

An inmate that injured himself breaking out of a Colorado jail is suing on grounds that the facility didn't do enough to prevent him from trying to escape.

Scott Gomez Jr. claims that he was badly injured when he fell 40 feet while attempting to scale down the outside wall of the Pueblo County jail.

"Prison authorities did next to nothing to ensure that the jail was secure and that he would not escape." said Gomez' lawyer.