Santa Clara County in California has just ushered in a sad day for Happy Meals -- by banning them, along with other such promotions for unhealthy kids' meals. But this sad day for McDonald's may lead to many happier ones for all those kids who might now have a better shot at growing up with healthier eating habits. That is, if you believe the ordinance will work -- and don't think the measure is altogether out of line.

Porn producer John Stagliano faces up to 32 years in federal prison for distributing the adult films Milk Nymphos and Storm Squirters 2: Target Practice and a promo reel for similar material via his website for Evil Angel Productions (adults only: http://evilangel.com). (Full disclosure: Stagliano is a donor to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website.)

Federal employees unleashed on American public starting today.

Baltimore City police arrested a Virginia couple over the weekend after they asked an officer for directions.

AKRON, Ohio - A Summit County Sheriff's Deputy has been suspended after video showed him assaulting an inmate. Surveillance cameras were rolling in the booking area of the Summit County Jail on February 21, as 42-year-old Douglas Brown waited to be booked on a charge of disorderly conduct. Deputy Jeffrey Dempsey then instructed Brown to put down a fingerprint reader he was holding. When Brown refused, and gave him the finger, the deputy slapped him in the head and threw him to the ground.

This article about El Salvador has this wonderful paragraph:

Of all the sneaky tactics practiced in Washington D.C., this recent action by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) is one of the most insidious: While no one was looking, he injected amendment language into the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173) that would expand the powers of the FTC (not the FDA, but the FTC) to terrorize nutritional supplement companies by greatly expanding the power of the FTC to make its own laws that target dietary supplement companies.

For decades, public sector unions have peddled the fantasy that government employees were paid less than their counterparts in the private sector. In fact, the pay disparity is the other way around. Government workers, especially at the federal level, make salaries that are scandalously higher than those paid to private sector workers. And let's not forget private sector workers not only have to be sufficiently productive to earn their paychecks, they also must pay the taxes that support the more generous jobs in the public sector.

A former police officer was convicted on Thursday of lying about a confrontation with a bicyclist who was participating in a Critical Mass bike rally in Times Square in 2008 — a collision that was videotaped and became a viral presence on the Internet.

Hundreds of Somali soldiers trained with US funding have deserted, with some crossing over to the al-Qaida-linked militants they are supposed to be fighting, it emerged today.

The troops, backed with millions of US dollars, are leaving the ranks because they are not receiving their $100 (£65) monthly wage. The desertions raise fears that an American-backed drive next month to strengthen Somalia's army may increase the ranks of the insurgency.