As schools around our nation face mounting financial difficulties due to ever-rising costs, it is important that school boards, parents, and the taxpaying public remember the chief mission of our schools: education.

Due to limited resources, it is often tempting for public officials and school administrators to “cut corners” when it comes to providing quality education to students. Even worse, these slights are often spun as a “net-positive” for education.

This is precisely the case of Channel One News. Since its inception in the early 1990s, students across the country have begun their school days with the 13-minute daily news broadcast. Channel One bills itself as a news service designed to “inform, educate and inspire by making news relevant and engaging for young people.” “In today’s world of hyper-communication,” one might ask, “shouldn’t schools be commended for educating children of important and newsworthy events?” Yes —­ but as any journalist would tell you, Channel One is not about the news.

Included in every 13-minute daily Channel One News broadcast are countless minutes of commercials, “plugs,” product placements, and other commercial content camouflaged under the moniker of “news.” In order to turn a profit, Channel One charges customers — corporations, not students - hefty sums of money to market their products to its captive audience of millions of school children.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20121115/OPINION02/121119657/channel-one-may-not-be-in-best-interests-of-students

Maryland health officials are encouraging mothers to breast-feed their newborn babies.

The state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued recommendations Tuesday intended to get more mothers breast-feeding in the hours after they give birth.

Health officials cite the health benefits associated with breast milk.

The recommendations, which are voluntary, also suggest that hospitals stop giving out free formula from manufacturers, create a written breast-feeding policy, and that breast milk be the only food given to newborns.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-health-officials-issue-set-of-recommendations-for-breastfeeding-newborns/2012/11/14/9b19a182-2e74-11e2-b631-2aad9d9c73ac_story.html

More than 4 million children have prescriptions for medicines like Ritalin and Adderall to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But as the number of medicated kids is hitting a saturation point, are drug companies beginning to market their drugs more heavily to adults?

One pharmaceutical company estimates that there may be nearly 10 million adults who have ADHD. But what do these numbers mean for doctors and potential patients struggling with attention problems?

“As a marketing goal, absolutely realistic,” said Larry Diller, author of ‘Remembering Ritalin: A Physician and Generation Rx Reflect on Life and Psychiatric Drugs,’ on The Daily Circuit Wednesday. “As people who could benefit from taking a stimulant medication, that becomes much more questionable. And then finally, what are the risks to the individual and the society in having 10 million legal prescriptions?”

Read more: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/11/14/daily-circuit-adhd-drugs-adults/

Federal officials have received reports of 13 deaths over the last four years that cited the possible involvement of 5-Hour Energy, a highly caffeinated energy shot, according to Food and Drug Administration records and an interview with an agency official.

The disclosure of the reports is the second time in recent weeks that F.D.A. filings citing energy drinks and deaths have emerged. Last month, the agency acknowledged it had received five fatality filings mentioning another popular energy drink, Monster Energy.

Since 2009, 5-Hour Energy has been mentioned in some 90 filings with the F.D.A., including more than 30 that involved serious or life-threatening injuries like heart attacks, convulsions and, in one case, a spontaneous abortion, a summary of F.D.A. records reviewed by The New York Times showed.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/business/5-hour-energy-is-cited-in-13-death-reports.html?src=twr

A D.C. lawmaker said Tuesday that the city’s children could be at risk because of close ties between psychiatrists and drug companies, and he said he is likely to seek a strengthening of the District law that requires the manufacturers to disclose their contacts with doctors.

“We can’t be casual about the prescribing of these drugs to young people. We have to be very careful,” at-large Councilman David Catania said. “We can do this better.”

A D.C. Department of Health and George Washington University report found that of the 172 physicians in the District who received at least $1,000 in gifts from leading antipsychotic manufacturers last year, 26 were psychiatrists.

Of them, only seven accepted Medicaid, though they received 66 percent of the gifts to psychiatrists. The physicians’ names weren’t disclosed under District law.

Read more: http://washingtonexaminer.com/catania-warns-of-drug-companies-ties-with-d.c.-doctors/article/2513384#.UKOxfPn-xI0

The Board of School Committee has approved a new advertising policy, opening the door to ads in gyms, cafeterias and elsewhere, subject to restrictions and the superintendent’s review.

The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to support the recommendation of the Coordination Committee to enact the policy.

There was little debate about approving the policy, which was discussed extensively in committee. The director of a youth media organization, Rona Zlokower, however, did raise concerns about the susceptibility of children to advertising.

“The commercialization of our school environment must be approached with thoughtfulness and sensitivity to what our children take home at the end of the school day,” Zlokower told the board during the public comment period of the meeting. “Will it be a slogan for sugar-sweetened beverages, or will it be their grasp of the U.S. Constitution, the solar system and algebra?”

Read more: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20121113/NEWS04/121119634

A new corporate identity for its high school stadiums? Ads splashed across its buses? Banks of lockers painted like billboards?

The North Kitsap School District is about to take up the question of whether to allow advertisers in to help stretch budgets.

The public can sit in on a first stakeholders’ meeting 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the North Kitsap School District administrative office, 18360 Caldart Ave. NE.

“It’s something to look at, I think,” said Patrick Olsen, who will facilitate the conversation among a volunteer group of school employees including coaches, residents and local business owners. Olsen is the district’s athletic director, as well as its director of career and technical education. The group’s recommendations will go to the school board and superintendent to decide, maybe by spring.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2012/nov/12/nk-school-district-considers-allowing-in/#ixzz2C7IxteYG

Officials with Dallas Area Rapid Transit could soon give a new proposal the green light. DART is discussing possibly selling off the naming rights for its stations, buses and train lines. The agency does not know how much money it could generate by agreeing to this move, but the idea may start rolling on Tuesday.

DART officials are set to vote on whether to hire a Cleveland-based company to market the idea. The Superlative Group could receive over $99,000 for a five-year consulting and revenue-generating contract, plus 9.5 percent of the generated revenue.

Read more: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/11/13/dart-considers-selling-naming-rights/

A Chicago Park District program funded by Coca-Cola will try to fight obesity and diabetes by offering nutrition education as well as exercise classes run by armed forces veterans, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Monday.

The Park Families Wellness Initiative, backed by a $3 million grant from the Coca-Cola Foundation, is the second partnership the mayor has launched with the soft drink giant in the past several weeks that he says will help make Chicagoans healthier.

In October, Emanuel stood with officials from Coke, Pepsico and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group to say the three companies would add calorie information to pop machines in Chicago government buildings. He also unveiled a competition between Chicago city workers and those in San Antonio to earn rewards from a $5 million national beverage lobbying group.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cocacola-gives-3m-to-city-for-antiobesity-diabetes-efforts-20121112,0,7140844.story

One year after announcing plans to explore advertising with national companies, the Douglas County Board of Education (BOE) unanimously voted to contract with Education Funding Partners (EFP), a company founded to do just that.

The need for alternate funding has been created by a $775 million decrease in the tax digest the last several years and by austerity reductions of more than $67.8 million since 2003, according to a report issued when the concept was first announced. EFP, which was founded in 2010, will act as a liaison between the school system and Fortune 500 companies that may be interested in advertising or sponsorship opportunities at local schools under the contract.

Lynne Cole is a local resident and one of the founding partners of EFP. She was on-hand for the meeting.

Read more: http://www.douglascountysentinel.com/view/full_story/20812268/article-BOE-officially-enters-advertising-agreement?instance=DShome_news_top