Americans need to try harder to eat fruits, vegetables

The majority of Americans say they've been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables over the past year, according to a poll of 1,057 adults for the International Food Information Council Foundation.

But most people are consuming less than half of what the government recommends. Kids and adults eat an average of a little more than a cup of vegetables a day and a little more than half a cup of fruit, according to the latest data from the NPD Group, a market research firm. Those numbers don't count french fries but do include other types of potatoes, such as baked and mashed.

How to Look Good Using Food Stamps: Beautify Yourself with the Foods You Buy at the Market.

"Children 2 through 12 and their parents are inching up in the amount they consume, but unfortunately, teens and the elderly are bringing the averages down," says Elizabeth Pivonka, president and CEO of the Produce for Better Health Foundation, a non-profit nutrition

The reason for the push for an increased intake of fruits and vegetables is they are loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants and other compounds that help fight disease, she says.

Judge keeps South Carolina immigration law on hold after Arizona ruling

A federal judge who in December blocked parts of a South Carolina law cracking down on illegal immigrants said on Monday the law would remain on hold until an appeals court ruled on the case.

That means South Carolina still cannot enforce a provision requiring police to check the immigration status of people they stop. The U.S. Supreme Court last month upheld that controversial aspect of a similar law in Arizona.

Concern over drive-up alcohol sales spurs efforts at ban

Frozen daiquiris are available to customers who order from the drive-through window at Canjun Liquors.

By Henrietta Wildsmith, Shreveport Times

About an hour after an accident killed one of his passengers and left another paralyzed, Robert Casey Kirk registered a blood alcohol content of .20 — more than twice the legal limit for driving.

Some of that alcohol — investigators found 109 opened and unopened beer cans at the crash scene — was purchased at a Longview, Texas, drive-through convenience store, Gregg County, Texas, district court filings show. 

Texas, like Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee and other states, allows drive-through sales of packaged alcohol, such as beer and wine. There are no precise numbers on how many states allow the practice, as it is usually left to individual municipalities. John Bowersox of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism did point to a 2004 New Mexico study that found 23 states allowed some drive-up or drive-through liquor sales.

Will Medicaid patients lose in WellPoint purchase of Amerigroup?

Private insurers' growing clout could complicate efforts to overhaul Medicaid as the needs of society are weighed against the interests of shareholders.

WellPoint's nearly $5-billion acquisition of Medicaid provider Amerigroup is a bet by one of the country's largest private insurers that there are big bucks to be made from publicly funded coverage.

It's also an indication that private insurers expect cash-strapped states increasingly to give them the job of managing medical plans for low-income people.

That could further complicate efforts to overhaul the costly Medicaid entitlement program as the needs of society are increasingly weighed against the interests of profit-seeking shareholders.

"The status quo for Medicaid isn't good," said Lee Goldberg, vice president of health policy for the National Academy of Social Insurance, a nonprofit organization that focuses on government-provided coverage. "But I don't know if what WellPoint is doing makes things better."