Which Way, L.A.?

A New Sin Tax on Junk Food and Obesity

Taxes on alcohol, tobacco and gambling raise government revenue from human weakness. Now, a California legislator wants to treat two unrelated problems with a single solution. State Senator Deborah Ortiz has proposed a tax on soda that would help solve the schools' huge budget shortfall and fight the growing problem of child obesity. The Senator explains her plan to fund nutrition and physical education programs, an advocate that fights discrimination against fat people protests the tax as bad precedent, and a clinical researcher correlates obesity, body weight and dietary patterns. Newsmaker: School Bus Strike Persists for Second Day Today, 800 bus drivers from Teamsters Local 572 struck Laidlaw Transit for a second day, causing huge delays for 18,000 of the 70,000 children in LA schools that ride the buses. Solomon Moore, education reporter for the LA Times, says LAUSD drivers took the wheel as negotiations continued over substantial discrepancies between benefits and pay differential for Laidlaw and district drivers.