Food fight: Food companies are clashing over how to tell people about what is in their products, The Wall Street Journal reports. Since the Food and Drug Administration said in June it would grant industry requests for more time to add new nutritional information to their product labels—designed to encourage people to eat healthier—some companies have decided to press ahead anyway. Campbell Soup Co. is starting to add the required label information and has been criticizing the industry’s efforts to delay the new rules. On the other side of the debate, Mondelez International Inc., Kellogg Co. and General Mills Inc. said they support the trade group’s efforts to delay the July 2018 deadline to introduce new labels. Read the full story (subscription may be required).
Something in the air: The Trump administration announced late Wednesday that it would not delay an Obama-era regulation on smog-forming pollutants from smokestacks and tailpipes, a move that environmental groups hailed as a victory. The New York Times reports the Environmental Protection Agency decision came a day after 16 state attorneys general, all Democrats, filed a lawsuit challenging the delay with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. It reversed a decision EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt made in June to put off an Oct. 1 deadline for designating which areas of the country met new ozone standards. In announcing the ozone policy change, the agency appeared to leave the door open to extending the deadline again. But, officials said, the agency will work with states to help them deliver the needed information. Read the full story.
Tee time: Before being elected president, Donald Trump once questioned the wisdom of taking vacations. “What’s the point?” he asked. But the president is now getting ready to join the annual August exodus from this town he calls “the swamp.” Trump is due to set out Friday on his first extended vacation from Washington since the inauguration—a 17-day getaway to his private golf club in central New Jersey. The president’s vacation could be driven, in part, by necessity. Everyone who works in the White House West Wing, including the Oval Office occupant himself, will be forced to clear out by week’s end so that the government can replace the balky, 27-year-old heating and cooling system. But the White House hasn’t been entertaining questions about the president’s August plans. The Associated Press has the full story.
