The eternal optimist: Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, who ended his little-noticed Republican bid for presidency last month to seek the nomination of both the Reform Party and Americans Elect, tells National Public Radio he could still be a problem in November for President Barack Obama and the eventual GOP nominee. “I’ll tell you what my opponents don’t want to have happen,” Roemer says. “They don’t want this cotton-farming Harvard graduate to stand on the stage with them and ask them where they got their money and who do they owe their office to.” Americans Elect is a new online platform aiming to put a candidate on the ballot in all 50 states. Roemer is currently the second-most popular candidate among those vying for the Americans Elect nomination, though he currently has less than half the support of Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
What’s on tap: In concert with a series of articles on the safety of our nation’s water supply, The New York Times has created a national database of water pollution violations that it says is more comprehensive than those maintained by states or the Environmental Protection Agency. The newspaper compiled its database from hundreds of thousands of water pollution records it obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests in every state and the EPA. The database is interactive and searchable via ZIP code. Check it out here.
Maintaining an empire: When Burger King set about to fix its ailing empire, the fast-food giant started by scrutinizing everything on the menu—even the mayonnaise. A group of Burger King executives and franchisees last year sat through a lengthy presentation complete with charts and graphs on how oils and eggs affect the quality of the spread. A blind taste test of 30 varieties followed. The verdict: They liked the one Burger King was already using. “That was actually a pretty hard day,” recalls John Koch, Burger King’s executive chef. It wasn’t the only one. Over the past year, Burger King evaluated all of its ingredients as part of a yearlong quest to reverse years of slumping sales of its Whoppers and fries. The result: Today the company is launching a lineup of smoothies, frappe coffees, chicken strips and snack wraps. The 10 new items mark Burger King’s biggest menu expansion since the chain opened its doors in 1954. Read the full story from The Associated Press here.
