Return to Happiness? SF Mayor to Veto Ban on Happy Meals

It won't be long until there are marches in the streets protesting this brave move by Gavin Newsom, who's finally done something sane. Of course it's meaningless since the Board of Supervisors are calling the shots.

Mayor Gavin Newsom will veto the city's ban on most McDonald's Happy Meals with toys on Friday.

The mayor has scheduled an event at Fairmount Elementary School at 2:45 p.m. ET, where he will also release a report outlining the city's efforts to combat childhood obesity, his office said.

The San Francisco, California, Board of Supervisors approved the ban on Tuesday.

The ordinance requires McDonald's and other fast-food servings with toys to meet new nutritional standards.

Newsom had indicated he would veto the law. That veto would be meaningless because the board approved the ordinance 8-3, a veto-proof margin. With eight votes, the board could override the veto.

The new law, which San Francisco officials hope other cities will adopt in battling a child obesity epidemic, was a defeat for McDonald's, which led the fight against the measure.

I wouldn't quite call it a "defeat" for McDonalds. More like a defeat for sanity.

The new law addresses how toys and other marketing freebies entice kids to buy fast-food meals that are high in fat and calories, said Supervisor Eric Mar. He initiated the proposal because his fifth-grade daughter is in the 6-to-11 age group that has seen obesity rates quadruple over the past 30 years, the same time that the Happy Meal has been on the market.

"This is a simple and modest policy that holds fast food accountable," Mar said.

This is what's it's come to. These clowns re-elect Nancy Pelosi by overwhelming margins yet they hold food accountable.