Lotions won't carry 'USDA Organic' label
WASHINGTON - If you want a lotion, soap or lip balm free of chemicals and synthetics, you'd better read the fine print. The Agriculture Department is taking its round, green "USDA Organic" label off personal care products and cosmetics.
When it created the seal in 2002, the primary intent was to certify the organic claims made by food producers, such as that meat came from animals raised without antibiotics and not confined indoors, or that vegetables were grown without pesticides.
But the department also opened the door to making a wide range of other products eligible for the label: cosmetics and personal care items, pet food, dietary supplements, textiles like cotton T-shirts and fish.
"The feeling was, if your product was composed of agricultural ingredients, and you thought you could get certified, you were welcome to try," said Barbara Robinson, head of the department's National Organic Program.
Three years later, the department decided it had gone too far. In April, it began telling companies their cosmetics and other personal care products can't be government-certified as organic, after all.
Ex-principal, two students charged in sexual assault case
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two students were charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting a mentally disabled girl in a high school auditorium. The former principal was charged with failing to notify police.
The 16-year-old girl told a teacher at Mifflin High School that she had been dragged into the auditorium March 9 and forced to perform oral sex on at least two boys as other students watched and one boy videotaped, according to investigators.
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