Obama Drinks Bud; Astoria Noisiest Hood in Queens

Obama decided to deal with the Henry Louis Gates situation by inviting the Harvard professor and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley over to the White House for a beer. The president said he would have a Budweiser, while Crowley prefers Blue Moon, and Gates drinks Red Stripe or Becks.
[Slate]

A British study has found that organic foods are not more nutritious than their conventionally produced counterparts, although the results did not address the contaminants or chemical residue associated with conventional farming.
[Wall Street Journal]

A group of patients who have undergone lap-band surgery gathered at the Old Homestead Steakhouse last week for a sirloin dinner. Surgeon George Fielding hosts quarterly dinners at nice restaurants around the city to help post-op patients cope with eating out.
[NY Post]

Now that Astoria has become a hot spot for outdoor cafes, restaurants, and bars, the neighborhood has had more noise complaints that anywhere in Queens, with more than 3,400 311 calls about noise in the first six months of this year.
[NY Daily News]

A Times op-ed calls for the passing of new food-safety legislation that would allow the FDA to set science-based safety standards for the growing, harvesting, and transporting of food, and to demand more information during inspections.
[NY Times]