Drinking

Selectmen have closed a 32-article warrant for the May 14 Town Meeting. Among the items to be considered by voters is the Social Host Bylaw, meant to discourage underage consumption and possession of alcohol. According to the warrant article, anyone who hosts an event where youths under the age of 21 are drinking will be held criminally responsible, regardless of whether the host supplied the beverages. Officials have said the bylaw would not apply to parents who allow a child to have a drink in the home, nor to certain religious observances.

By Colin A. Young Globe Correspondent A group of partiers in Boxford was sent out to pasture Sunday when a bunch of bovines decided to drop by and have a couple of brews. "It started off with a call for loose cows in the area of Foster Street," Boxford police Lieutenant James Riter said. "On my way down Main Street, I did see evidence that cows were in the area. " That evidence, Riter said, was — well, let's just say you wouldn't want to step in it. When the bovine bunch stopped in the frontyard of a home on Main Street, Riter directed traffic around the...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- If the rich and powerful can drink in a public park in the weeks before next year's Super Bowl, why can't the homeless do it now? That is the question the lawyer for three homeless men is raising in a court challenge over their arrest for drinking in a park that will be part of a designated party zone before the Super Bowl. The three men were arrested in February in Treaty Oak Park on charges of drinking in public. The park is inside a 2-mile entertainment zone adopted by the City Council in May. Beginning 18 days before the Feb. 6 Super Bowl, laws against open containers,...

MILWAUKEE - After years of waffling research on coffee and health, and even worries that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn't matter. The study of 400,000 people is the largest done on the issue. "There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking," said lead researcher Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute. It's not that earlier studies were wrong.

4  cups water  4  tablespoons sugar  6  ounces dark (66 percent) chocolate   Juice of 4 tangerines  4  teaspoons honey  1. In a saucepan, combine water and sugar. Bring to a vigorous boil. Cook 1 minute. 2. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate and tangerine juice. 3. Return to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the first bubbles appear on the surface. Immediately remove from heat. Whisk to a froth and pour into warm mugs.

A Foxborough bylaw that would have charged a $200 fine for public inebriation has been rejected twice by the state attorney general's office for conflicts with a 40-year-old statute that prohibits criminal or civil punishments for the intoxicated. So unless the Acts of 1971 are changed, or bypassed by special legislation, no community - including those that host major entertainment venues such as Gillette Stadium in Foxborough or Comcast Center in Mansfield - can impose its own controls to offset endemic binge drinking, Foxborough officials said.

LONDON - A United Airlines pilot received a 10-month suspended jail sentence yesterday for showing up to fly a jet on a trans-Atlantic flight while over the alcohol limit. Erwin Vermont Washington of Lakewood, Colo., was removed from a plane at London’s Heathrow Airport shortly before it was due to take off for Chicago in November. A colleague had smelled alcohol on his breath. A breath test found he was almost three times over Britain’s legal alcohol limit for pilots.

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff ARLINGTON, Texas — Major League Baseball executive vice president of baseball operations Joe Torre said just a few minutes ago that his office will look into the drinking that was going on during games in the Red Sox clubhouse this season. "It's something we're concerned about, just to make sure that we get all the facts and that's my area," Torre said. "I know I have plans just to talk to some people. " Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz have admitted to drinking during games with Josh Beckett and John Lackey admitting to unspecified...

Adrian Mutu and Gabriel Tamas have been banned from the Romania team for life after they went out drinking before an exhibition against San Marino. Romania coach Victor Piturca says Cesena striker Mutu and West Bromwich Albion defender Tamas defied orders by going out and drinking on Monday. Romania beat San Marino 1-0 on Wednesday. It is the latest in a long line of troubled episodes for Mutu. In October, while at Fiorentina, he attacked a barman little more than a week before his return from a nine-month doping ban. In 2004, the 32-year-old was...

Authorities say a police officer in Florida has been fired for drinking on the job shortly before his all-terrain vehicle struck and injured two people. According to a press release, another officer who was not involved in the crash but failed a breath-alcohol test also was fired Friday. Police say Derick Kuilan and Rolando Gutierrez had been drinking at a hotel Sunday instead of patrolling their beats. Authorities say Kuilan got on his ATV with a woman around 5 a.m. The two pedestrians were hit soon after.

The foreman of a jury hearing a case in federal court in Springfield last week was dismissed after he was caught on surveillance video loading drinks that belonged to a U.S. congressman's aide into his own vehicle. Authorities say Wilfredo Ocasio was chosen the leader of an eight-person jury in a wrongful death suit. He was dismissed after he was seen loading the Powerade, bottled water and iced tea belonging to an aide in U.S. Congressman Richard Neal's office into his SUV on May 7. Neal has an office in the same building as the federal court.

Have you been to Starbucks yet today? Even if you're not a coffee drinker, you may have been tempted to grab a cup of java this morning after hearing the news that drinking coffee may help you live longer. The study -- conducted by government researchers (with no funding from the coffee industry) and published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine -- found a small association between drinking coffee and a longer lifespan. Going for that extra cup of coffee based on this study finding, however, would be a foolish thing to do since an...

The girls slumped in wheelchairs look barely conscious, their blond heads lolling above the plastic vomit bags tied like bibs around their necks. It's an hour to midnight on Friday, and the two girls, who look no older than 18, are being wheeled from an ambulance to a clinic set up discreetly in a dark alley in London's Soho entertainment district. They're the first of many to be picked up on this night by the ambulance, known as a "booze bus," and carried to the clinic — both government services dedicated to keeping drunk people out of trouble, and out of emergency rooms.

BEVERLY - In a strong message to adults tempted to host parties for underage drinkers, a Salem judge has sentenced a Beverly woman to six months in prison for permitting teenage drinking at her home two years ago. It was believed to be the first time a person was sent to jail under the state's social host law when a fatality was not involved. Tiffany Clark, 37, of Manor Road, was taken into custody Thursday immediately upon her sentencing, said Carrie Kimball Monahan, spokeswoman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett.

The Rhode Island Department of Health has announced two resources to help residents monitor the quality of their drinking water. The department said Thursday that private well owners can research tests recommended for their well by typing in an address or clicking on a location on the Internet-based Private Well Testing Viewer. The site can be accessed at https://welltesting.health.ri.gov. Residents can also use the department's Drinking Water Watch system, an online database that contains information about public water systems in...

An increasing number of U.K. lawmakers are seeking help for alcohol-related problems, the parliamentary speaker said Sunday, saying drinking problems among legislators mirrored those of British society at large. Heavy subsidies on alcohol at Parliament's nearly 20 bars and restaurants had been removed following a drunken brawl in February, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said. In that incident, Labour lawmaker Eric Joyce head-butted Stuart Andrew, from the rival Conservative Party, and also assaulted two local Conservative officials and a Labour colleague at Parliament's...

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff Jon Lester has admitted to drinking beer with Josh Beckett and John Lackey in the clubhouse during Red Sox games this season. But all three pitchers denied a report that they were drinking in the dugout during games. WHDH television reported earlier today that the trio would fill cups with Bud Light as early as the sixth inning and that the practice became more frequent later in the season. The report cited two unidentified team employees. A team source confirmed the report to the Globe.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent Arlington High School has suspended all school dances because of an increasing number of students drinking alcohol and dancing inappropriately at the school functions. Mary Villano, the interim principal at the school, sent a newsletter to parents Monday saying the moratorium on dances will be in place until school administrators can address their growing concerns about the behavior. "It's at the point where we're worried something tragic will happen," Villano said in telephone...

Town Meeting voters have authorized selectmen to submit a home rule petition to the state Legislature that would allow local police to charge penalties of up to $200 to those taken into protective custody for excessive drinking. The provision is aimed at recovering the money spent to keep drunken individuals off the streets and out of harm's way. The home rule petition, which stipulates those placed in custody could pose a danger to themselves, others, or local property, is similar to one approved in Foxborough.

Minuscule traces of solvents that may be linked to General Chemical Corp. in Framingham, a hazardous-waste storage facility due to close in the coming months, were found in the drinking water of two Sherborn homes on Meadowbrook Road and Prospect Street, according to Edward Coletta, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP was testing the water in 12 homes to see if an underground plume emanating from General Chemical had reached their wells.