A team of scientists is calling upon sports organizations — including NFL and the Little League — to have healthier foods and drinks shown by their sponsors, in an effort to help cut childhood obesity. In a new study published in Pediatrics Monday, the team showed 76% of sports sponsors promoted food and drinks with a low nutrient amount and 52% showcased sugar-sweetened drinks.
Why it matters: Food and nonalcoholic beverage companies spend millions of dollars on professional sports sponsorships and strong associations have been made between food advertising and child obesity by other studies. The CDC says nearly 1 in 5 children in school (ages 6 to 19 years) in the U.S. has obesity and a separate recent study suggests children ages 2–5 have experienced a sharp increase in severe obesity.
Bustle Digital Group will announce today that it is acquiring The Zoe Report from Rachel Zoe, Inc., a popular fashion and lifesytle brand for young women. Terms of the deal, effective April 1, are not disclosed. The deal is a combination of cash and stock. Upon close, Rachel Zoe will become a significant shareholder of Bustle Digital Group.
Why it matters: The Zoe Report is joining Bustle, Romper and Elite Daily as the fourth major brand in the Bustle Digital Group. The acquisition comes as more digital media holding companies looks to acquire and scale to gain better leverage with digital distributors, like Google and Twitter.
China is offering to buy more American semiconductors in an attempt to reduce its trade surplus with the U.S., CNBC reported Monday. China is also reportedly working on regulations to ease rules so foreign firms can buy into its security firms.
Why it matters: This is a sign that Trump's anti-China tariff threats, meant to counter the country's intellectual property practices and reduce the U.S. trade deficit, could be making some progress, even if the latter is a monumental task.
Sears may be the next legacy retailer to file for bankruptcy, with a stock price hovering at just over $2 per share and billions of dollars of debt. CEO Eddie Lampert acknowledges the long odds, and some of his errors, in a rare sit-down with Vanity Fair:
A Fox News poll released on Sunday found that the Democrats only have a five-point lead over Republicans on a generic ballot ahead of this fall’s midterm elections — 46% to 41%. In the same poll conducted last October, Democrats held a 15-point advantage over Republicans, leading 50% to 35%.
The big picture: One of the pollsters who conducted the poll called it "a gauge of perceptions month to month," calling its "predictive power" this far out from Election Day "dubious." But it's worth noting that even a 5-point lead nationwide could still lead to huge gains in the House for Democrats — as Republicans held a 4-point edge in the poll in March 2010 and ultimately picked up 63 seats that fall.
