Marc Dann Would Be Bragging Today: Anheuser-Busch Corks Energy Drink Business

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Ohio was among several states that challenged the beverage industry for marketing alcohol-laced caffeinated energy drinks to young people. Today, St. Louis-based brewing giant Anheuser-Busch made a deal with the attorney generals and said it will no longer produce "Tilt," "Bud Extra," or any other alcoholic energy drinks. Marc Dann was in at the start of the investigation -- he wasn't widely seen as a rat yet -- but didn't last in office to the end. And nobody in the Ohio AG's office even bothered to put up a press release June 26 to take note of Anheuser-Busch's surrender.

In New York, Democrat Andrew Cuomo was spreading the news:

"Drinking is not a sport, a race, or an endurance test. Adding alcohol to energy drinks sends exactly the wrong message about responsible drinking, most especially to young people. This agreement keeps these dangerous products off our shelves and makes it clear that targeting underage consumers with advertisements for alcohol will not be tolerated."

According to the AGs who challenged the beverage makers, the caffeinated alcoholic drinks taste and resemble popular non-alcoholic drinks. The AGs contend the drinks have caught on "because aggressive marketing campaigns reinforce the common misconception that the caffeine in the drinks will counteract the effects of the alcohol."

Ohio Atty. Gen. Marc Dann: Allied With New York's Cuomo In Facebook Probe

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Ohio Atty. Gen. Marc Dann has confirmed his office is investigating Facebook, the social networking Website that is popular with students. The Daily Bellwether also has obtained the full-text of a letter from the New York attorney general's office that contends the site is used by sexual predators to find child victims, or to recruit Facebook users for porno films. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's six-page letter (pdf) to Facebook executives was timed to coincide with Dann's disclosure in Ohio. Cuomo said undercover investigators had discovered inappropriate content and hardcore pornography.

From Cuomo's letter:

"Perhaps, most alarmingly, Facebook ignored several -- and repeated -- complaints from our undercover investigators concerning persons who made inappropriate advances to underage users. The OAG made these complaints to Facebook both as underage users as well as parents of underage users.

"For instance, on August 30, an OAG investigator created a profile for a fourteen-year-old female high school student from New York. Approximately a week later, she received a Facebook message from a 24 year old man, asking 'do you have any nude pics.' The investigator lodged a complaint with Facebook as the student's mother from a Hotmail account complaining that her daughter was being solicited by older men. The next day, Facebook sent a response saying that Facebook 'will review the reported material and remove anything that violate our Terms of Use.' To date, however, Facebook has taken no further action, and the 24-year-old's profile is still available on the Facebook site."