Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

When manufacturers create a gluten-free product, they remove the wheat protein from the food by swapping wheat flour for another flour such as almond, rice, corn or even bean.

However, this missing gluten makes it difficult for breads and bakery products to retain their shape and softness as they cook.

To alleviate this, additives (such as xanthum gum and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose) or corn starch are introduced. Extra sugar and fat are also added to the products to make them tastier. The result is that gluten-free bread can actually add pounds to your waistline.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon repeatedly denied knowing anything about Missouri illegally sharing its citizens private CCW information with the federal government, even after his own head of Missouri Highway Patrol contradicted him in a public hearing. Now we’ve learned that Nixon not only knew about the violation of Missouri law, but he was thanked in a letter by Janet Napolitano:

To implement [increased minority outreach], RNC chairman Reince Priebus has promised to establish dialogues with groups such as LULAC, La Raza, and the NAACP, which strikes us as unhelpful and willfully blind to the fact that such groups are ideologically opposed to Republican principles. A truly conservative minority-outreach strategy would severely weaken these groups by challenging their claims to represent their respective ethnicities.

@amyalkon .@clairecmc Do you understand how idiotic & wasteful it is to treat every citizen as plausible suspect, sans probable cause? #TSA

The New Jersey governor, who has expressed concern about “an abundance of guns out there,” has said he backs the gun-control legislation currently on the books in his state, some of the nation’s most restrictive. Christie has also not been afraid to speak out against the National Rifle Association, calling an ad the group ran in the wake of the Newtown shooting “reprehensible” and “awful.”   

In another move that may distance him from conservatives, Christie, who boasts a 74 percent approval rating in New Jersey, is set to announce this afternoon that he will accept Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.