Is banning bottled water really in the best interests, if jobs are lost and more money is spent to do so? From the Toronto Sun…

Daniel Hamermesh, a writer for the Freakonomics blog at the New York Times, writes this month about the foolishness of banning bottled water on a university campus…

If Obama does it, it’s gotta be cool. From the Orlando Sentinel:

Bottled water and bottled iced tea are often seen in the hand of President-elect Barack Obama. Bottled water is a natural hydrator and makes sense for the First-Exerciser.

In August, the city of St. Louis joined one of a very few others around the country to ban bottled water in government offices. But according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch…

In a state looking to protect its waters, Michigan Senator Patty Birkholz steps up to defend those who say bottled water harms the environment. In response to a column by Mike Delp, Birkholz writes in the Traverse City Record-Eagle…

At a school in northern Indiana, it’s bottled water in lieu of drinking fountains, and bottled water for food prep. Why? Because municipal water samples tested positive for an unspecified type of bacteria.

Sometimes, government actions are misinformed and misplaced, notes Donald A. Mounce, the senior editor of Water Conditioning & Purification Magazine. (Not quite as well known as Newsweek, but still…)

One of the nation’s leading microbiologists today strongly the Environmental Working Group’s study on bottled water quality, citing the study’s flawed methodology and lack of sound science.