• Plans to spray parts of Fairmount Park with insecticides to help combat mosquitoes and West Nile virus has local beekeepers concerned about the safety of their hives. [KYW Newsradio]
• Only in New Jersey: A 29-year-old woman from South Bound Brook is facing poisoning, assault, and drug possession charges after she allegedly spiked her boyfriend’s dinner with cocaine. [myfoxphilly]
• The latest food-safety scandal in China involves “gutter oil,” cooking oil that is literally scooped from sewers and sold illegally. This makes exploding watermelons sound fun by comparison. [Global Spin/Time]
• Life ain’t the same on the ranch in Texas, where the ongoing severe drought is rendering cattle country somewhat like the Dust Bowl era. [USAT]
• Be not afraid to try modernist cooking at home; olive oil powder is particularly fun and easy to use. [SE]
• Though the U.S. is decades behind Japan in vending-machine coolness, a display tomorrow in New York of twenty high-tech machines — which can accept credit cards, spit out full meals, and more — might help us down the road toward amending that. [Crain’s]