Candy

Tennis great Maria Sharapova hits a mean volley. As a pitchwoman, she's stumped for the likes of Tiffany, Tag Heuer, Canon and Nike. In her fashion design collaborations with Cole Haan, she produced the brand's best-selling ballerina flat. But apparently, the 25-year-old Russian and four-time Grand Slam winner isn't busy enough. Sharapova is indulging her sweet tooth by launching a new company: a premium line of gummy candies called Sugarpova. Starting Monday, the business will offer a dozen different sweets -- an “accessible bit of luxury,” according to the website.

When CNN's Candy Crowley got the news last week that she would be hosting the second of three presidential debates this fall, it was not a I-am-woman-hear-me-roar moment. Janet Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, made the invitation, which will make Crowley the first woman to moderate one of the debates since 1992. "If this is something young women look at and say, 'I can do this,' I think, 'Absolutely, you can do this,' I am all for that,“ Crowley said Monday in some of her first remarks about the opportunity.

Press reports on the choice of moderators for this fall's presidential debates center on the selection of CNN's Candy Crowley, the first woman to host one of the top-of-the-ticket showdowns in 20 years. With ABC's Martha Raddatz moderating the lone vice-presidential debate, in mid-October, that represents a righteous breakthrough for women. But what's also even more heartening about both selections is that it puts two veteran journalists, best known for their work in the field, rather than an anchor's chair, into the moderator's seat.

Candy Crowley, CNN's chief political correspondent and anchor of "State of the Union With Candy Crowley," will be the first female moderator of a U.S. presidential debate since 1992. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the names of the moderators of this year's three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate. In addition to Crowley, Jim Lehrer of PBS' "NewsHour" and Bob Schieffer of CBS' "Face the Nation" will moderate the presidential debates and Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, will moderate the vice presidential debate.

Someone, let the lollipop guild know. See's Candies now owns the Guinness World Records title for the largest lollipop. The company constructed the behemoth in its See's Candies Lollypop Factory (yes, See's spells it with a 'y') in Burlingame on July 18. The chocolate flavored confectionary collossus weighs in at 7,003 pounds and is 4 feet 8.75 inches in length, 3 feet 6 inches in width and 5 feet 11 inches in height. With the stick, the lollipop is nearly 12 feet long.  See's Candies is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which bought the company from the See family in 1972.

WASHINGTON -- An effort by food and beverage makers to gut a federal program that protects domestic sugar producers from foreign competition was roundly defeated Wednesday in the House Agriculture Committee. By a vote of 36 to 10, the committee opposed an amendment to the 2012 farm bill that would have allowed more imports of foreign sugar, making it less expensive for food and beverage companies to buy the ingredient.  A similar amendment was narrowly defeated in the Senate when that chamber passed its farm bill last month.

WASHINGTON - Makers of sodas, candy bars and other sweetened snacks are taking aim at a long-standing federal program that keeps sugar prices high by restricting imports. Doing away with the sugar program would be a "huge boost" to candy makers and help them grow, said Robert Simpson Jr., president of Jelly Belly Candy Co., which has factories in Fairfield, Calif., Chicago and Thailand. But the efforts of manufacturers are sparking intense opposition among lawmakers from sugar-growing states and the sugar lobby, as well as from some public health advocates.

In her prologue to Tony Abatemarco's new play, “Beautified,” by the Katselas Theatre Company at Skylight Theatre, the character Candy points out that platonic friendships between women and men aren't traditionally the stuff of great drama. But as at least half of the population didn't need this tenderly nostalgic play to tell us, a woman's bond with her hairdresser can transcend sex, politics and social class, outlasting foreign regimes, fashions, illnesses and marriages -- even death.

The rumors are true: The Girl Scouts of the USA are pairing up with Nestle to create candy bars flavored like the famous cookies-- and they'll be available this week. The bars will come in three options: Thin Mints, Caramel & Coconut and Peanut Butter Creme, all based on cookies that the Girl Scouts have sold for years to raise money.    On Wednesday, customers can start buying the bars online in a limited-edition pre-sale on the Nestle Crunch Facebook page . Then, from June through September, the bars are to be sold at retailers nationwide.

Researchers at Harvard have gotten to the bottom of why so many of us are compelled to share our every thought, movement, like and want through mediums like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram and Pinterest. In a series of experiments, the researchers found that the act of disclosing information about oneself activates the same sensation of pleasure in the brain that we get from eating food, getting money or having sex. It's all a matter of degrees of course, (talking about yourself isn't quite as pleasurable as sex for most of us)