Grapevine: Elizabeth Warren's new comments about heritage

Senate candidate remains under scrutiny for Cherokee claims

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Indian Summer

Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is acknowledging she told officials at Harvard and University of Pennsylvania she had Native American heritage.

Her campaign insists she gave that information to the schools after she was hired.

Up until now, Warren had said she learned that Harvard was promoting her as a Native American from reading a newspaper.

She has claimed to be 1/32 Cherokee though she has provided no evidence other than family lore.

Meanwhile, conservatives are jumping on another statement by Warren late last year that -- quote -- "I was the first nursing mother to take a bar exam in the state of New Jersey."

A Garden State bar exam administrator told the Herald there is no way to verify that claim.

The Big Ban

New York City wants to ban the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks in an effort to curb obesity.

The ban would not apply to diet or juice beverages but would limit sugary non-alcoholic drinks over 16 ounces from being sold in restaurants, movie theaters and sports venues.

Critics call it yet another intervention by nanny state nutritionists.

The Face of Tourism?

Finally, you apparently don't have to be eligible to travel the world to be named a tourism ambassador by the United Nations.

Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe was appointed a new international envoy for tourism despite being banned from Europe because of human rights abuses in his own country.

Mugabe is accused of ethnic cleansing and rigging elections among other things.

Canada is now withdrawing from the tourism agency over the appointment saying it symbolizes what is wrong with the United Nations.