Toyota seeks damage control, in public and private
by Saien
WASHINGTON (AP) - In public, Toyota is running apologetic TV ads and vowing to win back customers' trust. Behind the scenes, the besieged carmaker is trying to learn all it can about congressional investigations, maybe even steer them if it can.
It's part of an all-out drive by the world's biggest auto manufacturer to redeem its once unassailable brand - hit anew on Tuesday as Toyota's global recall ballooned to 8.5 million cars and trucks. The day's safety recall of 440,000 of its flagship Prius and other hybrids, plus a Tokyo news conference where the company's president read a statement in English pledging to "regain the confidence of our customers," underscored a determination to keep buyers' faith from sinking to unrecoverable depths.
In Washington, facing congressional inquiries and government investigations, Toyota through its lawyers and lobbyists is working full-speed to salvage its reputation. The confidential strategy - Toyota will say little publicly about its efforts - includes efforts to sway upcoming hearings on Capitol Hill and is based on experiences by companies that have survived similar consumer and political crises - and those that haven't.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich, said Toyota representatives visited his offices seeking to learn all they could.
"They're probing us. 'What are you going to ask us, where are you going with this whole thing?'" said Stupak, who is chairman of a House subcommittee looking into Toyota's problems.
Toyota, which reported spending more than $4 million on lobbying last year, declined to discuss details of its plans. The company has "beefed up our team" by hiring additional lobbyists, lawyers and public relations experts to "work with regulators and lawmakers collaboratively towards a successful recall effort, ensuring proper, diligent compliance," spokeswoman Cindy Knight said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Rough headlines for Toyota continued Tuesday. In other developments:
_State Farm, the largest U.S. auto insurer, said it had informed federal regulators late in 2007 about growing reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyotas. That disclosure raised new questions about whether the government missed clues about problems.
_Congressional investigators cited growing evidence that not all the causes of Toyota's acceleration problems have been identified. A staff memo from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which had planned an oversight hearing for Wednesday, said there was substantial evidence that remedies such as redesigned floor mats have failed to solve problems. The hearing was postponed until Feb. 24 due to snow in Washington.
_Federal safety officials said they were examining complaints from Toyota Corolla owners about steering problems.
Toyota faces at least two congressional hearings besides Stupak's, including the one delayed by snow. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and a longtime supporter of Toyota, said his panel will hold a hearing after the two by the House.
Their focus: floor mats that get caught under accelerators, sticky gas pedals and brake problems, and what the company and federal regulators knew about them.
Professionals who have waged major damage-control struggles say the best strategy for Toyota mixes apology, openness, details about a specific fix - plus a little help from friends on Capitol Hill. In recent days, American TV viewers have seen ads in which a soft-spoken announcer talks about Toyota's dedication to safety and its customers.
"We're working around the clock to ensure we build vehicles of the highest quality, to restore your faith in our company," one spot says.
Toyota is expected to turn to its natural allies - lawmakers from states with Toyota plants or offices, which include Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and West Virginia. Republicans are considered especially likely to back the company, whose workers are not unionized.
Toyota has been encouraging dealers to contact local members of Congress, according to Bailey Wood, spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association. About 60 of the 1,200 U.S. Toyota dealers planned to visit Washington this week, weather permitting, said Cody Lusk, president of the American International Automobile Dealers Association. Their message: Toyota employs 34,000 people in the U.S. and accounts for 164,000 other jobs at dealerships and parts suppliers.
"They provide a lot of jobs, a lot of the tax base, and they want members to know," Lusk said.
Toyota also flew 23 workers from plants around the country to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers' staffs, emphasizing that the people who make the parts and build the vehicles care about quality.
One worker who tests cars and trucks said he takes it personally that he never found the gas pedal problem.
"I feel that I failed customers by not finding this issue," said Jim Shuker, who works at Toyota's Arizona Proving Grounds in Wittmann, Ariz. "We were not able to duplicate it."
Friendly legislators can limit the duration of congressional hearings and ask favorable questions that would give Toyota officials a chance to tell their side of the story. Their goal would compress unfavorable news stories about the hearings to as few days as possible, while making sure the company avoids being confrontational.
"You're being called up there so Congress can beat you up a little bit," said Gene Grabowski, who chairs Levick Strategic Communications' crisis and litigation practice. "By the time it gets to a hearing, you're there to take some punishment, to listen to their concerns."
In the meantime, Akio Toyoda, Toyota president, wrote an opinion column in Tuesday's Washington Post in which he promised an outside review of company operations, better responses to customer complaints and improved communication with federal officials.
The Toyota recalls are the highest-profile congressional probe of the auto industry since a slew of deadly accidents prompted the Firestone tire recall in 2000. Most of the tires were on popular Ford Explorer sport utility vehicles.
Both companies suffered damage to their reputations, but both bounced back. Ford was proactive, briefing officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Congress and stressing that the safety of their customers was paramount. Firestone offered to replace its tires for free.
Things didn't go as well for the manufacturer at the center of a salmonella scare, Peanut Corporation of America. The company's products were linked to nine deaths and hundreds of cases of food poisoning, and it badly mishandled congressional hearings that showed the company shipped its products even after tests revealed they were tainted with bacteria
Woman Chasing Dog Falls to Death Off California Cliff
by bugs
Woman Chasing Dog Falls to Death Off California Cliff
Monday, February 08, 2010
MENDOCINO, Calif. Authorities in California say a woman fell about 60 feet to her death after she chased her dog off a cliff in the Mendocino headlands.
The chief of the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department says witnesses on Sunday saw the woman disappear over the cliff while running after her dog. Her dog had fallen about halfway down the cliff but was later rescued.
Danny Hervilla says the woman's body was recovered from a small, rocky beach area, where high tides and rough surf threatened to pull the body out to sea. Her identity has not been released.
Hervilla says the woman is the fourth person to die after a fall from the cliffs in the area in the past 18 months.
Went to the doctor for my yearly physical.
The nurse starts with certain basics.
How much do you weigh?' she asks. '135,' I say.
The nurse puts me on the scale. It turns out my weight is 180.
The nurse asks, 'Your height?' '5 foot 4,' I say.
The nurse checks and sees that I only measure 5'2.
She then takes my blood pressure and tells me it is very high.
'Of course it's high!' I scream, 'When I came in here I was tall And slender! Now I'm short and fat!'
Italy Minister Defends Boost for McDonald's Burger
by fred
ROME Italy's agriculture minister defended his sponsorship of McDonald's new all-Italian burger Monday amid criticism that he is selling out to a multinational corporation and sacrificing Italy's culinary reputation in the process.
Minister Luca Zaia has argued that McDonald's new McItaly burger using all Italian beef, Asiago cheese and artichoke spread will pump (EURO)3.5 million ($4.8 million) more a month into the pockets of Italian farmers grappling with tough economic times.
But for a country that gave birth to the Slow Food movement a quarter-century ago and prides itself on its varied, delicious and healthy cuisine, Zaia's enthusiastic support of McDonald's has been hard to swallow.
It didn't help that Zaia and McDonald's executives launched the new burger last month at McDonald's flagship restaurant in Rome's historic center near the Spanish Steps, the chain's first Italian outpost.
The opening of those Golden Arches in 1986 famously inspired a relatively unknown Turin foodie, Carlo Petrini, to launch what became Slow Food the international movement that embraces local, organic food and home cooking over fast food and the industrialized food chain.
In a recent front-page opinion piece in La Repubblica newspaper, Petrini challenged Zaia and McDonald's to back up their claims of helping Italian farmers with a kilo-by-kilo accounting of how much farmers are actually getting paid out of the deal.
And he chafed at Zaia's suggestion that the all-Italian menu would "globalize the identity of Italian agriculture."
"Taste, like identity, has value only when there are differences," Petrini wrote.
The opposition Democratic Party has also slammed Zaia's use of an official government seal of approval for the new burger. On the McItaly's promotional material is a seal saying "Under the patronage of" the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry a highly coveted government endorsement that is more often seen on museum exhibits and cultural initiatives than fast-food containers.
"I think it's legitimate to ask if Minister Zaia is working for Italy or McDonald's," Nicodemo Oliverio, the top Democratic Party lawmaker in the lower Chamber of Deputies' agriculture commission, quipped Monday.
He charged that giving McDonald's such a designation creates a disparity with Italian food companies that may require Italy's antitrust authority to intervene.
Zaia shot back saying the government had long been in partnership with McDonald's to promote other "Made in Italy" products such as parmesan cheese and smoked beef.
Zaia, who relentlessly courts publicity for Italy's agricultural products, has defended his partnership with McDonald's as an important new market for Italy's farmers and a way to reach young Italians who make up the bulk of McDonald's customers.
He said Monday the first week of sales some 100,000 burgers had exceeded expectations. In the coming weeks, a new burger featuring smoked bacon and grilled onions, as well as an all-Italian ingredient salad, will be rolled out in McDonald's 392 Italian restaurants.
Leno to Letterman: Thanks for Super Bowl ad invite
by Saien
NEW YORK (AP) - Jay Leno has a message for David Letterman: Thanks.
Leno said that "whatever happened in the last 18 years disappeared" when the two comics got together to film their surprise Super Bowl ad last week.
"He was very gracious," Leno said Monday on his prime-time show, which ends Tuesday. "We talked about the old days. We told some jokes. It was really good to see him."
Letterman's bitterness at losing the "Tonight" show job to Leno nearly two decades ago has long been obvious to his CBS viewers. Leno is a frequent target of Letterman's jokes, which escalated during last month's drama over Leno reclaiming the "Tonight" show. Leno returned fire when the jokes got particularly rough.
It was a perfect setup for the Super Bowl promo. A grumpy Letterman complained to Oprah Winfrey about being at a lousy Super Bowl party, and the camera panned back to reveal Leno on the other side of a couch, saying, "he's just saying that because I'm here."
"No matter what animosity there is between comedians, a good joke is a good joke," Leno said.
Letterman, for his part, joked in his monologue about his mother wondering who it was sitting on the couch with Winfrey and Leno.
"People really thought this was big-time stuff, so I just want to take a second here now to thank the actors who played Oprah and also Jay Leno," he said on his show Monday. "They did a tremendous job."
Leno, a notorious workaholic, took a day off from his show to fly to New York to make the 15-second promo. He was driven to Letterman's studio on a black SUV and hustled in, wearing a disguise.
Leno said an NBC executive later approached him, saying the network believed Letterman was taping a secret show because someone entered the studio from a black SUV. NBC believed that Letterman was doing a show with President Barack Obama, he said.
Man rescued after 3 days in snow-covered SUV in CO
by bugs
Man rescued after 3 days in snow-covered SUV in CO
Feb 9, 1:46 AM (ET)
SAGUACHE, Colo. (AP) - A 31-year-old Indiana man says he had not food but kept himself hydrated with Mountain Dew and snow while he was stuck in his snow-covered SUV in southwestern Colorado for three days.
Jason Pede was rescued Sunday morning after his vehicle ran out of gas and he walked seven miles to a road, signaling for help with a flashlight.
Pede was driving from Dulce, N.M., to the Colorado resort town of Aspen to deliver an Australian Shepherd rescue dog when he got stuck.
Pede, of Chesterton, Ind., says a "local" told him about a shortcut to Aspen and that's how he became stranded somewhere in the Rio Grande National Forest in snow that went above the hood of his Lincoln Navigator.
Man survives 3 days in snowbound SUV
By Howard Pankratz
The Denver Post
Posted: 02/08/2010 03:36:37 PM MST
Updated: 02/08/2010 06:21:41 PM MST
An Indiana man survived three days in his SUV that was stuck in deep snow in the Rio Grande National Forest before he managed to make his way to a road Sunday morning and get help.
Jason Pede stayed in his Lincoln Navigator surviving on soft drinks and melted snow until his gasoline ran out.
Then, he left the safety of his SUV, fearing a night in the cold.
He made it through the melting snow to a more-traveled road seven miles away, where passersby helped him.
The ordeal started Thursday morning, when Pede found himself with his new pal, an Australian Shepherd rescued from a puppy mill, on a road high in the Rio Grande Forest as he tried to take a short cut to Aspen.
A local in Saguache had told him that with his SUV he could save more than a hundred miles plowing through the snow on a county road.
But soon the snow was above the hood of the Navigator. Pede was literally plowing the snow with the vehicle until he could go no further.
When he tried to back out and back down the road, the Navigator ran off the road and he and the dog were stranded.
"This poor dog is already mentally distraught given his life experiences. I felt so bad. He's had a heck of a life," said Pede, a native of Chesterton Ind., about the dog.
Pede, 31, has made his living escorting big loads across the nation's highways in recent years. He is the guy in the car in front of oversized loads with flashing lights warning other motorists about what's coming.
But that business dried up during the recession. Now he does contract business where he uses his Lincoln Navigator to deliver goods - in this case the Australian Shepherd - across the country. A woman in Pueblo had adopted the Australian Shepherd from a rescue group in California.
Pede was going to Pueblo via Aspen where he was to pick up some cats for delivery in Davenport, Iowa, before heading to Pueblo.
He never made it to Aspen.
Pede says he watches television survival shows. The one lesson he has learned is to stay with vehicle. So from Thursday morning until Sunday morning - when the last of his gasoline to heat the Navigator gave out - he and the dog stayed in the vehicle.
They drank a couple of cans of soft drink, a bottle of water his kids left in the car and snow that he melted with a fire made from eight chairs that originally were to be delivered to a lady in Topeka, Ks.
When the gasoline gave out, Pede said he knew he had to try to walk out. The weather wasn't bad - the sun was out. He thought he'd freeze to death with temperatures dipping to 6 at night if he stayed in a non-heated vehicle.
He started walking. Much to his surprise, as he headed down the mountain, he found that a lot of the heavy snow had melted in the days he had been in the national forest. Walking wasn't that difficult, although the altitude got him and he'd have to rest.
Seven miles down the road, he came across another road and there he saw a convoy of five vehicles. He waved his flashlight at them and collapsed.
"My body shut down on me. It has never done that before. I dropped flat on my ass," said Pede.
He had on four pairs of pants, four sweaters, three pair of socks and blankets. He said he was sweating profusely.
All five cars stopped, several of them containing snowboarders from Amarillo, Texas.
They got him to Monte Vista, where he told the sheriff's department they had to get back up the mountain and rescue the dog.
"I was most concerned about that dog," said Pede. "I told them that poor thing was going to die."
Late today, Pede was wrapping up his journey to Pueblo with the dog, who he said was traumatized by the entire episode. But he said the dog is doing well after spending a night at a veterinarian in Monte Vista - a vet recommended by the Colorado State Patrol.
Back in Indiana, Pede's wife, Amanda, is thankful as are the couple's three children - Alexis, 11; Roslyn, 6, and Tegan, 4.
"He is a good man and a good dad. I couldn't imagine a day without him," said Amanda Pede.
As far as Jason Pede, "you are darn right I feel lucky to be alive. But it won't sink in until I hold my wife."
Although he said he is not an overly religious guy, he said when he walked down the thawing mountain road, "I didn't walk out on my own."
Since he walked out, he said it has snowed 17 inches on the road.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
Feb. 8: Firefighters respond to a blaze at Dover Baptist Church in Smith County, Texas.
DALLAS A sheriff's dispatcher says fires have struck two more rural east Texas churches, just hours after investigators announced that a blaze last week marked the eighth arson against a house of worship in the state this year.
A Smith County sheriff's dispatcher says fire struck a Baptist church near Tyler Monday night. Another hit a church about 3 miles away.
The fires come the same day the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced a blaze that happened last week was the seventh east Texas church fire of 2010 to be deliberately set. Bureau agents in Houston say arson also caused a fire that destroyed the sanctuary of a central Texas church last month.
There have been no reported injuries or arrests. Federal officials aren't saying if there's a connection.
TV show fined in Australia for killing, eating rat
by bugs
TV show fined in Australia for killing, eating rat
Feb 9, 8:40 AM (ET)
By TANALEE SMITH
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) - A British broadcaster has been convicted of animal cruelty after two reality show contestants skinned, cooked and ate a rat during filming in Australia.
ITV Studios, producer of "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here," was fined 3,000 Australian dollars ($2,615) after pleading guilty Monday, the Australian RSPCA said Tuesday.
The RSPCA filed a complaint in December against show participants chef Gino D'Acampo and actor Stuart Manning who prepared the risotto-and-rat meal on the wilderness show late last year.
Animal activists said the rat squealed in apparent pain and took more than 90 seconds to die.
After ITV's guilty plea, the RSPCA decided to drop its complaints against D'Acampo and Manning, according to a statement from David O'Shannessy, chief inspector for the New South Wales state RSPCA. If convicted, the men could have faced up to three years in prison.
The conviction confirms that killing and preparing an animal for human consumption should not involve unnecessary pain, distress or suffering of the animal, O'Shannessy said.
ITV previously said producers had sought health and safety advice about eating the rat but failed to check whether killing it was legal.
"I'm a Celebrity" strands C-list celebrities in the Australian wilderness, subjects them to trials involving spiders and snakes, and allows the public to vote them off the show one by one.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Another jolt of Saints euphoria is on tap for New Orleans Tuesday when the Super Bowl champs board floats borrowed from Mardi Gras krewes for a victory parade through the grateful city.
The Carnival-flavored parade honoring the team's 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts is scheduled to start in the afternoon at their home turf, the Louisiana Superdome. It will include 12 marching bands and one float each from 10 krewes. Float builder Barry Kern said he believes it's the first time the groups - which celebrate Carnival season with separate parades - will combine floats in one procession.
On Monday, swarms of fans in black and gold greeted the players as they stepped off a chartered plane at the suburban airport, cheering them with "Who Dat!" chants. The Saints, cellar dwellers for decades, delivered not just their first Lombardi trophy but optimism for the city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"The Saints kept hope alive in this city that better days were coming," said Shannon Sims, a 45-year-old criminal court administrator, as she waited for the team. She said the Saints "were the force that kept us moving forward."
The win was not just about football for New Orleans, said John Magill, a historian at Historic New Orleans Collection.
"We're all being told that we're sinking, why bother rebuild it, there was so much of that attitude," Magill said. Thanks to the Super Bowl win, he said, Americans will view the city in the positive light it deserves.
Sunday's victory came a day after New Orleans elected a new mayor and several other city officials. But in the area newspapers on Monday there was little besides the Saints.
The New Orleans paper, The Times-Picayune, ran a 5-inch headline that said "AMEN." The subhead read, "After 43 years, our prayers are answered."
At Lakeside News, which usually sells about 100 copies a day, owner Michael Marcello said he had sold 6,000 to 7,000 by 9:15 a.m.
"I wish I had some," he said. "I'm out again. This is the fourth time I've run out."
Thousands of fans lined the road outside the airport with their Saints jerseys, "Who Dat!" chants, homemade signs, fleur-de-lis garb, face paint and Mardi Gras costumes (like the Saint-a Claus fellow). Coach Sean Payton held the Lombardi trophy aloft through the sunroof of his car, eliciting wild screams.
At the airport, 37-year-old courier Aaron Washington said "the dawn of a new day" had come. A brass-band version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" blared from his car stereo.
"This team has allowed us to get past Katrina and look forward to better things," Washington said. He watched the game with dozens of friends and relatives on a big-screen television in front of a home in eastern New Orleans that was rebuilt after the 2005 hurricane flooded it with 9 feet of water.
Another major storm headed to snowy Mid-Atlantic .
by BDB
Another major storm headed to snowy Mid-Atlantic
Email this Story
Feb 9, 8:42 AM (ET)
By BRETT ZONGKER
WASHINGTON (AP) - Snow blew across the Midwest on Tuesday on track for the hard-hit Mid-Atlantic region, where federal government offices were closed for a second day and utility workers struggled to restore power knocked out by a weekend blizzard.
The storm hit the Midwest early, closing schools and greeting commuters with slick, slushy roads from Minneapolis and Chicago to Louisville, Ky. Powerful winds and snow were expected to hit Mid-Atlantic states by the afternoon, and could leave as much as 20 inches of new snow in Washington and 18 inches near Philadelphia - a Northeast travel hub - by Wednesday night.
Parts of the region were already buried under nearly 3 feet of snow.
Airlines that shut down flights to Washington over the weekend warned that more would be canceled and that travelers who didn't depart by Tuesday night were likely out of luck. Washington resident Chris Vaughan was fortunate enough to land a seat.
"I'm done with city, urban snow life," said Vaughan, who was going skiing in Utah. He dodged a $100 taxi "snow fare" by having a friend drop him off at Reagan National Airport - in exchange for a bottle of wine.
Others were filling their pantries in case they get stuck at home again.
"Getting around is a pain right now as it is, so slushy and sloppy," said Meghan Garaghan, 28, as she stocked up on staples and sweets at a supermarket in Philadelphia, which got 27 inches of snow. "I don't want to think about what it's going to be like with another foot and a half of snow dumped on top of this mess."
Some spots, including parts of Maryland, had nearly 3 feet of snow from the earlier storm. One scientist said if all that fell on the East Coast were melted, it would fill 12 million Olympic swimming pools or 30,000 Empire State buildings. Philadelphia and Washington each need about nine more inches to give the cities their snowiest winters since 1884, the first year records were kept.
Jerry Bennett, manager of the Strosniders hardware store in Silver Spring, Md., said he sold 500 snow shovels in two hours Friday. Since then, customers have been stalking shipments.
"Every third question is, 'Do you have shovels?'" Bennett said. "Every three hours, we can answer 'yes,' and then they're gone."
The storm that began Friday closed schools, and some 230,000 federal workers in Washington had Monday and Tuesday off. Power was still out for tens of thousands of homes and businesses, and utilities said deep snow was hindering some crews trying to fix damaged power lines before the next storm hits.
The snowbound U.S. Senate met only for a few minutes Monday, and the House called off floor votes on Tuesday.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, wearing a V-neck sweater over his usual shirt and tie, said it was difficult to make it to work on snow-clogged streets and the subway system was running on a limited basis.
Planes weren't the only way out of town. Union Station was bustling with long lines as many passengers decided to try Amtrak after flights were canceled.
Manuel Bernardo, 30, of Bethesda, Md., was on his way to Barcelona, Spain. He bought a ticket to New York and was hoping to make it there in time to catch his flight to Madrid.
"Until this morning, I was happy as pie, because I love snow," he said.
In Falls Church, Va., a Washington suburb, Jeff Patmore, 43, was trying to get his Jeep out. The State Department employee's family was running low on supplies - particularly milk for his three young children.
Patmore attempted a grocery run Saturday, but didn't make it far.
"I thought my car could do anything, and I was wrong," he said. "My wonderful neighbors dug me out, and I limped back with my pride injured but everything else intact."
Greg Ten Eyck, a spokesman for Safeway Inc., said road conditions are making it hard for many stores to restock following the "epic" crowds before last week's storm.
A new wave of cold residents was checking into the Hilton in Silver Spring, including Bill and Ann Hilliard and their two elderly cats. Temperatures in their powerless home had dropped into the 40s and with another foot of snow forecast, they didn't want to stay home.
Ann Hilliard recently had part of her leg amputated and their neighbors helped them out of the neighborhood.
"There was no way to get her out otherwise," he said.
---
Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Laurie Kellman and Nafeesa Syeed in Washington; Sarah Karush in Falls Church, Va.; Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md.; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa.; Tom Breen in Charleston, W.Va.; Joann Loviglio in Philadelphia and Sarah Brumfield and Stephanie Stoughton in Silver Spring, Md., contributed to this story.
'Prewashed' Salads May Need Another Rinse
Consumer Reports Analysis Finds Bacteria in Packaged Green Salads
By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Feb. 3, 2010 -- Those "prewashed" and "triple-washed" bagged salad greens in the produce section of the supermarket may not be as clean as you think.
In a new investigation from the Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, high levels of bacteria commonly linked to poor sanitation and fecal contamination were found in many of the sampled packaged salads.
The bacteria did not pose a health risk to the public, but their presence indicated a higher likelihood of contamination with rare but potentially deadly pathogens like E. coli and salmonella, Consumers Union senior scientist Michael Hansen, PhD, tells WebMD.
An E. coli outbreak in the fall of 2006 traced to packaged fresh spinach killed three people and hospitalized more than 100.
The cause of the contamination was never confirmed, but the E. coli is widely believed to have reached the spinach through groundwater that contained the feces of cattle and pigs.
Oldest Produce Had Most Bacteria
Consumer Reports investigators sampled 208 packaged salads, representing 16 brands purchased last summer in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. The salads were sold in either bags or plastic clamshell containers.
They found that 39% of the samples contained more than 10,000 "most probable number" per gram -- a measure of total coliforms, which are bacteria associated with fecal contamination. And 23% had more than 10,000 colony forming units (CFU) per gram of the bacterium enterococcus.
According to the report, experts contacted by Consumer Reports considered these levels unacceptable.
Bacteria levels varied widely, with some samples containing undetectable levels and others containing more than 1 million CFUs per gram, Hansen says.
Among the other findings:
Packaged produce tested at least six days from their use-by date tended to have lower levels of the bacteria than produce tested within five days of the use-by date.
Salad mixes that included spinach tended to have higher bacteria levels than those without spinach.
Contamination levels were similar whether the produce was packaged in a bag or clamshell container. And samples labeled "organic" were just as likely to have high levels of the bacteria as other samples.
Little difference was seen in bacteria levels between larger, nationally distributed brands and smaller, regional brands. All brands with more than four samples had at least one package with relatively high levels of total coliforms or enterococcus.
Hansen says consumers should look for products that are at least six days from their use-by date when buying packaged salad products.
And products labeled "prewashed" or "triple-washed" should be washed again, even though this probably won't remove all bacteria, he says.
The report was made public online this week and it appears in the March issue of Consumer Reports.
Produce Industry Responds
Packaged salad products exploded onto the market in the early 1990s and in less than two decades sales have climbed to almost $3 billion a year.
Produce Industry Responds continued...
The produce industry responded to the article in Consumer Reports by stressing that the bacteria found by the investigators posed no risk to the public.
"Consumer Union found only harmless, naturally occurring bacteria, for which no detection standards have been established by the federal government," reads a joint written statement from the Produce Marketing Association and the United Fresh Produce Association.
The trade groups also called on Congress to pass comprehensive food safety reform and adequately fund the FDA to ensure the agency can "fulfill its mission to safeguard consumers."
"The produce industry is committed to providing safe and healthy foods, every bite, every time," the statement reads. "Our growers are often the first to eat the foods we sell, and they understand the importance of maintaining consumer confidence. The industry has already invested tens of millions of dollars in food safety programs, and related research."
A spokesman for Chiquita Brands, which markets the Fresh Express line of packaged salads, also emphasizes that the bacteria found in the investigation are considered harmless to humans.
Experts, such as the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods, do not consider the presence of coliforms as an accurate indicator of a health concern in fresh produce, Chiquita Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Ed Loyd tells WebMD in a written statement. Specifically, the publication fully acknowledged that no pathogens were present in any of the salad samples.
Loyd writes that Chiquitas food safety practices exceed industry standards and government guidelines.
The Senate is considering a food safety reform bill that would require the FDA to develop safety standards for the growing and processing of fresh produce. The reform would also require the agency to declare acceptable levels of specific bacteria in packaged products.
Nurse Whistle-Blower Charged for Reporting Doctor .
by BDB
Nurse Whistle-Blower Charged for Reporting Doctor
Texas Nurse Fired After Sheriff Seizes Computer and Finds Letter of Complaint
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Feb. 9, 2010
When veteran nurse Anne Mitchell wrote a confidential letter last year to the Texas Medical Board, complaining about a doctor she thought practiced shoddy medicine, she assumed it would be anonymous.
A Texas nurse wrote an anonymous letter accusing a doctor.
Instead, Dr. Rolando Arafiles Jr. fired her after reporting her to the local sheriff -- a former patient and admirer of the doctor -- for maliciously ruining his reputation.
Police in Kermit, Texas, searched Mitchell's computer and found the letter, then charged her with "misuse of official information" in her role at Winkler Memorial Hospital, a third-degree felony in Texas under an abuse-of-power statute.
Today, 52 and out of work, Mitchell could face 10 years in prison for doing what she believed was her obligation under the law -- to report unsafe medical practices.
"She's devastated," Mitchell's lawyer Brian Carney told "Good Morning America." "It has hurt her financially. Personally, it's hard on her family to say that she has done something wrong when, in fact, she has done nothing but do her duty."
"It's simply a matter, as you will see in the trial, of whether or not this reporting was made in good faith," he told "GMA."
The case has been so contentious, setting off friends against each other in this oil and cow town of 5,200 near the New Mexico border, that the trial was moved miles away to a state court in Andrew, Texas, where jury selection was under way Monday.
But it has also sent shock waves around the country, particularly among the state and national nursing associations, which have raised $40,000 for Mitchell's defense. They say they're afraid that if she is found guilty, there will be no watchdogs for unsound or unsafe medicine.
"This would be a true implosion for the nursing profession because nurses may think twice about what they report," said Gwen Agabatekwe, who flew from St. David Medical Center in Austin, Texas, to sit in on the pre-trial hearings on the case for the National Nurses Association last October.
"If they see something that's not right or unsound or unsafe, it's our obligation to report it," said the 54-year-old member of the Texas Nurses Association.
"We are here to protect and serve, much like policemen and firefighters," she told ABCNews.com. "If a professional person is not acting [safely], they need to be called on it."
Charges against Vickilyn Galle, a nurse who helped Mitchell write the letter and was also fired, were dropped by the prosecution last week.
All along, Arafiles has said he was the victim in the case, even though he had been reprimanded several times by the hospital. "I'm the first one to testify today," was all he would say as he entered the courtroom Monday.
Texas Medical Board Chastised Doctor
The board gets 6,000 complaints and investigates about 2,800 of them a year -- at least one of them about Arafiles, who had a contract to oversee medical care at a local weight-loss clinic.
A year before Mitchell's letter in April 2007, the Texas board slapped the doctor with a $1,000 fine and ordered him to complete additional "continuing medical education in the area of ethics, medical records and the treatment of obesity."
Arafiles was also prohibited from supervising physician assistants or advanced nurse practitioners.
According to that order, Arafiles supervised a physician assistant and oversaw the protocol for using phentermine -- an appetite suppressant and amphetamine -- for treatment of obesity that can cause hypertension.
The board said that he only spent 5 percent of his professional time at the clinic and did not "adequately document the physician assistant's efforts to counsel patients, regarding other, healthier treatments for obesity, other than medicine."
But, Arafiles' lawyer insisted, "The town has not heard the whole story."
"The only side of the story that the town has heard is that these are sisters of mercy, missionaries of peace," prosecutor Scott M. Tidwell told the New York Times.
But his father, Jack Tidwell, who practices law with his son in Odessa, Texas, told ABCNews.com, "My son won't be talking to anybody while that trial is going on."
Texas has no laws protecting whistle-blowers like Mitchell, according to Charles Idelson, spokesman for the California Nurses Association, which has been keeping a close eye on the trial. The group has introduced a national bill for such protection; it is being sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
"We did have a similar bill in Texas, but the GOP-dominated legislature killed it last year," Idelson told ABCNews.com. "The Texas legislature only meets for six months every other year and is not in session until 2011, when we will reintroduce whistle-blower protection."
New International Version
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
King James Version
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
1825 The U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. No candidate had received a majority of electoral votes.
1861 Jefferson Davis, a congressman from Mississippi, is elected as the first president of the Confederate States of America.
1895 Volley Ball was invented by W.G. Morgan.
1932 America entered the 2-man bobsled competition for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games held at Lake Placid, NY.
1942 Daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the U.S.
1953 The movie Superman premiered.
1960 The first star was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was for Joanne Woodward.
1963 The Boeing 727 takes to the air for the first time. Over 1,830 of these planes will be built through 1984, when production will stop in order for Boeing to begin building larger planes.
1964 The Beatles perform live on The Ed Sullivan Show. Over 73.5 million viewers tune in to the five-song performance.
1968 Planet of the Apes opens in movie theaters for the first time.
1971 The Apollo 14 spacecraft returned to Earth after mankind's third landing on the moon.
1984 NBC Entertainment president, Brandon Tartikoff, gave an interviewer the "10 Commandments for TV Programmers."
1986 Halley's Comet reaches its closest approach to the Sun.
1994 The Hershey Chocolate Company celebrates its 100th birthday.
1997 "The Simpsons" became the longest-running primetime animated series. "The Flintstones" held the record previously.
2001 "Hannibal," the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs", opened in theaters.
If "stupid" were a crime, these "smash and grab" bandits would deserve life!!
There's nothing wrong with sending a bunch of DeKalb civil servants on a junket to Hollywood. The problem is letting them come back.
All of the Michael Jackson "fans" were yelling and screaming "murderer" at Dr. Conrad Murray today but I wonder why no one was screaming and yelling "YOUR KID WAS A DRUG ADDICT, A DOPER" to MJ's parents?
If the cable people would stop making improvements on their service our service would be greatly improved.
Could the CEO of MARTA make an executive decision to put soup kitchens on the trains so that the homeless and panhandlers will leave the rest of us alone! SORRY, BUT WE ARE ALL BROKE!!
Reed says that he doesn't think the reprimands for the 3 firefighters was harsh enough, but in the next breath he says he isn't going to second guess the fire chief's judgement. REALLY?
Hmm - It doesn't seem that MARTA can get anything right these days. I sure would like to meet just one person at MARTA that makes decisions. They are all a bunch of liars.
Gotta love seeing the vent about how hell just froze over right next to the one about all that snow in D.C.
Time to clean house and get some new weather men. All these guys can talk about is more winter storms.
Sleep apnea can be fatal. If Emory can't bother to effectively monitor these patients during their sleep studies, maybe they should't have the clinic.
Every time I see "St Sarah" I have a Fred Sanford moment, I hear "YOU BIG DUMMY!!"
Man 'buried under rubble for four weeks' found alive in Haiti
by Saien
A man who has been pulled alive from the rubble of a marketplace in Port-au-Prince may have been trapped there since the devastating earthquake struck the Haitian capital 28 days ago.
The 28-year-old, identified as Evans Muncie, was found under the remains of the Croix Bossal market where he sold rice. He had not been seen since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake levelled the city on January 12, killing over 200,000 people.
Mr Muncie was discovered by people who had been digging at the marketplace. He was taken to an American field hospital in Port-au-Prince where he was treated for severe dehydration and malnutrition.
Doctors said Mr Muncie was very disorientated and at times thought he was still under the rubble while he was being treated at the tent hospital.
It could not be confirmed exactly how long Mr Muncie was trapped but his family said he had been missing since January 12.
His mother said: "I thought he was dead, but God kept him from dying."
Dr Mike Connelly told CNN, the American news network: "He was emaciated. He hadn't had anything in quite some time. He had open wounds that were festering on both of his feet."
According to CNN, Mr Muncie told doctors that somebody in a white coat had occasionally brought him water, however it is not known whether he had been hallucinating.
He also said he could hear bulldozers around him working to demolish damaged buildings while he lay underneath the rubble near by.
Dr Connelly said Mr Muncie must have had access to water to have survived the entire four weeks trapped under a building.
"Initially, I'm sure he had his senses with him, so maybe he was able to find some kind of resources," Dr Connelly told CNN.
The US network showed photographs of Mr Muncie being treated by doctors.
Despite the Haitian Government calling for an end to search and rescue operations on January 23, survivors continued to be pulled from the rubble in the following days.
A group of 40-year-old buddies discuss and discuss where they should meet for dinner. Finally it is agreed upon that they should meet at Gasthaus Gutenberger restaurant because the waitress's there have low cut blouses and nice breasts.
10 years later, at 50 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed upon that they should meet at the Gasthaus Gutenberger because the food there is very good and the wine selection is good also.
10 years later at 60 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed upon that they should meet at the Gasthaus Gutenberger because they can eat there in peace and quiet and the restaurant is smoke free.
10 years later, at 70 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed upon that they should meet at the Gasthaus Gutenberger because the restaurant is wheel chair accessible and they even have an elevator.
10 years later, at 80 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed upon that they should meet at the Gasthaus Gutenberger because that would be a great idea because they have never been there before.
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