Eideard

A North Carolina produce company has issued a recall for cucumbers because they could be contaminated with salmonella.

Raleigh-based L&M Companies, Inc. said it distributed 1,590 bulk cartons of the cucumbers in question between March 30 and April 7 to New York, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Nebraska. Texas and Wyoming.

The recalled cartons are marked Nature’s Delight and contain the Lot # PL-RID-002990 on the side of the carton. Only this one lot is being recalled.

The nationwide recall Friday came after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration inspectors in mid-April found salmonella on a randomly selected sample of cucumbers in a cooler at Four Seasons Produce of Central Florida.

“Despite the limited direct distribution of the one recalled lot, L&M Companies is issuing a nationwide recall out of an abundance of caution because the company recognizes the possibility that wholesale customers could have redistributed the product in states beyond those listed above,” a company statement said.

Salmonella infection is a common bacterial disease that affects the intestinal tract. People become infected most frequently through contaminated water or food sources. Or cucumbers from North Carolina?

A suspicious white substance in an airplane bathroom?

It could be anthrax, could be explosive residue or — as authorities in California learned Friday — it could be toilet paper.

The white dust appeared in the back lavatory of Alaska Airline’s Flight 508 soon after it took off Friday afternoon from Seattle, said Bobbie Eagan, a spokeswoman for the carrier. Sometime during the 1,000-mile flight, the flight’s crew notified authorities about the unknown substance and asked for help.

Fire department crews, law enforcement officers and hazardous materials experts circled the plane soon after it touched down shortly after 4 p.m. at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus.

The aircraft’s 151 passengers and six crew members deplaned, and authorities climbed on board. They included members of the Orange County Fire Authority, who along with members of the county’s sheriff department tested the suspicious substance.

Capt. Greg McKeown, the fire department’s spokesman, said that authorities eventually determined that white dust actually was a “cellulose paper material” — or, in other words, what appeared to be toilet paper.

Phew. Another critical incident for Homeland Security successfully resolved. Probably only cost how much? $10,000? $20,000? Good thing we can afford all this security, eh?

An Anchorage police officer accused of being an illegal immigrant using a fake identity has been arrested and charged with passport fraud, federal prosecutors said on Friday.

The Anchorage Police Department patrolman known as Rafael Espinoza is in truth a Mexican citizen named Rafael Mora-Lopez, said Karen Loeffler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.

The false identity was discovered after Mora-Lopez, 47, sought renewal of his passport, Loeffler said, and used suspicious information that triggered an investigation by the State Department and other federal agencies.

“We discovered that there were two people using all of the same identifiers,” she said.

Mora-Lopez was arrested on Thursday, immediately after the use of Espinoza’s identity was confirmed, and discharged from his job, Loeffler said.

Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew said Mora-Lopez, posing as Espinoza, passed all background checks when he was hired in 2005, including fingerprint checks. Mew described Mora-Lopez as a “sterling” officer with a good reputation and a “very professional” manner.

Must have been a very “professional” fingerprint check, too.

Thanks, Cinaedh -
Have a lovely – snowy – day in the GWN

Arizona – the Mississippi of the West

One of the most radical offshoots of modern conservatism in the United States is called “tentherism,” which invokes the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment to claim that a whole host of federal government powers are illegitimate, from the operations of the Social Security program to the national highway system, and that states are supreme.

During a speech at the Oceanside Tea Party rally in recent months, Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R) took this philosophy to a new extreme. In the speech, where he denounced the federal government’s efforts to stop the implementation of the state’s radical anti-immigrant law, Pearce claimed that Americans aren’t even citizens of the United States, that they are rather citizens of “sovereign states,” meaning that we should be loyal to the laws of individual states rather than the federal government…

It’s ironic that Pearce says that it’s “time somebody gets its right” with respect to the Constitution — because he doesn’t. While it may not need to be said that Americans are, of course, citizens of the United States, if the Arizona state senator is confused about this issue he could always reference the very document he cites. The 14th Amendment of the constitution lays out very plainly that all people born in the United States are citizens of the United States…

And if Pearce actually read the Constitution, he would also see that it clearly trumps state law and “shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby.”

Like most of the dimwits prancing around under secessionist flags and gun-powered foolishness, these gutless wonders dedicate every chance they get to bad-mouthing democracy and the rule of law – until they need a helping hand. Then the handout becomes their bible until the next election cycle, of course.

A ban on early broadcasting of election results that dates from the 1930s puts Canada on a collision course with social media like Twitter and Facebook, making a scofflaw of anyone who tweets too soon.

Canada goes to the polls on May 2 and critics say the ban — which was introduced in the days when radio was king — is totally unenforceable in an age when millions of people have access to the Internet.

As the law stands, nobody can even tweet election results from Eastern Canada before polls close in the Pacific province of British Columbia up to three hours later. Canada has six time zones…

Newspapers cannot update their websites with early results, broadcasters must stagger their reporting to be sure results go only to parts of the country where the polls have already closed and violators face fines of up to C$25,000.

“This will be unenforceable by Elections Canada, and if they intend to fine everyone on Twitter who breaks the rules they will have a good financial year,” said Eric Grenier of the popular ThreeHundredEight.com political website.

Grenier told Reuters he would play it safe and not start issuing results until the final poll had closed, although it’s not clear whether U.S.-based bloggers will do the same.

RTFA. Have fun on Election Day. I don’t know anyone voting for either wing of the stodgy, corrupt establishment.

Just another flavor of Blackwater-style hired goons

Two whistleblowers will divide nearly a half million dollars following the latest settlement between the Justice Department and independent contracting firms working in Iraq.

DynCorp agreed to pay the U.S. government $7.7 million, and its subcontractor The Sandi Group promised to pay a bit more than $1 million dollars for overcharges they presented to officials, the Justice Department said Friday…

Drew Halldorson and Brian Evancho, both former Sandi Group employees who alerted authorities about the overcharges, will divide $481,710 as their share of the government’s recovery in the case, according to the federal department.

DynCorp was sued for inflated claims involving construction of camps from containers shipped to locations where contractors were able to set up temporary accommodations for fighting forces.

The Sandi Group was sued for improperly seeking reimbursement for “danger pay,” which it falsely claimed to have paid its employees in Iraq, the Justice Department claimed.

“The hard work of stabilizing Iraq is challenging enough without contractors and subcontractors inflating the cost of rebuilding by making false claims at taxpayer expense,” said Assistant Attorney General Tony West.

Good for you, dudes. There is no shortage of creeps and crooks profiteering from American wars – though the Bush/Cheney gang truly set new standards for corruption. It may come as no surprise, there are employers outside the Beltway who will hire honest folks.

Jeffrey Lindberg

Diabetes diagnoses are rising at an even faster rate among dogs and cats than their human companions, according to a national analysis of pet health.

The 2011 “State of Pet Health” report is based on data from more than 2.5 million dogs and cats that visited Banfield Pet Hospital facilities in 43 states.

“This kind of data has never been available before,” Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a veterinarian and chief medical officer for the Banfield Pet Hospital chain, based in Portland. “We want to share it with professionals and pet owners.”

Nationally, diabetes rates increased by nearly a third among dogs in the last four years and by 16 percent among cats. It is much more common among cats. By comparison, human diagnoses of diabetes rose 10 percent over the same period.

The surprisingly high incidence of diabetes, he said, stems in part from rising rates of obesity.

“We have increasing obesity in dogs and cats, just like in humans. It’s no mystery how that occurs: overfeeding and lack of exercise.”

Folks continue to feed their pets the same crappy food they eat themselves – and too much of it, just as they do to themselves. And skip on exercising their pets because, after all, you might have to accompany your critter on that walk, right?

At least 24 Filipinos were nailed to crosses to re-enact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a Good Friday rite rejected by Catholic church leaders but witnessed by throngs of believers and thousands of tourists.

Ruben Enaje, a 50-year-old sign painter, screamed in pain as villagers dressed as Roman centurions hammered four-inch stainless steel nails through his palms and set him aloft on a cross under a brutal sun in San Pedro Cutud in Pampanga.

It was Enaje’s 25th crucifixion. He says surviving nearly unscathed when he fell from a three-story building in 1985 prompted him to observe the rite.

“Not a bone in my body was broken when I fell from that building,” Enaje said. “It was a miracle.”

Ahead of the cross nailings, throngs of penitents walked several miles through village streets and beat their bare backs with sharp bamboo sticks and pieces of wood, sometimes splashing spectators with blood. Some participants opened cuts in the penitents’ backs using broken glass to ensure the ritual was sufficiently bloody…

The most number of crucifixions were staged beside a rice field in San Pedro Cutud, where 15 men were nailed to crosses, three at a time on a dusty mound as more than 30,000 people, including touristswatched and took pictures. An ambulance stood by and more than 20 tourists fainted or became dizzy in the heat, officials said.

Foreigners have been banned from taking part after an Australian comic was nailed to a cross under a false name a few years ago near Pampanga. Authorities also believe that a Japanese man sought to be crucified as part of a porn film in 1996…

Har!

Police in India are investigating claims by bank staff that termites had ‘eaten’ more than £130,000 in rupee notes from a strong room in a State Bank of India branch.

Local officials initially sought to cover up the loss, but the disappearance of more than ten million rupees – known in India as a ‘crore’ – was discovered following the arrival of a new manager.

The notes had been kept in a ‘currency chest’ at the branch in Barabanki district, Uttar Pradesh, and officials were reported to be ‘horrified’ to have found most of them reduced to dust by termites when they inspected the contents.

Senior officials from the state headquarters and local detectives were called in to investigate the claims. Police officers, however, said they have not yet ruled out ‘foul play’ in the disappearance.

The amount missing could turn out to be significantly higher – each ‘currency chest’ usually contains up to 50 ‘Crores’ of rupees – more than £6 million.

Sunil Dwivedi, the branch manager, said the branch had been infested with termites…”I am not sure where the termites came from, but as you can see this building is quite old. Anti-termite treatment is now underway.”

Maybe lie detector testing, checks on sudden purchases of new cars by employees?

The dog-ate-my-homework-excuse hardly ever stands up.