FDA Alerts Consumers to Recall of Certain Pistachios

FDA and California Inspectors Identify Salmonella


The FDA and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) are investigating Salmonella contamination in pistachio products sold by Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc, Calif. The company has stopped all distribution of processed pistachios and will issue a voluntary recall involving approximately 1 million pounds of its products. Because the pistachios were used as ingredients in a variety of foods, it is likely this recall will impact many products. In addition, the investigation at the company is ongoing and may lead to additional pistachio product recalls.

The contamination involves multiple strains of Salmonella. Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Thus far, several illnesses have been reported by consumers that may be associated with the pistachios. It is not yet known whether any of the Salmonella strains found in the pistachio products are linked to an outbreak. The FDA is conducting genetic testing of the samples to pursue all links.

FDA is working closely with the pistachio industry and recommends that consumers avoid eating pistachio products until further information is available about the scope of affected products.

FDA will provide a searchable database of affected products at www.fda.gov and will continue to update the public.

FDA first learned of the problem on March 24, when it was informed by Kraft Foods that its Back To Nature Trail Mix was found to be contaminated with Salmonella. Kraft had identified the source of the contamination to be pistachios from Setton and conducted a recall.

High School Students Receive a Message of Strength and Perserverance

ST. JAMES (Smithtown Central school District) - Sarah Reinerstsen recently visited the 11th and 12th grade students at Smithtown High School East. Sarah is an inspirational young motivational speaker. She is a magnetic woman with a potent message of strength and perseverance. Missing her leg above the knee since the age of seven, Sarah has never let that stop her from pursuing her goals no matter how big. She is a woman of spirit, strength and determination who has always any challenge to meet her goal. Sarah is the first female amputee to finish the Ironman Triathlon championships in Kona Hawaii.

National Honor Society Visits Nursing Care Facility

ST. JAMES (Smithtown Central School District) - Members of the Smithtown High School East’s Honor Society recently visited after school with the patients at the Smithtown Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care. The residents were treated to a fantastic concert by the following students: Brian Harte on guitar, Caitlin Marsh on vocals, Jennifer Cohen on flute and vocals, Emily Hittner on flute and vocals, Mitchell Feinberg on piano and vocals, Diane Cho on vocals, and James Brierton and Megan Russ were there for moral support. The visit was organized and supervised by Science teacher Maria Trinkle who is co-advisor for the National Honor Society.

Feds refuse more aid to GM, Chrysler

By Kevin G. Hall

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ President Barack Obama on Monday will reject requests for almost $22 billion in new taxpayer bailout money for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, saying the car makers have failed to take steps to ensure their viability.

The government demanded the resignation of GM chief Rick Wagoner and said the company needed to be widely restructured if it had any hope of survival. It said it would provide the company with 60 days operating capital to give it time to undertake reforms.

The government will grant Chrysler 30 days operating funds, but said it must merge with another carmaker in order to remain viable. Talks with Italian carmaker Fiat are underway.

The administration also announced a warranty-guarantee plan that administration officials hope will give consumers enough confidence that they will continue to buy the companies' vehicles.

GM and Chrysler have already received $17.4 billion in government rescue money. The two companies faced a Tuesday deadline for the government to approve plans they had submitted weeks ago in hopes of persuading the Obama administration they could remain in business and deserved additional money.

But the decision from Obama was no and was accompanied by unusually detailed assessments of the two companies' business plans and prospects.

The administration, however, did not demand repayment of the earlier loans. It also did not completely slam the door on the additional $21.6 billion the carmakers sought, but sent the two back to the drawing board.

A senior administration official, briefing reporters late Sunday night on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, said Obama will call for more sacrifice from carmakers, their investors and automotive unions.

The official said there were encouraging signs the Chrysler merger with Fiat will happen soon. The administration wants this deal to happen, but has tried to avoid too big a stake by Fiat for fear taxpayers would be funding a foreign takeover.

Fiat will commit to produce fuel-efficient cars and engines in the U.S., and will be limited to a 49 percent stake until all taxpayer loans have been repaid. There are no expected leadership changes at Chrysler, given the ongoing merger talks.

Another senior administration official, also demanding anonymity, denied the administration required Wagoner's ouster. But officials acknowledged they wanted a fresh start at GM and Wagoner agreed to step aside. Other executives are also expected to depart.

The government's assessment of Chrysler's prospects was particularly damning. It noted that none of Chrysler's current models were recommended in a recent article by Consumer Reports, and every one of its brands ranked in the lower quartile for quality in an assessment by J.D. Power.

It said the company is too dependent on its truck and SUV business and had only a 3 percent share of the small-car market, even though that segment makes of 21 percent of car sales overall. Noting that Chrysler's strength is in trucks, SUVs and mini-vans, all vehicles with relatively low fuel efficiency, the government said it was unlikely Chrysler would be able to meet new government standards for fuel consumption.

GM too was criticized for being dependent on the sale of trucks and SUVs for its revenue.

The quality of its products also was a concern. While GM has worked hard to improve quality, "lingering consumer perception is that GM makes lower-quality cars . . . which in turn leads to greater discounting, which harms GM's price realizations and depresses profitability."

The government also said GM had not done enough to rid itself of underperforming dealers and its large number of vehicles were a distraction to its management.

The government offered a bleak assessment of the prospects for GM's much heralded Volt electric car, noting GM was a full generation behind Toyota in "green powertrain development."

"While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable," the government assessment said.

Given all that, the government assessment found GM's proposed plan was too optimistic in foreseeing "only a very moderate decline" in market share. GM's market share in the U.S. stood at 45 percent in 1980, dropping to 36 percent by 1990 and 29 percent in 2000. Today, GM's share of the U.S. automarket is approximately 22 percent.

Still, the report concluded the company can be saved if it undertook major restructuring. "It is strongly believed, however, that such a substantial restructuring will lead to a viable GM," he report said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

In their briefing for reporters, administration officials said GM has made no progress in talks with its bondholders. It has about $35 billion in debt, $27 billion of it unsecured and at risk if GM is forced to file for bankruptcy. GM was expected to reduce that amount to $9 billion through a voluntary exchange of bonds for new shares of GM stock.

Bondholders have instead sought government help, officials said, suggesting they are betting there won't be a bankruptcy. Officials, however, did not rule out the possibility of a so-called surgical bankruptcy under which GM could be sent into protection from creditors for a 30-day period after most details had been worked out in advance.

Under normal circumstances, banks would provide the long-term financing to help the two carmakers restructure but these are not normal times. In fact, banks have received hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to stay afloat and the government is the only game left in town.

Chrysler is a smaller company than GM yet it owes banks more than $8 billion and these financially weakened banks are not in a forgiving mood.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Wagoner's departure from GM is surprising given that he has been the public face of the struggling carmaker and has worked at GM at home and abroad since 1977, rising to CEO in 2000.

Wagoner's long tenure saw days of glory, but GM was caught flatfooted as its fleet was heavy with trucks and sports utility vehicles that got weak fuel mileage as rising gasoline prices sent consumers looking for more fuel-efficient vehicles. GM was last profitable in 2004.

Most of the banks receiving government assistance have replaced their top officials, and the administration gains a measure of political cover for its rejection of the auto bailout by bringing in a new team of leaders.

In an interview with the CBS Sunday morning show Face the Nation, Obama hinted that changes were coming for the carmakers.

"We think we can have a successful U.S. auto industry. But it's got to be one that's realistically designed to weather this storm and to emerge at the other end much more lean, mean and competitive than it currently is," Obama told host Bob Schieffer, who asked if the carmakers were there yet. "They're not there yet."

___

© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.

Red River drops below 40 feet, the lowest depth since Thursday

By Bill Mcauliffe, Matt McKinney and Emily Johns

Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

(MCT)

RED RIVER VALLEY _ The Red River dipped below 40 feet for the first time in three days Sunday in Fargo, N.D.-Moorhead, Minn. But a brewing snowstorm, a swamped school and the start of an overwhelming cleanup kept any euphoria in check.

Schools, colleges, many nonessential businesses and area roads remain closed as a new week dawned, with life far from back to normal. The river, at least, was dropping from historic levels.

After a record crest of 40.82 feet early Saturday, the Red had fallen to 39.80 feet by Sunday evening with projections of a steady decline all week.

"Amen. It's a great feeling," said Kyle Norman, a Moorhead resident. "We have said we're going to fight this thing and win, and we did."

Not that their work is close to done. Roger Degerman, who lives in the Horn Park area of Moorhead, dragged water-logged carpeting, furniture and even Christmas ornaments from his soaked basement.

With no trash pickup service expected for days, the huge garbage pile in front of Degerman's home is going nowhere. He worries that the adrenaline-laced volunteer effort might slacken as the cleanup intensifies.

"I think there will be a lot of victories in the cleanup, too," he said, hoping volunteers remain gung-ho.

Another sign that the cleanup has begun: Upstream in Breckenridge, Minn., Wilkin County highway engineer Tom Richels met with FEMA officials to assess more than 300 spots of damaged local roads.

WEATHER: GOOD, BAD, UGLY

Although the area could pick up more than three inches of new snow tonight, continued cold with temperatures in the teens are giving flood fighters at least a short-term break.

"The cold keeps the faucets turned off and allows water in the main stem of the Red, hopefully, to work its way up to Canada before the warm weather returns and ice melts back into the basin," said Scott Dummer, the hydrologist in charge of the North Central River Forecast Center.

Wind gusts up to 35 mph tonight could actually hasten evaporation and help matters. But prolonging flood conditions offsets some of the cold's benefit, Dummer said, because drawing out the high water saturates and stresses levees, dikes and flood walls.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

That's what happened about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, when water tunneled under a flood wall and swamped two buildings at the Oak Grove Lutheran school in Fargo. The school, nearly wiped out by the 1997 floods, had built a metal barrier on one side of the campus to keep out floodwaters.

Neighbors of the school were awakened by automated telephone calls that a dike had failed.

"It was really hard to get the call last night," said Dawn Robson, who lives less than a block away. Her two children are in the eighth and 10th grades at the school.

Several hours after the dike failed, water continued to flow into a performing arts center and gym, prompting the North Dakota National Guard to attempt an aerial sandbag drop to plug the leak. Helicopter pilots unloaded at least nine 1,000 pound bags of sand onto the broken dike.

"I broke down in church this morning," said Robson, who learned that a charity she supports had opened an office in Fargo. "It was just overwhelming to think that now we're on the receiving end."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Many others were overwhelmed with gratitude for all the volunteer help.

"To have such a tremendous sense of community," said Errol Schoenfish, is one of the great lessons of this flood as he thanked the people who came to build a dike around his Briarwood home south of Fargo.

In Moorhead, the dikes held for another day as residents continued what Mayor Mark Voxland called the "vigil" of watching the dikes and keeping up with leaks.

Some residents worried about Moorhead's construction of a secondary dike on S. 8th Street, but Voxland insisted the city isn't expecting the primary dike to fail.

"But that river is moving very fast right now," he said. "And that live movement against the dike wall causes problems."

Moorhead officials said that they have lost five homes to flooding, although they don't have statistics on how many have been lost in Oakport Township, a low-lying area on the north side of Moorhead where "several" homes were flooded, according to city manager Michael Redlinger.

Fargo also reported five homes "inundated," according to public information officer Dan Mahli.

Voxland said he has no idea how much all the disaster preparation has been costing his city. "The checkbook is open," he said, "and we haven't been able to balance it yet."

When the number becomes available, he said, "you'll know, because I'll be extremely pale."

Minnesota has received a federal emergency declaration, which means that the city will have to foot about 25 percent of the bill, although it could end up being less.

To the north, ice jams

Down the Red near Oslo, Minn., a series of ice jams and a 4-mile-long slab of ice have prompted officials to place boxcars on a railroad bridge in hopes that the extra weight will keep the span in its moorings. Using explosives to break the jam has been ruled out for environmental reasons, Minnesota emergency spokesman Doug Neville said.

The ice slab is 18 miles south of Oslo. Officials fear the backup caused by the jams could lift the railroad bridge into the river about 25 miles north of Grand Forks, N.D.

___

(Staff writers Curt Brown and Kevin Giles contributed to this report.)

___

© 2009, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Visit the Star Tribune Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.startribune.com

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

8 dead in N.C. nursing home shooting

By Samantha Thompson Smith, Wade Rawlins and Marti Maguire

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

CARTHAGE, N.C. _ When Michael Cotten pulled into Pinelake Health and Rehab on Sunday to see his aunt, a big man in overalls fired a shotgun at him before he could even park.

The blast Cotten described was apparently the first in a shooting rampage that left seven elderly residents and one staff member dead, Cotten and two others wounded, and the suspected gunman in custody and hospitalized, police said.

The shootings took place at about 10 a.m. at the facility, located at 801 Pinehurt Ave. in Carthage, N.C., about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh.

"As I was pulling into the parking lot, he started shooting my vehicle before I came to a stop," said Cotten, 53, a food-bank outreach coordinator and retired corrections assistant superintendent.

Police identified the suspect as Robert Stewart, 45, of Moore County, N.C., who faces eight counts of first-degree murder.

District Attorney Maureen Krueger identified the dead as: Tessie Garner, 88; Lillian Dunn, 89; Jesse Musser, 88; John Goldston, 78; Margaret Johnson, 89; Louise Decker, 98; Bessie Hendrick, 78; and Jerry Avent, age not given.

Stewart's estranged wife, Wanda Luck, worked as a certified nurse assistant at the nursing home, according to Mark Barnett, a neighbor of Wanda's parents. Barnett said she was working at the facility at the time of the shooting on Sunday. She was not listed as one of the victims in the shooting.

"This is a tragedy beyond comprehension for Moore County," said State Sen. Harris Blake, who represents the area.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Blake said Stewart was being transported to a hospital in Wake County Sunday because of security concerns at a local hospital.

"I was told he would be moved to Wake County," Blake said. "He is going to have to have some surgery. Apparently, he got hit with some bullets."

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Police released only limited information Sunday about the shootings. But survivors' accounts recreated a horrifying series of events in which a heavily armed intruder ranged freely through the center, shooting elderly residents, some in wheelchairs.

Resident Ellery Chisholm, 64, said she heard shots and screams coming up the hall when a stout man appeared in her doorway, pointing a gun at her roommate. Chisholm wasn't sure why he turned away and started shooting into the hallway instead of the room.

"I couldn't do nothing," said Chisholm, whose legs have been amputated from the knees down. "He just twisted around and started shooting."

A Carthage police officer, Justin Garner, 25, was shot in the leg during the incident, but he was treated and released from First Health Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst. Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie said Garner confronted Stewart in the hallway of the nursing home. Both men fired. Both were wounded, McKenzie said.

Jerry Avent was a well-liked nurse at Pinelake Rehab.

"Everyone loved him," said resident Helen Olive, 64, and legally blind, who survived the attack by hiding in her shower. "Some of the people here are in their 80s and 90s. He had his whole life."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

HIDING TO SURVIVE

Cotten said he didn't want to die in his car, so between the gunman's second and third shot, he ran for his life into the center.

"I told them there was a gentlemen out in the parking lot shooting and they needed to call 9-1-1," said Cotten, who was wounded in his left shoulder. Then, he went searching for his aunt.

Eventually, the gunman entered the nursing home, too.

Cotten said he sought refuge in one of the interior bathrooms with several other people.

"We closed both doors hoping he wouldn't come in there" he said.

People hiding from the shooter could hear the sounds of chaos, screaming and gunshots. Cotten said he saw an elderly woman and man both shot in their wheelchairs and up the hall another elderly man shot in a wheelchair was he still alive?

"I think it's just divine intervention that I'm still here," Cotten said. "It just wasn't my time."

One victim, Jesse Musser, 88, had moved to the nursing home just six weeks ago, said his daughter, Holly Musser Foster. Jesse Musser, 88, was a retired railroad mechanic, and lived in room 405, at the end of one hall.

Foster's mother, Melba Musser, moved to the home two and a half weeks ago, but was unharmed by the gunman. She was in the Alzheimer's wing, a secure area of the nursing home that is protected with a pass code, Foster said.

"My prayer is that she doesn't know what happened," Foster said.

The Mussers had moved south from southern West Virginia six years ago to live with Foster. Recently, she found she could no longer care for them.

Foster said she typically went to visit her father at the nursing home at lunch every day during the week to be with her dad, who was blind and also had Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Earier in his life, Jesse Musser loved woodworking and was a gunsmith in his free time.

"My daddy could do anything in the world," Foster said. "He could make anything, he could fix anything."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

NO SECURITY

The nursing home has no security staff, but a state regulator said that arrangement was typical of such long-term care centers.

"They are residential facilities," said Jeff Horton, chief executive officer of the state Division of Health Service Regulation. "They are not required to have security and most of them do not have it."

Sunday's shooting at a nursing home is a very rare occurrence, Horton said.

Pinelake Health and Rehab, certified in 1992, earned the highest overall rating of five stars from federal regulators recently, but was downgraded in the area of staffing, getting two out of a possible five stars.

___

(Staff writer Thomas Goldsmith contributed to this report.)

___

© 2009, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.).

Visit The News & Observer online at http://www.newsobserver.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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