Taco Bell rules out sources of E. coli
Taco Bell announced Saturday tests have ruled out all its ingredients except one – scallions – as a possible source of a harsh strain of E. coli that has sickened more than 60 people in the Northeast.
The green onions had been pulled from the company’s 5,800 restaurants nationwide on Wednesday after it said preliminary tests showed scallion samples contained the E. coli strain, and it no longer plans to sell them, said Rob Poetsch, a spokesman for the Irvine, Calif.-based company.
Poetsch said samples from the company’s entire menu were collected from multiple restaurants in several states for the independent testing done by Certified Laboratories in Plainview, N.Y.
Scallions from a California farm were considered as the source of the outbreak, although health officials are still investigating. But as a precaution, Taco Bell has switched produce suppliers for the Northeast, even though it has no indication that any of the suppliers were associated with the illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it expected the number of cases to grow. As of Saturday, the agency had counted 61 confirmed cases in five states.
Washington
Congress renews AIDS funding law
AIDS legislation sent to President Bush will shift care and treatment money to rural areas and the South as Congress voted to renew the largest program for people with HIV/AIDS.
The House early Saturday agreed by voice vote to renew the $2.1 billion-annual Ryan White CARE Act. The Senate passed the bill earlier in the week after senators from New York and New Jersey dropped their opposition, accepting a compromise that settled months of dispute just as Congress adjourned for the year.
Lawmakers from some urban areas feared losing money under a five-year renewal of the law. The final deal renews it for three years. That allows earlier reviews of the formulas for distributing money and eliminates the large dollar cuts in the final years that threatened some areas.
Lynchburg, Va.
Randolph-Macon changing its name
Randolph-Macon Woman’s College will change its name to Randolph College when it admits men for the first time next year, officials announced Saturday.
Trustees of the 115-year-old private college voted in September to make the school coeducational, and received more than 1,000 suggestions on a new name.
“We voted unanimously to adopt a name that maintains continuity with our history as well as positions us for our future,” said Jolley Christman, president of the board of trustees. The new name takes effect July 1.
More than 400 were assembled outside Main Hall to hear the announcement, lining up afterward to get free gray T-shirts bearing the new gold seal with black lettering.
The school is going co-ed in an effort to achieve more financial stability, although nine students have filed a lawsuit seeking to delay male enrollment until at least after current freshmen have graduated.