In brief: Chicken with link to salmonella recalled
LOS ANGELES – A California chicken producer has issued its first recall since being linked to an outbreak of an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella that has been making people sick for more than a year, company and federal food officials said Thursday night.
The U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture said it has found evidence directly linking Foster Farms boneless-skinless chicken breast to a case of salmonella Heidelberg, an antibiotic-resistant strain of the disease that has sickened more than 500 people in the past 16 months and led to pressure from food safety advocates for federal action against the company.
As a result, Foster Farms issued a recall for 170 chicken products that came from its Fresno facilities in March.
The USDA said its investigators first learned of the salmonella case on June 23, and the recall was issued as soon as the direct link was confirmed. The location of the case and identity of the person were not released.
Foster Farms said the products have “use or freeze by” dates from March 21 to March 29 and have been distributed to California, Hawaii, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Alaska.
The long list of products in the recall includes drumsticks, thighs, chicken tenders and livers.
Most are sold with the Foster Farms label but some have the labels FoodMaxx, Kroger, Safeway, Savemart, Valbest and Sunland. No fresh products currently in grocery stores are involved.
The USDA said it was working with the company to determine the total amount of chicken affected by the recall.
The company emphasized that the recall was based on a single case and a single product, and that the broad recall was issued in an abundance of caution.
Girl missing from beach; brother rescued
LONG BEACH, Wash. – Authorities say an 11-year-old girl is missing in the Pacific Ocean surf off a southwest Washington beach while her 9-year-old brother was rescued after treading water for about a half hour.
Petty Officer Third Class Jordan Akiyama said a Coast Guard helicopter planned to search for the girl until nightfall.
Coast Guard boats also searched for the child.
Long Beach Police Chief Flint Wright said the children had been wading in the surf when they apparently got caught in a riptide.
He said the children and their mother are from Chimacum on the Olympic Peninsula.
Wright called it “miraculous” that the boy was found alive.
Surf rescue team leader Doug Knutzen said the boy told rescuers he didn’t know where his sister was.
Knutzen said only the very top of the boy’s face was out of the water when rescuers reached him.
The child was checked at a nearby hospital.
Health plan window opens for some couples
OLYMPIA – Same-sex couples who had their domestic partnerships converted to marriages this week will have two months to sign up for different medical insurance through Washington’s online health plan exchange.
The state opened a special 60-day enrollment window for those couples who were automatically married Monday, a provision in the state law that established same-sex marriage.
Couples who were in domestic partnerships were declared married on June 30 unless at least one partner was 62 or older.
People in those new unions might not have been eligible for coverage as spouses earlier this year when the Washington HealthPlanFinder had open enrollment for state residents under the Affordable Care Act.
The next statewide open enrollment period doesn’t start until Nov. 15.
The conversion of the domestic partnerships to marriage will be considered a “qualifying life event” that allows for a special 60-day enrollment period, just as individual marriages are throughout the year, the state said Thursday.
Through Aug. 28, former domestic partners declared married on Monday can apply for insurance at wahealthplanfinder.org, and if eligible for a qualified health plan will be helped through the steps to sign up.