Month: August 2024

A third person has died and over 40 people have been hospitalized in a multi-state listeria food poisoning outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meats. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (‘CDC’ ) said in a press release Thursday that the three deaths have been in Illinois, New Jersey, and the latest in Virginia.

According to new numbers released by the CDC, nine more illnesses have been reported since the last update on July 31, bringing the total number of sickened patients from the outbreak to 43 across 13 states. The agency noted the true number of sick people is likely higher as all the documented ill patients were hospitalized, and some people may recover without medical care. The ill patients ranged from 32 to 94 years in age, with a median age of 77.

The CDC said in a statement Thursday: “Epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback data show that meats sliced at deli counters, including Boar’s Head brand liverwurst, are contaminated with Listeria and are making people sick.”  The CDC said that the Maryland Department of Health and Baltimore City Health Department collected an unopened Boar’s Head liverwurst product from a retail store and identified Listeria monocytogenes. Additionally, a New York State Food Laboratory identified the bacteria from a previously collected sample of unopened Boar’s Head Liverwurst products collected from retail stores. Authorities determined both to be the same strain as the strain making people sick in this outbreak.

The CDC said a majority of patients interviewed by state and local public health officials reported in interviews to eating a variety of meats sliced at deli counters in the month prior to falling ill. Of 33 patients asked if they ate liverwurst, 55% said they ate deli-sliced liverwurst before getting sick and 13 reported eating Boar’s Head brand.

Boar’s Head recalled 7 million pounds of deli meats on July 30, expanding an initial recall on July 25 after a liverwurst sample collected by health officials in Maryland tested positive for listeria. The Boar’s Head recall includes over 70 products — including liverwurst, ham, beef salami and bologna — made at the company’s plant in Jarratt, Virginia, which was distributed to stores nationwide and the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama.  Boar’s Head already faces two lawsuits over the outbreak, one in a Missouri court and the other a class action suit in federal court in New York.

According to the Mayo Clinic, isteria infection is a food borne bacterial illness, most commonly caused by eating improperly processed deli meats and unpasteurized milk products. Symptoms usually appear within two weeks of eating contaminated food, and include fever, muscle aches, tiredness, stiff neck and confusion. In severe cases, the bacteria may cause a blood infection or meningitis. The infection is dangerous for those who are older, with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women, and those who fall into such categories are advised by the CDC to avoid deli meats. It’s the third-leading cause of death from food poisoning in the U.S.

Consumers should not eat the recalled meats and should discard them or return them to the store for a refund. Listeria bacteria can survive and grow in the refrigerator, so officials say people who had recalled products should thoroughly clean and sanitize the fridge to prevent contamination.

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Tropical Storm Debby made a second landfall in South Carolina on Thursday, knocking out power to more than 131,000 North Carolina homes and businesses while also causing widespread flooding. Rain from Debby is being blamed for the deaths of at least six people — four in Florida, including two children, and the others in Georgia and North Carolina.

The National Hurricane Center said Debby came ashore near Bulls Bay, South Carolina. Debby was expected to drop an additional 3 to 6 inches of rain — with locally higher amounts — across parts of southeastern North Carolina, brining storm total amounts to as high as 15 inches, the hurricane center said.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper put a state of emergency into effect, and said in a statement: “We expect this storm to continue its slow, gradual approach, bringing multiple days of heavy rainfall and the potential for widespread and severe flash flooding.” According to the governor’s office, more than 350 soldiers and airmen from the North Carolina National Guard have been mobilized, including swift water rescue teams on standby. Other possible impacts include tornadoes as flash floods, overflowing rivers and storm surges.

According to poweroutage.us, 131,948 customers were without power in North Carolina, and in South Carolina 8,406 were without power. The heaviest outages in North Carolina were concentrated in Mecklenburg County, with significant outages in Chatam, Gaston and Forsyth counties.  Downed trees and flooding have blocked roads and taken down power lines in the Charlotte area.

The National Hurricane Center said in a statement: “The combination of storm surge and tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline. Debby is expected to produce an additional 3 to 6 inches of rainfall with locally higher amounts, across portions of southeastern North Carolina leading to maximum storm total amounts as high as 15 inches.”

The storm is expected to keep moving inland, spreading heavy rain and possible flooding all the way up through the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast by the weekend.  Debby was on its way up the East Coast and is expected to weaken and become a tropical depression, according to forecasters. Residents as far north as Vermont are forecast to get several inches of rain this weekend.

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One of the 11 Republicans charged in Arizona’s fake lector scheme during the 2020 election pleaded guilty. Loraine Pellegrino, a Republican activist and the former president of the group Ahwatukee Republican Women who signed a document falsely claiming former President Donald Trump had won Arizona in the 2020 election, has now become the first person to be convicted in the state’s fake elector case.

Arizona Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Richie Taylor said Tuesday that Pellegrino pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false document, while the other charges against her were dismissed. Pellegrino had been facing nine felonies for her role in what Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes said was a conspiracy designed to “prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency.” Court records show Pellegrino was sentenced to unsupervised probation.

Pellegrino and 10 other people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors had met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign the false document. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives. Seventeen other people had been charged in the case, including the 10 other Republicans who had signed a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried Arizona in the 2020 election. Former president Donald Trump, who was indicted for alleged election interference in Georgia, was not charged in the Arizona case, but the indictment referred to him as “unindicted co-conspirator 1.”

Pellegrino’s attorney Joshua Kolsrud said in a statement: “Loraine Pellegrino’s decision to accept a plea to a lesser charge reflects her desire to move forward and put this matter behind her. She has taken full responsibility for her actions, demonstrating her commitment to upholding the law and contributing positively to the community. The sentence of unsupervised probation with community service acknowledges her remorse and willingness to make amends.”

On Monday, former Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, entered a cooperation agreement with prosecutors who have asked for her charges to be dismissed. Ellis also pleaded guilty in Georgia to charges related to her support of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Indicted in the Arizona case were people who posed as fake electors in the state as well as Trump associates Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb and Michael Roman. They were all charged with nine felony counts. Dozens of the fake electors have been criminally charged in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada.

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The estate of a Titanic researcher who was among the five people killed when the Titan submersible imploded while on a deep-dive voyage to the site of the famous shipwreck last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OceanGate -the operator of the tourist submersible that catastrophically failed.

The family of French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday in King County, Washington against OceanGate, saying that the crew experienced “terror and mental anguish” before the disaster and accusing the sub’s operator of gross negligence. Nargeolet was one of five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded during a voyage to the famed Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic in June 2023. There were no survivors aboard the experimental submersible owned by OceanGate, who had sold seats on the vessel for $250,000 each, billing the trip as a chance to “become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes.”

OceanGate CEO and cofounder Stockton Rush was operating the Titan when it imploded; in addition to Rush and Nargeolet, the implosion killed British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.  OceanGate, based in Washington state, has since suspended operations. In the wake of the incident, industry experts were said to have raised serious safety concerns about the project years earlier, even warning in 2018 that OceanGate’s experimental approach to the design of the Titan could lead to potentially “catastrophic” outcomes.

According to the lawsuit, Nargeolet — known as “Mr. Titanic” — participated in 37 dives to the Titanic site, the most of any diver in the world. He was regarded as one of the world’s most knowledgeable people about the famous wreck. Attorneys for his estate said in an emailed statement that the “doomed submersible” had a “troubled history,” and that OceanGate failed to disclose key facts about the vessel and its durability.

According to the lawsuit, the Titan “dropped weights” about 90 minutes into its dive, indicating the team had aborted or attempted to abort the dive: “while the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening. Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying …The crew may well have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan’s hull. The crew lost communications and perhaps power as well. By experts’ reckoning, they would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding.”

The lawsuit also alleges that OceanGate failed to disclose the Titan’s flaws and purposely concealed its shortcomings to Nargeolet, even though he had been designated a member of the vessel’s crew by the company. Nargeolet would not have participated in the voyage if he had been aware of the Titan’s issues, the suit claims.

Tony Buzbee, one of the attorneys for the family of Nargeolet, said in a statement: “The lawsuit alleges serious issues with the Titan submersible. I think it is telling that even though the University of Washington and Boeing had key roles in the design of previous but similar versions of the Titan, both have recently disclaimed any involvement at all in the submersible model that imploded.”

A spokesperson for OceanGate declined to comment on the lawsuit, however court papers state that the defendants must respond to the complaint in the coming weeks.  After the sub’s implosion, the U.S. Coast Guard quickly convened a high-level investigation, which is ongoing. A key public hearing that is part of the investigation is scheduled to take place in September.

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Per CNN, the United States Justice Department said on Tuesday that a Pakistani national with ties to Iran was charged in a foiled plot to assassinate U.S. government officials on American soil, including former President Trump. The FBI investigated the alleged international murder-for-hire plot in the weeks before a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania nearly assassinated Trump at one of his campaign rallies.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a press release announcing the murder-for-hire case: “This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s charges allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook.”

According to court documents unsealed Tuesday, the DOJ said that the Pakistani man, with alleged ties to the Iranian government, was seeking to carry out political assassinations, a case that prompted the US government to increase security for former President Donald Trump and other officials. FBI investigators believe that Trump and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot.

The suspect, identified as Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of traveling to New York City and working with a hit man to carry out the assassinations in late August or early September, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York. Merchant was arrested on July 12 — one day before a gunman narrowly missed killing Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania — while preparing to leave the United States, shortly after he met with purported hitmen who he believed would carry the murders but were actually undercover law enforcement officers. Merchant is currently in federal custody.

Court documents state that Merchant said that he wanted to target individuals in the United States who are “hurting Pakistan and the world, [the] Muslim world,” adding that “these are not just normal people.” As part of the plot, Merchant was seeking men to commit the actual assassinations, a woman to do “reconnaissance,” and around 25 people “who could perform a protest as a distraction after the murder occurred.” Merchant allegedly made plans to leave the U.S. on July 12, but he was intercepted by law enforcement officers, who arrested him and searched his residence.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in Tuesday’s press release: “For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General [Qassem] Soleimani.” [Soleimani was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, in January 2020].

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Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Tuesday, August 6th that she has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her 2024 running mate on the Democratic ticket.

Harris said in a statement posted on social media:  “I am proud to announce that I’ve asked @timwalz to be my running mate. * One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep. It’s personal.  * He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, spending summers working on his family’s farm. His father died of cancer when he was 19, and his family relied on Social Security survivor benefit checks to make ends meet. At 17, he enlisted in the National Guard, serving for 24 years. He used his GI Bill benefits to go to college, and become a teacher. He served as both the football coach and the advisor of the Gay-Straight Alliance. * I share this background both because it’s impressive in its own right, and because you see in no uncertain terms how it informs his record. He worked with Republicans to pass infrastructure investments. He cut taxes for working families. He passed a law to provide paid family and medical leave to Minnesotan families.* He made Minnesota the first state in the country to pass a law providing constitutional abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and as an avid hunter, he passed a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases. * But what impressed me most about Tim is his deep commitment to his family: Gwen, Gus, and Hope. Doug and I look forward to working with him and Gwen to build an administration that reflects our shared values. * Whether you are a supporter, a volunteer, a donor, a member of our staff, or your name is on the ticket: you are part of the people-powered campaign that is going to defeat Donald Trump. * We are going to build a great partnership. We are going to build a great team. We are going to win this election. * So let’s get to work. “

Walz, 60, was part of a rumored shortlist of vice presidential picks that included Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Harris held in-person interviews with Walz, Shapiro and Kelly on Sunday. Other potential VP picks included Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The Minnesota governor wrote on social media after Harris’ announcement: “It is the honor of a lifetime to join [Kamala Harris] in this campaign. I’m all in. Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school. So, let’s get this done, folks!”  Walz is a former teacher, national guardsman and high school football coach who turned to politics in 2006 when he successfully ran for U.S. Congress as a Democrat in a historically Republican district. After 12 years in the House, Walz  won the 2018 Minnesota gubernatorial race.

Walz will hit the campaign trail with Harris for a five-day tour of seven battleground states, which commenced with a stop in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening.

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