10A NEWS
》 HEALTH
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. President Steve Mendell, center, accompanied by his wife Carol, right, and attorney Asa Hutchinson, left, waits to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, before the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing on federal regulations for food and food safety.
Meat processor admits foul practice
BY ERICA WERNER ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The head of the Southern California slaughterhouse that produced 143 million pounds of recalled beef acknowledged Wednesday that cows too sick to stand at his plant were apparently forced into the nation's food supply in violation of federal rules.
Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. President Steve Mendell made the admission after a congressional panel forced him to watch gruesome undercover video of abuses at his slaughterhouse. Mendell watched red-faced and grim, sometimes resting his head on his hand, as cows were dragged by chains, sprayed in the nostrils with water, shocked and harshly prodded with forklifts to get them into the box where they would be slaughtered.
Afterward Mendell briefly bowed his head, then backed away from claims he'd made in his prepared testimony, delivered under oath, that no ill cows from his plant had entered the food supply.
So-called "downer" cattle have been barred from the food supply since a mad cow disease scare in 2003 because they pose a higher risk for that disease and other illnesses, partly because they often wallow in feces.
The panel's chairman, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., asked Mendell whether it was logical to conclude from the videos that at least two downer cows had entered the nation's food supply.
"That would be logical, yes, sir," Mendell said.
"Has your company ever illegal slaughtered, processed or sold a
downer cow?" Stupak asked.
"I didn't think we had, sir," Mendell said.
Asked about the discrepancy with his written testimony, Mendell said, "I had not seen what I saw here today." He said that the Agriculture Department had not shared with him some of the undercover video shot by the Humane Society of the United States.
Stupak pointed out that the video has been available on the Humane Society Web site.
After Mendell's testimony, his lawyer sought to clarify Mendell's remarks. Asa Hutchinson, a former GOP congressman from Arkansas who once led the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Mendell would not dispute logical conclusions drawn by Stupak about downed cattle illegally entering the food supply.
"But it can't be conclusive because he does not know all the facts of it, he hasn't studied it and he only saw one brief shot at it during his testimony." Hutchinson said.
Mendell was appearing under subpoena before the House Energy and Commerce investigative subcommittee. He was a no-show at a committee hearing last month.
It was Mendell's first public appearance since the undercover video led to his plant's shutdown and last month's beef recall, the largest in U.S. history. The recall stretched back two years, and Agriculture Department officials have said most of the meat has been consumed. Some 50 million pounds of the beef went to federal nutrition programs, mostly school lunches.
No illnesses have been reported, and Agriculture Department officials have insisted there is minimal risk. But Stupak noted that the incubation period for mad cow disease can be a dozen years or more.
Richard Raymond, Agriculture Department undersecretary for food safety, acknowledged "there is that remote possibility" that cases of mad cow could emerge years from now as a result of the Westland/Hallmark practices.
Raymond also said that the Agriculture Department had found evidence of more than the two non-ambulatory cattle shown in videos Wednesday improperly entering the food supply. Even though carcasses also undergo inspection and can be discarded after slaughter, "it's a reasonable statement to assume it did enter commerce, some of it," Raymond said.
Two workers from the Humane Society video were fired and are facing animal cruelty charges from San Bernardino County prosecutors in an ongoing criminal investigation. One of those workers has said he was just following orders while his supervisor has reportedly told police he was under pressure to ensure slaughter of 500 cattle per day.
Mendell said everyone at the plant was under pressure to do their job but that couldn't excuse abuses. He also disputed reports cited by lawmakers that the Humane Society's undercover investigator, who shot the videos with a hidden camera, didn't receive proper training in slaughter practices when he was hired at the plant.
Mendell gave the committee a document signed by the investigator when he was hired acknowledging he'd received the requisite training. The Humane Society has declined to disclose the identity of its investigator, but on the training form he signed his name as Sean Thomas.
MIDDLE EAST U.S. Military death toll in Iraq War nears 4,000
BAGHDAD — Three U.S. soldiers were killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq on Wednesday, bringing to 12 the number of Americans who have been killed in Iraq over the past three days.
With the overall U.S.military death toll in Iraq nearing 4,000, the latest killings mark a significant rise in deadly attacks against Americans.
At least 3,987 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes eight military civilians.
Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, told The Associated Press that three soldiers were killed Wednesday in a rocket attack on Combat Outpost Adder near Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. Two other soldiers were wounded.
The attack came a day after an American soldier died when
a roadside bomb hit his patrol near Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad.
>> COURTS
Eight soldiers were killed in a pair of bomb attacks on Monday, the heaviest single day of U.S. casualties since September.
Three of those soldiers died in a roadside bombing in Diyala, a violent province where al-Qaida in Iraq has been active.
The five others were killed while on foot patrol in central Baghdad. A suicide bomber approached them and detonated his explosives vest.
Demario James Atwater, 21 of Durham, N.C., is escorted into the Hillsborough jail after his bail arraignment in Hillsborough, N.C., on Wednesday. He is charged with first-degree murder of Eve Carson. Carson, the University of North Carolina student body president, was found murdered last week in the streets of an affluent neighborhood in Chapel Hill.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Suspect named in case of slain UNC student president
BY ERIN GARTNER AND
MIKE BAKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Two suspects were charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the killing of the University of North Carolina's student body president.
Demario James Atwater, 21, of Durham, was arrested and ordered to be held without bond. Police said they are still searching for the second suspect, 17-year-old Lawrence Alvin Lovett Jr.
Police in Durham refused to comment, referring all questions
about the standoff to police in Chapel Hill.
Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran declined to say whether Lovett was the subject of an intense police standoff Wednesday afternoon in nearby Durham. City Councilman Eugene Brown said it appears the standoff was resolved without an arrest.
Shackled at the ankle and waist and with a public defender at his side, Atwater whispered "yes" when asked whether he understood the charge against him. His next court appearance was scheduled for March 24.
"I hope the arrest can ease the minds of some in the community." District Attorney Jim木隆all said.
Messages left with the Orange County public defenders office were not returned Wednesday.
Curran would not say which of the suspects shot and killed Eve Carson, 22, of Athens, Ga., who was found a week ago lying on a street about a mile from campus. The biology and political science major had been shot several times, including once in the right temple.
In the day after Carson's death, police focused their investigation
on a suspect pictured in several surveillance photos using her ATM card.
The Board of Trustees at North Carolina offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in her death, and police received hundreds of tips after the first two photos were released over the weekend.
Carson was a prestigious Morehead-Cain scholar at North Carolina, where she was remembered by thousands who gathered Thursday at two campus memorial services. Hundreds of mourners filled the First United Methodist Church in Athens on Sunday at a memorial service in her hometown.
The university said Wednesday that a third memorial service will be held next week at the campus basketball arena.
More than a thousand schools closed due to flu
ASIA
BY MIN LEE
Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG — Hong Kong
ordered more than half a million primary and kindergarten students Wednesday to stay home for two weeks because of a flu outbreak
in one of the world's most densely populated cities.
The government also asked one of its top scientists to investigate the deaths of three children, but the World Health Organization said only two of the children tested positive for the flu, and both had other diseases as well.
The government has ordered all kindergartens, primary and special education schools closed for two weeks starting Thursday, Health Secretary York Chow said. School children — along with teachers and parents — wore masks Wednesday as they walked outside.
The outbreak has not been linked to bird flu, which was detected in birds in Hong Kong. Bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch, but scientists fear the virus that causes it could eventually mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans.
The schools had been expected to start their Easter Holiday in a little over a week, though the date varies with each school. Chow said bringing the holiday forward would help reduce cross-infection among school children and calm public fears.
"When children are at school, it is very hard to keep them still and prevent them from contacting each other. They may not listen to orders and wear masks or wash their hands. This is an effective measure from an infectious disease standpoint," Chow said.
The closure will affect nearly 560,000 students at 1,745 schools, according to enrollment figures from the 2006-2007 academic year
Since March 6, health officials have recorded nine flu outbreaks, mostly at schools.