Free Republic

The husband of a Harlingen woman who became the first American to die of the swine flu virus wants to know if the operators of the pig farm where it is believed that virus originated are responsible for his wife's death. Steven Trunnell filed a petition Monday in Cameron County on behalf of his late wife Judy Dominguez Trunnell, 33, a Mercedes special education teacher, who died May 5 as a result of the H1N1 virus or swine flu. The Mercedes teacher was eight months pregnant when she developed flu-like symptoms. She gave birth by Ceaserean section to a baby...

Grist Magazine online has a must-read story by North Carolina-based food editor Tom Philpott examining a possible link between the outbreak of swine flu and Smithfield Foods of Virginia, the world's largest pork producer and processor. Forty cases of the disease have been confirmed so far in the United States, including two cases in Texas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak of this particular strain of flu, which is caused by virus found in pigs, originated in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where Smithfield subsidiary Granjas Carroll raises about a million hogs a year,...