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Check food bought at Safeway, FDA says The Associated Press A top Food and Drug Administration official stressed Saturday that the tampering concerns being investigated by his agency and the FBI are limited to Safeway stores in Western Washington. In an interview from Washington, D.C., Peter Pitts, an associate FDA commissioner, said he's "not sure what's being tested and what it's being tested for." But he said food items purchased recently from Safeway stores should be inspected for indications the packaging has been disturbed or "anything that might look unusual to the consumer." Items that might have been tampered with...

Astronomers have been so horrified by press scares over asteroids that they are toning down the scale they use to rate the threat posed in an attempt to discourage journalists from covering potential collisions. The most prominent recent furore involved asteroid QQ47, which briefly had a one-in-a-million chance of crashing into our planet in 2014. Some astronomers even want the way asteroids are assessed to be completely overhauled. The Torino scale, developed in 1999 by Rick Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is used to inform the public about potential impacts. It rates an asteroid's threat on a scale...

Cigarette packs could soon carry distrurbing pictures of cancer-ravaged organs. A new study shows smokers have become immune to current warnings on packets and calls for a radical re-think. It could lead to the use of images pictures of damaged hearts and lungs to push home the 'smoking kills' message. Experts at the Cancer Research UK Centre for Tobacco Control Research in Scotland led the European-wide investigation. Interviews were conducted with 56 focus groups in Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain and Sweden. Participants looked at pre-2001 "small" warnings on cigarette packs and current large "black and white" warnings. The results...

A 10-month-old baby taken to hospital after swallowing what was believed to be an Ecstasy tablet is said to be out of danger. The baby boy has been released from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary after being taken there on Sunday following an incident at a house in Banff, Aberdeenshire. The boy was taken to Banff Police Station by his mother before officers took him to nearby Chalmers Hospital. He was later transferred to the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital at the Royal Infirmary. The procurator fiscal at Banff Sheriff Court is waiting to receive details on a 21-year-old man, who was reported...

A 10-month-old baby is in hospital after swallowing what is believed to be an ecstasy tablet. The baby boy is in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary following after being taken ill at a house in Banff, Aberdeenshire, on Sunday Grampian police say. Police have reported a 21-year-old man to the Procurator Fiscal in connection to the incident, who will decide whether he will face charges. A police spokesman said the alarm was raised when the child's mother took him to Banff police station in the early hours of Sunday morning. Two police officers took the mother and child to Chalmers Hospital in...

Bomb Scare Shuts Down Train Tracks POSTED: 5:54 p.m. PDT June 13, 2003 UPDATED: 6:10 p.m. PDT June 13, 2003 BURBANK, Calif. -- A bomb scare along the Metrolink tracks in Burbank forced the closure of the tracks on Friday afternoon. Police believe someone may have placed dynamite sticks near the tracks. Train service into and from Burbank has been shutdown. The device, described as possible dynamite sticks wrapped together with wires, was reportedly found at approximately 3:30 Friday afternoon. The device was found about 75 feet south of the tracks near the intersection of Vanowen and Buena Vista. The...

With U.S. senators poised to pass the Homeland Security Bill as soon as next week, the Coast Guard could become part of a new 850,000-member agency as soon as mid-January. As written, the bill could eventually change the scope of duties the Coast Guard has performed in the Gulf of Mexico since 1918. But Coast Guard Group Galveston, the command center for Coast Guard activity from Matagorda Bay to Louisiana, doesn’t yet know how becoming part of what would be the largest government agency might effect local operations. “We’re still in the preliminary stages of the development, and it’s too...

THOSE DESPERATE DEMS: NEITHER SCARING SENIORS WITH LIES NOR RUNNING CHILDISH ADS WILL SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY! The Democrats’ Fundraising Cartoon Is Reprehensible. If They Want To Talk About Social Security, They Might Want To Get Their Facts Straight. Offering Up A Plan To Save The System Wouldn’t Hurt Either. __________________________________________________________________ DNC SPOKESWOMAN SHRUGS IT OFF: “If they are objecting to the artwork and not the substance, that’s a problem . . . . It’s a cartoon. Please.” (Maria Cardona As Quoted In Adam Nagourney, “Democrats’ Ad Has Bush Mistreating Elderly,” The New York Times, October 4, 2002) ABC NEWS’ “THE...

IS THE USDA TRYING TO SCARE OFF HUNTERS? MARK A SITY 9/26/02 Last fall Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was discovered for the first time in WI. It has been present in the west for years, but this is the first time it has crossed the Mississippi River. It is a disease very similar to "mad cow disease", only it affects deer instead. Deer hunters (including myself) are very concerned about eating the meat from infected animals. The best known defense for limiting the spread of this disease is to thin the deer population. Having a lot of hunters in the...

Collier Sheriff's Office voids ticket given to medical student Earlier reports from authorities said that Kambiz Butt ran the tollbooth without paying. Thursday, September 19, 2002By BRIGID O'MALLEY, bmomalley@naplesnews.com   The Collier County Sheriff's Office has voided the ticket given to the driver of one of the cars stopped on Alligator Alley last week during a terrorism scare, saying the tollkeeper Wednesday recalled taking the $1.50 from the man. "She was very nervous at the time," said Collier Sheriff Don Hunter. He said the tollbooth attendant, who had earlier given a sworn statement that the driver hadn't paid, had spotted...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. embassies or consulates in Germany, Denmark, Italy and Luxembourg received letters containing white powder on Wednesday, sparking fears of a fresh anthrax attack, a State Department official told Reuters. "Unidentified white powder was received in local mail deliveries," the official said, citing official information received from the embassies in Copenhagen, Luxembourg and Rome and consulates in Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich. "In each case when the white powder was discovered by mission employees, staff notified local authorities who responded immediately and are now evaluating the substance," he said.

McALLEN — Local emergency crews sent four people to the hospital and quarantined at least 70 others for two hours Tuesday in response to what they initially thought was a chemical attack sent via U.S. mail to a local call center. Though powdered mail was thought to be the cause of skin irritation experienced by some employees, sewer gas in the building’s ventilation system was later blamed for the reactions experienced at the site, according to McAllen Fire Chief Anthony Rogers. Employees of offices within the hotels.com building were evacuated from the Internet-based business’ call-receiving site at 1400 S. Jackson...