News Headline

reuters.com — U.S. manufacturers and retailers that get products or components from China are increasingly concerned about quality, intellectual property and rising costs in China, and more are looking at alternate sites, according to a new study. Twenty-six percent said China contributes the most risk to their supply chain, up from 21 percent who said so three months ago, according to AMR Research Inc, a Boston-based market research firm. Other Asia-Pacific countries and the United States were seen as less risky in AMR's quarterly survey. More manufacturers are concerned about labor costs in China and 51 percent cited product quality as a risk, up from 45 percent in the first quarter. More of them are rethinking their China strategy, according to AMR.

Read Full Article »

hosted.ap.org — The Obama White House undid a Bush administration policy that used federal regulations to undermine a wide range of state health, safety and environmental laws. Many of the federal regulations limited the ability of injured consumers to sue companies in state courts. The move involving a policy known as "pre-emption" marks the latest step by President Barack Obama to redo the policies of his predecessor. "When it comes to pre-emption, we're saying no more of their approach," said Kenneth Baer, communications director at the White House Office of Management and Budget. "We're going back to making it clearer and more orderly and more defensible under the law."

Read Full Article »

washingtonpost.com — A Securities and Exchange Commission official attempted "to intimidate and influence" a family member's broker on multiple occasions by invoking her position, potentially violating agency rules, according to the agency's inspector general. The allegation, detailed in a report, is one of several that have raised questions about the internal conduct of some SEC employees at a time when the regulator is trying to counter accusations that it failed to effectively police Wall Street. Another investigation found that some of the agency's enforcement lawyers may have traded the stocks of Citigroup, United Health Group and other firms around the time the agency opened investigations into the companies.

Read Full Article »

usatoday.com — Former top Bush White House aide Karl Rove, who has said he will cooperate with an investigation into the firing of U.S. attorneys, is scheduled to be interviewed by a special prosecutor, a lawyer familiar with the probe says. The investigation is being conducted by a special prosecutor into whether Bush administration officials or congressional Republicans should face criminal charges in the dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. Rove will be questioned by the special prosecutor, Nora Dannehy. Rove and other Republican officials refused to be interviewed in an earlier Justice Department inquiry, which concluded that despite Bush administration denials, political considerations played a part in the firings of as many as four prosecutors.

Read Full Article »

nytimes.com — Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show. Yet the supply chain for ingredients in processed foods — from flavorings to flour to fruits and vegetables — is becoming more complex and global as the drive to keep food costs down intensifies. As a result, almost every element, not just red meat and poultry, is now a potential carrier of pathogens, government and industry officials concede.

Read Full Article »

hosted.ap.org — President Barack Obama is turning to South Carolina's former school superintendent to head an expanded Consumer Product Safety Commission, an embattled agency that has been criticized by advocates for being too cozy with industry. The president was set to propose two more seats on the panel and ask Congress for $107 million to fund the agency charged with ensuring that products from toys and cribs to ATVs and toasters are safe for use. The budget request falls short of the president's campaign pledge to double the agency's funding, although aides say it is almost three-quarters of the way there.

Read Full Article »

usatoday.com — A month ago, three gleaming white trailers — the Food and Drug Administration's $3 million mobile food-safety lab — rolled into a major port of entry for people and goods coming from Mexico. They joined an alphabet soup of federal agencies sifting through millions of tons of goods in search of drugs, guns, invasive plants and tainted foods. The lab represents a new era for the agency in keeping the food supply safe, says Michael Chappell, FDA acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. It is a tool that can be suited up and rolled out to anyplace in the country facing the danger of contaminated food, whether at the hand of terrorists or Mother Nature.

Read Full Article »

msnbc.msn.com — More than two dozen states, including Maryland, as well as the District, have not stocked enough of the emergency supplies of antiviral medications considered necessary to treat victims of swine flu should the outbreak become a full-blown crisis, according to federal records. The medications are part of a national effort to be prepared for a pandemic, and the stockpiling program is being tested for the first time by the rapid spread of the H1N1 strain of the influenza virus. If a health crisis wiped out drug supplies in pharmacies and hospitals, or if families were unable to get to their doctors, local and state officials could quickly distribute stockpiled medications.

Read Full Article »

usatoday.com — Congress stripped nearly $900 million to combat an influenza pandemic from the economic-stimulus package earlier this year as part of last-minute negotiations to gain GOP support for the plan. Now, with the spread of a potentially deadly strain of the swine flu, public-health advocates and liberal bloggers are sharply criticizing the move. Key Democratic lawmakers, including Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, vowed Monday to fight for increased funding in the coming weeks. At the center of the debate: Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who was one of three Republicans to back President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package. She opposed inclusion of the pandemic-preparedness money during a floor debate on the legislation, arguing it would not jump-start the economy.

Read Full Article »

nytimes.com — Congress and the Obama administration have said that more inspections and new food production rules are needed to prevent food-related diseases, but far less attention has been paid to fixing the fractured system by which officials detect and stop ongoing outbreaks. Right now, uncovering which foods have been contaminated is left to a patchwork of more than 3,000 federal, state and local health departments that are, for the most part, poorly financed, poorly trained and disconnected, officials said. The importance of a few epidemiologists in Minnesota demonstrates the problem. If not for the Minnesota Department of Health, the Peanut Corporation of America might still be selling salmonella-laced peanuts, and Dole might still be selling contaminated lettuce — sickening hundreds or thousands more people.

Read Full Article »