E. coli forces Chipotle to close 43 locations
SEATTLE – Chipotle closed 43 of its Pacific Northwest locations after the chain’s third foodborne illness this year sickened about two dozen people – prompting renewed scrutiny of a company that touts its use of fresh ingredients.
Cases of the bacterial illness were traced to six of restaurants, but the company voluntarily closed down all of its locations in Washington and the Portland, Oregon, area as a precaution.
Three people in the Portland area and 19 people in western Washington have gotten sick with E. coli as of Friday. Seventeen of them had eaten at a Chipotle restaurant during the past few weeks. Eight people have been hospitalized but no deaths have been reported.
Ryan has Dennis Hastert portrait taken from hallway
WASHINGTON – New Speaker Paul Ryan has had a portrait of Dennis Hastert removed from a hallway outside the House chamber, just days after the former speaker pleaded guilty to breaking banking laws in a hush-money scheme.
The painting of Hastert, R-Ill., had hung for years in the Speaker’s Lobby. That lobby’s walls are adorned with portraits of 22 former speakers, with another 28 hanging in corridors and stairwells just outside the lobby.
Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said, “The speaker believed it was appropriate to rotate in a different portrait.”
EPA claims VW cheated on emissions tests again
WASHINGTON – The Volkswagen emissions scandal widened Monday when the U.S. government accused the German automaker of cheating for a second time. Although VW denied the charge, it faced the prospect of steeper fines and lost sales, as well as more intense scrutiny from disbelieving U.S. lawmakers.
The Environmental Protection Agency, along with the California Air Resources Board, said Volkswagen installed software on thousands of Audi, Porsche and VW cars with six-cylinder diesel engines that allowed them to emit fewer pollutants during tests than in real-world driving. The previous revelations of cheating involved four-cylinder diesels in smaller cars.
U.S. regulators continue to tell owners of all the affected cars they are safe to drive, even as they emit nitrogen oxide, a contributor to smog and respiratory problems, in amounts that exceed EPA standards – up to nine times above accepted levels in the six-cylinder engines and up to 40 times in the four-cylinders.
Volkswagen denied that software was installed on the larger diesels to change the emissions values “in any impermissible way.”
Activists: Russian jets hit Syria’s historic Palmyra
BEIRUT – Russian warplanes bombed the outskirts of Islamic State-held Palmyra on Monday, sending smoke rising out of an area that includes a historic castle overlooking the Syrian city’s Roman ruins, activists said.
An activist in Palmyra who goes by the name Nasser al-Thaer said at least eight airstrikes struck the area of the Islamic-era castle, sending smoke and clouds of dust rising from the hill where the castle is located. An earlier round of airstrikes on Sunday hit behind the castle, al-Thaer told The Associated Press in a series of telephone messages.
Associated Press
