Month: October 2024

Officials confirmed that 46 people were taken to the hospital for food poisoning in Maryland after an employee brought and shared a homemade meal at work.

According to NAFCO Wholesale Seafood Distributors, where the incident took place, the workers reportedly became ill roughly an hour after eating a noodle dish (per NBC News affiliate WBAL of Baltimore.). The parent company of NAFCO, Stanley Pearlman Enterprises, told the outlet that the food that caused the illness did not come from the facility: “NAFCO operates under the highest health and safety standards in the industry. Our headquarters and facilities are regularly inspected and monitored by the relevant health authorities to ensure compliance with all health and safety regulations.

The Howard County Fire & Rescue said in a press release that it responded Monday at 3:45 p.m. to the 7700 block of Chesapeake Bay Court in Jessup, about 15 miles southwest of Baltimore, on a report of multiple patients with food poisoning after allegedly eating the same food. The 46 adults were evaluated and taken to different area hospitals with noncritical health conditions, and stated: “preliminary indications are that the illness was related to outside food prepared by an employee and shared with others at the facility. At this time, we are not aware of any further illness connected to this incident and believe there is little risk to the larger community.”

The Howard County Health Department said it was working with the Maryland Department of Health to investigate the exact cause of the incident. All 46 who were hospitalized have been released. The Maryland Health Department later posted on X it was “not currently aware of any risk of further illnesses connected to this incident.”

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Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced on Thursday, Oct. 24, that his office will recommended that Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are serving life sentences for the murders of their parents Jose and Kitty more than 30 years ago, be resentenced.

The announcement from Gascón came shortly after nearly two dozen family members of brothers Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53 called for their release from prison; the family also joined Gascón for the announcement at the Hall of Justice in downtown L.A. Gascón, who noted that the brothers have been behind bars for nearly 35 years, said at the news conference: “We are going to recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and they would be sentenced for murder. I believe that they have paid their debt to society. The final decision will be made by the judge.”

A murder sentence would 50 years to life; but because they brothers were both under 26 years old at the time of the crimes they would be eligible for parole immediately. The judge will need to make a final determination if the Menendez brothers should be resentenced, which could possibly lead to their release after decades in prison. The judge is expected to make that determination within 30 days.

Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 when they fatally shot their parents in their Beverly Hills, Calif., home on Aug. 20, 1989.  According to the brothers, the killings were a result of years of sexual abuse by Jose, which they also claimed was ignored by their mother, Kitty. Three years after their first trial ended in a deadlock, the siblings were convicted in 1996 of the first-degree murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The case again gained momentum in May 2023 when attorneys for the brothers filed a habeas corpus petition with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing new evidence — a newly discovered letter Erik wrote to his now-deceased cousin Andy Cano describing his father’s alleged sexual abuse months before the killings; as well as sexual abuse allegations against Jose Menendez by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo. Rosselló claims that Jose Menendez raped him in the 1980s.

The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, told ABC News that the brothers were model prisoners who worked tirelessly while incarcerated to reform themselves with no expectation they’d be released. Gascón said that the brothers focused on “creating groups to deal with how to address untreated trauma, creating groups to deal with other inmates that have physical disabilities and may be treated differently, even in one case, Lyle negotiating for other inmates as to the conditions that they live under during prison. All this was done by two young people. Now they’re not as young. They had no hopes of ever getting out of prison.”

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The president of McDonald’s USA said Wednesday that customers should feel confident ordering from its restaurants as the company seeks to minimize the damage from an E. coli outbreak linked to the chain’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers in multiple states.

Per The Associated Press, the Centers for Disease Control says that at least 49 people in 10 states have gotten sick and one older adult in Colorado has died. Ten people have been hospitalized, including a child who developed a kidney disease called hemolytic uremic syndrome. The CDC opened an investigation on Oct. 15 after the first case of the outbreak occurred on Sept. 27, and Colorado health officials alerted the CDC to an uptick in E. coli cases on Oct. 10. It said infections were reported between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11 in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. One person in Colorado died, with 10 people were hospitalized.

Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, told NBC’s “TODAY” show: “We are very confident that you can go to McDonald’s and enjoy our classics. We took swift action yesterday to remove the Quarter Pounder from our menu. This was swift and decisive action by us,” adding that the company is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Erlinger said: “You know, our founder famously said, ‘If you take care of our customers, the business will take care of itself. And so on a day like today given the news we’ve had over the last 24 hours, that’s really our focus. We’re confident that, that we’ll see our way through this and we’ll restore confidence for the American consumer to come to McDonald’s.”

State and local public health officials interviewed people about the foods they ate in the week before they got sick, and of the 18 interviewed, all reported eating at McDonald’s – with 16 people reported eating a beef hamburger, and twelve reported eating a Quarter Pounder.

McDonald’s said it serves 1 million Quarter Pounders in the affected areas every two weeks, and a preliminary investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggests fresh onions that are served raw on Quarter Pounders were a likely source of contamination. McDonald’s said its initial findings from an investigation point that “a subset of illnesses may be linked to slivered onions used in the Quarter Pounder and sourced by a single supplier that serves three distribution centers” adding that the company is searching for a new regional supplier for fresh onions, with Quarter Pounders being removed from menus in one-fifth of its U.S. restaurants.

Officials say it’s possible more illnesses may be reported, as it takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak. Symptoms of E. coli infection include high fever over 102 degrees, severe stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting.

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Officials say that at least four people were killed and 14 injured in a reported “terrorist attack” at the headquarters of one of Turkey’s top defense companies on Wednesday. Turkish media reported explosions and gunfire from the site around 20 miles north of the country’s capital Ankara.

Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya condemned the attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) facility as “heinous.” The facility manufactures fighter jets and other equipment for NATO’s second largest military after the United States.  Speaking to members of the media, Yerlikaya said four people had been killed, and added that 14 people had been injured, three of whom were in critical condition. Yerlikaya said: “May our martyrs rest in heaven, I wish a speedy recovery to our wounded. Our struggle will continue with determination and resolve until the last terrorist is neutralized.”

There was no immediate information on who might be behind the attack, which comes as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in Russian city of Kazan, where he is attending the BRICS summit along with leaders from other nations from the global south. The incident happened as Erdogan was meeting Vladimir Putin at a summit in Kazan, with the Russian leader expressing his condolences over the attack.  In a statement Wednesday, Erdogan called the incident “a despicable attack” and confirmed that both attackers had been killed — a man and a woman — with Turkish authorities working to identify them.

Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler alleged the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was behind the attack. The Kurdish separatist movement is labeled a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. Güler said in a statement on X.: “We give these PKK scoundrels the punishment they deserve every time, they do not come to their senses. I repeat what I always say, we will not let go of them until the last terrorist is eliminated. NATO stands with our Ally Turkey. We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and are monitoring developments closely.”

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