Personal Injury Law

So, how does your garden grow?

Posted on July 03, 2009
We have had very warm and dry weather over the last six weeks and the garden has exploded!  We have already eaten lettuce, peas, carrots, beet greens, basil and radishes.  The corn is well over knee high well before the 4th of July.  We will soon be overwhelmed by tomatoes of every color and type...

The Net Tightens Around Retailers Who Received JBS Swift E. coli Meat - 23 Reported Ill in California (4), Maine (1), Michigan (6), Minnesota (1), New Hampshire (1), New Jersey (2), New Mexico (1), New York (1) and Wisconsin (6).

Posted on July 03, 2009
JBS Swift USA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have released a list of retailers that received meat that may have been tainted with E. coli.  JBS Swift USA has recalled more than 420,000 pounds of beef that left the Greeley packing plant in April...

72 People Linked to Nationwide Nestle Cookie Dough E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak

Posted on July 02, 2009
We have been retained by 20 of these linked cases (4 HUS) and have thus far filed suit in 3 cases.  We have not filed any suits this week waiting to see if Nestle will offer to pay the acute phase medical expense and wage loss of its customers.  From the CDC last night: 72 persons infected with a strain of E...

"Hot off the Grill" in Time for 4th of July Weekend - FSIS List of Retail Outlets that Received JBS Swift E. coli Meat

Posted on July 02, 2009
A few days before many of us light up the barbeque, JBS Swift and the FSIS finally publish the list of retailers who received the tainted-meat (click on below). Frankly, the retailer names had trickled out over the last few days as responsible stores alerted thier customers...

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Thank God for Bloggers - USDA Missing In Action - eFoodAlert Fills In Some Recall Blanks

Posted on July 01, 2009
From eFoodAlert: Since USDA hasn't yet posted a retail consignee list for the JBS Swift Beef Company meat recalls, we've decided to pitch in. The following is a list of live links to retail-level recall announcements that were triggered by the JBS Swift recalls...

FSIS, JBS Swift - "Where is the Beef?" Would you Mind Telling the Public Where the E. coli Beef is BEFORE the 4th of July?

Posted on July 01, 2009
The good/bad thing about hitting 50ish, and litigating food poisoning cases for 16 years, is the institutional memory that I have developed regarding bad food and bad commercials. Coming days before the 4th of July barbeque's, JBS Swift Beef Company expanded the approximately 40,000 pounds of 'assorted beef primals' recalled on June 24 to include another approximately 380,000 pounds of 'assorted beef primals" due to E...

California, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Wisconsin Report 23 E. coli O157:H7 Sicknesses Linked to JBS Swift - When will FSIS Release the Names of Stores Where Meat Was Sold?

Posted on July 01, 2009
On June 24, FSIS issued a notice about a recall of 41,280 pounds of beef products from JBS Swift Beef Company that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. On June 28, the recall was expanded to include 380,000 pounds of assorted pieces of beef (beef primal products) from the same company...

FSIS - Follow Your Own Damn Rules and Tell the Public Where the E. coli O157:H7-tainted JBS Swift Meat Went.

Posted on June 30, 2009
On August 18, 2008 after years of hand wringing, the FSIS finally put public health before 'proprietary' business interests when it made the following rule: 9 C.F.R. § 390.10 Availability of Lists of Retail Consignees during Meat or Poultry Product Recalls The Administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service will make publicly available the names and locations of retail consignees of recalled meat or poultry products that the Agency compiles in connection with a recall where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product could cause serious adverse health consequences or death...

Nestle's E. coli Cookie Dough Problem Grows to 72 in 30 States

Posted on June 30, 2009
72 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 30 states. Of these, 51 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test as having the outbreak strain; these confirmatory test results are pending on the others...

Plainview Milk Products Cooperative Recalls Two Years of Various Products Due to Potential Salmonella Contamination

Posted on June 29, 2009
Plainview Milk Products Cooperative, Plainview, Minn., is voluntarily recalling instant nonfat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers, and gums (thickening agents) that it has manufactured over the past two years, because they might be contaminated with Salmonella...

Label Instructions and Cooking Times for Retail Frozen Ground Beef Patties

Posted on June 29, 2009
We were proud to support the research on this important topic.  Click below to download.

Thirty-Two Years Later

Posted on June 29, 2009
A dear friend, and former campaign staffer (I had one) sent me the below flyer (only did one) when I ran and was elected to the Pullman City Council in 1977 by 63 votes!  I was 19 years old.  I have not changed much at all. Of course, I do know it is not effect, but affect.

ABC Brian Hartman Reports - "Smoking Gun" Found in Nestle Cookie Dough E. coli Scare

Posted on June 29, 2009
Brian Hartman of ABC reports that FDA investigators today found E. coli O157:H7 at the plant in Danville, Virginia where Nestle makes Toll House Cookie Dough. The bacteria, according to an FDA official, was found at the plant in an unopened package of raw chocolate chip cookie dough...

JBS Swift Beef Company Expands Recall of Beef Products Due To E. coli O157:H7 Contamination - 24 Illnesses in Multiple States Appear Linked.

Posted on June 28, 2009
Recall Release CLASS I RECALL FSIS-RC-034-2009 HEALTH RISK: HIGH Well, I was right to speculate a few days ago that the June 24 recall of JBS Swift meat might well be related to illnesses.  It seems like "E. coli O157:H7 Season is Nearly Upon Us - Will it be 2005 and 2006 or 2007 and 2008?" FSIS just announced that JBS Swift Beef Company, a Greeley, Colorado is voluntarily expanding its June 24 recall to include approximately 380,000 pounds of assorted beef primal products that may be contaminated with E...

Are JBS Swift E. coli Recalls Linked to Illnesses in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin? Canada?

Posted on June 28, 2009
Sometime in the early hours of June 28, JBS Swift Beef Company expanded the approximately 40,000 pounds of 'assorted beef primals' recalled on June 24 to include another approximately 380,000 pounds of 'assorted beef primals" due to E. coli O157:H7 contamination...

William Marler Opinion - Sellers of E. coli - Stop Blaming the Victims

Posted on June 27, 2009
'It was not the failure of the cookie dough manufacturer for not keeping cattle feces (E. coli) out of cookie dough that sickened the child, it is the fault of the parent who allowed the child to eat the dough.' I have received several calls and emails like the above over the last few days as the country has been ensnared once again in a nationwide recall – this time cookie dough – that has sickened at least 69 in 30 States – mostly people (girls) under the age of 18...

Who Poisoned the Cookie Dough?

Posted on June 27, 2009
What if the cookie dough E. coli outbreak actually happened this way? At 10:00 PM last night between yet another story about Michael Jackson's death, a foreign Network begin airing a video taken inside a manufacturing facility showing someone treating a batch of cookie dough with an unknown liquid...

When Jane Zhang of the Wall Street Journal Weighs into Nestlé E. coli Cookie Dough Case Businesses and Government Need to Pay Attention

Posted on June 26, 2009
I spent time yesterday visiting with a feisty '50 something' woman and her adoring husband in a Nevada hospital as she spent her 50th day hospitalized with severe complication of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome from an E. coli O157:H7 infection linked directly to Nestlé Cookie Dough...

Nestle Cookie Dough Plant Inspection Reports - Click to Download

Posted on June 26, 2009
Tip 'o the pen to WSJ.

It is Time to Fight For Food Safety Now

Posted on June 26, 2009
Dear Food Safety Community, Legislation that would help FDA manage its food safety responsibilities is headed to the floor of the House. The bill has a HACCP-type system as its center piece. However, a small group, led by the Weston A. Price Foundation and other advocates of raw milk, are leading a very effective internet campaign to oppose the legislation...

69 Ill in 29 States with E. coli O157:H7 Linked to Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough - 34 Hospitalized - 9 with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome

Posted on June 26, 2009
69 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 29 states. Of these, 46 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test as having the outbreak strain; these confirmatory test results are pending on the others...

Genetic Fingerprinting - PFGE and MLVA - Scientists Expand Testing Methodology to Distinguish Cookie Dough E. coli Illness Cases

Posted on June 26, 2009
The CDC has confirmed that 69 people, ages 2 to 67, are linked to an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to the consumption of refrigerated Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough. The links are both the food histories as well as the discovery of the outbreak strain of the E...

Culver City firm recalls alfalfa sprouts because of possible salmonella risk

Posted on June 25, 2009
Alfalfa sprouts products sold in Southern California Gelson's and Whole Foods Market grocery stores were recalled today by the California Department of Public Health because of possible salmonella contamination. Mark Horton, director of the CDPH, warned consumers not to eat certain Kowalke Organics' alfalfa products with sell-by dates between June 18 and June 30...

Some PR Advise to Nestle - Pay the E. coli Victims Medical Bills and Lost Wages

Posted on June 25, 2009
I know I sound a bit like a broken record asking yet another company to step up and admit they have a problem, pay the victims' medical bills and lost wages, and then focus on how the problem happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again. True, it will not completely prevent then from being sued to both uncover why the outbreak happened and to deal with the suffering of the victims and the need for possible future medical expenses that might well include life time monitoring, kidney dialysis and transplant, but it certainly will not hurt...

Orca Distribution May Have Repacked Recalled Salmonella Pistachios

Posted on June 25, 2009
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned consumers not to eat two brands of pistachios repacked by Orca Distribution West Inc. of Anaheim, California. The brands are: * California Prime Produce * Orange County Orchards The pistachios may be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems...

Summons Issued in Second Nestles Toll House Cookie Dough E. coli O57:H7 Outbreak

Posted on June 24, 2009

Food Poisoning Seems to Never Rest

Posted on June 24, 2009
Still in Atlanta at the National Environmental Health Association Conference on my way home (or not) in a few hours.  In between doing a mock deposition of a Health Inspector, I had time to talk to California, Minnesota and Oregon press about the state of Food Poisonings - specifically E...

Marler Clark Files Third Lawsuit in Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough E. coli Outbreak - Lawsuits Now in California, Colorado and Washington

Posted on June 24, 2009
Cause No. C09-05337RBL

Civil Eats - Dear Mr. President and Secretary Vilsack Calling for Real Food Safety Reform: Bill Marler for FSIS

Posted on June 24, 2009
Just Posted on Civil Eats Just when America thought it was safe to go back into the grocery store, another food outbreak wakes us up to the fact that there is something seriously wrong with our food safety system. This time it's Nestle Toll House cookie dough with E...

List of Nestles Toll House Cookie and Brownie Dough Products Voluntarily Recalled Because of E. coli O157:H7 Risk

Posted on June 24, 2009
Nestlé Toll House Cookie & Brownie Dough Product Description Consumer Unit Code (UPC)   COOKIE & BROWNIE DOUGH BAR Chocolate Chip bar 16...

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