California meat packing firm recalls 143M pounds of beef
Sunday, February 17, 2008 I am dismayed at the in-humane handling of cattle that has resulted in the violation of food safety regulations at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company. In a press release today, California-based Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. indicated that it has voluntarily recalled just over 143 million pounds (65 million kilograms) of raw and frozen beef products, which is considered to be the largest single recall of beef products in U.S. history. The move follows an investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) into allegations of animal cruelty and mishandling of cattle destined for the human food chain. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) had determined that beef products produced by the Chino, California company were unfit for human consumption as the cattle had not received “complete and proper inspection.” The recall has been designated as Class II, which the USDA describes as “a…
NYSE to merge with Archipelago; NASDAQ to buy Instinet
Sunday, April 24, 2005 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced last Wednesday that it has agreed definitively to merge with Chicago-based Archipelago Exchange (ArcaEx) and form a new publicly traded, for-profit company known as NYSE Group. This announcement was followed two days later by NASDAQ®, which independently announced a definitive agreement to purchase Instinet Group. Archipelago and Instinet are innovative e-trading (electronic trading) companies, and formerly were the two largest American rivals to NYSE and NASDAQ, in recent years taking increasingly large portions of their market share. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulatory agencies still have to review and approve the transactions, particularly with respect to US securities law and antitrust law, in order to ensure that the marketplace remains lawful and competitive. Other pending issues for NASDAQ include obtaining the approval of Instinet shareholders, as well as customary closing conditions. NYSE must obtain the approval of…
Tennis: Nadal withdraws from Paris Masters, suffers from knee injury
Saturday, November 4, 2017 Yesterday, Spanish tennis player and world number 1 ranked Rafael Nadal withdrew from the ATP Paris Masters suffering from a knee injury. Nadal decided to leave the tournament in Paris for a flare-up of a right knee injury during the third round match against Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in the Paris tournament. Nadal, who played the third set wearing a knee strap, said “the pain during the match was too much.” The “King of Clay” said he would consult a doctor. Last year, Nadal withdrew from French Open suffering from a wrist injury. He missed significant time from the tennis season last year, but this year, Nadal became the first person to win a particular Grand Slam on ten occasions in the open era, winning the French Open for a record tenth time. He also won the US Open, his sixteenth grand slam title, but lost to…
Six miners trapped in Utah mine after possible earthquake
Monday, August 6, 2007 At least six miners are trapped approximately 1700 feet underground in a coal mine in Utah after portions of the shaft collapsed. The mine is owned by Utah American Energy and is close to the town of Huntington, Emery County, 160 km south of Salt Lake City. Robert Murray, The CEO, President, Director and owner of Murray Energy and the owner of Utah American Energy, said during a press conference at 5:00 p.m. (eastern time), an “earthquake caused the collapse at about 3:00 a.m. (mountain time).” The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded what is allegedly a magnitude 3.9 earthquake at 2:48 a.m. (mountain time) on Monday morning 21 km (13 miles) east, southeast of Mount Pleasant, Utah, but the director of the USGS seismology stations Walter Arabasz, says that no earthquake caused the collapse. Murray states that at least “two mining machines will be brought…
U.S. TV networks look to past for future programming
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Los Angeles, California — Four of six national television broadcast networks recently wooed potential advertisers for the 2005-2006 season with programming offerings in the new development phase. These included NBC, Fox, ABC and The WB. Two other networks, CBS and UPN, plan to preview their offerings March 24. After four years of focusing on high-profile reality television, network executives are turning to the past for inspiration on scripted series. Some networks said they are “more consciously aggressive about developing shows” that recall such classics as Taxi and Barney Miller, Craig Erwich, a programming executive for Fox, told USA Today. In the same report, Kevin Reilly, NBC entertainment chief said, “I don’t think the answer has to be that it’s groundbreaking or something you’ve never seen before.” But at least one ad buyer had reservations about the rear-view mirror technique. “Every network seems to be looking back…