Category: News Daypop

Trader Joe’s has pulled Infinite Herbs-branded basil from its shelves in 29 states after a salmonella outbreak has left 12 people sickened. The grocery store announced the recall April 17 on its website, stating that Infinite Herbs organic basil may have the potential to be contaminated with salmonella. On their website, Trader Joe’s advised customers who purchased Infinite Herbs organic basil during the Feb. 1–April 6 date range to discard the product or return it to any Trader Joe’s store for a full refund.  According to a food safety alert from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the ‘Infinite Herbs’ brand organic basil was sold in 2.5-ounce clamshell-style plastic containers in 29 states due to the risk of salmonella. The CDC reported that the outbreak had sickened at least 12 people in seven states, including one hospitalization, with zero deaths reported so far.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the people who have fallen ill are spread across seven states: Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. The FDA shared on its website that “seven of eight cases with information available reported exposure to fresh organic basil purchased from Trader Joe’s before becoming ill,” adding that Trader Joe’s has already pulled all Infinite Herbs brand organic basil from their store shelves and the product should no longer be available for sale to customers in any stores.  The supplier of the basil is cooperating with the FDA investigation and has agreed to initiate a voluntary recall, the CDC stated.

In a statement posted to its website, Infinite Herbs CEO Grego Berliavsky said the company has voluntarily recalled some 2.5-ounce packages of fresh organic basil sold between February 1 through April 6 with UPC 8 18042 02147 7 because of the potential it could be contaminated with salmonella. Berliavsky wrote: “I am heartbroken at the thought that any item we sold may have caused illness or discomfort. We simply will not rest until we can once again be confident in the safety of this product .. Fresh basil naturally wilts and expires after five to seven days, so we are confident that the recalled basil is no longer available for sale. However, if you have food in your freezer that includes Infinite Herbs organic basil purchased between February 1 and April 6, do not consume it.”  In addition, Berliavsky said that the basil had been sourced from a single farm, which is no longer in production: “We are working with the farmer to conduct an internal investigation of the food safety practices. Through this investigation, our goal is to determine the cause of this recall and apply measures to prevent it from happening again.”

Trader Joe’s said that people who purchased the basil may return it to the store for a refund. Customers can also call Trader Joe’s at (626) 599-3817 or email customer service: here.

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Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, the suspect charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students in November 2022, said in a new court filing that Kohberger has an alibi that will exonerate him in the case.

Kohberger was indicted on charges of murder by a grand jury last May; according to the court filing (reviewed by CNN), Kohberger, 29, claims he was driving in Pullman, Wash., on the night of the murders; and that cellphone tower data will prove he was miles away when the four students were killed. All four victims — Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Ethan Chapin, 20 — were stabbed to death in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022, at their off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho.  Kohberger’s lawyers plan to use cellphone tower data analysis in an effort to prove he was not at the home where the murders happened on Nov. 13, 2022.

Lead defense attorney Anne Taylor said in the filing: “Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars. He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Wash., west of Moscow, Idaho,” adding that the alibi is supported by data from Kohberger’s phone, with numerous photos showing him late at night or in early morning hours out in the countryside. In addition, Kohberger’s defense will put a cell phone tower and radio frequency expert on the stand to support the alibi, with the spot where he allegedly was out driving the night of the murders being located about 10 miles from the murder scene.

Kohberger, who lived in the town of Pullman, Washington, 9½ miles away from Moscow, was arrested in Pennsylvania nearly seven weeks after the killings on Dec. 30 while in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains visiting family.  Investigators allege they tied Kohberger to the killings by using DNA evidence found on a knife sheath left at the scene in the bed where Mogen and Goncalves were found deceased.  Moscow police had been looking for a white Elantra as possible evidence, and Kohberger’s Hyundai Elantra was seized from his Pennsylvania home.

Prosecutors claim that Kohberger broke into an off-campus home in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, and stabbed the four students to death at a King Road residence in the small city of Moscow on the Washington-Idaho border. The victims likely were asleep when the brutal attacks began.

Kohberger, who was a doctoral student studying criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

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Tesla said that they are asking shareholders to vote again on Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package after a Delaware judge voided it earlier this year after ruling that the record-setting compensation deal was “deeply flawed.” In a proxy filing published Wednesday, Tesla said it would hold a vote on moving its state of incorporation to Texas from Delaware; Musk had suggested the move after his pay package was ruled illegal. Tesla is set to hold its annual shareholders meeting on June 13 (per CBS News).

A Delaware judge in late January threw out the share-based payout, calling it an “unfathomable sum” and unfair to shareholders. In her ruling, the judge accepted the shareholder lawyers’ argument that Musk personally dictated the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. The ruling had some investors anticipating that Tesla might revamp its governance, as the board had long faced criticism with Musk as CEO.

In looking to re-ratify Musk’s 2018 pay package, Tesla argued that “corporate democracy and stockholder rights” are at stake, telling shareholders the court had “rescinded the pay package that an overwhelming majority of you voted to grant.” n a letter to stockholders, Tesla cited the need to carefully manage its resources for its decision. The announcement came days after news that the electric-car manufacturer would reduce its workforce by 10% globally, or about 14,000 people.

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The White House said in a statement that the United States will impose new sanctions targeting Tehran in response to Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend (per CNN). Iran directly attacked Israel on Saturday with hundreds of missiles and drones, the vast majority of which were intercepted. Iran has described its attack as retaliatory for a strike on its diplomatic complex in Damascus early this month that killed several Iranian military leaders. Israel has said that Iran would “face the consequences” for the attack, while the United States and other allies have called for restraint.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made the announcement in a statement issued by the White House, stating the punitive measures will be imposed shortly: “following Iran’s unprecedented air attack against Israel, President Biden is coordinating with allies and partners, including the G7, and with bipartisan leaders in Congress, on a comprehensive response. In the coming days, the United States will impose new sanctions targeting Iran, including its missile and drone program as well as new sanctions against entities supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Defense Ministry. We anticipate that our allies and partners will soon be following with their own sanctions.”

Sullivan said that the designations will target Iran’s missile and drone programs as well as entities supporting its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Defense,  adding they expect allies and partners to soon follow with their own blacklistings: “these new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviors.”

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said earlier in the week that the Biden administration would use sanctions “to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity …from this weekend’s attack to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Iran’s actions threaten the region’s stability and could cause economic spillovers.”

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ABC News reports that articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border were officially transmitted to the Senate on Tuesday. The House impeachment managers, selected by Republican leadership, walked the two articles through the Capitol led by the House clerk and sergeant-at-arms.

The House voted to impeach Mayorkas in mid-February over what they said was his failure to enforce border laws amid a surge in migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The controversial vote, which had previously failed, was opposed by three Republicans and all Democrats. House leaders opted to wait until after a government funding fight to present the issue to the Senate, with Senate Republicans pushing to delay the proceedings until this week amid concerns over attendance. The House impeachment managers include Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and Reps. Andy Biggs, Ben Cline, Andrew Garbarino, Michael Guest, Harriet Hageman, Clay Higgins, Laurel Lee, August Pfluger and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has denounced the effort to impeach Mayorkas as “baseless,” saying that House Republicans “continue to ignore the facts and undermine the Constitution” with the impeachment push. A DHS spokesperson said in a statement: “Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time with unfounded attacks, and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to properly fund the Department’s vital national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system.” 

The historic vote that marked the first time a Cabinet secretary has been impeached in nearly 150 years. Mayorkas is only the second Cabinet secretary to be impeached in U.S. history after William Belknap, a former secretary of war, in 1876.

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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court began hearing arguments on rioters involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which could potentially impact former President Donald Trump in his ongoing legal battles.

Per NBC News, the justices heard an appeal brought by defendant Joseph Fischer, a former police officer who is seeking to dismiss a charge accusing him of obstructing an official proceeding, namely the certification by Congress of Joe Biden’s election victory, which was disrupted by a mob of Trump supporters. The law in question criminalizes efforts to obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding. If convicted, it would result in a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Arguments took place for nearly two hours as Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito reportedly seemed to be skeptical of the government’s interpretation of legal arguments being made against defendant Joseph Fischer. A ruling by the 6-3 conservative majority high court could overturn felony obstruction charges for more than 300 individuals involved in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol building (from UPI).

Tuesday’s hearing comes just a week before the Supreme Court hears Trump’s bid to toss out his election interference charges based on a claim of presidential immunity. Fischer and Trump both say that the obstruction law does not apply to their alleged conduct, and as such, the charges should be dropped.

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“Rust” movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 27, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in a Santa Fe, New Mexico, court on Monday in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was shot when actor Alec Baldwin was handling a gun during the film’s production in 2021. Prosecutors sought the maximum penalty of 18  months in state prison.

Gutierrez-Reed, the chief weapons handler for the Western movie, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter last month after mistakenly loading a live round into the revolver Baldwin was using on the movie set. Following Gutierrez-Reed’s conviction, the judge ordered her to be held in police custody pending her sentencing. Per Reuters, the shooting is believed to be the first time in modern times that a member of a film crew or cast was killed by a live round accidentally loaded into a gun.

Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for the firearms on the New Mexico set of Rust. In October 2021, a gun held by Alec Baldwin was discharged during a rehearsal for the Western film. Although the weapon was not supposed to be loaded with live ammunition, a bullet was fired, killing 42-year-old Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Gutierrez-Reed was charged in January 2023 with one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of tampering with evidence for allegedly handing off a bag of cocaine following her police interview after the shooting. She pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Gutierrez-Reed, who was dressed in a khaki prison uniform, wiped away tears as she was sentenced by New Mexico District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer. She cried as she addressed the court asking for probation, saying (per US Weekly): “My heart aches for the Hutchins family and friends. … Helena has been and always will be an inspiration to me. I understand she was taken too soon and I pray that you all find peace. My heart goes out to the film industry for the devastating pain that this tragedy caused. …When I took on Rust, I was young and I was naive, but I took my job as seriously as I knew how to do. Despite not having proper time, resources and staffing, when things got tough, I just did my best to handle it.”

Baldwin’s trial is set for July 10 after a grand jury indicted him on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in January.

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Authorities confirmed on Monday that a sheriff’s deputy and a police officer were killed after a shootout Sunday night in Liverpool, N.Y., a suburb of Syracuse. The person authorities consider the prime suspect in the case was also killed, police confirmed.

The shooting occurred as police investigated a stolen vehicle in Salina, New York (Liverpool is one of five small suburban communities in the town of Salina, according to Salina’s website.) Syracuse Police Chief Joseph Cecile told a news conference that at about 7 p.m., two Syracuse officers “initiated a traffic stop on a suspicious vehicle” that took off; the officers initially lost sight of the vehicle, but were able to track it to an address in Liverpool via its license plate.  At a little after 8 p.m., Syracuse officers and deputies from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office got to the address and were inspecting the suspicious vehicle when they saw what they thought were firearms inside. Then, shots suddenly rang out and there was “an exchange of gunfire.”

Per CBS News, the Syracuse police officer and Onondaga County sheriff’s deputy were initially taken to a local hospital in critical condition following the shooting; after which, both were pronounced dead at University Hospital. Police Chief Cecile said “we lost two heroes tonight,” adding that the officer who was killed had about three years on the job; while Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley told reporters the slain deputy was “seasoned” and “very well-liked in his community. … (He was) just a great guy.”

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said at a press conference: “This is a dark day for Syracuse. This is our worst nightmare come true. “Our thoughts right now are with the families of those two officers, two heroes, and if anyone knows the family member of a police officer, give them a hug. This is their worst nightmare and we just need to be there for everyone in the law enforcement community today.”

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Authorities in Oklahoma have arrested and charged four people on suspicion of kidnapping and murder in connection with the March disappearance of two Kansas mothers, who were last seen driving through the Oklahoma panhandle last month.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced that Tad Bert Cullum, 43, Tifany Machel Adams, 54, Cole Earl Twombly, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44, were taken into custody on Saturday; they are suspected of kidnapping and murdering Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, before they vanished on March 30. The four were booked into the Texas County Jail in Oklahoma on suspicion of first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. Adams is the grandmother of Butler’s children, and Cullum is her boyfriend; while Cole and Cora Twombly have been in an eight-year relationship and are friends with Adams on Facebook.

Butler and Kelley were the subjects of an “endangered missing advisory” issued by Texas County authorities on March 30 after a vehicle they were traveling in was found abandoned in a rural part of Texas County south of Elkhart, Kansas, the bureau said. The women were only reported missing when the car they were driving was found 1,000 feet off Oklahoma State Highway 95, approximately 3 miles away from its destination. Butler and Kelley were considered acquaintances, as Kelley supervised Butler’s visits with her children. The women were traveling to Eva, Okla. to pick up Butler’s children who have been living with their paternal grandfather, according to NewsNation.

Butler and Kelley have yet to be found; Butler was in the middle of a bitter custody battle with the father of her children, seeking more visitation time, as she sought full custody of the children. KFOR reported that Adams is said to have had custody of the children at the time of Butler’s disappearance.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the women is asked to contact the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation at tips@osbi.ok.gov or 1-800-522-8017.

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A mass shooting in a south Chicago neighborhood on Saturday night has left one child dead, and 10 people wounded, according to police.

CBS Chicago reported that three other children were among the 10 injured during a shooting in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood around 9:20 p.m., near West 52nd Street and South Damen Avenue. Chicago police said that the victims were at a family gathering when the shooting took place.

Chicago police said they responded to a Shotspotter alert of 18 rounds fired and found multiple victims with gunshot wounds at the scene. According to Chicago Police Area One Deputy Chief Don Jerome, officers then began providing life-saving care, including tourniquets and chest seals.

Chicago Police Area One Deputy Chief Don Jerome said the shooting was targeted and likely gang-related, with witnesses telling police they saw a black sedan pull up in the area, and an unidentified person started shooting into the crowd before fleeing. Jerome said: “The offenders’ actions, make no mistake, are horrific and unacceptable in our city.”

An 9-year-old girl was shot in the head and died, according to police and her family, who identified her as Ariana Molina. Two boys ages 1 and 8 were in critical condition, and one 9-year-old-boy suffered minor injuries. Officials said the ages of the adult victims ranged from 19 to 40.

Area One detectives are investigating the incident, with police stating that they believe two people committed the shooting. As of press time,  no one has been taken into custody.

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