Washington – The government warned consumers and retailers Monday to take urgent action to rid their shelves of more than 90 products, including chili sauce, corned beef hash and dog food, produced at a plant linked to a botulism outbreak.
Castleberry’s Food Co., , closed the suspect plant.
“You’re talking tens of millions of cans that may have been involved,” said Robert Brackett, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
The company has hired an outside firm to visit retailers around the country in an effort to get recalled products off store shelves.
So far, four cases of botulism have been reported – two in Indiana and two in Texas. All four people consumed Hot Dog Chili Sauce Original, a product made by Castleberry’s.
On Saturday, Castleberry’s expanded its voluntary recall of canned meat products. It specified more than 80 types of canned chili, beef stew, corned beef hash and other meat products in addition to the 10 products it had recalled Thursday. The products were sold under a multitude of brand names.
VAIL
Cascade resort set to start remodeling blitz
The Vail Cascade Resort & Spa is set to undergo a $30 million renovation beginning this summer.
The 18-month remodel is part of a plan to upgrade the 24-year- old resort and to create an indoor-outdoor experience for guests, according to Gregg Pate, managing director of the resort and spa.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE
First Data affiliate, Sandata bury hatchet
Greenwood Village-based First Data Corp.’s Government Solutions affiliate and Sandata Technologies Inc. settled a patent-infringement lawsuit and agreed to work together in the health care industry.
Sandata and First Data said Monday in a joint statement that under the accord, the two companies will collaborate to provide data-management services to home health care entities served by First Data Government Solutions.
SEATTLE
Starbucks gives prices a jolt starting July 31
Starbucks Corp. will raise U.S. prices for lattes, Frappuccinos and other drinks by an average of 9 cents a cup to blunt higher costs for dairy, energy and coffee.
The increases, which vary by city and drink, average 3 percent and take effect July 31 at company-owned stores, spokesman Brandon Borrman said Monday.
It’s the second price increase in nine months for Starbucks, which in October began charging 1.9 percent more to cover labor, coffee and energy costs.
NEW YORK
5 trading firms plan unregistered venture
Five of Wall Street’s biggest firms are planning a trading system for unregistered securities, seeking to compete with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in a market on pace for record sales this year.
Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley are developing a system to handle securities sold under so-called 144a market rules, which allow companies to avoid regulations by selling to institutional investors.
SAN FRANCISCO
HP to buy Opsware at 39 percent premium
Hewlett-Packard Co. said Monday it will pay $1.6 billion in cash to acquire Opsware Inc., a software company founded by Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen that helps companies lower the cost and complexity of running their data centers by automating certain management tasks.
HP agreed to pay $14.25 per share of Opsware, a 39 percent premium over Opsware’s closing price Friday. The acquisition, announced before the market opened Monday, is expected to close before HP’s fiscal year ends Oct. 31.
SAN FRANCISCO
Wells Fargo halts sale of some home ARMs
Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest bank in Colorado, said it stopped issuing some subprime loans to homebuyers last week, in response to “industry guidance” and downgrades of bonds linked to mortgages.
The company stopped marketing three types of adjustable-rate mortgages last week, the San Francisco-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
HOUSTON
Oil, coal firms team in conversion-plant plan
Oil and gas company ConocoPhillips said Monday it is teaming up with coal provider Peabody Energy to build a facility in the Midwest that converts coal to a substitute for natural gas.
A specific location hasn’t been determined, but the plant, using ConocoPhillips’ E-GAS technology, would be developed at the mouth of a mine at a site where Peabody has access to reserves and infrastructure.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands
Barclays increases its offer for ABN Amro
Barclays will raise its offer for ABN Amro to $93.1 billion, with help from two Asian financial partners, in the face of a rival bid led by the Royal Bank of Scotland, the British bank said.
Barclays’ new offer, about two-thirds in shares and the rest in cash, comes to $49.32 per ABN Amro share – up from its earlier all-share bid worth $46.74.
The bid still falls below the RBS-led consortium offer of $53.01 per share that values ABN at $97.8 billion.
LOS ANGELES
Workers gain ground in Calif. grocery pact
Workers at three major Southern California supermarket chains overwhelmingly approved a new contract that provides their first raise in five years and rolls back key wage and benefit concessions made after a 141-day strike-lockout in 2004, union officials said Monday.
The deal was ratified by more than 87 percent of the workers who voted during the weekend, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
NEW YORK
Hackers could exploit iPhone’s vulnerability
Hackers could take control of an Apple iPhone if its owner visits a doctored website or Internet hot spot, security researchers reported Monday.
The vulnerability of the device is theoretical for now. There are no reports of criminals taking advantage of the glitch.
If exploited, hijacked iPhones could be useful to the same gangs that take over personal computers and use them to disseminate spam, said Charlie Miller, principal security analyst at Independent Security Evaluators, which discovered the flaw.
The flaw also applies to Apple computers running Mac OS and Safari Web browser, a version of which comes with the iPhone.
