Embattled peanut company files for bankruptcy
Peanut Corporation of America has filed for bankruptcy protection amid an ongoing investigation into a salmonella outbreak that has been linked to nine deaths.
The move is being called a sign the embattled company plans to shut down.
“It’s regrettable, but it’s inevitable with the events of last month,” said Andrew S. Goldstein, a bankruptcy lawyer in Roanoke, Va., who filed the petition.
More than 600 people in 44 states have been sickened during the outbreak, which has been traced to peanut products originating at the company’s plant in Georgia. Four of them were in Oklahoma.
The outbreak has led to the recall of more than 2000 peanut butter products.
More problems for peanut producer
Concerns about salmonella contamination have emerged at another Peanut Corporation of America plant, CNN is reporting.
The company’s plant in Plainview, Texas, has been shut down after testing by state health officials showed some peanut products may be tainted.
A salmonella outbreak linked to a Georgia plant has sickened more than 600 people in 44 states, including four in Oklahoma, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Eight people have died.
More than 2000 peanut butter products have been recalled because of safety concerns.
So far, major brands of jarred peanut butter have not been affected, but countless other foods are being yanked off store shelves.
Peanut company owner not talking
The president of the Georgia peanut processor behind a deadly salmonella outbreak balked at answering questions Wednesday at a Congressional hearing, according to the Associated Press.
Stewart Parnell refused to discuss reports he urged Peanut Corporation of America workers to ship bacteria-tainted products that have since been linked to eight deaths.
“Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, on advice of my counsel, I respectively decline to answer your questions based on the protections afforded me under the U.S. Constitution,” Parnell said in response. After repeating the statement several times, he was dismissed from the hearing.
What do you think should happen next? Should the company or its executives be punished if officials can prove tainted peanut products were intentionally sold to consumers?
tornado damage
There have been at least two tornado touchdowns thus far in OKC. One near NW Expressway and Rockwell. A tornado also is on the ground near Covell and the Broadway Extension.
Recalls keep coming
As health officials continue to investigate a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people, an increasing number of foods that may contain peanut butter from a Georgia processing plant operated by the Peanut Company of America.
It has been a month since officials identified the plant as the likely source of the bacteria.
Precautionary recalls began in mid-January after officials traced the outbreak to the consumption of pre-packaged peanut butter crackers. Now more than 180 products that may contain peanut products from the company’s Blakely, Ga., plant have been taken off store shelves.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has created a searchable database of recalled products.
With so many products being pulled off the market, are you still comfortable buying peanut butter or related product?
Scamming scammers
Some people just don’t know when to stop.
A man contacted us with a story today. He claimed to be the victim of a scam that has cost him nearly $4,000. His bank account is now frozen, he said, and with two young children, a wife and an impending army deployment, he told me he was running out of options.
He asked if I could help so I asked him for his story.
The man identified himself and told me that about a month ago he and his wife were looking for employment online and stumbled across a company that claimed to pay people to shop. He said he signed up for the program and a few weeks later a check came in the mail.
(The check and letter he described looked like this)
He went on to tell me how real the check looked, how official the letterhead appeared, how the process seemed legitimate to both him and his wife.
The instructions told him to deposit the check, keep $1,000 for himself, and send $1,000 to the company as a fee in the form of a Money Gram. The rest, according to the letter, would be spent purchasing items and checking out different retail stores across Oklahoma City.
The man said he tried to call the number listed on his paperwork and it was busy. He didn’t get suspicious, however, and proceeded to take the check to his local bank. The bank teller didn’t look skeptical of the check, he said, but as a matter of bank policy she called around to check the funds of the account. She came up empty handed–no information on the account at all. However, she cashed the check on the spot and left $1,000 in his bank account.
He said he had no idea that anything was wrong until he went to the store a few days later to purchase cleaning supplies. The cashier told him that his card had been declined.
The man called the bank and they told him his account was frozen because he had cashed a fraudulent check.
I offered to work something out with them,” he said. “They have to get their money back, I know, but they are going after the wrong person.”
I asked hime if he had seen anything on the news about this scam.
It’s been fairly publicized,” I said. “The Attorney General’s office made a big hubbub about it this summer and a few of the television channels did stories.”
He didn’t tell me that he’d seen them, but he reiterated how real everything looked.
I told him I would do some digging and call him back with more information, but I didn’t trust the holes in his story. Something didn’t make sense.
After some serious searching and following my gut, the only thing I turned up was the fact that the man himself is a swindler.
Meanwhile, there are people who have fallen prey to this scam. Be aware that sometimes people and things aren’t what they appear to be and the scammers are often themselves parading as the victims in order to get what they want.
Father fighting DHS establishes Web presence
An Oklahoma City father has taken to the Internet as he tries to change how the state Department of Human Services deals with allegations of child abuse.
Clarence W. Cooper II has set up a Web site, www.sq745.org, to draw attention to his attempt to force a vote on his proposal.
Cooper needs to collect more than 117,000 signatures by mid-April in order to get his plan for a DHS overhaul before Oklahoma voters as State Question 745.
Billboard irony
Some of the best stories begin with a simple observation. My story about gambling addition was going in a completely different direction until I laid eyes on a Remington
Chance to Change is one of the 13 agencies in Oklahoma that offers free counseling services to problem gamblers and their families. What sweet irony that its patrons would park underneath a towering advertisement of the very temptation that brought them there.
One Chance to Change counselor told me the billboard is the butt of many jokes. And I think we can all see the humor in it.
Here is what Remington Park president Scott Wells said about the billboard.
“Like any business, our billboard locations are based on traffic — not what kinds of buildings are nearby. That particular billboard is located just a couple of miles from our facility. As a matter of coincidence, that billboard is scheduled to be moved to another location within the next month. In any case, Remington
By next month, the billboard at Chance to Change will probably be replaced with beer or cigarette advertisement.
No one can dispute the influence of advertising on our feeble minds. But I have to wonder, if gambling would be as profitable if mental health professionals had a budget equal to casinos to advertise the uglier side of gambling.
Free shredding
Learn to protect yourself from identity theft and fraud Thursday at Consumer Protection Day at the state Capitol.
Representatives of consumer and law enforcement groups from across the state will be on hand from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. to answer questions and educate visitors on how to avoid scams.
Load up that closet full of documents your afraid to throw away and bring them to the Capitol. Free document shredding is being offered by Shred-It on the south side of the building. In previous years, 24-tons of documents were shredded.
