WASHINGTON – After reviewing a report that the United States likely has undiscovered cases of mad cow disease, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said there still is no cause for alarm. “I don’t think we have a significant issue in this country,” she said Thursday. “But we are going to take it seriously.” The report by five scientists convened by Veneman said some cattle in the United States would be carrying the brain-wasting illness, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Contaminated feed likely is the source of the nation’s first case of the illness in a dairy cow in Washington state.
Seattle
Sea-Tac boss on leave: An airport security screening supervisor has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into accusations that he took money from other workers seeking promotions. Kevin Morris, an acting manager at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, was placed on indefinite paid leave Wednesday at the direction of Transportation Security Administration officials in Washington, D.C., an agency spokeswoman said.
Pacific
Remains identified: Weathered remains found in Pacific last month have been identified as those of a truck driver who vanished after being accused of molesting a young relative. The cause of death of Ward Ohl, 55, remained undetermined, according to a report Wednesday from the King County medical examiner’s office. Ohl’s bones were found Jan. 24 along the Union Pacific tracks in Pacific. He vanished from his home in Pacific on June 25 after relatives accused him of child molesting, and the next month he was charged in King County Superior Court with first-degree child rape.
B.C.
ER dispute settled: A settlement has been reached between health officials and Nanaimo emergency room doctors who withdrew their services last week, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia announced. Under the agreement between the physicians and the Vancouver Island Health Authority, “full emergency services will soon be restored,” the college said in a statement issued Wednesday night. The 21 ER doctors at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital pulled out Friday, leaving the health authority scrambling to bring in general practitioners as temporary replacements.
Oregon
Postcard 47 years late: The U.S. Postal Service will deliver – even 47 years later. An Oregon postcard dated Nov. 7, 1956, was delivered Wednesday to Trinity Medical Center’s West Campus in Rock Island, Ill. The yellowed, bent-edged card that pictures a fishing fleet of boats was mailed to Sharon Kaye Thiele at Moline Public Hospital in Moline, Ill. “If we can get it there, it’s going to get there, no matter how late,” Moline Postmaster George VanVooren said. “We’re sorry something happened to it along the way.” The hospital has had no luck tracking down Sharon Thiele but says it would like to find the woman or her family.
From Herald news services
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