WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast that food prices will only rise 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent this year, less than the 1.8 percent increases in 2008 and 2009 and the lowest rate of food inflation since 1992. Enjoy it while you can, commodities followers say. They predict a variety of short-term factors — ranging from the current drought affecting Russia’s massive wheat crop and floods in Pakistan — as well as growing global aspirations for the high-calorie diet American consumers take for granted will translate into higher prices for meat, wheat, corn and other food items in the years ahead.
California: Diet drug debate
The prescription diet drug sibutramine, sold under the brand name Meridia, should be taken off the market because it raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes in some patients, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine said Wednesday. Those risks, published in January on a government clinical trials website and now in full in the journal, outweigh the modest benefits of the medication, the journal’s executive editor said.
Maryland: Gunman is killed
A man who railed against the Discovery Channel’s environmental programming for years burst into the company’s headquarters with at least one explosive device strapped to his body Wednesday and took three people hostage at gunpoint before police shot him to death, officials said. The hostages were unhurt after the four-hour standoff. Montgomery County police said tactical officers moved in after officers monitoring Lee on security cameras saw him pull out a handgun and point it at a hostage. An explosive device on the gunman’s body detonated when police shot him, they said.
D.C.: GOP helps fund Rubio
The Republican Party is supplying $2.5 million in advertising support to Marco Rubio’s Senate campaign in Florida, a sizable commitment to a candidate the party once tried to push out of the contest. The money from the National Republican Senatorial Committee is the maximum the party can spend in coordination with Rubio. A party official said the money will be devoted to television ads at a time that is agreeable to Rubio’s campaign. Rubio is in a three-way contest with Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and Gov. Charlie Crist, a former Republican now running as an independent.
Arizona: Immigration law
A poll released Wednesday found an overwhelming majority of Arizona voters support the types of provisions that are at the heart of a national debate involving the state’s immigration law. The survey conducted on behalf of Arizona State University found 81 percent of registered voters approved of requiring people to produce documents that show they’re in the country legally.
Ranger may not get reward
The U.S. Forest Service is reviewing whether a forest ranger whose tip led to the capture of two of the most wanted fugitives in America can receive $27,500 in reward money under the agency’s ethics guidelines. An Apache Sitgreaves National Forest spokeswoman said Wednesday that local forest officials would like to see the ranger get the money. But she said tentative word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, is that he cannot. She said ethics guidelines generally prevent forest employees from receiving gifts over $25.
Afghanistan: School poison
Blood samples taken from Afghan schoolgirls who collapsed in apparent mass poisonings showed traces of toxic chemicals found in herbicides, pesticides and nerve gas, the Health Ministry said Wednesday. Suspicion has fallen on sympathizers of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamist militia that opposes education for women and prohibited girls from going to school when it was in power until it being ousted by a 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Samples from recent cases have been sent to Turkey for analysis and no results have been issued yet, an official said.
Germany: Aviation spying
Prosecutors have charged a 54-year-old Austrian man with feeding Russia’s spy agency with information and technical materials from the military and civilian helicopter industries. Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that a man identified only as Harald Alois S. is suspected of working together with Russia’s SVR spy agency from 1997 to 2000. They said the suspect, who has not been taken into custody, worked “to procure technical objects, documents and know-how from the civil and military helicopter industries.”
From Herald news services
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