Morning News for Friday, December 28th
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced — amid criticism from consumer groups — a draft environmental assessment indicating that genetically modified Atlantic salmon would not have a significant impact on the U.S. environment.
The announcement, which has come under strong criticism from Consumers Union, is related to an application for approval of AquAdvantage salmon to be produced by AquaBounty, Technologies, Maynard, Mass. The salmon would be farmed in Panama.
The FDA announced it will receive comments from the public on the subject for 60 days. Agency spokesperson Siobhan DeLancey made it clear that the FDA action does not encompass genetically engineered salmon in general.
Meanwhile, Consumers Union, Yonkers, N.Y.-based advocacy and policy arm of Consumer Reports, criticized the FDA’s announced environmental assessment as flawed and inadequate.
“There are unanswered questions about the Panama fish,” Michael Hansen, Consumer Union’s senior scientist, told SN. “Testing was done on Prince Edward Island, Canada, but the actual salmon are expected to be raised in Panama. Conditions differ.”
See the linkon the KZYX newsblog to read more:
23 yo Kimberly Hazelwood, of Nice continues to be missing since Sunday night, despite ground and air searches.
Hazelwood is 5 feet 3, 160 pounds, with long brown hair to the middle of her back and brown eyes. She has been fighting cancer for some time and her family said she is in need of medical care.
Hazelwood was last seen by family members Sunday at which time she was described as being emotionally distraught.
Family members had found some of her clothing and personal belongings while searching for her nearby.
Based on a mapping of the creek, the chronology of the reports and the fact that no second person has so far been reported missing, it appears that both reports we aired Wednesday involved Hazelwood.
The family asks that anyone who has information call the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 707-263-2690, or her family at 707-245-2772.
A potential new Mendocino County courthouse in Ukiah is still alive after four other projects were put on hold indefinitely by a state judicial group this month.
Courthouses planned for Sacramento, Fresno, Nevada City and Los Angeles were put on hold .
After the Judicial Council meets in January, Ukiah hopes to proceed with the site acquisition before June 30, 2013 if they have enough money. Two potential sites were identified , one a collection of parcels that includes the Ukiah Library on Main Street, and the second, preferred site, is near the Ukiah railroad depot on East Perkins Street.
Starting Tuesday, California joins the states that allow people to make and sell food from their homes.
Among other rules, Assemblyman Gatto's Homemade Food Act requires cottage food producers to take a food safety course and create proper ingredient labels, imposes a small fee for a permit, and limits the amount of money producers can make. Gatto says, "What we're trying to do it strike the right balance between getting rid of 90% or 95% of the really onerous nonsensical regulations but still having a county inspector poke in every once in a great while and saying, you know, is this kitchen sanitary?"
Gatto says he was shocked by how hard it was to get the act passed. It was amended 35 times.
Stay Tuned for All About Money;@ 9:00 AM
KZYX News and weather will be taking a brief New Year's break next week after the Monday am, Dec 31st News & weather. We'll be back Wednesday evening, January 2nd at 6 pm. The full schedule will be posted on the news blog.
