Pope backs founder of Calif. mission
ROME — Pope Francis weighed in on a thorny topic in California history Saturday when he spoke at length at a Rome Mass about Father Junipero Serra, the controversial California mission founder set to become the first Latino saint later this year.
Addressing an audience that included many American priests, the pope referred to the 18thcentury Franciscan priest as “one of the founding fathers of the United States” and praised his willingness to abandon the comforts and privileges of his native Spain to spread the Christian message in the New World. Serra has been accused of brutalizing Native Americans in missionary work that helped lay the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.
The pontiff will formally declare Serra a saint in September during the Washington, D.C., leg of his first visit to the United States. Although the Vatican has canonized Americans before, Serra will be the first saint canonized on U.S. soil.
Hog farmers and staph
CHICAGO — Hog farmers are six times more likely than the general population to carry an infectious bacterium that can cause skin and respiratory problems and resists treatment from multiple drugs, according to a new U.S. research study.
The study, published last week in the online journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, is the largest-ever examination of infections of Staphylococcus aureus, or staph, in a group of livestock workers. It comes amid rising concern that widespread antibiotic use in meat production could create risks to human health.
Oyster growers, pesticide
SEATTLE — For decades, oyster growers in southwest Washington have battled to control native shrimp that burrow in the mudflats and make it hard for oysters to grow.
Now, after getting state approval, a group of shellfish farmers plans to spray a widely-used neurotoxic pesticide on up to 2,000 acres of commercial shellfish beds in Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay. They insist it’s a safe way to keep in check a threat to the area’s multi-million shellfish industry.
SurveyMonkey CEO dies
MENLO PARK, Calif. — David Goldberg, chief executive officer of SurveyMonkey.com and husband of Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook Inc., has died. He was 47.
He died unexpectedly Friday night, his brother, Robert Goldberg, wrote in a Facebook post. No other details were given.
David Goldberg sold his first startup, Launch Media, to Yahoo Inc. and joined SurveyMonkey in 2009.
Also in the nation …
Washington, D.C., philanthropist David Rubenstein made a $10 million gift Friday to Thomas Jefferson’s planatation near Charlottesville, Va. … Southern Michigan on Saturday afternoon was shaken by a mild, magnitude-4.2 earthquake. … Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad declared a state of emergency Friday due to a rapidly expanding avian flu outbreak, saying the entire state was at risk from the spread of the disease.