South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Production resumes at Abbott’s troubled baby formula factory
Production of baby formula has resumed at the Abbott Nutrition factory in Michigan whose February shutdown over contamination contributed to a national shortage, a company spokesman said.
Damage from severe thunderstorms including flooding had forced the plant in Sturgis to halt operations in mid-June just two weeks after restarting production with additional sanitizing and safety protocols.
Production of EleCare, a specialty formula for infants with severe food allergies and digestive problems, was restored following a July 1 reboot, said Abbott spokesman John Koval.
“We are working to restart Similac production as soon as we can. We’ll provide more information when we have it,” he said via email.
Abbott recalled several leading brands of formula in February, which squeezed supplies already strained by supply chain disruptions and stockpiling during COVID-19 shutdowns.
The shortage was most dire for children with allergies, digestive problems and metabolic disorders who rely on specialty formulas.
President Joe Biden’s administration has since eased import rules for foreign manufacturers, airlifted formula from Europe and invoked federal emergency rules to prioritize U.S. production.
Abbott is one of just four companies that produce about 90% of U.S. formula. Koval declined to say how much of Abbott’s overall U.S. supply of infant formula is produced at the Sturgis plant.
The plant was closed in February after the Food and Drug Administration began investigating four bacterial infections among infants who consumed powdered formula from the plant. Two of the babies died. The company says its products have not been directly linked to the infections, which involved different bacterial strains.
FDA inspectors eventually uncovered a host of violations at the plant, including bacterial contamination, a leaky roof and lax safety protocols.
A British Cabinet minister believed to be a frontrunner in the Conservative Party’s leadership race ruled himself out of the contest Saturday.
Defense Minister Ben Wallace said after “careful consideration” and discussion with colleagues and family, he will not be running to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and the country’s next prime minister.
Wallace was seen by some as the favorite choice among Conservative party members in what’s shaping up to be a wide-open leadership race following Johnson’s resignation announcement Thursday.
Wallace said his decision wasn’t “an easy choice to make, but my focus is on my current job and keeping this great country safe.”
UK minister bows out:
Alaska drilling project: The Biden administration took a key step toward approving a huge oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, angering environmental activists who said allowing it to go forward would make a mockery of President Joe Biden’s climate change promise to end new oil leases.
The ConocoPhillips project, known as Willow and located in the National Petroleum Reserve in
Alaska, was initially approved under the Trump administration and later supported by the Biden administration. It was blocked by a judge who said the environmental review had not sufficiently considered its effects on climate change and wildlife.
On Friday, the Biden administration issued a new environmental analysis by the Department of the Interior that said the multibillion-dollar plan would at its peak produce more than
180,000 barrels of crude oil a day and would emit at least 278 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over its lifetime from the burning of the oil produced, as well as from construction and drilling activity at the site.
The oil company’s plan calls for five drill sites, a processing facility, hundreds of miles of pipelines, nearly
40 miles of new gravel roads, seven bridges, an airstrip and a gravel mine in a region that is home to polar bears,
caribou and migratory birds. Project opponents have argued that the development would harm wildlife and produce dangerous new levels of greenhouse gases.
Manson follower: A California panel on Friday denied parole for a follower of cult leader Charles Manson convicted of slayings more than 50 years ago.
Bruce Davis was previously recommended for parole seven times, but those findings were rejected by three governors. Parole commissioners told Davis, 79, to try again in three years.
“They said he lacks empathy,” Michael Beckman, Davis’ attorney, said after the hearing before two parole commissioners.
Davis has said he helped kill musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald “Shorty” Shea in 1969. He was not involved in the more notorious killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others by the Manson cult the same year.
North Macedonia migrants: Police in North Macedonia say they have discovered
87 migrants crammed into a truck with a trailer in the southern part of the country and arrested two men for migrant smuggling.
Police said the migrants, who included 45 Syrians,
39 Pakistanis, two Congolese and one Indian — were found early Saturday during a routine check on a highway near the border town of Gevgelija.
Two Macedonian citizens were arrested. They face up to five years in prison if found guilty.
The migrants are believed to have entered illegally from Greece, heading for Serbia and onward to wealthier European countries.
The migrants were transferred to a reception center in Gevgelija, pending deportation to Greece.
According to police, the migrant Balkan route through North Macedonia has become busier after
the lifting of travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Italy glacier death toll: Italian authorities on Saturday put the final death toll of an avalanche in northern Italy at 11 and said all the victims had been identified nearly a week after a chunk of ice detached from a melting glacier and sent a torrent of ice, rock and debris on hikers below.
An building-sized chunk of the Marmolada glacier in Italy’s Dolomite mountains detached July 3, sparking an avalanche of debris down the mountain, a popular hiking destination in summer.
Experts have said warming temperatures likely contributed to the cleaving, since the glacier has lost mass and volume for years and been melting more quickly than usual this summer amid a heat wave.
A day of mourning was observed Saturday throughout the affected area, known as the Val di Fassa.