Hot Pockets Recall: Diseased Meat

Nestle USA has issued a recall for its Hot Pockets Philly Steak & Cheese product because the USDA says almost nine million pounds of meat might have come from diseased animals.

Rancho Feeding Corporation, a Petaluma, Calif. establishment, is recalling approximately 8,742,700 pounds, because it processed diseased and unsound animals and carried out these activities without the benefit or full benefit of federal inspection. Thus, the products are adulterated, because they are unsound, unwholesome or otherwise are unfit for human food and must be removed from commerce, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

Nestle says that they didn't buy any meat directly from Rancho, but their other suppliers may have. Four different versions of that Hot Pockets item are recalled.

SAN ANTONIO: Anti-Gay Groups Launch Recall Drive Against City Officials

Almost immediate after San Antonio passed an ordinance that added LGBT residents to employment and housing protections, anti-gay groups have launched a recall drive against Mayor Julian Castro and the members of the city council who voted for the measure. The San Antonio Current reports:

After council members in Districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 (plus the Mayor) cast ‘yes’ votes to include LGBT groups in the City’s current Non-discrimination ordinances, a strategy to unseat the majority of council began. Martinez says the plan ranges from knocking on doors to showing up wherever council members may be— from public and community meetings to member-hosted events—with the mission to collect signatures. The faction says they’re even planting themselves outside district field offices with the hopes of wrangling in more petitioners. The ordinance opponents need 6,000 signatures from registered voters (valid 180 days from the first signer) to begin the recall process for council members and 75,000 for Castro.

City Councilman Diego Bernal reacts: "If these people want me out of office simply because I want to treat everyone in this city fairly and equally, it says more about them than it does about me."  Organizers of the recall drive were reportedly emboldened by the recall of two pro-gun control Colorado legislators earlier this month. San Antonio's ordinance, which is similar to those in 21 states and dozens of cities nationwide, has been attacked by the Family Research Council and Pat Robertson, who claims that Christians will now be jailed.

RELATED: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has retreated on his vow to sue San Antonio over the ordinance.

Email Of The Day - Gov. Scott Walker

"Fellow Conservative, With only a short time before the June 5th recall election, the mudslinging from the Left has begun. Big-government union bosses and Washington insider special interests have started pouring money into Wisconsin in an attempt to push me out of office and reclaim their stranglehold on Wisconsin’s tax dollars. A win on June 5th will be a referendum on those trying to stifle the voice of the people and hand power back to the big-government public union bosses that want nothing more than complete control of a state’s budget. We must defeat this baseless recall. We must defeat the liberal left that is trying to silence the majority of hard working taxpayers and further raid their wallets to keep their bloated bureaucracies afloat." - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, in today's money beg.

WISCONSIN: Occupy Walker

The campaign to recall Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker has launched.

#OccupyWalker will flood social networks with the truth about every aspect of Scott Walker's disastrous agenda, with the scores of facts uncovered by the One Wisconsin Now reseach team and the individual stories of working Wisconsin families personally harmed by Walker's anti-middle class schemes. It's been over two years since Scott Walker stepped into the spotlight and started laying out his Koch-funded, pro-corporate agenda.

FLORIDA: Lawmakers Introduce Recall Bill

Saying the bill doesn't specifically target Gov. Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott, Florida lawmakers have introduced a bill allowing voters to recall state-level elected officials. Many Florida cities and counties have recall mechanisms for local politicians, but there's no such ability at the state level.

If the legislation is approved, voters would have four months to circulate a recall petition throughout Florida. For statewide public officials, signatures would have to be collected in all 67 counties. If the signatures equal 15 percent of the total votes cast in the last election, then a recall election can be held. Public officials include the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and a member of the Cabinet. Under the legislation, a petition can also be used to recall a state legislator. However, that petition would need signatures from the district the lawmaker represents. To have a recall election for that legislator, the signatures must equal 20 percent of the total votes cast in the last election for that office. Only voters from the district would be able to vote in that recall election.

Purely by coincidence, the bill's filing came on the same day that Scott rejected billions in federal stimulus money meant to build a high-speed rail link between Orlando and Tampa. Scott's move infuriated legislators on both sides of the aisle and a bipartisan coalition has vowed to overrule him.

E Coli: Nestle Recalls Cookie Dough Items

Nestle has ordered a recall of all its Toll House cookie dough products after some customers contracted E. coli from eating the raw dough.

In a statement, the FDA said there have been 66 reports of illness across 28 states since March. About 25 people have been hospitalized, but no one has died. E. coli is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in the most severe cases, kidney failure. The FDA advised consumers to throw away any Nestle Toll House cookie dough products in their homes and asked retailers, restaurateurs and other foodservice operations not to sell or serve any of the products. "This has been a very quickly moving situation,'' Nestle spokeswoman Roz O'Hearn said, adding the company took action within 24 hours of learning of the problem. O'Hearn said the company will "cooperate fully'' with the FDA's investigation.

Nestle says that while cooking the items would kill the bacteria, customers should still throw away all cookie dough products as they could contaminate their hands and kitchen surfaces during preparation.