Build A Bear Recall

Build-A-Bear Workshop announced a voluntary recall of its Colorful Hearts Teddy Bears due to a potential choking hazard to children.In a news release, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said the teddy bear’s eyes could loosen and fall out.The Colorful Hearts Teddy is a stuffed animal about 16 inches high with black plastic eyes. The bear’s fabric covering is printed with multi-colored heart shapes.More than 284,000 of the bears were sold in the United States and 13,200 in Canada.The company said no injuries have been reported, but that consumers should immediately take the recalled teddy bear away from children and return it to any Build-A-Bear store to receive a coupon for any available stuffed animal.Consumers wanting additional information can contact the company at 866-236-5683, or visit the Build-A-Bear website.

San Diego and Nogales Drug Tunnels

SAN DIEGO — 11/17/11 Police have discovered a "major cross-border drug tunnel" running to California from Mexico, and seized more than 17 tons (12,700 kilograms) of marijuana, U.S. and Mexican authorities said on Wednesday.
The tunnel measuring around 400 yards links warehouses in an industrial park south of San Diego and the Mexican border city of Tijuana, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said.
U.S. federal agents made the discovery after police stopped a small cargo truck seen leaving a nondescript white warehouse building near the Otay Mesa port of entry on Tuesday afternoon, and arrested two men, ICE said.
A subsequent search of the warehouse found the entrance of the tunnel in the floor. It plunged more than 20 feet to the bottom of a shaft, meeting a passageway measuring approximately 4 feet by 3 feet, with structural supports, electricity and ventilation.
Agents with the San Diego Tunnel Task Force retrieved three tons of marijuana from the van. A subsequent search of the warehouse recovered an additional 6.5 tons of the drug. Mexican authorities said they found almost 8 tons of marijuana on the south side.
Tijuana is the principal gateway for tons of drugs entering California from Mexico. Last year, authorities uncovered two large tunnels linking the gritty industrial city with the strip flanking the border south of San Diego.
Measuring around 2,000 feet in length, they were equipped with rail systems, lighting and ventilation, and each discovery yielded multiple tons of marijuana.
'STOP AT NOTHING'
"The fact that this is the third sophisticated cross border tunnel found within a year's time demonstrates the cartels will stop at nothing to smuggle their drugs into the United States," said William R. Sherman, acting special agent in charge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.
"The seizure of marijuana coupled with the loss of yet another tunnel will deal a heavy blow to those responsible for constructing this tunnel," he added.
Evidence found inside the warehouse led investigators to believe the tunnel was only recently completed.
Mexican General Gilberto Landeros said many packets of the seized drugs were marked with a "Captain America" logo. Landeros said the tunnel was operated by the powerful Sinaloa cartel, headed by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Mexico is in the grip of brutal drug cartel violence that has claimed more than 42,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office five years ago and sent the military to crush the powerful gangs.
The cartels have excavated scores of tunnels under the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years in a bid to beat ramped-up security at ports of entry and the rugged spaces in between. Nearly all of them linked cities on either side of Mexico's border with California and Arizona.

Authorities on Wednesday also reported the discovery of a much smaller drug tunnel running under the border to Arizona from Mexico's northern Sonora state.
That tunnel stretched for 70 feet from a drain in Nogales, Mexico, to an area beneath the porch of a house in the namesake city in Arizona, ICE said. Authorities also retrieved a number of excavating tools.

Honey that's just not Natural (leaves a bad Sting).

More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores bears little resemblance to the nutritious nectar that bees produce, according to testing done for Food Safety News.

Laboratory testing of more than 60 products from 10 states and the District of Columbia found that a high-tech process called ultra-filtration had removed all pollen, which effectively erases all of honey’s natural nutrients and also obscures the only way authorities can pinpoint where the honey came from.

Ultra-filtered honey that contains no pollen is not considered honey by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

What is ultra-filtering? Here’s how the publication explains it:

Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.

Removal of all pollen from honey “makes no sense,” Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Products Association, told Food Safety News. Ultra-filtering, he said, is only used to hide honey that may have entered the country “un-inspected and in violation of federal law.”

Traditional filtering will remove particles and debris from the bee hive, beekeepers say, but leave the pollen and other nutrients intact. Honey’s soothing, natural antimicrobial properties have been shown to help fight off infection, as well as relieve coughs.

Here’s what the testing, done at Texas A&M University’s Palynology Research Laboratory, found:

• 76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed. These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.
• 100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores had no pollen. This included places like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy.
• 77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores had the pollen filtered out. These were places like Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B.
• 100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual packets had the pollen removed. This means packets from Smucker’s, McDonald’s and KFC.

So what should the consumer do?

• Buy local or from natural food stores. All the samples bought from farmers markets, co-ops and natural food stores like Trader Joe’s had pollen.
• Buy organic. If you have to buy at major grocery chains, look for organic brands. Out of seven organic samples tested, five had pollen. All of the organic honey tested was produced in Brazil, according to the labels.