An outbreak of Salmonella Reading infections that so far has sickened 90 people included two individuals living in a household where raw turkey pet food was fed to pets. Both the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are warning pet owners against feeding their pets raw food. The outbreak strain was identified in samples taken from raw turkey pet food, raw turkey products and live turkeys, according to the CDC. “CDC does not recommend feeding raw diets to pets,” the agency said in advice to consumers. [node:read-more:link]

Hackers working for Russia claimed “hundreds of victims” last year in a giant and long-running campaign that put them inside the control rooms of U.S. electric utilities where they could have caused blackouts, federal officials said. They said the campaign likely is continuing. [node:read-more:link]

Members of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) today praised the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their expanded $32.5 million commitment to 46 states and one territory to support the proper implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule. “NASDA Members have a long history of successfully working with farmers to grow our safe food supply,” said NASDA CEO Dr. Barbara P. Glenn. [node:read-more:link]

Robocalls — those nettlesome autodial telephone calls from both scammers and legitimate businesses — skyrocketed in the first half of 2018, and have prompted the most complaints to federal and most state enforcement officials of any consumer topic in recent years. [node:read-more:link]

Gene-edited crops should be subject to the same stringent regulations as conventional genetically modified (GM) organisms, Europe’s highest court ruled on 25 July. The decision, handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in Luxembourg, is a major setback for proponents of gene-edited crops, including scientists. They had hoped that organisms created usingprecise gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR–Cas9 would be exempted from existing European law that has limited the planting and sale of GM crops. [node:read-more:link]

Lawmakers from the Midwest are sticking together in their criticism of President Donald Trump for the White House’s bailout proposal for farmers acutely feeling the recoil of a trade war the president himself started. Across party and ideological lines, senators and House members from Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio, and elsewhere across the Midwest assailed Trump’s plan to send an additional $12 billion to farmers affected by Chinese and European counter-tariffs on U.S. agriculture. [node:read-more:link]

Weekly export data from USDA point to a slowdown in pork shipments to Mexico and the effective closing of the Chinese market to U.S. products in the wake of new tariffs. [node:read-more:link]

To construct its current map of who has broadband, the FCC relies on the self-reported data of Internet service providers. Another set of data developed through an open-source speed test indicates that the typical Internet user has a much different online experience. [node:read-more:link]

Telemedicine providers can’t catch senior citizens when they fall. But health services delivered over broadband can make it possible for seniors to live independently for longer periods of time. [node:read-more:link]

A report released by an Indiana watchdog group confirms what many consumer and energy efficiency advocates had long feared: that the rollback of Indiana’s energy efficiency mandate in 2014 has had serious costs. An analysis commissioned by the Citizens Action Coalition found ratepayers and utilities have missed out on almost $150 million in savings that would have accrued between 2015 to 2019. It also concluded that the legislation meant to replace the canceled program has done little to fill the gap. [node:read-more:link]