The Washington Post 100 20100923

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Politics&Nation Obama returns to stump for health care

Fate of ‘don’t ask’ still being argued in courts

Al-Qaeda likely to try small-scale attacks onU.S., officials say Audit: California town used as ‘cash drawer’

Obama says global development is in wealthy nations’ interest

Digest Florida: State to disregard ban on adoptions by gays South Carolina: Police arrest student, find bombs at school

TheWorld Chavez faces challenge from the left

Clashes erupt over killing of Palestinian in East Jerusalem

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Democrats consider abandoning tax breaks issue before election A4 NAACP reaches out to gays

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Iran signals interest in talks on nuclear program, diplomats say A14 Iran: At home, Ahmadinejad faces political battle of powers China:House bill backs Obama’s play on China’s currency Digest

Afghanistan: Al-Jazeera denounces 2 journalists’ arrest China: Premier speaks out on dispute with Japan

Economy&Business U.S. says IMF too Eurocentric

GMshares must sell at $134 forU.S. to break even Michelle Singletary: For many of us, the recession lives Pentagon, Lockheed sign F-35 contract

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‘Robo-signer’ played quiet role in huge number of foreclosures A24 Digest Bug contamination sparks baby formula recall

CORRECTIONS

l The Insuring Your Health column in the Sept. 21 Health section incorrectly referred to the American Academy of Family Physicians as

the American Academy of Family Practitioners.

l TheEscapes feature in the Sept. 17Weekendsection,aboutHampton, Va., misstated the year in which President Abraham Lincoln visited FortMonroe to plan the Union Army’s CivilWar attack on Norfolk. It was 1862, not 1861.

The Washington Post is committed to correcting errors that appear in the newspaper. Those interested in contacting the paper for that purpose can: E-mail: corrections@washpost.com. Call: 202-334-6000, and ask to be connected to the desk involved — National, Foreign, Metro, Style, Sports, Business or any of the weekly sections. The ombudsman, who acts as the readers’ representative, can be reached by calling 202-334-7582 or e-mailing ombudsman@washpost.com.

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 Egg farmer ‘sorry’ for salmonella illnesses

DeCoster testifies before congressional panel, along with victims

BY LYNDSEY LAYTON Before a congressional panel

and consumers sickened by taint- ed eggs from his Iowa agribusi- ness, Austin “Jack” DeCoster said Wednesday that he was sorry for causingwhat has become the big- gest national outbreak of salmo- nella illness onrecord. “Wewere horrified to learn our

eggsmay havemade people sick,” said DeCoster, 77, whose hands shook as he made his first public statements about the outbreak. “I’veprayedseveral timesadayfor all these people for improved health.” DeCoster told the House Ener-

gy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations that he erred by trying to run his massive complex of 107 barns on 66 acres as if it were a small busi- ness,without employing sophisti- cated technology to combat sal- monella contamination. “While we were big, but still

acting like we were small, we got into trouble with government re- quirements several times,” said DeCoster, one of the biggest egg producers in the country. He has repeatedly clashed with regula- tors in Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New York and elsewhere over the past 30years,but thiswas the first time he had been called before Congress. “I am sorry for those failings,”he said. Still, DeCoster insisted that his

company’s methods had evolved andthat itwasusingmoderntech- niques before the salmonella out- break, which began in May and has sickened at least 1,600 people across the country. “You have a history of over 30

years of salmonella in eggs and a pretty sordid record,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the committee. “You said you really tried to change your operation, modernize and clean up your facility. . . . It’s hard for me to reconcile your words with the record. Your facilities werenot clean, theywerenot sani- tary. They were filthy. You are a habitual violator of safety stan- dards.” Congressional

investigators MELINA MARA/THE WASHINGTON POST Sarah Lewis, who contracted salmonella from a custard dessert, told the hearing her illness was “agony.”

Austin DeCoster

Peter DeCoster

flashed color photographs of con- ditions foundinsideDeCoster’s fa- cilities inAugust by inspectors for the Food and Drug Administra- tion.Thephotos showeddeadand livemice, dead chickens lying in a heap in one henhouse,mounds of manure eight feet high, and the wall of a henhouse that was bulg- ing and pushed open from the weight ofmanurepiledinside. DeCosterofferedlittlebywayof

explanation. “This is a very big operation,” he said in a thick Maine accent. “We have a certain waywe go about running it.” His son, Peter, who runs daily

operations at the Iowa facilities, said the company thinks the sal- monella contamination was caused by tainted bonemeal pur- chased from an outside supplier and mixed into the chicken feed. FDA officials have said therewere multiple possible sources of sal- monellathroughoutWrightCoun- tyEgg facilities. Orland Bethel, the president of HillandaleFarms, a relatedopera-

tion also implicated in the out- break, refused to answer ques- tions, citing his FifthAmendment right against self-incrimination. Hillandale released a statement saying it has severed its relation- ship with Wright County Egg, which owned one of its two facili- tiesandhadbeenprovidingitwith chickenfeed. The FDA, which is responsible

for the safety of eggs, is conduct- ing a criminal investigation into DeCoster’s Wright County Egg andBethel’sHillandaleFarms,but no chargeshave beenfiled. After the FDA traced the out-

break to Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, the companies in August recalled about 500mil- lion eggs sold under 24 brands — the largest egg recall inhistory. No deaths have been linked to

theoutbreakof salmonella illness. Becausemany cases of salmonella go unreported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimatethat theactualnumberof people sickened in the current outbreak could be as high as 48,000. Two of the victims testified

Wednesday, detailing severe, on- goingmedicalproblems. “Yourwhole body fromhead to

toeis inagony,” saidSarahLewis,a 30-year-old California resident who was hospitalized twice after eating a custard dessert in May that was made with eggs from

WrightCountyEgg. Carol Lobato, a 77-year-old Col-

orado woman, was hospitalized after eating a rattlesnake cake, similar to a crab cake, on July 10. Health officials found the rattle- snake cake was made with eggs suppliedbyWrightCountyEgg. “The infectionwipedme out to

the point that I couldnot function on my own or even get to the bathroom by myself,” she said, adding that she still suffers from fatigue, indigestion and weight loss. Both women are suing Wright

CountyEgg. Lawmakers repeatedlyusedthe

hearing to lambaste their col- leagues in the Senate for not tak- ing action on a comprehensive food safety bill. The House last year overwhelmingly passed the legislation, which would give ex- panded enforcement powers to theFDA,placeagreaterburdenon food companies to ensure their products are safe and create stiff new penalties for companies that knowingly send contaminated food into themarketplace, among other things. Democrats on the committee

accused Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok- la.)ofholdingupactiononthebill. Coburn has objected to the cost of the legislation and some of the additional powers that would be grantedto theFDA. laytonl@washpost.com

Murkowski will keep her top spot on energy committee Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)

will remain the top Republican on the energy committee, even as she runs for reelection as a write-

in candidate this November against the GOP’s nominee. In a 20-minute meeting Wednesday, Senate Republicans

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accepted Murkowski’s resigna- tion from the caucus’s leadership. Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.) suc- ceeded her as vice chairman of the Senate Republican Confer- ence. But the caucus did not remove

her from the ranking GOP posi- tion on the energy panel. Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), chair- man of the conference, did not

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explain the decision afterward. The Energy and Natural Re-

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and did not attend the meeting. Republican leaders have

voiced strong displeasure with her decision to run as a write-in after she lost the primary last month to her conservative chal- lenger, JoeMiller.

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