First going after Taco Bell next Kellogg's?

by John A Stefani






Beasley Allen has handled cases involving verdicts and settlements totaling more than $20 billion.

Beasley Allen currently holds U.S. records for largest verdicts/settlements in 4 categories: oil, pharmaceutical drug, environmental settlements and predatory lending. Their website states that they have a national reputation for being at the forefront of Consumer Litigation.

The critics say that Taco Bell's meat filling product would fall below the already generous USDA standard for it to qualify as meat and they say the present standard demands it consist of at least 40 percent meat.

According to the USDA Glossary in the "M" section:

Meat
The flesh of animals used as food including the dressed flesh of cattle, swine, sheep, or goats and other edible animals, except fish, poultry, and wild game animals.

Meat Base
A granular, paste-like product which is shelf-stable primarily because of its high salt content (30-40%).

1. Beef Base - 15% beef or 10.5% cooked beef.
2. Pork Base - 15% pork or 10.5% cooked pork.
3. Ham Base - 18% ham.

In the USDA Glossary in the "B" section, beef is states as being "Meat from full-grown cattle about two years old. “Baby beef” and “calf” are interchangeable terms used to describe young cattle weighing about 700 pounds that have been raised mainly on milk and grass."

Interviewed on KGET.com, Donna Fenton, Cheif Environmental Health Specialist for Kern County Environmental Health Department stated that, "Taco Bells saying its isolated oat products, wheat oats, soy lecithin, malodextrin, anti dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract modified corn starch and sodium phosphate as well as beef and seasoning with the taco meat filling definition that may still be all allowed."

According to the St Paul Pioneer Press "Experts say similar ingredients are used in many processed foods sold in stores.'

I would really like to see the actual USDA statement with their standards of meat.

I had heard a rumor that once the lawsuit against Taco Bell resolved then, Beasley Allen is going after Kellogg's Keebler products for not having any Elfin Magic in their products.

Heavy Petting - Riley a Black Labrador Retriever/German Shepherd Dog

Riley

Black Labrador Retriever/German Shepherd Dog Mix: An adoptable dog in Farmington, MN
Large • Young • Male


Riley is almost a year old and good with other dogs . He likes to play too but not hyper! He is housebroken but still need to crate him when you are not home since he is still a puppy and loves to chew; but don't worry, he likes rawhides!

He is about 75 lbs and all love and works for food!! He knows sit, stay, down but still counter cruises... we are working on that!

Riley is very housebroken and quiet in the crate. He can sleep anywhere at night with you! He uses his nose to find toys and not his eyes. He would make a good sniffing dog! He loves to play with other dogs at Camp Bow wow but when he is on a tie out, he acts like he is going to hurt every dog he meets so he needs a fenced in yard or acreage. He knows his name and won't run off so a home with lots or acreage he would love to be there and then come indoors and sleep on your bed!

~ Adoption Fee: $200 (cash only, no checks)

This dog will not be at the adoption day this Saturday, (January 29th 2011) from 11-3. Call the foster to learn more!

Foster: Jeff - burnsville@campbowwowusa.com or (651) 230-8243

How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

More Wasteful Government Spending in New Orleans

A January 16, 2011 NY Times article 5 Years After Katrina, Teacher Tills Soil of Lower 9th Ward stated that there is still much that can be done in New Orleans' lower 9th ward. According to the writer, Charles Wilson, "Five years after the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward remains largely a place where time has stood still. Lots where shotgun houses once stood are empty and overgrown with tall grasses. Gutted homes with smashed windows list to one side."

Wilson isn't the only one that had seen that more needs to be done. According to It's a tortoise's pace, but New Orleans Ninth Ward is changing one house at a time written by David Karas of the The Times, "While the Quarter, the center of tourism for New Orleans, has been completely restored and bears no reminders of Katrina, it is just the opposite in the residential areas within walking distance of the levees that were breeched."

Today I was reading the January 2011 issue of Travel South USA magazine and they highlighted:  Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, a 6,700 square-foot interactive multimedia exhibition to opened on the ground floor of the Presbytere October 26th, 2010. It remembers the events of the Katrina, the Atlantic hurricane of 2005, and show cases the renewal of New Orleans.

It is a $7.5 million exhibit!!  That's $7,500,000. I think it's good to chronicle and commemorate the tragic events of that great hurricane at the same time that's way too much that was spent for this exhibit.

How many homes could have been build for $7.5 million?