The News

usatoday.com — Federal officials say fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers from Mexico pose a salmonella risk, but the peppers are still selling in the U.S. and for much less than their U.S. rivals. Buyers tend to be small Hispanic grocers and mom and pop restaurants, while big supermarkets and restaurants shun the Mexican supply, distributors say. The Food and Drug Administration warned last month that consumers should avoid fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers from Mexico, after salmonella saintpaul was found on samples. Nationwide, 1,434 people have been sickened in the outbreak, the largest for food in more than a decade. New illnesses peaked in May and have slowed to a trickle. The latest new illness started Aug. 8, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

hosted.ap.org — A Bush administration rule barring states and local governments from requiring more air pollution monitoring is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out a two-year-old rule that may have allowed some refineries, power plants and factories to exceed pollution limits because the Environmental Protection Agency "failed to fix inadequate monitoring requirements … and prohibited states and local authorities from doing so."

washingtonpost.com — A senior aide to Vice President Cheney is the leading contender to become a top official at the Energy Department a promotion that would put one of the administration's most ardent opponents of environmental regulation in charge of forming department policies on climate change. F. Chase Hutto III has played a prominent behind-the-scenes role in shaping the administration's environmental policies for several years, the officials said, helping to rewrite rules affecting the air that Americans breathe and the waters that oil tankers traverse. In every instance, according to both his allies and opponents, he has challenged proposals that would place additional regulations on industry.

reuters.com — U.S. prosecutors have sent letters to six Blackwater security guards involved in a 2007 Baghdad shooting, in a move that could lead to groundbreaking criminal indictments. Bodyguards from U.S. security firm Blackwater Worldwide opened fire in a traffic jam last September, killing 17 Iraqi civilians while escorting a convoy of U.S. diplomats through the capital under a contract with the State Department. The Iraqi government called it a "massacre" and demanded the right to try the guards. Iraqis were further upset when the State Department renewed Blackwater's contract. The question of where and how the contractors can be tried has yet to be publicly resolved, and the incident set off debate in Washington on the use of contractors in war.

csmonitor.com — The American military has depended on private contractors since sutlers sold paper, bacon, sugar, and other small luxuries to Continental Army troops during the Revolutionary War. But the scale of the use of contractors in Iraq is unprecedented in U.S. history, according to a new congressional report that may be the most thorough official account yet of the practice. As of early 2008, at least 190,000 private personnel were working on US-funded projects in the Iraq theater, the Congressional Budget Office survey found. That means that for each uniformed member of the US military in the region, there was also a contract employee — a ratio of 1 to 1.

usatoday.com — President Bush signed legislation that bans lead from children's toys with the world's toughest standard on keeping the metal out of children's toys. The new law prohibits lead, beyond minute levels, in products for children 12 or younger. Lead paint was a major factor in the recall of 45 million toys and children's items last year, many from China. Congress approved the bill by overwhelming margins. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates about 28,000 deaths are linked each year to unsafe products, including toys, in the United States. More than 33 million people were injured last year by consumer products. The bill would double the commission's budget, to $136 million, by 2014 and give it new authority to oversee testing procedures and to penalize violators.