Washington, D.C.

Bush to seek increase in food safety budget

President Bush will seek an 11 percent increase in the Agriculture Department’s 2004 food safety budget to strengthen protections against harmful bacteria in food and increase security at laboratories, officials said Thursday.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Thursday that the recommendation in the budget that Bush will send to Congress next month would be $797 million. That’s up $81 million from the 2002 budget, and an increase of $100 million, or 14 percent, over 2001. The 2003 budget proposal has yet to be approved by Congress.

USDA inspectors will focus on testing more frequently for bacteria that can appear on meat and poultry, such as listeria and E. coli, she said.

Minnesota

18-month-old recovered from parked bus

An 18-month-old boy was recovering in the hospital Thursday after being left behind in a Minneapolis school bus for more than three hours as temperatures hovered below zero, authorities said.

Antonio Jackson was listed in good condition at Children’s Hospital.

The boy, dressed in a snowsuit, was “somewhat responsive” when he was found shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, police Lt. Kevin Stoll said. Firefighters had to break the door of the parked bus to rescue him.

The temperature was minus 4 when the boy was found and dipped to minus 11 overnight.

Stoll said the boy’s mother apparently called and left a message about 6:30 p.m. at an early childhood center, saying the boy had not been dropped off at home.

A staff member received the message later and notified co-workers, Stoll said. After a brief search, they discovered the boy on the locked bus and called 911.

Washington, D.C.

Lockheed, Boeing top Pentagon contractors

Lockheed Martin Corp. was the Pentagon’s biggest contractor last year, and together with the No. 2 contractor, Boeing Co., they did as much defense business as the next eight biggest contractors combined.

Lockheed Martin was awarded $17 billion in defense contracts in the budget year that ended Sept. 30, according to a Pentagon announcement Thursday. That was up from $14.7 billion in the year-earlier period.

Boeing was second at $16.6 billion, up from $13.3 billion.

Atlanta

CDC: Cruise virus on rise throughout U.S.

Noroviruses, the category of viruses that caused thousands of cruise ship passengers to fall ill last year, appear to be on the rise in the United States, federal officials said Thursday.

Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 41 percent of samples of norovirus — which includes Norwalk and Norwalk-like viruses — tested last year were from the same strain, marking the first emergence of a predominant strain since 1994.

The viruses can cause diarrhea, stomach pain and vomiting for 24 to 48 hours. They are spread through food and water and close contact with infected people or items they have touched.

Washington, D.C.

FDA issues warning on asthma drug

The Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday that some patients using a popular asthma medication are more likely to face life-threatening complications and more likely to die from their symptoms than those who are not taking the drug.

Officials emphasized problems from the drug Serevent were rare, and they said the drug’s benefits outweighed the risks. They cautioned that it was dangerous to abruptly stop taking the drug and recommended that concerned patients talk with their doctors.

Serevent, an aerosol spray made by GlaxoSmithKline, opens the airwaves to help asthma patients breathe more easily. Patients use it twice a day to prevent attacks.

The company and the FDA are emphasizing existing guidelines that say asthma patients whose disease is severe enough to require daily medication also should be using inhaled corticosteriods, which control inflammation.