Yet Another Food Recall

This one involves the removal of more than 100 tainted products from Castleberry's Food Co. Some of the products wound up in Key West grocery stores and were removed.

This latest recall really makes you think about what we are eating, not to mention who's minding the food inspection store. It certainly doesn't appear to be the Food and Drug Administration these days.

See the list of tainted foods here. According to the Company's July 21 press release, the original recall that was "announced on July 18 included 10 products" but was expanded on July 21. There is more information on the main page of the Company's website about the "Great Value Chili products included in this recall" according to the Company's website. Check it out here.

Taking A Breather

We've just returned from a little trip to the Miami area and a chance to sample some great food -- not that KW doesn't have its share of fine restaurants, but Miami is -- well, different -- as many of you know. We didn't lug the laptop along and actually didn't miss it. Frankly, it was fun to take a breather from daily blogging, and we have vowed to do it more often during this summer. So you may not see as many columns from as as you might have come to expect.

Also, we're going to be making some technical changes to the site that may limit our ability to publish daily while we get all the code to work the way it should. We are not going to rush things and so the changes will come slowly. We're certainly not computer gurus so we're likely to get stuck and have to ask for a good deal of help. We'll keep you posted as we enter this new phase.

Happy Anniversary!

Yes, can you believe it? One year ago today, we welcomed you to this blog. Ten days later Tropical Storm Alberto was forming in the Gulf, and we blogged about it. We also talked about the looming increase in TAMPOA assessments of then 25%. Who at that time would have thought that the 25% increase would become only a drop in the bucket and end up to be a 250% plus increase. Who would have thought that assessments might go up even more? Who would have believed then that the controversy over the Truman Annex gates would continue for so long without an end in sight?

Now we turn the page and look forward to the future. We expect that there will be many changes to this blog in the coming months. While we can't say yet what they will be, we can say that our effort will be to bring you something new. We will be changing, but we will also stay the course of creating interesting discussion. We have had a challenging first year.

We thank our loyal readers for all their information and support this past year. We also thank our haters. Without your nastiness and hateful (unpublished) comments, we would not have had the energy to keep plugging away. In an unwitting way, you too have been drawn into the discussion, even though you didn't want to be. That means you have had to listen and possibly learn something you may not have known. So even though you don't like us, we thank you for sharing your point of view.

As we celebrate our one year anniversary, we'll be thinking about the future and the news and commentary we will continue to bring to you. Stay tuned.

One Day Of Silence

Catching Up

We haven't been blogging for a little more than a week. We were called away to Washington in connection with our job. Yes, we really do have one. It requires us to travel now and again. Unfortunately that is sometimes unexpectedly and at the drop of a hat (so to speak) whenever we're needed. We don't like to leave our readers in the lurch, and we apologize to all of you loyal readers for our unexpected absence. We are going to have to learn to blog remotely, although for this travel, that would have been impossible.

BTW, thanks for those comments. Keep them coming.

Because we are catching up on some unfinished business related to our travel, our blogging may be sporadic over the next few weeks. Then, hopefully, we can get back to a more regular schedule.

More Pet Food Recalled

The recall of pet food has been expanded to include 22 types of dog biscuits according to the FDA. the biscuits had contaminated gluten in them. And Menu Foods which was the subject of the original recall has now added an additional 20 varieties of the recalled brands to the recall list. More info is here.

Alert! Alert!

Menu Foods which makes dog and cat food that was the subject of a nation-wide recall last week has now recalled ALL of its dog and cat food brands. This expands the initial recall. The FDA website has been updated today to say that "consumers who have any of the products subject to the recall should immediately stop feeding them to their pets."

Tests have discovered rat poison in some of the recalled cans. The substance in the food was identified as aminopterin, a cancer drug that once was used to induce abortions in the United States and is still used to kill rats in some other countries, according to New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker.

For more information on the brands and specific products check out this FDA site.

If you own a pet or know of someone who does, you owe it to that animal's safety to check out this recall. In a previous post, we provided details of the Menu Foods website where you can find more information. Here is the website for Menu Foods again.

In information obtained from Menu Foods, the FDA learned that Menu Foods conducted "tasting trials" of the pet food on cats and "nine cats died died during routine taste trials conducted by the company."

Now what we wonder is whether there wasn't a better way of determining that the pet food was contaminated than to feed it to NINE cats?

UPDATE AND CORRECTION: Menu Foods in a press release this afternoon indicated it had not recalled all of its dog and cat food brands, as was earlier reported in the news media and here. The recall remains limited as stated in this press release issued this afternoon.

TAMPOA Board Agenda for March 1

The TAMPOA Board meets tomorrow, Thursday March 1, at 4:00 p.m. Among other tings, the Board is going to talk about finances and borrowing money. If you are concerned about this, you may want to attend or at least make your wishes known to Board members you know. The big question: is this potential borrowing of $400,000 fiscally responsible. Judge for yourself. Here's the Board Agenda:

The Truman Annex Master Property Owners’ Association, Inc.
Board of Directors Meeting
201 Front Street, Suite 103
Key West, Florida 33040
March 1, 2007
Thursday at
4:00 PM

Purpose: Conduct Business as Properly Brought Before the Board

AGENDA

1. Call Meeting to Order

2. Determination of Quorum

3. Proof of Notice of Meeting

4. Approval of Minutes
January 8, 2007 Board of Directors meeting
January 29, 2007 Annual meeting
January 29, 2007 Organizational Board of Directors meeting

5. Reports of Officers
President’s report: Discussion of Litigation with the City of Key West
Treasurer’s report: Review the year to date financial statements

6. Reports of Committees
Architectural Control Committee

7. Unfinished Business

8. New Business
Approve corporate resolution to authorize borrowing from Marine Bank and to approve of the
terms of their loan commitment for the purpose of establishing a $400,000 credit line to pay
legal fees in reference to the ongoing litigation with the City of Key West and assist the
Association’s cash flow in the future in the event of a catastrophe such as damages resulting
from a server hurricane.

Management items

9. Member Input

10. Adjournment

I, Tom Tukey, as President of The Truman Annex Master Property Owners’ Association, Inc., hereby call a Meeting of the Board of Directors as stated above.

THE TRUMAN ANNEX MASTER PROPERTY
OWNERS' ASSOCIATION, INC.

By: Tom Tukey
President, TAMPOA

Key West Garden Club Opening

The Key West Garden Club will officially open its newly restored Butterfly garden on Thursday, March 1, at 1:30 p.m. at the West Martello Tower. The ribbon cutting ceremony will follow a talk by butterfly expert Marc Minno. The garden is now thriving and has been restored after being devastated by Hurricane Wilma. The garden and event are open to the public. If you are interested in butterflies, this should be an interesting event. Congratulations to the Garden Club. We know a great deal of hard work has gone into restoring this beautiful place.