The Nation in Brief

Louisiana budget threatens food aid

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana will end the food stamp program that provides aid to nearly one in five state residents by January, unless lawmakers add more money to next year's budget for the social services agency.

The Department of Children and Family Services is to take a cut of around $34 million in the budget passed by lawmakers in the final minutes of the just-ended special session. The agency says that will force it to shutter the food stamp program in 2019 because it won't be able to pay for administration of the federally funded benefits.

Nineteen percent of Louisiana residents receive assistance from the food stamp program -- known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Department of Children and Family Services said about half of those recipients are children.

"It's a gut-wrenching decision to make," said Children and Family Services Secretary Marketa Garner Walters.

Elimination of the program isn't yet certain. But Walters said conversations already have started with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the federal aid program, about the possibility.

Gov. John Bel Edwards is calling lawmakers into a 10-day special session starting June 18 to try to fill the gaps in next year's budget.

Earthquake shakes Oklahoma, Kansas

CHEROKEE, Okla. -- The U.S. Geological Survey said a 4.4-magnitude earthquake shook parts of northern Oklahoma and neighboring Kansas on Saturday.

Geologists said the earthquake was recorded at 8:59 a.m. about 16 miles east of Cherokee, about 100 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. The earthquake was recorded at a depth of 5 miles.

News outlets in Wichita, Kan., which is about 75 miles northeast of the earthquake's epicenter, reported feeling the quake. Some residents more than 100 miles north of Wichita in Manhattan, Kan., also reported feeling tremors. No injuries or damage were reported.

Thousands of earthquakes recorded in Oklahoma in recent years have been linked to the underground injection of wastewater from oil and natural gas production. Regulators have directed producers to close some wells.

Salmonella outbreak linked to melon

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Health officials say a salmonella outbreak linked to pre-cut melon has sickened 60 people in five Midwestern states.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Caito Foods LLC on Friday recalled pre-cut watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe and fruit medleys containing at least one of those melons that were produced at its facility in Indianapolis.

It says the five states where people were sickened are Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. The CDC says the fruit was also distributed to stores in Georgia, Kentucky and North Carolina. It was sold in clear plastic clamshell containers at Costco, Jay C, Kroger, Payless, Owen's, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Walgreens, Walmart and Whole Foods/Amazon.

Officials said people should throw away or return recalled products.

The CDC said 31 of the people sickened have been hospitalized, but there have been no deaths reported. Those sickened often develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after eating the contaminated food. The illness often lasts 4 to 7 days.

Searchers find body of alligator victim

DAVIE, Fla. -- State wildlife searchers located the body of a woman believed to have been killed during an alligator attack in South Florida.

The body of 47-year-old Shizuka Matsuki was found in a lake in Davie, Fla., officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said late Friday.

A witness told authorities he saw the woman walking two dogs Friday and then noticed the dogs alone, barking near the water.

Officials captured and killed an alligator later Friday and found evidence during a necropsy of the animal that it had bitten Matsuki.

"We would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Ms. Matsuki," conservation commission spokesman Rob Klepper said in a statement.

Alligators are opportunistic feeders that will eat what is readily available and easily overpowered.

Fatal attacks on humans remain rare, however. According to the wildlife commission, the likelihood of a Florida resident being seriously injured during an unprovoked alligator incident in Florida is roughly only 1 in 3.2 million.

A Section on 06/10/2018

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