FDA expected to OK cloned products

A long-awaited study by federal scientists concludes meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring are safe to eat and should be allowed to enter the food supply without special labeling.

The finding is a strong signal that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will endorse the use of cloning technology for cattle, goats and pigs when it publishes a key safety assessment intended to clear the way for formal approval of the products. That assessment is expected next week.

"All of the studies indicate that the composition of meat and milk from clones is within the compositional ranges of meat and milk consumed in the U.S.," the FDA scientists concluded in a report published in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Theriogenology.

The study prompted a sharp reaction from food-safety advocates. The FDA "has been trying to foist this bad science on us for several years," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Food Safety in Washington. "This is really a rush to judgment."

Many ranchers and dairy producers have cloned animals for meat and milk production, but a voluntary moratorium has largely kept them off dinner tables.

Houston

Newly elected Democrat has angioplasty

U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, 61, a Democrat newly elected to the seat once held by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, underwent a procedure Friday to open a partially blocked blood vessel, his spokeswoman said.

Doctors at Christus St. John Hospital in Houston performed the angioplasty on Lampson and placed a stent in the vessel. Lampson is expected to be discharged today.

Minneapolis

Fire chief demoted after bias claimed

The nation's first openly lesbian big-city fire chief was demoted without severance pay Friday amid accusations of discrimination and sexual harassment.

City officials approved the deal that stopped short of firing Bonnie Bleskachek to avoid further costly court action, Mayor R.T. Rybak said. The City Council voted 8-5 to approve the deal. "She has been severely and significantly demoted, and her pay will be cut by $40,000," the mayor said.

Bleskachek, 43, denied wrongdoing, but the mayor said she will not contest the demotion. Bleskachek's attorney, Jerry Burg, said his client was relieved "to have a door closed on all of this."

Couple convicted of abusing children

A couple accused of forcing some of their 11 adopted special-needs children to sleep in wood-and-wire cages were convicted Friday of endangerment and abuse.

The jury convicted Sharen Gravelle, 58, and her husband, Michael, 57, of four felony counts of child endangering and seven misdemeanor counts. Each was acquitted of 13 charges.

The parents claimed they needed to keep some of the youngsters in enclosed beds rigged with alarms to protect them and to stop them from wandering at night.

The Gravelles' attorneys said an appeal is likely. Sentencing was set for Feb. 12.

Seattle Times news services