News in brief

By The Associated Press

Untreated water tied to salmonella outbreak in cucumbers

Untreated water used by a Florida cucumber grower is one likely source of salmonella food poisoning that sickened nearly 450 people across the U.S. this spring, federal health officials said Tuesday.

But that grower doesn’t account for all of the cucumber-related illnesses and 125 hospitalizations that were reported from late March through early June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Salmonella found in untreated canal water used by Bedner Growers Inc. of Boynton Beach, Florida, matched a strain of the bacteria that caused some of the illnesses in reported in more than 30 states and Washington, D.C. Additional types of salmonella were detected in soil and water samples collected at the site, FDA officials said.

Judge: Federal agency can’t enforce abortion rule in two states

NEW YORK | A federal judge on Monday granted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as employers in two Southern states, temporary relief from complying with a federal rule that would have required them to provide workers with time off and other workplace accommodations for abortions.

Judge David Joseph granted the preliminary injunction in two consolidated lawsuits, one brought by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the other brought by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic University and two Catholic dioceses.

The lawsuits challenge rules issued in April by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which stated that abortions are among pregnancy-related conditions covered by the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which passed in December 2022 and took effect last year.

U.S. ends legal fight against Titanic expedition

NORFOLK, Va. | The U.S. government has officially ended its legal fight against an upcoming dive to the Titanic shipwreck. That’s because the expedition will no longer enter the ship’s hull or take artifacts from the site. The U.S. has said doing so would violate a federal law that treats the wreck as a memorial.

The Georgia-based company RMS Titanic Inc. owns the Titanic’s salvage rights. It displays artifacts recovered from previous expeditions. The firm significantly scaled back its dive plans this year. Uncrewed submersibles will only take images of the wreck and debris field.

The mission is scheduled for mid-July.

—From AP reports