Peanut Butter News

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WASHINGTON — The number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. has dropped for the first time in two decades — decreasing by 8 percent as the sour economy dried up jobs and increased enforcement made it harder to sneak across the border with Mexico, a new study finds.

Much of the decline comes from a sharp drop-off in illegal immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America and South America attempting to cross the southern border of the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center, which based its report on an analysis of 2009 census data.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Thousands of people were told to start evacuating a North Carolina island Wednesday morning as Hurricane Earl threatened to sideswipe the East Coast.

The 800 or so year-round residents of Ocracoke Island were told they do not have to go, but Emergency Services Director Lindsey Mooney said officials hoped they would follow about 5,000 tourists ordered to leave for the mainland from 5 a.m.

“I don’t remember the last time there was a mandatory evacuation order for the island,” Hyde County Commissioner Kenneth Collier said.

More evacuations along the Eastern Seaboard could follow, depending on the path taken by the Category 4 storm, which was whipping across the Caribbean with winds of 135 mph.

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

Whooping cough sounds fantastically antiquated, up there with scurvy and St. Vitus Dance – diseases you didn’t think anyone in America got anymore.

But whooping cough, named for the high-pitched “whoop” a person makes when inhaling, has made a comeback, with an incidence rate up by a whopping 2,300 percent since 1976, the year when fear of the vaccine began to take hold and vaccination rates started to plummet. In 1976 there were only about 1,000 reported cases; in 2005, the most recent peak, there were nearly 27,000 reported cases (and likely over 1 million unreported cases), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — Alesaundra Tafoya’s parents have been teaching their daughter about safety in their Northern California community, pointing out such safe havens as fire stations if she ever finds herself in trouble.

They weren’t, however, expecting 3-year-old Alesaundra to call upon those lessons when one of them needed help — but that’s exactly what she did Friday when her father collapsed in their Manteca, California, home.

Frank Tafoya told CNN affiliate KOVR that he “took a mixture of medication I wasn’t supposed to at the time — a bed-time dose — and I guess I collapsed.”

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — The number of eggs recalled in a nationwide salmonella scare has grown to more than half a billion.

Iowa egg producer Hillandale Farms of Iowa is voluntarily recalling some 170.4 million eggs distributed to stores and companies that service, or are located in, 14 states, a spokeswoman at the Egg Safety Center said on Friday.

The Hillandale eggs were distributed under the Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, and Sunny Meadow brand names in six-egg cartons, dozen-egg cartons, 18-egg cartons, 30-egg packages, and five-dozen-egg cases, the website for the Egg Safety Center said.

Full Story at CNN.com

CNN) — A second 2-year-old boy has gone missing in 10 days from Yavapai County, Arizona, authorities said Tuesday as they announced a major search effort under way for the toddler, identified as Emmett Trapp.

Emmett’s disappearance is believed to be unrelated to the case of Sylar Newton, another 2-year-old who was reported missing July 25 from a camping site in Rimrock, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn said.

Sylar’s disappearance is now being investigated as a criminal case, authorities said Monday.

Emmett was reported missing by his mother at 8 p.m. Monday, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Full Story at news.blogs.CNN.com

Bill Cosby is used to winking at internet rumors of his death. But after another one spread Monday, he said he hopes people will give the hoaxes a rest.

After false news of Cosby’s death spread by Twitter on Monday – “Bill Cosby died” was a trending topic on the microblogging service – the 73-year-old comedian talked to CNN’s “Larry King Live” to prove he still is around.

Full Story at msnbc.com

DOVER, N.H. — In 1632, John Tuttle arrived from England to a settlement near the Maine-New Hampshire border, using a small land grant from King Charles I to start a farm.

Eleven generations and 378 years later, his field-weary descendants — arthritic from picking fruits and vegetables and battered by competition from supermarkets and pick-it-yourself farms — are selling their spread, which is among the oldest continuously operated family farms in America.

Full Story atCNN.com

Rhinebeck, New York (CNN) — Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and longtime beau Marc Mezvinsky were wed Saturday “in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts,” a 50-acre estate in Rhinebeck, New York, according to her parents.

“We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc into our family,” former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement. “On behalf of the newlyweds, we want to give special thanks to the people of Rhinebeck for welcoming us and to everyone for their well-wishes on this special day.”

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — The Utah Department of Workforce Services has moved to fire two employees believed to have created and distributed a list containing personal information of 1,300 purported illegal immigrants, officials said Tuesday.

The agency terminated a temporary worker and issued an “intent to terminate employment” notice to the other, spokesman Dave Lewis said. The latter career employee is on paid administrative leave pending a hearing, he said.

Information from a completed internal review of the data leak will be given to the state’s attorney general Wednesday for possible legal action, the department said.

Full Story at msnbc.com

MCKINNEY, Texas — Ben Sater had vowed that before he went off to college, he would raise $1 million for the Dallas children’s hospital where he had received free treatments as a child.

After eight years’ worth of fundraising golf tournaments for kids, the soon-to-be Austin College freshman has reached the goal, with nearly $19,000 to spare.

Organizers announced Monday that they’ve raised $1,018,842 for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, an orthopedic center that treats patients free of charge.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — The U.S. is urging Pyongyang to release an American held captive after reports that the man attempted suicide in a North Korean prison.

Swedish diplomats met with Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a U.S. State Department official confirmed Friday. He declined to release details about the 31-year-old’s condition, citing respect for the family’s privacy.