U.S. presses Japan to resume beef trade

The United States is looking to resume exporting beef to Japan — and it’s pressing the Japanese to set a date to make that happen.
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns met for 30 minutes today with Japan’s ambassador to the US.
Japan agreed last October to lift the ban it imposed after the December 2003 discovery of the only US case of mad cow disease. But negotiations have slowed over the issue of how to determine the age of cattle.
Johanns said the Japanese ambassador was not prepared to give a date for his country to resume buying American beef. The new agriculture secretary said he offered to do whatever is necessary, including having a USDA team work on the issue around the clock.
Japan was the most lucrative foreign market for U-S beef before the ban.

After train
derailment, police have to deal with grenade

It was the last thing they needed, as police near the site of yesterday’s train derailment tried to deal with the aftermath of the crash.
Hours after it happened, police say a woman walked into a police station about a mile from the scene — with a live hand grenade.
The woman, in her 70s, had found the World War Two grenade in her garage. She put it in a plastic bag and took it to the police station, where the officer who was at the front desk says she just put it on the counter “almost like it was a doughnut.”
He says the woman “almost passed out” when she found out it was a live grenade.
Police evacuated the station — which had been on full tactical alert, dealing with the train wreck.

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