Officials from Safeway and Sam’s Club stores in the Sacramento area are urging customers to return some meat products provided to the stores by a Fresno meatpacker.A Fresno meatpacker’s massive recall Thursday prompted Safeway and Sam’s Club to urge customers to return or throw out ground beef purchased during much of the last two months.
The nearly 826,000 pounds of beef recalled by Beef Packers Inc., a Cargill subsidiary, may be contaminated with a drug-resistant strain of salmonella linked to a broad outbreak.
Public health officials have linked beef processed by Beef Packers between June 5 and June 23 to at least 40 cases of salmonellosis, mainly in Colorado but extending to at least eight other states. Three illnesses in Orange County and two in Tulare County have been linked to the beef. No deaths have been reported.
The recalled meat was shipped in bulk from Fresno to retail distribution centers in California, Arizona, Colorado and Utah and then packaged for retail sale.
No stores in Northern California other than Safeway and Sam’s Club have been identified as carrying the recalled beef, according to a list released Thursday by the California Department of Public Health.
A spokewoman for Safeway said only beef sold between June 6 and July 14 is affected by the recall. Sam’s Club could not be reached for similar information. Both chains said they will provide refunds for the beef.
A recall of beef contaminated with salmonella is unusual, according to William Marler, a Seattle-based attorney who specializes in food safety cases.
Under U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, beef contaminated with salmonella ordinarily can be shipped to customers. It generally takes large numbers of the bacteria to trigger an illness, and cooking meat to 160 degrees Fahrenheit or higher kills most or all of the organisms.
“It’d be interesting to see why Cargill is recalling it, when they probably technically don’t have to,” Marler said.
Ground beef recalls in recent years have generally been linked to dangerous types of E. coli, which can cause illness even in small numbers. If USDA inspectors find those bacteria in ground beef, the agency has the power to prevent the meat from being shipped and frequently pressures the processor to issue a recall.
By Marler’s tally, more than 40 million pounds of ground beef were recalled in 2007 and 2008 because of E. coli contamination.
The current case of salmonella-contaminated beef likely triggered a recall because epidemiologists have linked it to illnesses, said Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer group based in Washington, D.C.
In addition, she said, the drug resistance of the salmonella linked to the illnesses makes the outbreak potentially more serious.
On its Web site, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service termed the recall “Class I,” the most serious, meaning “there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.”
Four people in Colorado have been hospitalized in connection with the outbreak, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. All are recovering.
Rebecca Hayne, a Cargill spokeswoman, said the company had been working with retailers to get the beef off store shelves.
“We don’t believe there’s any left out there unless (it’s) in someone’s freezer,” she said.

As the recession cemented its grip on the region last year, Sacramento area incomes took a worse pounding than those of average Americans, according to federal statistics released Thursday.
The data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis provided fresh evidence that the Sacramento area, one of the epicenters of the real estate meltdown, has been among the hardest-hit regions in the country. Incomes here failed to keep pace with inflation in 2008.
The BEA statistics don’t take into account the layoffs that have hammered the region this year – and that are likely to continue for at least several more months.
Nor do they factor in the effect of state furloughs, which began in February and will reduce the typical state employee’s pay by 14 percent through next June. State government is the region’s single largest employer and accounts for nearly 10 percent of its jobs.
Per-capita personal income in the four-county Sacramento region grew just 1.5 percent last year, to $39,002, according to a BEA analysis of incomes in all U.S. metropolitan regions. That was below the U.S. average of 2.5 percent.
It was also below the 2.4 percent inflation rate, which was mostly the result of high gas prices, the BEA said. That means regional incomes went backward in 2008.
Diana Diamond of Roseville said her family was affected in the past year by a number of economic issues, including furloughs imposed on her husband, a state Department of Transportation employee.
“It’s kind of sad to be going back in time,” she said. “Inflation’s not going back in time.”
Unemployment in the Sacramento area and statewide has hit 11.6 percent. National unemployment is 9.5 percent, with new numbers due to be released today.
The BEA statistics illustrate the not-so-gradual slowdown in the Sacramento region’s economy. Per-capita incomes rose 3 percent to 5 percent a year during the housing boom before limping along at just 1.5 percent last year. Among the 373 metro areas in the country, Sacramento ranked No. 310 in income growth.
“We are probably taking a bigger economic hit,” said Sanjay Varshney, dean of the College of Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento.
Among California metro areas, San Jose incomes slumped the worst last year. Per capita incomes fell 0.9 percent before accounting for inflation, a reflection of the downturn in the local tech economy.
The BEA numbers show the extent to which Sacramento area incomes were propped up last year by government payouts, including unemployment benefits and a cost-of-living increase in Social Security, said BEA economist David Lenze. Those payments jumped by almost 9 percent last year, pouring an additional $1 billion into the region’s economy.
Without the increase in government payouts, per capita incomes in the Sacramento area would have been essentially flat – even before accounting for the negative impact of inflation.
Lenze said the income statistics, because they cover the entire year, don’t reflect the acceleration in the downturn beginning last September. The recession officially began in December 2007, according to the private National Bureau of Economic Research, but didn’t really take hold until last fall.
“The calamity was in the last quarter of the year,” he said. “The economy dipped slowly at first and then dropped off after the stock market crashed.”
Despite signs of stability in the national economy, California’s immediate future continues to look bleak. Chapman University’s quarterly California Employment Indicator Index, released Thursday, predicted more layoffs ahead.
The Orange County university’s third-quarter index came in at 72.1, slightly worse than the second-quarter reading of 73.4. Anytime the index comes in below 100, that means the forecast is for more job losses. Chapman said it believes job growth won’t occur until early next year.
That’s in line with other predictions. A recent forecast by Sacramento State said unemployment in the region could rise to 13.5 percent next year.

The United Football League on Thursday announced its four-team schedule for its inaugural season – and you won’t find Sacramento anywhere in the mix.
That development comes despite the state capital being considered by UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue as a potential franchise site. Or, at the very least, Sacramento hosting a game as part of the San Francisco franchise.
The San Francisco team, to be given a formal mascot at a news conference Tuesday, will play three of its six games at home at AT&T Park. Huyghue said in February he was “excited (about Sacramento) for a number of reasons. It’s not a lark.”
It’s also not going to happen, at least not this year.
Huyghue was not available for comment Thursday, but UFL public relations director Rachel Gary simply said things did not work with Sacramento. A Sacramento “home” game would have been played at Sacramento State.
Hornets athletic director Terry Wanless said he had discussions with UFL officials but was not disappointed his school will not be a part of the UFL this season, citing “logistical and fiscal things that need to be worked out.”
Wanless said the UFL’s fiscal plan with alternate sites is “attendance-driven, and there are some risks” associated with that. What’s more, Wanless said he has to keep Sac State football and the condition of its field as his top priority.
“Obviously, we have to be protective of our turf, which is grass,” Wanless said. “It’s one thing to damage the field ourselves, especially if it’s a wet field, and another to have a different team do that. Our first commitment is to our team, but we are receptive to options.”
Said Gary: “It didn’t pan out with Sacramento with the schedule for this year. We only have three home games, so it (made sense) to have them all at AT&T Park.”
Should the Giants host any playoff games in October – creating a home scheduling conflict – Gary said the San Francisco team would play at an alternate Bay Area site. Sacramento is not being considered.
Could Sacramento be a home base – for a franchise or home games – in the future?
“It’s too early to tell,” Gary said. “We’re definitely not discounting any interested cities in the future.”
Sacramento fielded professional football franchises in the early 1990s with varying degrees of success, including the Surge, which won a World League championship, and the Gold Miners of the Canadian Football League.
The UFL will not attempt to go head-to-head with an NFL fan base. NFL games are primarily played on Sundays. The UFL will compete on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The debut game is San Francisco at Las Vegas on Oct. 8. The UFL championship game will be played Nov. 27 in Las Vegas.
Tickets go on sale starting Wednesday and will be available at ticket outlets at Sac State and UC Davis. All team rosters for the 2009 season will be released in the coming days, Gary said.

On the eve of getaway day for the A’s, who leave for Kansas City after today’s matinee, Eric Patterson was gone. Brett Tomko was signed. Jason Giambi was in limbo. To clear a roster spot for pitcher Chad Reineke, who made his A’s debut Wednesday night, the A’…

Two men are in jail on suspicion of the July 21 slayings on Seavey Circle of two men, perhaps over a perceived lack of respect shown to a female acquaintance of the suspects, Sacramento police said today.
Arrested were Phillip Gonzales, 26, and Michael Armstrong, 21, a Police Department release states.
Police gave this chronicle of events:
On July 21 at 10:14 p.m., officers responded to a report of a shooting on Seavey Circle near 5th Street. Officers arrived and found Deshawn Holloway, 35, dead at the scene from gunshot wounds. Everette Taylor, 28, was transported from the scene to the UCD Medical Center in critical condition. Taylor died the next morning from his injuries.
Based on the investigation, detectives believe that suspects Gonzales and Armstrong went to Seavey Circle looking for Taylor, the release states.
The suspects believed that Taylor had mistreated a female acquaintance of theirs, the release states. The suspects confronted Taylor and Holloway, the release states.
The confrontation turned physical and one of the suspects shot the victims, the release states.
On July 30, Gonzales was arrested at police headquarters without incident on suspicion of murder, the release states.
On Sunday, Armstrong was arrested after he turned himself in at police headquarters, the release states.

The Future Ford dealership on Madison Avenue encourages owners of clunkers to trade in their vehicles and get rebates on
new, more fuel-efficient autos. But local dealers say the government’s Web site and phone lines are frustrating to use.As the explosive popularity of the national “cash for clunkers” program shifted into high gear for a second week, local car dealers were furiously filing paperwork, fearing the billions in expected government-funded rebates could run out any day.
“I’ve gotten zero. I guarantee you, nobody in the U.S. has gotten a dollar out of this yet,” said Kevin Bowers, general manager at Performance Chevrolet in Sacramento.
As the debate continued Tuesday whether to refuel the program with another $2 billion, local dealers were fuming over the paperwork, frustrated by an overwhelmed government Web site that frequently crashes and forced to sit on hold for hours on the federal hotline.
“I spent four hours to get one car submitted. It’s just a mess,” said Todd Stamps of Carmichael Honda. “I don’t know of anyone who’s gotten a dime, either.”
Stamps has sold 35 cars and Bowers has about 30 under the federal Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS.
Cash for clunkers, as the rebate is popularly called, initially reserved $1 billion in rebates for dealers who take older vehicles as trade-ins for new cars with better fuel ratings. Depending on the mileage difference, each rebate is worth $3,500 to $4,500.
But after an estimated quarter of a million new cars drove out the door in the first four days, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration nearly shut down CARS last week after it appeared the initial $1 billion could be tapped out.
Another $2 billion was approved by the House of Representatives on Friday. On Tuesday, Senate Democrats promised a yes vote by Friday.
The hastily assembled program is a mixed bag for dealers, said Michael Harrington, chief legislative counsel for the National Automobile Dealers Association.
“The paperwork required is onerous,” he said. But Harrington said he understands the federal government’s requirement for documentation.
“We tell our dealers, the government is not giving you this money for free,” he said.
He predicted that dealers would eventually collect their rebates.
“I can’t imagine the White House and Congress walking away and leaving millions of dollars in unmet claims,” he said.
The association, which represents about 17,000 dealers, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is running CARS, recently held a joint Web seminar for dealers to address their concerns.
After the initial onslaught from consumers, the NHTSA upgraded its software Sunday morning, tripled the number of hotline telephone responders to 300 and increased the number of workers reviewing rebate applications, Harrington said.
“The good news is, the ship is going in the right direction,” Harrington said. “That said, this is far from ideal. Admittedly, there is a learning curve.”
It’s been a heck of a curve for Stamps, who has assigned one employee to do nothing but duplicate required documents.
Dealers must submit about a dozen pages of paperwork online for each rebate, as well as scan and upload documentation from each customer. At times, Stamps has lost all his work because the government’s Web site shuts down periodically and doesn’t save entered information.
Stamps says he spent two hours on hold, only to get cut off without getting his question answered.
“It’s really made me nuts,” he said. In spite of the ordeal, Stamps acknowledges the program’s benefits to car buyers and car sales.
The glitches can partly be attributed to the quick assembly of the program, which Harrington said was put together in 30 days, fast for a federal government program.
In the first days, some dealers, including Carmichael Honda, collected sales tax on the rebate amount and later discovered that tax shouldn’t have been collected. Contracts had to be rewritten and customers came back to collect the extra sales tax.
In talks with fellow dealers, Bowers said there is plenty of anxiety about getting reimbursed.
The estimated $135,000 in rebates due to Performance Chevrolet could hurt operations if dealers aren’t repaid for the rebates they’ve given customers, Bowers said.
But Harrington is also urging his members to “look at the sunny side. When is the last time you had a bustling showroom? What is the last time you ran out of cars?”

A shopper pushes a shopping cart after entering the Kohl’s department store in Anchorage, Alaska Wednesday, May 13, 2009. Department store operator Kohl’s said Thursday, its fiscal first-quarter profit fell 11 percent as same-store sales dropped, but results still topped analysts’ estimates.(AP Photo/Al Grillo)Kohl’s department stores will hire as many as 600 employees to staff four new area stores opening in September, good news for a Sacramento-area retail sector battered by store closures, weak sales and the prolonged recession.
It’s also a boost for the local job front, where regional unemployment is above 11 percent.
“The stores coming in is a good sign for local job development,” said Diane Patterson, a labor analyst at the state’s Employment Development Department.
The locations – in Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento and Lodi – are part of 30 California stores that the Wisconsin-based department store chain plans to open this fall, creating more than 4,200 jobs statewide, according to a company statement Monday.
Kohl’s, which specializes in moderately priced apparel, shoes, housewares and beauty products, will have 121 California locations after its expansion.
“Hopefully, this will help seasonal hiring,” the EDD’s Patterson said. “As they gear up for the holidays, this will provide local jobs.”
The part-time jobs in customer service, cash register work, freight and housekeeping will staff store locations vacated last year by failed retailer Mervyns Inc.
In December, Kohl’s acquired the leases to the sites of former Mervyn’s stores. Hayward-based Mervyns filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2008 and began liquidating its 149 stores in November.
Mervyns was just one of a slew of retail store chains that vanished in the last year.
The fallout continues to be felt locally. Retail added just 200 jobs between May and June this year, according to EDD data, down sharply from the 20-year average of 800 new jobs for the month. More tellingly, retail jobs in the Sacramento region are down 7,300 in June, compared with the same time last year. That represents about 16 percent of jobs lost in the region, Patterson said.
To gear up for its hiring spree, Kohl’s has scheduled a series of job fairs Aug. 9-13.
The company says its employee benefits include health insurance, a 401(k) program, stock ownership and merchandise discounts.

Harley-Davidson owners buy their bikes to ride.
Now, Elk Grove motorcycle owners will have to travel a little farther for sales and service.
Jay and Christine Westbrook, who own two local Harley-Davidson dealerships, will be closing their Elk Grove outlet at 10291 East Stockton Blvd. and moving operations to their Sacramento store.
As part of a nationwide consolidation, the Milwaukee-based motorcycle company is asking owners of two or more dealerships in major metropolitan areas to combine operations in one location, Jay Westbrook said.
The Elk Grove operation will be relocated to the couple’s Sacramento dealership at 1000 Arden Way, he said.
“It’s heart-rending,” said Westbrook, who expects he will have to lay off employees.
Westbrook does not have a closing date yet for the Elk Grove store, which opened in 2005. Among other details, Westbrook is trying to secure the right to reopen in the Elk Grove market once the economy bounces back.
“The truth is, it makes sense,” he said of the corporate decision to consolidate.
In June, Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. reported a 35.1 percent drop in sales from the same quarter in 2008, compared with a 48.1 percent decline of all heavyweight motorcycles during the same period.
As sales decline, the company is reducing production and salaried staff and is shrinking its worldwide shipments of new bikes to between 212,000 and 228,000, a 25 percent to 30 percent drop from 2008.
Restaurants skid
The dining scene in the Sacramento-to-Modesto region lost 115 restaurants over the year ended March 31, according to a recent market study. That constitutes a 1.6 percent drop, slightly more than the national dip of 1 percent during the same period.
Most of the closures were in the fast-food independent category, which is chains with only one or two outlets.
Family dining restaurants in the Sacramento-Modesto area dropped nearly 4 percent, but fine dining grew by 10 percent with the addition of two restaurants in that category.
The NPD Group, an Illinois-based market research company, compiles the restaurant counts twice a year.
According to the survey, there were 7,203 restaurants in the Sacramento-Modesto region as of March 31.
In California, the number of fine-dining restaurants declined by 5.3 percent during the same time period, while family dining experienced a slight growth of 0.1 percent.
Fine-dining restaurants and family dining continue to struggle nationwide.
Major chain restaurants with 500 or more outlets increased nationally by 1 percent, but midsize chains and smaller operations, including independents, all shrank in numbers.
Mall owner lines up cash
Macerich Partnership, an operating partner of the owners of Arden Fair mall, has entered a joint venture in a New York shopping center that will yield $150 million in cash.
In a press release, Macerich executives said the co-ownership deal involving the Queens Center in Queens, N.Y., is the first of several in which the company hopes to raise $500 million in equity.
Under the new deal, Toronto-based Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd. will acquire 49 percent of the Macerich-owned Queens center, a nearly 1 million-square-foot shopping mall with sales of $876 per square foot in the last quarter of 2008.
The two entities have collaborated in seven other joint ventures since 1999.
Macerich, based in Santa Monica, owns or has primary interest in 72 regional shopping centers.
Cadillac Fairview, which invests in commercial real estate, is owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the retirement plan for 284,000 teachers in Ontario, Canada.

A house fire in the unit block of Paramount Circle Saturday night caused heavy damage to a garage, said Capt. Jim Doucette of the Sacramento Fire Department.
Doucette said that the cause of the fire remains unknown. A firefighter sustained some burns on his arm that Doucette described as minor. There were no other injuries.

Sacramento-area residents can thank a low-pressure system off the coast for keeping the heat at bay this the weekend and into the work week.
A high temperature of 90 degrees is forecast for today and 88 degrees on Sunday.
“It’s fabulous weather for the first week of August,” said Johnnie Powell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
Temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s are expected into next week, with no major heat-up in sight, he said.
The Sierra will see highs in the 80s today, with a slight chance of thunder showers over the peaks, Powell said.
The high in the Redding and Red Bluff areas is expected to be 100 degrees today, close to the average high of 99 degrees for this time of year, he said.