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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Mint is rolling out its fourth new presidential coin today, this one bearing the likeness of James Madison, the father of the Constitution.
The coins will be available today at some local bank branches, but not necessarily first thing in the morning.
Wells Fargo spokeswoman Kelly Sprecher said the bank’s branches will have the coins available this afternoon.
Chase spokeswoman Nancy Norris said Chase places its orders well in advance of official release dates so it can distribute new coins the morning of their first day of issue.
ConAgra Foods Inc. says it has resumed making the Banquet and private label pot pies that were linked to last month’s salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds.
The company says environmental tests of its Marshall, Mo., plant have not shown any trace of salmonella since the Oct. 11 recall.
ConAgra said lab tests confirmed salmonella in Banquet turkey pot pies that were produced on July 13 and July 31. Spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said salmonella was not confirmed in any of the other Banquet or private label pot pies the company makes.
A prison dental technician was taken hostage early Wednesday by an inmate in Wisconsin doing life for murder, but the woman was released unharmed shortly before the inmate surrendered, authorities said.
Authorities said Stuart Ellanson forced the woman into a windowless storage room and held her there for about 5 1/2 hours but did not threaten her. Waupun Correctional Institution went into emergency lockdown, curtailing any movement within the sprawling, brick-and-mortar prison and herding inmates to their cells.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced Wednesday he was scrapping his plan to grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, saying that overwhelming public opposition had destroyed the proposal’s chances.
Spitzer, a Democrat, proposed the initiative in September in an effort to improve safety in New York, home to more than 1 million undocumented immigrants.
About 70 percent of New Yorkers opposed the driver’s license plan, according to a recent poll.
A teenager was charged Wednesday with shooting two undercover narcotics officers as they were trying to serve an arrest warrant, the fourth and fifth officers shot in Philadelphia in the last few months.
Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said police trying to serve the warrant in the city’s Frankford section rang a house’s doorbell twice Tuesday night, then used a battering ram on the door. The shooter fired at them through a window, he said.
One officer was shot in the leg and the other was wounded in the hip. Both were treated at hospitals and released.
A masked man who claimed he was armed and had planted four bombs in an Atlantic City, N.J., casino held police at bay from a shuttle bus for nearly six hours, demanding $3 million before surrendering peacefully early Wednesday, police said.
During the standoff, the man blamed the Showboat Casino-Hotel for the suicide of his brother, who he said was a former employee who developed a gambling problem, according to a person with knowledge of the standoff who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by law enforcement to release the information.
