Health officials say a salmonella outbreak linked to pre-cut melon has sickened 60 people in five Midwestern states.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Caito Foods LLC on Friday recalled pre-cut watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe and fruit medleys containing at least one of those melons that were produced at its facility in Indianapolis.

It said the five states where people were sickened were Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. The CDC said the fruit was also distributed to stores in Georgia, Kentucky and North Carolina. It was sold in clear plastic clamshell containers at Costco, Jay C, Kroger, Payless, Owen’s, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Walgreens, Walmart and Whole Foods/Amazon.

Officials said people should throw away or return recalled products. 

The CDC said 31 of the people sickened had been hospitalized, but that there had been no deaths reported. Those sickened often develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after eating the contaminated food. The illness often lasts four to seven days.
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The Marine Corps is considering offering bonuses and other perks to entice older, more experienced Marines to re-enlist as it builds up its cyber operations to defend the nation, especially against cyberattacks from Russia and China.

The move marks a historical change that could transform a force made up primarily of high school graduates lured by the bravado and physical challenges of joining a branch that prides itself on being the “tip of the spear,” the first to go into battle and knock in doors. About 62 percent of Marines are 25 years old or younger, with many serving only four years.

The push to build up cyber operations is part of the Marine Corps’ modernizing efforts after 16 years of largely low-tech, counterinsurgency fights.

“It’s going to be a Marine Corps that’s a little bit older, a little more experienced, because as much as we love our young Marines … we need a little bit older because it takes longer to learn these skills,” Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller told defense leaders at a San Diego conference. “And so we’re an organization looking at the whole way we do business, and it’s going to change our culture.”

Less pressure on recruiters

Marine Corps officials are quick to emphasize the core recruiting mission will remain the same for the branch that boasts having the toughest warriors in the U.S. military.

But getting more Marines to re-enlist could inadvertently ease pressure on recruiters. Less than 30 percent of the U.S. population is qualified physically, mentally and morally to serve, according to military leaders.

A greater number of older Marines could also help lessen behavior problems like excessive drinking that can be more prevalent among junior Marines.

“By older Marines, we’re not talking guys with walkers but rather second- and third-tour enlisted Marines,” said Gary Solis, a military expert at Georgetown University who served 26 years in the Marine Corps. “They may be only a few years older than the 18- and 19-year-old Marines, but those three or four years’ difference could make a hell of a difference as far as maturity when it comes to their outlook and unit cohesion.”

The commandant said it also ensures the military gets a return on the money and time it spends training troops in cyber operations, something that could take three or more years.

The 2018 defense budget earmarked money for the Marine Corps to add 1,000 Marines, many of whom will work in cyber and electronic warfare.

Tampering with networks that control the operations of air defense, for example, could be as or more lethal than firepower in the future. Extremists have also been able to use mobile technology and social media to recruit members and raise money to become a real threat.

The Marine Corps is opening jobs this October in its new cyberspace occupational field. After the announcement of the field, Neller tweeted: ” ‘Trigger fingers turn to Twitter fingers’? Not exactly, but this is the next step in professionalizing our cyber force, which will be critical to our success, now and in the future.”

Boot camp still mandatory

The Marine Corps floated the idea of allowing people with cyber skills to bypass boot camp, but Neller opposed that, saying a Marine should be a Marine. Applicants over age 28 will still be evaluated to ensure they exhibit the physical stamina to undergo the rigors of recruit training.

Though it will not be easy to compete against six-digit salaries in the private sector, the military plans to tout how its tech people are sent out in the field, offering the chance for high-adrenaline experiences beyond sitting in an office at a computer.

Marine recruits with high-demand technical skills who choose to enlist into cyber operations may be eligible for an enlistment bonus. The Marine Corps is also developing plans to recruit and retain cyberspace professionals in the reserves, and in May unveiled new badges for enlisted troops and officers who work as drone operators.

David Coan, 35, a chief warrant officer based at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, has applied to be a part of the new cyber force after serving 17 years in the Marine Corps. Many Marines retire after 21 years, but the combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan said now he’s found more reason to stay beyond that.

“There are a lot of Marines at my level who foster the hope of trying to move into these operations in this new realm,” he said, adding it’s exciting to be at the forefront of a new force and receive cyber training. “This is going to change the Marine Corps and the way it fights.”
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The Taliban announced Saturday it will halt offensive operations against government security forces across Afghanistan during three-day festivities of Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The cease-fire coincides with the unilateral weeklong halting of anti-Taliban operations by the Afghan government starting Tuesday.

An insurgent statement said the Taliban leadership has also ordered his fighters not to hold meetings in civilian areas during the holiday period to enable their countrymen peacefully celebrate the festival. But it vowed to continue attacks on U.S.-led foreign troops in the country.

This will be the first time since 2002 that the Islamist insurgency will cease hostilities in Afghanistan, where it controls or contests nearly half of 407 Afghan districts.

Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, Omar Zakhilwal swiftly welcomed the insurgent gesture.

It is an “encouraging and important step towards prospects for peace. Hope the pleasure of shedding no Afghan blood in Eid becomes so overwhelming that rest of year is also declared as Afghan Eid,” Zakhilwal tweeted.

The Taliban in its announcement from its chief Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada, has also said it will release some prisoners after seeking commitments from them that they will not rejoin Afghan forces.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani earlier this week ordered his forces to stop offensive operations against the Taliban to encourage insurgents to come to the table and seek a negotiated end to the 17-year-old conflict.

The move has been widely welcomed, and the U.S. has promised to honor Ghani’s peace gesture.

Meanwhile, Afghan officials said Saturday an insurgent ambush in Qala-e-Zal district of northern Kunduz province killed more than 20 police personnel.

The Taliban has inflicted heavy casualties on Afghan forces since launching its spring offensive in April and reportedly killed around 500 of them last month.

Washington confirmed Thursday it has asked neighboring Pakistan to help in facilitating an Afghan peace and reconciliation process by persuading the Taliban to engage in talks with Kabul.

Lisa Curtis, a deputy assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump and senior director for South and Central Asia at the National Security Council, said at a seminar the U.S. is pursuing “multiple lines of effort” to promote Afghan peace. She said an important component of the effort is to ensure that Pakistan plays “a constructive role” in it.

“We have asked for Pakistan’s assistance in facilitating a peace process, and we have sought to understand Pakistan’s own core security concerns and ensure that its interests are taken into account in any peace process,” Curtis said.

Insurgents allegedly have long used sanctuaries on Pakistani soil to plan attacks in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan military says its forces have cleared their territory of all terrorism infrastructure and no insurgent safe havens are left in the country.

Pakistani officials however acknowledge families of some Taliban leaders and fighters might be residing along with nearly 2.7 million Afghan refugees the country hosts, and they do not rule out the presence of “residual” insurgent fighters hiding in the refugee population.

But Islamabad says its forces are closely monitoring and making sure any Afghan living on Pakistan soil as a refugee is not participating in the violence in Afghanistan.
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Sipping California zinfandel, eating deviled eggs and fretting about President Donald Trump, the guests attending a political fundraiser at a Silicon Valley executive’s home were the usual assortment of tech entrepreneurs and investors.

But the congressional candidate they had come to meet that March evening in the hills north of San Francisco was anything but typical.

Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat and former defense official, is running for Congress in Michigan’s 8th District, a pocket of Detroit suburbs, college campuses and farmland more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away. She is a gun owner, a supporter of constitutionally enshrined gun rights and a critic of single payer health care, hardly the kind of far-left candidate voters in the San Francisco Bay Area generally embrace.

But Slotkin, 41, and the party guests shared a goal: wresting control of the House of Representatives from Republicans in November’s congressional elections.

Swing districts

With no Bay Area Democrats facing serious challenges from Republicans, the party host, Brian Monahan, and a group of fellow technology and marketing executives have decided to look farther afield for candidates in swing districts that need financial support.

To focus their efforts, Monahan, technology investor Chris Albinson, executive recruiter Jon Love and a handful of others have formed a loose-knit organization they call Purple Project.

So far, the group has raised at least $210,000 for Democratic candidates in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The sum is a pittance compared to the money being spent on key races by fundraising Political Action Committees (PACs), which represent corporations and political interest groups and contribute millions of dollars each election cycle.

But in moderate districts with close races like Slotkin’s, such grassroots efforts can make a difference.

​‘Simply unacceptable’

Purple Project is one of a number of informal groups in solidly blue states such as California, Vermont and Massachusetts that have mobilized this year to back candidates in distant swing districts. So far, it has endorsed six candidates and plans to endorse 14 more by the end of July.

Love, a longtime executive recruiter for technology companies, spearheads candidate vetting. Many in the group have made the maximum allowable individual donation of $2,700 to each candidate.

For its participants, Purple Project is a way to channel months of political frustrations since Trump took office.

“Things are simply unacceptable and sitting on the sidelines just stewing on it isn’t helping anyone,” Monahan said. “You feel like out here in California your vote is worthless.”

That’s because House representatives from the San Francisco Bay Area are unwaveringly Democratic.

Bruising battle, outside money

To retake the House, Democrats would need to take 23 seats held by Republicans, as well as keep all the districts they now hold. That means races like Slotkin’s, in a competitive district with a mix of Republican and Democratic counties stretching from north of Detroit to the state capitol, Lansing, are pivotal.

She faces a bruising battle, however, trying to unseat two-term Congressman Mike Bishop, who won with 56 percent of the vote in 2016.

Out-of-state money has been the financial lifeblood of Slotkin’s campaign, putting her far ahead of her competitor for the Democratic nomination and nearly neck-and-neck with Bishop.

Slotkin had raised $1.5 million as of March 31, with just $304,000 coming from Michigan donors, approaching Bishop’s $317,000 in home-state contributions, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Slotkin raised more than $120,000 from individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

FEC filings generally do not include donations of $200 or less.

“Our campaign finance laws are so broken that in order to compete you have to raise a significant amount of money,” she told Reuters during a tour of her 400-acre farm in Holly, Michigan, when asked about Purple Project’s donations to her campaign. “If that means raising from outside the state I’d rather have that than the influence of a corporate PAC.”

At a house party in April in the small Michigan city of Brighton, about a dozen neighbors from a tidy middle-class neighborhood gathered to meet Slotkin and cheer her on, but not all were hopeful.

“I don’t give her much of a chance, but it’s good to have her there and maybe she’ll take a bite out of Bishop’s vote,” said Blake Lancaster, 74.

​Personal politics

Purple Project is a political organization with a deeply personal origin. Albinson, co-founder of San Francisco technology investment firm Founders Circle, said he was unnerved to learn his father-in-law in Michigan, Jerry Smith, voted for Trump. After 18 years as a registered Republican, Albinson, also a Michigan native, became an independent voter following Trump’s nomination.

He set about finding moderate congressional candidates he and his friends in Silicon Valley could support, but who would also appeal to Smith.

After Albinson met Slotkin, he subjected her to a litmus test: she had to visit his father-in-law.

Smith, 72, describes himself as a “common-sense Republican” worried about his health care costs. A retired small business owner who lives on a 40-acre farm just outside the 8th District, Smith said he and his wife, Barb, fret about spending down their savings “just for the regular monthly bills.”

Slotkin won over Smith, who said he was impressed by her resume and decency, and her views on improving President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, the Affordable Care Act, to keep health care costs down. From there, Purple Project has grown, with members scattered across the country.

To win the group’s backing, candidates must be able to appeal to Trump supporters and must have past service in the military, government or nonprofit sector. They also have to reject corporate PAC money and support affordable health care and infrastructure improvement, among other criteria.

The group offers more than money. Monahan, who was head of marketing at Walmart.com and an advertising executive at image-sharing and shopping website Pinterest, helps campaigns with digital marketing, for instance.

Last spring, Slotkin left Washington and a 15-year government career in defense and intelligence work to move back to the family farm in Holly. But some of her neighbors in this working-class town are not particularly interested in a newcomer Democrat.

Holly town supervisor George Kullis said he plans to vote for Bishop because the congressman helped him get federal funding for new signs for the national cemetery in town.

“Bishop has been good; he’s been ‘Johnny on the spot,’” Kullis said. “Besides, who is this Elissa Slotkin? I’ve never heard of her.”
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