12/08/06 New Park Pass & More E. Coli Fears

New Park Pass & More E.Coli fears. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Authorized by Congress in 2004 - a new interagency recreation pass is now available for visitors to national public lands. The new pass combines the benefits of existing recreation passes from five federal agencies into one comprehensive pass - known as the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass. The new pass covers recreation opportunities on public lands managed by the National Park Service - Fish and Wildlife Service - Bureau of Land Management - Bureau of Reclamation - and the U.S. Forest Service. Access to most public lands remains free. The new pass applies to those locations that currently have entrance or standard amenity fees. Non-meat ingredients of Taco Bell menu items are under close scrutiny by state and federal investigators trying to pinpoint the cause of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened nearly four dozen people in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Taco Bell ordered scallions removed from its 5,800 U.S. restaurants Wednesday after tests by an independent lab found three samples of green onions appeared to have a dangerous strain of the bacterium. Later Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is gathering samples of all non-meat items served in the restaurants that could carry the pathogen and planned to test them at FDA laboratories. The items include cilantro, cheddar cheese, blended cheese, green onions, yellow onions, tomatoes and lettuce, the FDA said. Now here's today's Washington Grange. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.