03/05/06 Quarantine & Credit Card

Canadian Quarantine & Illegal Credit Card. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Nine Saskatchewan farms and as many as 8,000 cattle, deer and other ruminants have been quarantined after ruminant meat and bone meal was accidentally shipped to those farms from a Saskatoon feed mill. Those materials have been banned from feed since 1997 as part of rules to protect against the spread of mad cow disease. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency shut down the farms and is doing a risk assessment on the affected animals. Bank of America and several other financial institutions are coming under fire after they began offering credit cards to customers who may be illegal immigrants. The backlash has been severe. Critics of illegal immigration called for a boycott and said the bank could be supporting terrorists and drug traffickers. Some outraged customers closed accounts and sent back their cards, chopped into little pieces. Bank of America isn't the only financial institution to try the credit card. Citigroup said it has done so for years, and Wells Fargo & Co. is thinking about it. The cards are merely the latest progression for an industry that has spent millions of dollars to attract customers in the nation`s growing Latino community - and among the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. The Oscars have come to mean much more than designer dresses, sensational celebrities (and more often than not,) less than sensational movies, the red carpet now affords a "gold" platform to promoting a social cause. Leonardo DiCaprio and a bevy of other stars showed their support for alternative fuel by taking part in the red carpet green car campaign. DiCaprio, Penelope Cruz, Forest Whitaker, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ryan Gosling and naturally, forgive the pun, former vice president-turned filmmaker Al Gore and his wife, Tipper arrived a la Oscars in everything from a hybrid Prius to a green limo. DiCaprio was by-causel. Going Green wasn't the only issue on he wanted to increase awareness for. DiCaprio and a few others proudly sported a lapel pen in the shape of a red tear drop designed by a Beverly Hills Jeweler to bring attention the crisis in Africa's diamond mines. From the look at all the mass of diamonds bedecking the divas, I think Leonardo will find the aura of green autos a much easier sell. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.