03/14/07 Hotel Surcharge & Preventing Food Poison

Hotel Surcharge & Preventing Food Poisoning plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The Wenatchee Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau has levied a one-dollar-per-room surcharge on hotels and motels in the city. Roger Clute, executive director of the visitors bureau says the dollars will be used to promote all the things Wenatchee has to offer. CLUTE: The hotel/motel association voted to put in what's called a tourism promotion assessment and it's the same thing Spokane, Tri-Cities and Yakima have in place now. The projection is that it's going to produce about 200-thousand. This money has to be used for advertising, marketing or sales. Residents of Wenatchee recently were up in arms when the city decided to remove the "Welcome to the Apple Capital" signs. Last week, the city voted to put up new signs once again promoting the apple industry. Fruit and vegetable-related outbreaks of food poisoning are on the rise and the government has introduced new rules for preventing food poisoning in fresh-cut produce, but companies don`t have to follow them. The new, voluntary rules, announced Monday by the Food and Drug Administration, are urging fruit and vegetable processors to adopt food safety plans similar to those in the meat industry. Controls in the meat industry are mandatory. Food safety advocates and the produce industry are calling for greater government oversight of fruits and vegetables. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. Funny how two canines can arouse such different emotions, we call it heart warming when Benji returns after months of wandering, and chilling when the big bad wolf finds his way back home. Loathed or loved wolves, like are our president, have the ability arouse strong emotions. In 1995 a wolf called B7 was released in a pioneer wolf recovery program in Idaho. 11 years latter, at the astoundingly old of 14 he would be found dead along on an Idaho highway. Love them or hate them B7's saga of commitment is inspiring. He paired up with his female B11 a year after his release. B7 is caught at least three times throughout the years. Once stages a cunning escape, and despite being separated by nearly 200 miles each time the wolf couple is always back together within ten days. The two founded what is known as the Big Horn Pack yet no one knows what has become of B11. We do know that given the fact wolves will soon be delisted and hunted B7 likely to end the era of the old wolves. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.