Nation roundup for July 23

Different-colored
lobsters on rise

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — When a 100-pound shipment of lobsters arrived at Bill Sarro’s seafood shop and restaurant last month, it contained a surprise — six orange crustaceans that have been said to be a 1-in-10-million oddity.

“My butcher was unloading them and said, ‘Oh, my gosh, boss, they sent us cooked dead lobsters,’” said Sarro, owner of Fresh Catch Seafood in Mansfield, Mass. “He then picked one up and it crawled up his arm.”

Reports of odd-colored lobsters used to be rare in the lobster fishing grounds of New England and Atlantic Canada. Normal lobsters are a mottled greenish-brown.

But in recent years, accounts of bright blue, orange, yellow, calico, white and even split lobsters — one color on one side, another on the other — have jumped. It’s now common to hear several stories a month of a lobsterman bringing one of the quirky crustaceans to shore.

It’s anybody’s guess why more oddities are popping up in lobster traps, said Michael Tlusty, research director at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

It could be simply because advances in technology — cellphone cameras and social media — make it easier to spread the word about bizarre lobster sightings.

‘Dark Knight’ rakes in $160M

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Dark Knight Rises” was on track to earn $160 million, which would be a record for 2-D films, over the weekend following a mass shooting at a Colorado screening of the Batman film.

Citing box office insiders, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and other media outlets reported Sunday that the latest Batman sequel earned $160 million to $162 million.

That amount would best the $158.4 million debut of “The Dark Knight” in 2008 and give “Dark Knight Rises” the third-highest domestic weekend opening ever, after the 3-D films “The Avengers” with $207.4 million and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” with $169.2 million.

The Hollywood Reporter also cited box office sources who said “Dark Knight Rises” earned $70 million from nine of the 17 countries where it debuted over the weekend.

Tickets for 3-D films cost a few more dollars than 2-D screenings, netting extra cash at the box office. Movies released in 3-D typically earn under half of their income in 3-D screenings.

sometimes as little as a third.

Sony, Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Lionsgate joined “Dark Knight Rises” distributor Warner Bros in publicly withholding their usual revenue reports out of respect for the victims of the deadly shooting early Friday and their families.

Box-office tracking service Rentrak also did not report figures following the Aurora, Colo., shootings that killed 12 and injured 58 at a midnight screening of the new Batman sequel on Friday.

Jackson mother reported missing

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities said Sunday they believe Katherine Jackson, the mother of Michael Jackson and the guardian of his three minor children, is safe in Arizona with family members after she was reported missing.

The disclosure came after another concerned family member officially reported her missing Saturday night amid a dispute over the estate of her superstar son.

A person familiar with Katherine Jackson’s whereabouts said she is with her daughter Rebbie in Arizona and following a doctor’s orders to rest. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The 82-year-old Jackson family matriarch was reported missing by a relative on Saturday night. Sheriff’s officials later said they believe she is in Arizona with a relative, but they were still trying to establish contact with her.

Katherine Jackson’s whereabouts caused concern for some family members in recent days, and her granddaughter Paris Jackson issued a frantic plea on Twitter early Sunday.

“I haven’t spoken with her in a week I want her home now,” she posted from her Twitter account. She also tweeted a number for people to contact in case they saw her grandmother.

Katherine Jackson also hadn’t been in contact with her attorneys, who worked Sunday to learn more information about her whereabouts and why she had suddenly become incommunicado, including with her grandchildren.

“First of all, let’s hope that this is all just a big misunderstanding and a totally benign situation,” her attorney Perry Sanders Jr. said Sunday. “Assuming that she did actually leave on doctor’s orders, no matter which doctor, it has certainly created an absolutely irregular situation whereby she has been out of contact with her grandchildren.”

Man charged in hepatitis outbreak

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A hospital worker accused of injecting himself with stolen drugs and contaminating syringes that infected at least 30 patients with hepatitis C was charged Thursday with federal drug crimes.

David Kwiatkowski, a former technician at Exeter Hospital, was arrested Thursday morning at a Massachusetts hospital where he was receiving treatment. U.S. Attorney John Kacavas called Kwiatkowski a “serial infector” who worked in at least six other states, including one in which he is a suspect in a similar incident involving a hospital operating room. Kacavas declined to name any of the other states but said they are not clustered in one part of the country.

“We are closer to the beginning of our investigation than the end,” Kacavas said.

Kwiatkowski, originally from Michigan, worked at Exeter’s cardiac catheterization lab from April 2011 through this past May, when he was fired. He told investigators that he learned he had hepatitis C in May, but Kacavas said there is evidence he had the liver-destroying disease since at least June 2010.

“This serial infector has been contained, and the menace he posed to public health and safety has been removed,” Kacavas said.

Authorities didn’t say in what hospital Kwiatkowski was being treated so he couldn’t be contacted for comment.

Investigators believe Kwiatkowski, 33, stole syringes containing fentanyl, a powerful anesthetic more potent than morphine, and injected himself with them. They said he then put another liquid, such as saline, into the syringes, which were later used for patients. They said a search of his vehicle found an empty fentanyl syringe and several needles.

According to an affidavit, Kwiatkowski sometimes left the lab sweating profusely and attended procedures on his off days. One witness said he appeared to be “on something.” At least once, he was sent home for the day after a colleague told a supervisor that he was unfit to perform medical care, Kacavas said.

Kwiatkowski was what is known as a “traveler,” a technician hired by hospitals for temporary stints around the country. In a statement, Exeter Hospital said he underwent drug testing and a criminal background check when he was hired.

“It is deeply disturbing that the alleged callous acts of one individual can have such an impact on so many innocent lives. As a result of his alleged actions, people in our community, who in many cases are the friends and neighbors of the 2,300 people who work here, now face the challenge of a potentially chronic disease,” hospital president Kevin Callahan said.

The hospital declined to comment further about Kwiatkowski, citing the ongoing investigation.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral infection that can cause liver disease and chronic health issues. Altogether, 31 people, including Kwiatkowski, have tested positive for the same strain of the disease since the investigation began in late May, including an 89-year-old woman who was treated for a heart valve problem in February.

The woman lives with her niece, who also got tested for hepatitis C because she was exposed to the woman’s blood while helping her after she suffered a deep cut on her leg in April. The niece’s test was negative, but she will get tested again in six months, she said Thursday.

The niece, who asked not to be publicly identified because of the stigma associated with the disease and because she wants to protect her aunt from the media, said she hopes the criminal charges will deter others from similar schemes. She said she was happy to hear that Kwiatkowski had been arrested.

She said the ordeal has turned her family’s life upside down.

“We should be able to go into a hospital, put our lives in their hands and know that we’re going to be OK,” she said.

State and local health departments aren’t required to report such outbreaks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but in a report released in June, the agency said it was notified of 13 outbreaks nationwide between 2008 and 2011. Of those, seven occurred in outpatient facilities; most were traced to unsafe injection practices.

At least two have resulted in criminal charges, including a Colorado woman who was convicted of stealing syringes filled with painkillers from two hospitals where she worked and replacing them with used syringes. The syringes were later used on surgical patients, and up to three dozen patients were found to have hepatitis C after being exposed.

Kacavas said New Hampshire is working with the CDC, law enforcement and departments of public health in other states where Kwiatkowski worked.

“I’m unaware of such a scheme with such reach,” he said. “This one has the potential for very far-reaching implications.”

FDA warns of bacteria in shellfish from NY harbor

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration is warning people not to eat raw or partially cooked shellfish harvested from New York’s Oyster Bay Harbor because they have been linked to cases of foodborne illness in several states.

The agency said Friday that oysters and clams from the Long Island harbor may be contaminated with bacteria that cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms.

Regulators say consumers should check the tags on their shellfish to identify where they were harvested. If they were harvested in the harbor on or after June 1, consumers should throw them away.

New York officials closed the Nassau County, N.Y. site to shellfish harvesters July 13.

Shellfish from the area were distributed to several states including: Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

The FDA says the shellfish have been linked to confirmed and possible cases of Vibrio parahaemolyticus illness. The bacteria can cause illness within a few hours or as late as five days after being consumed.