Illness

OGDEN — Weber State University’s Times and Issues Forum has invited participants to discuss pandemics on Wednesday.

The discussion, free and open to all, will be at 10:30 a.m. in the Shepherd Union Lair.

For information, email aaronnewman@weber.edu.

Weber State is at 3848 Harrison Blvd.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Ex-presidential candidate John Edwards has a life-threatening heart condition that will require surgery next month, his doctor told a judge presiding over Edwards' upcoming court case over possible campaign violations.

A cardiologist for the 58-year-old ex-North Carolina Senator wrote two letters about his condition to Judge Catherine Eagles who talked about them Friday during a hearing to consider whether the trial would go on later this month. She delayed it until at least March 26.

Edwards walked into the courtroom in Greensboro without assistance and appeared healthy. The judge requested that he be there.

SYRACUSE -- Amazing Grace continues to live up to her name.

Gracie Kaye Hinds, 9, has spent the past four months fighting an autoimmune disease at Primary Children's Medical Center. She endured 11 weeks of a medically induced coma, awoke just before Thanksgiving, and improved enough to leave the hospital to spend Christmas Day with her family.

Although her reprieve from the hospital was short, Gracie continues to impress family, friends and medical professionals with her strength and tenacity throughout her rehabilitation.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Officials say five state prison inmates hospitalized earlier this week after suffering from suspected botulism have been released.

In just the past two months, food companies and government safety agencies have issued recalls for hamburger, lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, cheese, smoked salmon, spinach dip, ground turkey and cantaloupes.

At least 13 people are already believed to have died from eating cantaloupes grown on one farm in Colorado, the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness since 1998. That recall came just a month after Cargill launched the second-biggest meat recall in history, involving 36 million pounds of ground turkey. The salmonella traced to the meat has been blamed for one death.

Some will say these tragedies confirm all that is wrong with how food is grown, distributed and sold in the U.S. and much of the developed world. I'd argue the opposite: that the recalls prove that the U.S. food safety system works far better than most people give it credit for.

SALT LAKE CITY -- State food inspectors say it's unlikely any cantaloupes connected to a deadly listeria outbreak are still on Utah shelves.