By DEVI SHASTRI (AP Health Writer)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took more than 15 months to act on a whistleblower complaint it received about conditions at an Abbott Nutrition factory that was at the center of a nationwide shortage of infant formula, a new audit shows.

The Department of Labor received the email and three days later forwarded it to an FDA address specifically for such complaints. But one of several staff members charged with managing the FDA inbox at the time “inadvertently archived” the email in February 2021, and it wasn’t found until a reporter requested it in June 2022.

The episode is one of several that led the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General to conclude in a report Thursday that the FDA’s policies and procedures to address the issues at the Abbott plant were inadequate.

The FDA took some actions and did follow-up inspections but “more could have been done leading up to the Abbott powdered infant formula recall,” the auditors wrote. The FDA needs better policies for reporting the status of complaints to senior leaders and to make sure that inspections are done quickly, the report concluded.

“The key is, moving forward, FDA should be doing better, and the American public should expect better,” Assistant Inspector General Carla Lewis said in an interview.

Several infants were hospitalized, and two died, of a rare bacterial infection after being fed the powered formula made at Abbott’s Michigan plant, the nation’s largest. The FDA shuttered the site for several months starting in February 2022, and the company recalled several lots of popular formulas including Similac, Alimentum and EleCare.

FDA inspectors eventually uncovered a host of violations at the plant, including bacterial contamination, a leaky roof and lax safety protocols, but the agency never found a direct link between the infections and the formula.

The new report also found it took 102 days for the FDA to inspect the factory after receiving a different whistleblower complaint in October 2021. In that time, the agency received two complaints — one of an illness and another of a death — among infants who ate formula from the plant, but formula samples were negative for cronobacter, the bacteria in question.

The FDA said in a statement that it agreed with the inspector general’s conclusions. In its own 2022 report, the agency acknowledged that its response was slowed by delays in processing a whistleblower complaint and factory test samples.

“It should be noted that the OIG’s evaluation represents a snapshot in time, and the FDA continues to make progress,” an FDA spokesperson said.

The FDA established a “critical foods investigator cadre, which will solely focus on the inspection and oversight of the infant formula (and other critical foods) industry,” the spokesperson said. It also started improving how it tracks hard-copy mail items, which can include complaints, the FDA said.

Dr. Steven Abrams, a pediatrics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said he agreed with the report’s recommendations, which include that Congress should give the FDA the power to require manufacturers report any test showing infant formula contamination, even if the product doesn’t leave the factory.

“Like anything else, there were mistakes made. But the government is working very hard, including the FDA. It’s fixing the gaps that existed,” Abrams said. “People have to be comfortable with the safety of powdered infant formula.”

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AP Health Writer JoNel Aleccia contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

City Limits received Merit Awards in environmental journalism and feature photography, and also collaborated on one of the projects that earned the top investigative reporting prize.

City Limits’ earned three honors Wednesday from the Silurians Press Club, a prestigious and now century-old organization that represents New York-area journalists. The nonprofit newsroom was recognized for its work in environmental reporting, investigative reporting and feature photography at the Silurians’ Annual Excellence in Journalism Awards.

Climate reporter Mariana Simões received the Merit Award in environmental reporting for her investigation into how fossil fuel groups are spending millions of dollars and strategically launching lawsuits to fight gas ban policies across the nation, using similar tactics, funding and legal sources. This includes an effort to kill a ban on gas hookups in new construction in New York, which the state passed in 2023 to combat climate change and reduce the use of polluting fossil fuels in homes.

In the feature photography category, photojournalist Adi Talwar was given the Merit Award for his striking images of New York City’s first mass tent shelter for immigrant families with children. The photos accompanied reporting by Daniel Parra on conditions at the facility, which the city opened late last year on national parkland along Jamaica Bay at Floyd Bennett Field. Talwar’s images capture the eerie isolation of the site, where shelter residents face long commutes to school and jobs. “It’s not the place, but where it’s located. It’s far away from everything,” one woman staying at the site told City Limits. “Literally, we are away from everything. And this cold is unbearable.”

City Limits was also recognized for its collaboration with THE CITY, Columbia Journalism Investigations and Type Investigations, which documented the New York City Department of Education’s response to the thousands of children in its schools who lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19. Former City Limits reporter Liz Donovan and late journalist Fazil Khan chronicled how decades of underfunded mental health care left schools unprepared to handle the spike in needs during the pandemic. The piece was one of three projects—alongside two other investigations by THE CITY—to earn the top prize for investigative reporting.

This is the sixth time City Limits has been recognized by the Silurians, having received awards previously for reporting on conditions in supporting housing, tenants suffering from heat and hot water outages in winter, the disproportionate health issues faced by homeless New Yorkers, disparate death rates across New York City neighborhoods, and for investigations into the state’s Green Jobs program and the payday loans industry.

City Limits is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers. The newsroom’s climate reporting is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, and its homelessness coverage by Trinity Church Wall Street.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Holly D. Johnson | (TNS) Bankrate

While I find value in all types of travel — including adventure and sightseeing trips all over the world — I try to plan family vacations that are both relaxing and fun. With two teen girls to keep happy and entertained, my partner and I don’t want to over-plan or try to do too much on vacation. Instead, we like to sit back and relax, enjoy a week (or longer) without cooking or cleaning and spend time together chatting, playing games and basking in the sun.

All-inclusive resorts sometimes make their way into our travel plans, but my true preference for family vacations is always going to be cruising. That’s why, ultimately, I typically take our family on three to four cruises over the course of any given year. Not only do we cruise the Caribbean over winter break each year, but we frequently cruise in Europe in order to see new destinations while keeping costs down.

Are cruises worth it? I certainly think so. It’s fun, and cruises let you book the bulk of your vacation plans with a few easy clicks. Here are some of the other important reasons I love cruising — and why I don’t plan to give it up any time soon.

1. Cruises offer great value for family trips

One of the biggest reasons I love cruising is the value you can get if you shop around and look for deals. It goes without saying that a cruise is both your hotel and your transportation to whatever destinations are included on an itinerary. But cruises also include a range of activities, entertainment, pools, waterparks and more.

The pricing can be phenomenal for what you get in return. For example, on the new MSC World America, which will begin sailing out of Miami, Florida in April of next year, a family of four (with children ages 13 and 15) can book a seven-night Caribbean cruise starting at $435 per person for an inside cabin or $629 per person for a balcony room.

The total cost for the seven-night trip for four people works out to $1,738 for the trip in an interior cabin and $2,355.16 in total when you add in port taxes and fees for everyone in the traveling party, which means the cruise is around $336 per night. And remember, the fare includes your hotel room, three meals a day (plus snacks and basic drinks) and a luxury, scenic ride to wherever your ship happens to be sailing.

For this particular cruise, the MSC World America stops in San Juan in Puerto Rico, Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic and Ocean Cay Marine Reserve, which is MSC Cruises’ private island in the Bahamas.

2. Meals are included, along with dishes and clean-up

Did I mention that meals are included on cruises? While dining options vary, most cruise lines and vessels feature a main buffet (or several buffets), main dining room options, eateries serving up fast and easy meals and a handful of specialty restaurants.

We aren’t fancy eaters but we are vegetarian, and we usually find that the food served on cruises is perfectly fine and even great at times. It’s also nice to know that all meals (other than specialty dining) are included in the cruise fare. We’ve also scored plenty of cruise deals that include free drink packages, which is another major benefit I look for any time I book.

3. Fewer financial surprises at the end of a trip

Another benefit of cruising is one that also applies to all-inclusive resorts. Once you pay for your cruise fare and transportation to the cruise port, there are fewer financial surprises to watch out for over the course of a trip.

Of course, cruises do charge gratuities on top of the cruise fare that must be planned for, and there are excursions to book if you don’t want to explore on your own. And yes, we occasionally buy something in an on-board store or pay for a meal in a cruise specialty restaurant.

The thing is, these are all items you can research and book ahead of time, and we have never arrived home from a cruise to a big vacation bill that was higher than anticipated.

4. Drive to the cruise port for additional savings

Another reason I like cruises typically does not apply to all-inclusive resorts. Whereas most resorts that include food, drinks and entertainment are located outside the United States and necessitate a flight, there are cruise ports you can drive to dotted throughout the United States.

We do sometimes fly for a cruise depending on rates and timing, mostly because we are landlocked at home in our state. We also do a lot of international cruises. However, we typically drive to the cruise port in Port Canaveral, Florida over winter break to board our annual New Year’s cruise, and it’s nice to have that option considering travel delays are so common over the holidays. Not only that, but driving 15 hours and spending a few hundred dollars on gas easily saves us more than $1,600 on round-trip flights for the four of us.

5. Explore new cultures and destinations

I’m not going to lie — my family of four rarely gets off the ship when we cruise the Caribbean anymore. We have been to all the cruise ports already, and we all like to enjoy the features of our ship on those days when everyone else gets off for the day. With that in mind, our Caribbean cruises are more about leisure and not meant to provide a cultural experience by any means.

That said, we often book cruises around the world and learn about new cultures that way. For example, we booked a seven-night cruise for fall break last year that departed from Athens, Greece and stopped in Kusadasi, Turkey; Cyprus; and the Greek islands of Rhodes, Santorini and Mykonos. In total, we paid less than $3,800 in total for this seven-night cruise, including one balcony cabin and an interior cabin across the hall for our kids.

My husband and I also enjoyed a 12-night Norway cruise on the MSC Preziosa while our two kids were at summer camp last year. Not only did we stop in the Arctic Circle and see the highest point in continental Europe, but we explored the Norwegian coastline with stops in Tromso, Trondheim, Alesund, Bergun and more. During the trip, we tried local Norwegian delicacies, climbed up thousands of ancient sherpa stairs built into the side of mountains, spent time in small villages and hiked through the wilderness.

6. Paying with credit card rewards helps defray costs

Finally, it’s important to remember that I rarely pay full price for cruises thanks to my stash of credit card rewards. When we do fly to the cruise port, we almost always redeem airline miles to cover our airfare. We have also used flexible travel rewards to cover cruise fares directly, and we have booked a nearly endless number of cruise excursions and day trips using Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

I don’t have any co-branded cruise credit cards because, by and large, it’s much easier to earn more rewards and have more flexibility when you opt for a flexible travel credit card instead. With that in mind, my favorite credit cards for cruises include the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

I like the Chase Sapphire Reserve for cruises because you can get 50 percent more points value for cruise fare when you book travel through the Chase travel portal, and because you can use Chase Ultimate Rewards points for pre-departure hotels, airport pickups and cruise ship excursions. In the meantime, the Capital One Venture X Rewards credit card is great for cruises because you can redeem miles as a statement credit to cover travel purchases made to the card (within the past 90 days) at a rate of 1 cent per mile.

The bottom line

My family loves cruising, and we have no plans to stop any time soon. We have cruised with MSC Cruises, Carnival and Princess in the past, and we have enjoyed all our experiences in different ways.

Aside from the fact that your lodging, transportation, food and fun are all included in your cruise fare, taking a cruise feels like more of an “event” than other types of trips have in the past. As long as cruise lines keep offering great value and I can use rewards credit cards to cover different parts of our family vacations, I’ll keep cruising until the end of time.

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©2024 Bankrate online. Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

After a hurricane-delayed landing into New York City a few years ago, Brett Battles had just 10 minutes to make his connecting flight to Zurich.

And that’s when the novelist saw a message from his literary agent: Call me.

But Battles didn’t have a moment to spare, making it on the plane as the doors closed behind him. 

“I couldn’t even make the call; I had zero time,” says Battles during a Zoom interview. “Once I got to Europe, I had to wait another six hours because now she was asleep.” 

Battles, a novelist with more than 40 books to his credit, including his Jonathan Quinn thriller series, had served as a co-writer on a Stuart Woods’ novel, “Obsession,” about former CIA operative turned Hollywood producer character Teddy Fay. 

“I wrote spy books and I worked in Hollywood,” says Battles of how he came to co-write the Fay novel. “We worked together to do that book. … Two weeks after I turned it in, Stuart passed away in his sleep. I honestly thought that was it; I wouldn’t be playing in his universe anymore.”

Bestselling author Stuart Woods is seen here signing books on Wednesday, April 10, 2013. The late Woods, then 75, was on tour with his 52nd novel, “Unintended Consequences.” In 2024, novelist Brett Battles published “Stuart Woods’s Smolder,” a continuation of the Stone Barrington stories. (Tom Benitez/Orlando Sentinel)

So as he strolled around Lake Zurich with friends, Battles tried to stay awake and stave off jet lag until he connected with his agent and got the news: Stuart Woods had been working on a new novel in his popular series of books about cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington when he died. Would Battles be willing to come on and write the rest of the book?

“They were interested in having me finish it. So that was a very shocking moment for me. And of course, I said, ‘Well, yes, please, I would love to do that,’” says Battles, who immediately got to work on what would be published as 2023’s “Near Miss.”

“This was October and they needed it by December 15. And, of course, I was at the beginning of a two-week trip also. I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ … Who’s going to pass up on that opportunity?” says the author. 

Battles threw himself into the challenge, reading Woods’ drafts and listening to the audiobook versions of the novels while on his trip. “I’m making notes, I’m listening to books and going on tours with everybody when I can,” he says. “And then came home and just got to work.”

It sounds like his traveling companions were an understanding bunch.

“Very understanding. They think more highly of the fact that they have a friend who’s an author than I think they should.” he laughs.

Into the Woods

Battles has just published his first solo Stone Barrington novel, “Stuart Woods’ Smolder,” which arrived in stores June 4. The thriller, which includes stops in New York, Los Angeles and Santa Fe, involves art, arson, forgery, fraud, revenge, romance, and the legacy of Barrington’s mother, a painter. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Barrington and his previous 60+ adventures, he seems in the mold of well-to-do crime fighters such as Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage, Batman, and “The Thin Man” team of Nick and Nora Charles. Barrington is a wealthy lawyer with charm, good looks and important friends. These include several former U.S. presidents, the heads of MI6 and the CIA, and his sometime girlfriend, who happens to be the sitting president of the United States.

“It’s a really fun world to play in. Stone has enough money to do whatever he wants, or whatever he needs to do, but he still works,” says Battles. “The jokes and the quips and everything – that’s the charm of the novels … they’re enjoyable and just keep you entertained.”

“It’s a very rich world,” says Battles, referring to its creative possibilities before joking about its high-end appeal. “And then it’s also a very rich world.”

Despite collaborating on a book while Woods was alive, Battles says his face-to-face interactions with the author had been brief.

“I had in person only met him twice,” says Battles, who explained that they’d been on a panel at a festival and then later appeared together at a Skylight Books event. “We may have passed and shaken hands, but that’s about it.”

When it comes to bridging his own efforts with all the stories that came before, Battles says he scoured the novels, taking note of anything he might be able to refer or call back to. In “Smolder,” for example, a beach house briefly mentioned in an earlier novel plays a role in the new adventure, which is one way of connecting Battles’ work to Woods’.

“It’s his stuff, but I like to think I’m keeping it alive,” says Battles.

In his own world

Battles and this reporter, full disclosure, first crossed paths more than 15 years ago; we worked for the same company and he signed a copy of his first Jonathan Quinn novel, “The Cleaner,” for me in my office. Last year, we ran into each other at Bouchercon, the mystery writers’ convention in San Diego, and caught up.

Battles, who had worked on various Hollywood projects over the years, told me that he’d always known what his calling was.

“I always wanted to be a writer. In fifth grade, I was telling people I was going to be a novelist. And that was always what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know exactly how to get there. So I went to Cal State Northridge and got a degree in television & film because I also liked film,” he says.

But after working at a TV studio, a graphics company and a cable TV channel, he began to wonder if he’d ever achieve his dream. “I had just kind of fallen into this whole visual arts portion of entertainment while all the time I wanted to be a writer.”

So he decided to get serious about making it happen.

“I actually lived very close to the office so that I could walk and have more time to write in the mornings,” he says. “And then after work, I’d write for an hour or two.”

“In three years, I wrote three books while working,” he says. “That’s always what I wanted to do. I was starting to think I’d never get there and so that’s why I put on the turbo to get stuff done.”

Battles, who is contracted to do more Teddy Fay and Stone Barrington titles, says he’s also currently at work on two related series of his own, which will take him into some new territory. “I love apocalyptic fiction and so I just kind of wanted to play with that a little bit and see what would happen,” says Battles. “I can do it – so, why not?”

Continental draft

As he was working on his next Woods’ novel, Battles says he felt a bit of déjà vul. While making it clear that it was no one’s fault, just a scheduling quirk, he says his deadline for the manuscript changed so the due date coincided with, yes, a vacation overseas.

“I thought, ‘OK, I’ll work on the trip.’ So I’m on another river cruise, getting up early and working on that,” he says. “I literally finished the draft of that book in the airport 45 minutes before we boarded the plane to come home.”

“Maybe I should not go to Europe anymore,” he says. “That’s the message I’m getting.”

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