This Story Won't Die. But You Might.

From now on, I sticks to me fried chicken for me muskles.

What's wrong with our weak-ass FDA? They can't order a recall when there's a known case of coliform bacterial contamination in a food substance?

Federal officials said today they do not have the authority to order a recall of spinach sold in supermarkets, even though it is being linked to an E. coli outbreak that has made more than 100 people ill so far, and has claimed one life.

But officials of the Food and Drug Administration say they are recommending that consumers not eat any uncooked spinach, in bags or loose, until they determine the source of the illness.

"A recall cannot be ordered until the source of the bacteria is found," Dr. Robert E. Brackett of the Food and Drug Administration told CNN this morning. “Now, we can seize the product if we know that a particular brand or a particular lot is contaminated, but we don’t know that yet exactly which part we would take action on. So we’ve had a broad appeal to the public to just abstain from consuming it until we figure out where the contamination originated.’’

Even though the F.D.A. reported that by Sunday evening 109 people have fallen ill from E. coli, some supermarkets are still selling spinach in bags or in bundles. Federal officials say they can only ask the companies to withdraw the products even as they continue to investigate the source of the contamination.

Illinois today became the 20th state to report a case of E. coli infection apparently linked to the outbreak. State health officials said an elderly woman who became sick in late August had the same strain of E. coli, and the same history of having eaten bagged spinach, as the victims in other states.

On Sunday, the F.D.A. said that a second company in California has been implicated in the E. coli outbreak.

Can the Republicans run anything right?

Okay, that's an easy question to answer.