General Mills is voluntarily recalling some bags of its Gold Medal Unbleached Flour because of salmonella concerns.
The 5-pound (2.26 kilograms) bags have a “better if used by” date of April 20, 2020 and the UPC code 000-16000-19610-0. Customers should discard the product.
The company says it discovered salmonella during sampling of the product, but it has not received “any direct consumer reports of confirmed illnesses.” General Mills says all other types of Gold Medal Flour are not affected.
Salmonella can lead to fever, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain.
Tax refunds may still be delayed
The IRS’ workforce will return to full strength under the short-term deal to reopen the government struck Friday by President Donald Trump and congressional leaders. But the disruption from the partial shutdown and the recent absence of a large contingent of recalled IRS employees mean the possibility of delayed tax refunds.
The official start of the tax filing season is Monday, and the Trump administration has said taxpayers who are owed refunds would receive them on time despite the shutdown. The administration made money available to pay hundreds of billions in refunds and ordered nearly 60 percent of the Internal Revenue Service workforce back to work without pay.
But fewer than half of 26,000 furloughed IRS employees who were recalled to work during the shutdown to handle tax returns and taxpayers’ questions had returned to their jobs as of Tuesday, according to congressional and government aides. Of the roughly 14,000 recalled employees who hadn’t reported to work, IRS officials told House staffers Thursday, around 5,000 sought permission under their union contract to be absent because of financial hardship. The remaining 9,000 couldn’t be reached by IRS managers.
In addition to the 35-day shutdown, the complexities of a new tax law have burdened an IRS that has been starved for funding for years. Getting refunds out in time could be a heavy lift.
Chrysler recalls pickups; power steering can fail
Fiat Chrysler is recalling nearly 180,000 pickup trucks in North America to fix an electrical problem that can knock out the power steering.
The recall covers Ram 1500 pickups from the 2019 model year. Most are in the U.S. and one-third are still on dealer lots.
The company says a fastener that grounds the battery wasn’t secured properly in manufacturing. The connection can become loose, which disables the power steering. Drivers can still steer but the effort it takes wouldn’t be consistent.
FCA says it has no reports of crashes or injuries.
Dealers will secure the fastener at no cost to owners. Fiat Chrysler says it doesn’t have a date for the recall to begin, but it under U.S. law it has to start within 60 days.