Kellogg

This is what potato chip politics looks like: Upset with the internal struggles of Kettle owner Diamond Foods, Pringles is abandoning its would-be buyer and running off with Kellogg Co. instead. Pringles, which is owned by Procter & Gamble and makes stacked potato crisps served out of a long canister, offered itself up to Kellogg's for nearly $2.7 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close this summer; Kellogg's said it would welcome Pringles' 1,700 employees. Two of Procter & Gamble's manufacturing facilities - in Tennessee and Belgium - are also included in the deal.

Just one year ago, Cal State Fullerton right-hander Justin Garza was busy finishing his senior year at Bonita High in La Verne by winning a Southern Section Division 3 title. From CIF to NCAA tournament in a matter of months, Garza made it look like high school all over again, going 8 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts in a 1-0 victory over nationally ranked Arizona State on Saturday night at Goodwin Field in Fullerton. The victory has the Titans (50-8) one win away from an NCAA super regional, a date they can set with a victory Sunday night.

Kellogg Co has agreed to drop advertising claims that Rice Krispies will strengthen children's immune systems, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday. Kellogg had agreed in February 2009 to stop claiming that its Frosted Mini Wheats were "clinically shown to improve kids' attentiveness by nearly 20 percent." In an advertising campaign that began in about July 2009, Kellogg began advertising on cereal boxes that Rice Krispies "now helps support your child's immunity."

  On Tuesday, join L.A. Times book critic David L. Ulin and me, Carolyn Kellogg, for a video chat about the L.A. Times Festival of Books . The festival takes place the weekend of April 20-21 on the USC campus, and we'll be bringing you our insiders' preview. We'll try to share some of the insights we've accrued over the years -- for instance, we hope it'll be sunny, but not too sunny. And we'll talk about what's new this year. And we'll talk about the festival's many discussions and readings: what we're looking forward to and what we're upset that we're missing because it's hard to get to one panel when you're moderating another.

FDA to Kellogg: One of your facilities is contaminated with listeria. Clean it up.  That’s the gist of a warning letter, dated June 7, the Food and Drug Administration sent to Kellogg after a February inspection of a cookie plant found Listeria monocytogenes , the bacteria that causes the food poisoning listeriosis . The Augusta, Ga. plant makes various Keebler and Famous Amos cookies. The agency didn’t find the pathogen in any Kellogg foods, but on and around conveyor belts in the production line.

Kellogg's is voluntarily recalling some packages of its Special K Red Berries cereal because the boxes might contain fragments of glass, according to an announcement from the company . The recall covers certain 11.2-ounce, 22.4-ounce and 37-ounce boxes sold in the U.S. “Please check any packages you have in your home and if your package matches the following criteria, please do not eat the product and contact us for a replacement coupon,” the...

Kellogg Co. acquired Russian cookie company United Bakers Group. The maker of Corn Flakes and other cereals didn't disclose the purchase price, saying it wouldn't have a material effect on income this year. United had sales of about $100 million last year and almost 4,000 employees, Kellogg said.

How do you say "They're grrrrreat!" in Chinese? Kellogg, maker of Frosted Flakes, Pop-Tarts and Eggo waffles, among numerous other not-so-great-for-you snacks and breakfast foods, has formed a joint venture to sell its stuff in China as early as next year. The company now makes most of its money in North America, where, coincidentally, an obesity epidemic is spreading among kids and adults. But Kellogg has determined that the real action going forward is in the developing world, where diets are still largely traditional and thus are relatively low in sugar and sodium.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. -- Kellogg says it will pull health claims from its Rice Krispies cereal box due to the public's growing concern about swine flu. The food company began adding antioxidants to the cereal last year and noted on the cereal box that these antioxidants help support the immune system. But Kellogg said Wednesday it will phase the message out of its packages over the next few months, given the public attention on swine flu. It will not alter the ingredients in the cereal.

Kellogg Co. said it was conducting a six-month test in Detroit of new cereal boxes that are shorter and deeper than traditional boxes. Kellogg said the new size is the most significant innovation in cereal boxes since the 1950s. The tests affect the majority of Kellogg's branded cereals, including Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes and Special K. The new boxes use about 8% less packaging material per box. The company made the change to address consumers' concerns that the taller, thinner boxes now used don't fit well in kitchen cupboards, said John Ferro, Kellogg's director of commercialization.

Kellogg's is voluntarily recalling some packages of its Special K Red Berries cereal because the boxes might contain fragments of glass, according to an announcement from the company . The recall covers certain 11.2-ounce, 22.4-ounce and 37-ounce boxes sold in the U.S. “Please check any packages you have in your home and if your package matches the following criteria, please do not eat the product and contact us for a replacement coupon,” the...

L.A. Times book critic David L. Ulin went to see "Gatz" last weekend -- that's a live stage version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby. " Ulin's review is forthcoming in the L.A. Times, but he gives us a preview of his thoughts -- and then we talked about what makes an adaptation successful. The problem in adaptation, Ulin says, is the interiority integral to good novels is usually lost in film, which winds up focusing on plot. But I counter that sometimes the language of film can capture the texture of a text, or a style of a book's prose -- as with "L.A.

Not long ago I was at Book Soup before a reading; a woman at the counter proclaimed loudly that she needed a book to read next. I spotted one of my favorite books of the fall on the display between us and couldn't help but blurt out my suggestion. Maybe it was my effusive praise that persuaded her - she bought the book - or maybe it was its cover. For my money, it's one of the best of the year. That cover - so good because it's so fitting - was wrapped around the delightfully funny novel "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" (Little, Brown and Co.,$25.99)

In the video chat below, L.A. Times book critic David L. Ulin and books staff writer Carolyn Kellogg try to decide if creative writing can be taught. As hundreds of thousands tackle NaNoWriMo, we wonder what it takes to make a writer a writer. Is it natural talent? Hard-learned lessons? Determination and commitment? For Ulin, there are certain intagibles that cannot be taught -- particularly the connection between author and story. For a story to be good, he explains, it's essential that the writer feels he or she needs to tell the story.

Can creative writing be taught? Join L.A. Times book critic David L. Ulin and staff writer Carolyn Kellogg for a video chat Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 10 a.m. as we discuss creative writing, and look at how writers become writers. The occasion is NaNoWriMo, which is closing in on the end of its second week. Participants in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) try, largely on their own, to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. It's a massive undertaking, a monthlong sprint to achieve something that takes experienced novelists years to accomplish.

Sports giant Nike, beer-maker Anheuser-Busch and electronics chain RadioShack all will sever their ties with Lance Armstrong in the wake of a damning report last week that put the cyclist allegedly at the center of a sophisticated doping program. Nike released a statement on Wednesday saying that "with great sadness ... we have terminated our contract with him. " Nike's decision came “due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade,” the company said.

When local boosters chose a Bavarian theme to turn this depressed mining town into a fairy-tale tourist village, they had in mind a Cinderella transformation. After four years, what they've got is more like Beauty and the Beast. A quaint wooden sign proclaiming "Willkommen zu Kellogg" sits near a mile-long heap of mining debris. Downtown, false-fronted shops mimicking old German architecture share Main Street with dumpy, dirty brick buildings. Kellogg is not the first down-and-out Western town to try to revive itself by dressing up as something it's not. Tourists with a good road map and a willingness to suspend their disbelief can find simulated frontier cowboy towns, Bavarian hamlets and 19th-Century mining villages scattered across the West.

Kellogg's Mini-Wheats are a little crunchier than usual. And that's not a good thing. Kellogg's has issued a recall of nearly 3 million boxes of its Bite Size Frosted and Unfrosted Mini-Wheats cereal because of a manufacturing problem that left some packages contaminated with bits of metal. Yup: Bits of metal. Not exactly the breakfast of champions. "We have initiated a voluntary recall due to the possible presence of fragments of flexible metal mesh from a faulty manufacturing part," the company said in a statement.