Product Tampering

At first, Veronica De La Torre thought the paper she found inside her microwave chicken dinner was some sort of recipe. And it was: A recipe for hate. The Elysian Valley woman was the latest victim of what authorities call the newest trend in racism: hate pamphlets tucked inside a host of grocery store products, from boxes of Cracker Jack to peanut butter to soft drink six-packs sold in grocery stores across Southern California.

At first, Veronica De La Torre thought the paper she found inside her microwave chicken dinner was some sort of recipe. And it was: A recipe for hate. The Elysian Valley woman was the latest victim of what authorities call the newest trend in racism: Hate pamphlets tucked inside a host of grocery store products, from Cracker Jacks to peanut butter to soft drink six-packs sold in grocery stores across Southern California.

It sounds a bit like the work of Batman's arch-nemesis the Joker--counterfeit bottles of shampoo laced with bacteria sitting undetected on the shelves of America's supermarkets. In reality, it's a case of corporate skulduggery that will probably be settled in a courtroom instead of a diabolical criminal's lair.

Pepsi-Cola Co. has announced the recall of a limited batch of soft drinks after being notified that the federal Food and Drug Administration was investigating a report of a "metal object" allegedly found in a can produced in Pepsi's Torrance bottling plant. The FDA notified the company Thursday about the investigation, but details of the alleged tampering could not be disclosed as of Monday, Pepsi spokesman Jeff Brown said.

A former registered nurse, who said she caused two patients to go into insulin-induced comas so she could go to prison to get help for chronic headaches, was sentenced Thursday to 18 years and four months in prison. In imposing the sentence of Lissette Nukida, 36, U.S. District Judge John Davies called her conduct "inexplicable."

An Anaheim Hills couple who once ran gas stations throughout Southern California are to be sentenced in Los Angeles today for a series of frauds that damaged thousands of cars with doctored gasoline, threatened ground water with leaking fuel tanks and cheated the state out of millions of dollars in taxes.

An ex-Carson nurse who claimed that she caused two patients to go into insulin-induced comas so she could be sent to prison and get help for her headaches pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges. Lissette Nukida, 35, was charged with 16 counts of tampering with consumer products for injecting insulin into two women patients' intravenous solutions. She pleaded guilty to five counts, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Larsen. U.S.

Pepsi-Cola officials defended their quality control standards Wednesday and said the claim of a 22-year-old woman that she found a dead rat in a can of Diet Pepsi may be a hoax. "You have to remember, the remains of the animal were found after the can was opened," spokeswoman Anne Ward said from Pepsi headquarters in Somers, N.Y. "Nothing was found in a sealed can. The logical conclusion is that whatever was put there, was put there after the can was opened."

Federal investigators found a decaying rat inside a Diet Pepsi-Cola can sold in Orange County, but decided to close the case without issuing warnings to Pepsi-Cola or to the public, U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorities confirmed Wednesday. A Pepsi official said the company denies responsibility for the rodent and that the claim may be the latest hoax against the firm. An FDA spokeswoman said it was unknown how the rat got into the can and that the incident seemed isolated.

Federal investigators found a decaying rat inside a Diet Pepsi can sold in Orange County, but decided to close the case without issuing warnings to Pepsi-Cola or to the public, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed Wednesday, An FDA spokeswoman said that it was not known how the rat got in the can and that the July incident seemed to be "isolated."