York Pennsylvania

Debt-ridden Campeau Corp. will not accept less than $1 billion for its Bloomingdale's department store chain and has set a Dec. 8 deadline for bids, a company spokesman said Friday. Carol Sanger, spokesman at Campeau's Cincinnati office, said if Campeau doesn't get the price it wants, it will take the trend-setting chain off the auction block. Sanger said a $1-billion minimum price tag for Bloomingdale's "is pretty close to being correct." Campeau also has set Dec.

Cameco Inc. of Verona, N.J., is voluntarily recalling 90,000 pounds of imported canned ham that may contain food poisoning organisms, the Agriculture Department said today. An official said the ham, packaged in one-pound pear-shaped metal cans, "may contain food spoilage organisms and could cause illness if eaten." The product is labeled "Cameco Cooked Ham" and "Product of Yugoslavia," said Lester M. Crawford, administrator of the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Hundreds of residents along the New York-Pennsylvania border filled sandbags and drained waterlogged cellars Sunday as heavy rain continued to flood two quiet creeks that have become raging rivers. "Our ground is so saturated, it can't hold any more," said J.D. Kifer, chief of the Sugar Grove, Pa., Volunteer Fire Department. "They (forecasters) said this may go on until Wednesday," Kifer said. "We're right in a bad spot."

A sheriff's deputy was shot dead Thursday, possibly after confronting burglars who had stolen weapons from a Pennsylvania shop, police said. Deputy Kevin J. Tarsia, 36, was shot in a parking lot in Kirkwood, near the New York-Pennsylvania line. Just before the shooting, Pennsylvania police said someone used a pickup truck to ram the front door of Mess's Fireworks in Great Bend, Pa., five miles south of Kirkwood. The thieves fled with rifles and handguns. The pickup was later recovered.

Dole Food Co. is voluntarily recalling salads sold in the U.S. and Canada labeled "Hearts Delight" because of possible E. coli contamination. No consumers have reported being sick, though a store in Canada found E. coli during a random screening, Westlake Village-based Dole said. The salads were sold in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and neighboring states.

The Los Angeles-based oil company said the sale of gasoline stations in New York and Pennsylvania and a refinery in Philadelphia to Dutch oil trader John Deuss was delayed "due to the complicated nature of the transaction." The sale was to have closed Sept. 13. Deuss, the owner of Trans World Oil, is reportedly also interested in a Philadelphia refinery that Chevron is offering for sale.

Pollio Italian Cheese Co. recalled 6,600 cases of ricotta cheese it distributed to stores and food service companies in 18 U.S. states after a sample tested positive for Salmonella bacteria. The Mineola, N.Y.-based company said no illnesses have been reported in connection with the products and that it is investigating the source of the contamination.