Here’s one for the books: Baby born in public library

January 28, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

DENVER — There wasn’t time to look up any books on obstetrics before a woman gave birth in the Denver Public Library.

Library spokeswoman Celeste Jackson said the woman walked into the library Tuesday, said she had been riding a city bus and was in labor.

She gave birth just inside the library entrance.

Staffers and security guards helped until paramedics arrived and took the mother and newborn girl to Denver Health Medical Center.

Jackson said staffers didn’t yet know their names but they want to send flowers. She says, “It’s never happened before.”

Hospital spokeswoman Betty Rueda said the mother was in good condition Tuesday evening.

Feds: Georgia PB plant knew product was tainted

WASHINGTON — The Georgia peanut plant linked to a salmonella outbreak that has killed eight people and sickened another 500 across the country knowingly shipped out contaminated peanut butter 12 times in the past two years, federal officials said Tuesday.

Officials at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have been investigating the salmonella outbreak, said Tuesday that the Peanut Corporation of America found salmonella in internal tests a dozen times in 2007 and 2008 but sold the products anyway, sometimes after getting a negative finding from a second laboratory.

Companies are not required to disclose their internal tests to either the FDA or state regulators, so health officials did not know of the problem.

The peanut butter and paste made at the company’s Blakely, Ga., plant are not sold directly to stores but are used by manufacturers to make crackers, cookies, energy bars, cereal, ice cream, candies and even dog biscuits.

Anti-foreclosure bill moves toward House vote

WASHINGTON — A bill to save homes from foreclosure by letting bankruptcy judges alter mortgage terms moved closer to a House vote on Tuesday. The lending industry has worked unsuccessfully to stop the bill.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 21-15 to send the measure to the full House. Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., amended the original bill so it would apply only to mortgages that exist before the bill becomes law.

Conyers said the amendment would address complaints from the lending industry that the risk of altered mortgage terms would force lenders to raise costs for borrowers. The risk would be eliminated for new borrowing under the amendment.

Republicans opposed the bill, saying it still would increase lending costs and encourage borrowers to file for bankruptcy and overwhelm the courts.

Civilian Afghan deaths damage U.S. efforts

TAGAB VALLEY, Afghanistan — U.S. commanders on Tuesday traveled to a poor Afghan village and distributed $40,000 to relatives of 15 people killed in a U.S. raid, including a known militant commander. The Americans also apologized for any civilians killed in the operation.

The issue of civilian deaths is increasingly sensitive in Afghanistan, with President Hamid Karzai accusing the U.S. of killing civilians in three separate cases over the last month.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates echoed Karzai’s concerns, telling a Senate committee that “civilian casualties are doing us enormous harm in Afghanistan.”

The U.S. is doubling its troop presence in Afghanistan this year to take on the Taliban militia; the Taliban and other militants now control wide swaths of territory. Last year, 151 U.S. troops died in Afghanistan, the most in any year since the U.S. invaded the Taliban-ruled country in late 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden.

Border fence almost done

WASHINGTON — The fence along the U.S.-Mexico border is mostly finished.

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling says that 601 miles of the project had been completed as of a week ago.

Easterling says 69 miles of the fence still must be built to meet the goal set during the Bush administration.

Easterling said the Obama White House has not told Homeland Security to stop building the fence.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said a fence alone will not stop illegal immigration along the 2,000-mile border.

Combined dispatches