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What the Downer Did The Riverside Press-Enterprise looks at the ramifications of last spring’s massive beef recall. American journalism loves to break new stories, but it isn’t always good on following up. A piece in California’s Riverside Press-Enterprise bucks this trend.

Sick cows were killed illegally at Hallmark/Westland slaughterhouse, company executive tells Congress after he views the Humane Society video that filmed workers forcing 'downer' cows onto their feet for killing. Video led to nation's largest meat recall.

After the largest recall of beef a couple of weeks ago, because downed cows were put into our food supply, the executive of this company admitted the illegal acts at a Congressional hearing. The head of the Southern California slaughterhouse at the center of the largest beef recall in U.S.

Very unintentional. Consider: Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. President Steve Mendell made the admissions after a congressional panel forced him to watch undercover video of abuses of cattle at his plant. Mendell watched head-in-hand as cows were dragged by chains, jabbed by forklifts and shocked to get them into the box where they’d be slaughtered.

Congressional subcommittee plans to compel Hallmark/Westland executive to testify about beef recall. If committee authorizes subpoena, Steve Mendell will be called to testify on Wednesday, March 12, at a hearing titled 'Regulatory failure: must Americans live with unsafe food?''(By Dena Bunis, The

Massive beef recall tests food companies' ability to track supplies. Heinz learns by its own sleuthing that its Boston Market lasagna with meat sauce contained recalled beef; General Mills put a team on the question to learn of five days in which Hallmark/Westland beef was added to canned soup.

Hallmark/Westland beef recall becomes flashpoint in debate over meat safety and quality of USDA school lunches. Lawmakers begin hearings this week. To show fitness for food supply, cows must walk up an inclined serpentine 90-foot chute before being killed, but video footage showed workers using

Financial troubles likely to permanently close slaughterhouse caught in sick cow abuse video that triggered nation's largest beef recall. Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing, one of 10 companies that supply beef for school lunches, received $39 million from USDA in the last fiscal year as part of the program.

Food safety and agriculture promotion and/or sales are mutually exclusive goals; USDA should be stripped of food safety oversight, says lawmaker. Citing beef recall after cow-abuse video at slaughterhouse that supplied school lunch program, Rosa DeLauro, who chairs House panel that oversees USDA

Lawmakers, consumer advocates call for better meat inspection standards after largest meat recall in history. Critics say the failure points up problems with both food safety and animal welfare, as well as USDA's rigid and antiquated inspection system.