Gerri well, our top story tonight, a salmonella outbreak raising alarms about how safe are food is. The cdc blaming the government shut down for the slow response to link foster farms to the outbreak and is bringing for letting employees back to work. The company has a history of prior illnesses and was flanked as recently as last february causing at least 124 people to get sick. And while the usda is threatening to shut down three foster farms chicken plants, is enough being done . With more on this, executive director at the National Consumers league. Thank you for coming. This is one of those critical stories. The safety of the food supply. I want to work through a take talk of what has happened. This sure is not the first time weve been through this. All the way back in january 2010 Consumer Reports found 80 percent of the chicken they sampled had tested positive for salmonella. In may 2012, i recall of mislabeled turkey burgers. In februaryy2013, at least 124 people in 12 states get sick by raw poultry link to this company and finally the news we had most recently in may about recalling Grilled Chicken Breast reps. Is this usual, is this pattern of problems normal . Absolutely not. This company has the fingerprints on on lot of poultry products that have bacteria in them at high levels, much higher levels than is normal for the industry. The Company Needs to take greater responsibility and work with the government inspectors, state inspectors. This is obviously a company that has problems. And of the government is threatening to shut them down of that next couple of years. Gerri the question occurs to me because this is now 04year problem and least. Why hasnt this been stopped . Well, this is a laborious process to trace back where food borne illness comes from. It has to be done responsibly and carefully and traced back to the particular plants involved. In the company in business does not want to be shut down if there is not a good reason for it. So the government inspectors and laboratories that do the work and have to be careful gerri i agree with you. It looks like there has been ample evidence of difficulty. I want you to respond to with the company is saying. The safety chief for the company says salmonella is naturally occurring in can be fully eradicated if raw product is properly handled. Do you agree . Does the statement go far enough . Officials in washington are saying, on. People getting sick. It is from this chicken. There must be increased risk of bacteria. First of all, we think theyre ought to be a recall and that the company ought to take steps itself to recall that product immediately. It just wont do for a company like this to push the blame on to consumers. Yes, consumers have responsibility to take care when their work with products and when they prepare them. But some people are going to restaurants in the in the product salmonella can be prevented. And the other issue is that the Company Needs to work with government regulators. Gerri you said that before. Here is what we know. This is been going on for four years. The cdc is saying today the government shut down is creating a problem. They brought back and people start looking at this, but isnt that just an excuse . Isnt the government slow to the party . It has clearly been in trouble, as is set at the beginning of the interview, company that has been having many problems with keeping its food safe. Certainly the government can always move faster. But this company bears the lion share the responsibility. They should recall these products months and months ago when a new there was a problem. By the way, consumers preparing products, it is not just cooking and to a certain temperature, but there is always the danger of cross contamination. This is an opportunity to educate consumers about making sure they are not preparing vegetables on the same cutting board is theyre cutting of chicken. Things can happen in restaurants with contamination. Gerri if you are suddenly seeing an uptick of cases it is probably because there is more bacteria. She says dont blame the consumers. Theyre doing the same thing they have always done. Do you agree that the government , little grandstanding its because theyre is a shutdown. Our remixing and dangerously so, politics with food safety . I dont think so. The Government Laboratory has been working at much reduced personnel. As i said, these things take a while to trace back. This company is responsible for issuing its own recall. The government has been taking these deliver it steps. And because of the shutdown they have fewer people in the labs. The usda said a shutdown. Where you go for informational . Gerri four years in the making, this problem. It is not five days. Thank you for coming on, and thank you for eliminating how this process works. My pleasure. Gerri well, shut down out of reach. Today number nine. Families of those killed in combat are heroes have learned there being denied military death benefits. Joining us now is Lieutenant Colonel steve russell, a military adviser to concerned veterans for america. Welcome to the show. I have to ask you, a solution may be on the rise in, but what is your reaction to the failure of the federal government to take up its responsibility here for military families and our heroes . As a combat veteran, i hurt. I heard with the families. This has never happened before. Our government should do better. Our veterans dont deserve this. The families dont need additional pain at this moment of crisis. Gerri he led the team who captured saddam hussein, put your life on the line. You have been in harms way. You know what that is like, the pain for families, the pressure for families, what is the misses tonight that is gone to the people who are protecting us in keeping a safe . We only ask for a few things when we serve, medical care, pension and retirement and proper honors at burial. His only ask. Dahlia seeing that ended. Worse, we see even one did warriors hanging on to life in germany off the fields of afghanistan and now families which could embolden them to have the will to hang on are not being allowed to fly and be by the bedside of a loved one. My message is this, mr. President , when will you start acting like the commander in chief . When will used to being a leader veterans from all of the country, we need to lead our government no that this is absolutely unacceptable. Gerri i cannot agree more. Here is what senator mccain and to say. What to the American People think when they see that death benefit for those who served and sacrificed in the most honorable way is not families are not even eligible for death benefits i am ashamed, embarrassed. All of us should be. Gerri ashamed and embarrassed. He need more than words to my would say. Well, we need action. The United States marine corps has already ignored the department of defense guidance saying that they interpret this as excepted activity. The army, navy, air force, the branches need to follow suit. Secretary haig has not provided the proper guidance to congress. Congress is playing games and the president needs to be the commanderinchief. Warriors deserve leaders and government. Gerri you could turn any Defense Department executive upside down and come up withh3 money that is owed to these people. We were debating it in our morning meeting. The government is not supposed to spend anything. The department of defense has one of the biggest budgets on capitol hill. It seems to me that the money should be there. Do you fear that they are grandstanding, trying to prove their point about the political debate over the budget, the shut down in the government, and the result is our heroes are getting hurt. I think that would be true of lawmakers and perhaps the executive branch. I dont see that from the department of defense because in many cases the only discretionary Funds Available in this big fight over budgets often come from the defense establishment. So much is in entitle law that there is no money to go after other than defense dollars. Our Service Chiefs do a good job, but we need the president to take the lead. He can step in and correct this immediate measure, but instead he says were not born to play games and have a piecemeal approach to solving the crisis. Mr. President , are Wounded Warriors and those who sacrificed for our freedoms are not a piecemeal approach. Gerri we have heard from the president s spokesman here said that there will be something is going to happen. We have had to of the me tell you, the Fisher House Foundation picking up the tab. Ken fischer, their founder, after living and i lived on these families should not have to endure more pain as a result of political squabbling. Im sure you agree. I do. While we certainly applaud the fisher house, we should not have to support our warriors froo the nickels and dimes for burgers and we need to do it with leaders and government. Gerri will put. Thank you. Thank you, thank you for having me. Gerri an absolute pleasure. Now we want to know what you think. Is the pentagon ducking its responsibilities to our nations heroes . Log on to gerriwillis. Com, but on the right side of the screen, and officers of the end of the show. Unbelievable. Veterans and disability benefits, death benefits for military families, a Clinical Health trials, social security. All deemed nonessential. And theyre not giving any funds from the federal government during the shutdown. There is a good news for those on capitol hill responsible for the chaos. Every Single Member of congress is still able to take on his are 175,000 paycheck and of course the president is getting paid. The good news, dozens of these lawmakers are donating salaries to charity, and some have furloughed staff, but not all. A good number have deemed their entire staff essential. The special subway trolly to get lawmakers from their offices. The short walk to the capital for. One of the most important part, the house gym reserved exclusively for lawmakers, still open and being funded by taxpayers. But in sacrifices. They now have a dead. Unbelievable. More to come including the best way down to a big bank. Next as the cold weather sets and to my new report shows most of us will be paying more to heat our homes. Details after the break. Howdy partner. Youre not linda. Im filling in foofficer owens. She used double miles from her capital one venture card to take an early vacation. Buckle up. Lets go do cop stuff. [ siren chirps ] license and venture card, maam. Was i going too fast . Oh, youd be going twice as fast if you had double miles. [ male announcer ] get away fast with unlimited double miles from the capital one nture card. Freeze dont touch the face can i drive . Absolutely not. Whats in your wallet . Absolutely not. Customer erin swenson ordebut they didnt fit. Line stomers not happy, inot happy. Sales go down, im not happy. Merch comes back, im not happy. Use ups. They make returns easy. Unhappy customer becomes happy customer. Then, repeat customer. Easy returns, im ppy. Repeat customers, im happy. Sales gop, im happy. I ordered another pair. Im happy. both im happy. Im happy. Happy. Happy. Happy. Happy. Ppy happy. I love logistics. Ask me what its like to get your best nights sleep every night. [announcer] why not talk to someone whos sleeping on the most highly recommended d in america . Ask me about my tempurpedic. Ask me how fast i fall asleep. Ask mebout staying asleep. [annou] tempurpedic owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. Tempurpedic. The most highly recommended bed in america. Now each of you can personalize your comfort at the touch of a button with our new tempurchoice. So both of you can get your best nights sleep togeer. Gerri by the end of this year the u. S. Will be the largest producer of petroleum and natural gas in the world. According to u. S. Energy Information Administration we beat out russia and saudi arabia. Why are 90 percent of homes expected to see a rise in their winter heating bills . Here to explain, the chief of oil analyst for Oil Price Information service. Great to have you here. First of all, you agree with the government. Did they have the numbers right . At think its part of the whole global segment. When we do talk to my Global Growth and global demand, its a lot to do with developing economies, agriculture, manufacturing, all very intense. Gerri us talk about whats going on. U. S. Home heating, 56 percent of homes and using natural gas. As you know or producing more. 6 percent of homes using heating oil, 38 percent use electric heat. Across the board or seeing the amount of these products arriving present being produced here in the u. S. Helms using naturalgas will see a 13 increase from a year ago and prices. Think about that, producing more natural gas than ever and yet consumers are paying more. That just does not seem right here. It doesnt. The source of natural gas in the louisiana and texas, its cheap, third to a quarter of the cost them a place like japan the natural gas costs of through the roof. Gerri i care a lot less about japanese customers that people right here. Were producing more here, thats the promise of producing locally. Thats what we approve it and agree to have it in a backyard because it think it will bring down the price. Why we left sort changed. We dont really fallen naturalgas as much as we do heating oil. Heating gile is very provincial, mostly in the northeast. As you mentioned, 6 of homes use it. A couple of the positives, one, its clean air and cleaner. As a by a component. New york, the state were in right now, its very similar to alter lowsulfur diesel. On top of that, as any customer can take advantage of that when using heating oil. You can negotiate prices. A lot of time to dealing with a Small Business person is a utility. You can use special times on the prices are low blocking a price. Gerri there are strategies. Just to remind people, heating Oil Customers will see a 2 drop in prices, but theres still the secondhighest on average. I love this. Estimated petroleum. Gerri in the u. S. , russia, saudi arabia, we are beating the pants off of them. I wish there was more pay off for people in this country. Thank you for coming in. A pleasure to me. Good to see you. Later in the show, and permission you need to know before you go out and drop your hardearned money on a twitter ipo. Next, we answer the question have you do that. The best and easiest way to say goodbye to your big bank. Stay with us. Its the Little Things in life that make me smile. Spending the day with my niece. I dont use super poligrip for hold because my dentures fit well. Before those little pies would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. Even wellfitting dentures let in food particles. Super poligrip is zinc free. With just a few dabs, its clinically proven to seal out more food particles so youre more comfortable and confident while you eat. So its not about keeping my dentures in, its about keeping the food particles out. [ charli] try zinc free super poligrip. Bny mellon combines Investment Management nvestment giving us unique insights which help us attract the industrys brightest min who create powerful strategies for a countrys investments which are used to build new schools to build more bright minds. Invested in the world. Bny mellon. Gerri the second tired of your big bang . You dont have to put up with their sneaky fees in shady tactics. We will tell you where to put your money instead. Customers are mad as hell. They dont have to put up with this anymore so how do find a real alternative for your money . Joining me now from Consumer Reports last week there was a report babies risen over 15 straight years. , all one. Put on your thinking cap. Remember a couple of years ago when consumers were supposed to bring chase and citibank by taking the money out from the Nonprofit Credit Union . It was a disaster because very few people switched or because consumers feel like the banks held them captive because of their unique services with the atms. Gerri i have seen the interviews i have seen the polls and what people say is they are afraid of a couple of things that something will happen to their many intransitive they switch also it is super complicated. What is your message if they want to move . The news is better now reviews which the top 10 Credit Unions have caught up with the big banks used to have the advantage in and many smaller ones are adding smart phone banking so the rating about them they offer the services of the Bank Including fdic insurance but they charge considerably less and pay higher Interest Rates on saving. But the negative is membership is only open to people of specific groups such as employees of a company or members said the association if you go to my credit union. Gov those are good prospects of a wonderful opportunity. Gerri Customer Satisfaction survey leading the list the credit union score 82 a and i love the idea of regional banks bank of america is 66 what does this tell you . That people our mad as hell and dont want to take it any more. There are wonderful choices regional banks you have seen the ads in the forefront of the whole movement to bake human again it is making a profound statement now they offer the same technological bells and whistles to provide higher satisfaction than the big national banks. Gerri not everybody has access to the banks. Devours did some great teams of the best and worst regional banks. You can find at what is working in your area. That is what i would suggest gerri virtual banks . I like them more and more. They dont usually charge monthly fees with low penalties and they offer fdic insurance through direct deposit or electronic bill pay or debit cards and capital one and 360 jackie and copay are those to consider. Gerri there is no place to go. You can do direct deposit we have smart phones we can do everything. Dont be nervous if there is one message dont be nervous technology can be your friend in this case. You can get the same benefit of the big bank with the foot a heck of a lot more service or a virtual bank. Gerri you alway