'I've never experienced pain like that': Influencers recount harrowing experiences with Daily Harvest crumbles, blast company's handling of recall - CNN

(CNN)Instagram-friendly meal kit service Daily Harvest is facing a firestorm of online backlash over the voluntary recall of one of its products, after a slew of people who consumed it reported becoming ill with mysterious symptoms, including extremely elevated liver enzymes.

The direct-to-consumer brand has long utilized a network of online influencers to promote its products. Now several influencers, who say they were sickened, say the company's lackluster handling of the crisis is putting new responsibility on the influencer community to warn the public.

It's also exposing the swift fallout that can emerge when you aggrieve a demographic with such a wide internet reach.

"This company was built on the backs of influencers," said Cory Silverstein, who runs an organic skincare brand with his wife, and told CNN Business he received the product, called French Lentil and Leek Crumbles, as part of a PR package in mid-May.

"That is what built them up to be like a billion-dollar valuation company, is all these influencers who did the marketing for them," he added. "At this point, it's the influencers who are alerting the public that you might end up in the hospital if you eat this product."

After consuming the product, Silverstein said, "I've never experienced pain like that — it's the first time I felt kind of helpless."

In response to CNN Business' multiple requests for comment, Daily Harvest sent the latest update the company posted on their website related to the voluntary recall.

"We want to make sure you have the latest update on our voluntary recall of French Lentil + Leek Crumbles. We are taking this very seriously and doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this. Your health and well-being are our top priority," the blog post states, adding that it has reached out to impacted customers and is taking a number of steps to investigate the cause.

"We are working with a group of experts to help us get to the bottom of this—that includes microbiologists, toxin and pathogen experts as well as allergists," the statement from Daily Harvest adds. "All pathogen and toxicology results have come back negative so far, but we're continuing to do extensive testing and will keep you updated."

An image of Daily Harvest's French Lentil + Leek Crumbles meal from their website. Daily Harvest issued a voluntary recall Sunday of a lentil-based product, after receiving customer reports of gastrointestinal issues linked to its French Lentil + Leek Crumbles meal.

In an updated blog post Thursday evening, the company said it has received approximately 470 reports of illness or adverse reaction, and the investigation into the root cause remains ongoing. It added that some 28,000 units of the recalled product were distributed in the US between April 28 to June 17.

On June 17, the company first emailed people who received the product warning that "a small number of customers have reported gastrointestinal discomfort" after consuming the crumbles and urging those who still had them to throw them away. It first posted a statement warning the public not to consume the crumbles on June 19.

Launched in 2016, Daily Harvest's emergence as a household name was linked in large part to its aggressive social media campaigns. The company has received multiple celebrity supporters, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams (representatives for Paltrow and Williams did not immediately respond to CNN Business' request for comment).

The meal kit company announced last November that it had secured Series D funding that valued Daily Harvest at over $1 billion.

Influencers track down a united source for mysterious symptoms

Silverstein said he spent time in an urgent care center where doctors scrambled to figure out what was wrong. He tested negative for all forms of hepatitis, the initial suspect, and did a slew of blood tests that eventually indicated liver enzyme levels that were off the charts. He says that levels of important liver enzymes were elevated as much as twelve times the normal range.

He spent weeks not knowing the cause of the mysterious illness, until he said his wife saw a post from fellow influencer Luke Wesley Pearson, a content creator from Portland. Pearson was reporting shockingly similar symptoms, he said, and the two realized they had both received these crumbles from the company before they were launched on the public market.

Pearson told CNN Business that he underwent emergency surgery on June 12 to get his gallbladder removed after experiencing gastrointestinal issues after consuming the crumbles.

Various frozen healthy meal items (but not the crumbles that are part of the recall) are visible inside a Daily Harvest frozen meal kit box, Lafayette, California, October 14, 2021. (Photo by Gado/Getty Images)

Pearson says he tried the lentil crumbles twice, both times leading to intense stomach aches. It was the second try, however, that sent him to the ER. After symptoms that included "excruciating" stomach pains, fever, chills, itching of the hands and feet, and jaundice, Pearson underwent testing that revealed -- just like Silverstein -- elevated liver enzymes, as well as high bilirubin. Doctors ultimately decided to remove Pearson's gallbladder.

For Pearson, it was only after seeing a viral TikTok by Abby Silverman that he realized the issues could be connected to the food he ingested immediately before his issues began. Silverman, a creative director in New York, posted a video that has garnered more than 100,000 likes on TikTok detailing her own experience after eating the Daily Harvest product. She said the lentils similarly landed her in the ER, twice, with alarmingly high liver enzyme levels. While she suspected it may be from the crumbles, she said she formally connected her medical crisis with the lentils after an email from Daily Harvest on June 19 recalling the food item led her to a Reddit thread of scores of other people detailing similar symptoms. Silverman's lawyer, Mark Apostolos, confirmed to CNN Business in a statement that medical records document her illness and symptoms.

"It's interesting because I have seen a lot of people on social media over the years try Daily Harvest, which is why I said yes to the PR package," Silverman told CNN Business.

"This whole health situation has just caused so much anxiety," said Silverman, who has retained a lawyer, Apostolos, to deal with the fallout. "Obviously, I didn't expect this. I made the video that I did because I feel like they weren't doing enough to make people aware of what was going on -- I figured people probably still had this in their freezer."

"We are investigating and evaluating all legal remedies for Abby, who was stricken with illness after consuming this product that was mailed to her," said Apostolos in a statement.

Another customer who had her gallbladder removed was Candice Smith, who told CNN Business she initially thought she was having a heart attack after consuming the product. "It was the worst night of my life," said Smith, the CEO of French Press Public Relations in Raleigh, of the night she rushed to the hospital -- where she says she stayed for four days undergoing tests on her enlarged liver and elevated liver enzymes. Her gallbladder was removed on June 19.

The company declined to comment on claims that customers underwent gallbladder surgeries related to its product. All of the people who spoke to CNN Business said doctors were initially puzzled by their symptoms.

Smith said she had no relevant pre-existing medical conditions before the hospital visit. "I try to be healthy. I eat plant-based, I'm trying to do all the right things," said Smith. "What am I doing here? Why am I even here? Why am I experiencing this level of pain in my life?"

Company's response slammed as insensitive

Caroline Sweet, a freelance actor and writer in Los Angeles, said she was in the emergency room emerging from a CT scan after enduring days of being "completely doubled-over in pain" when she received an email on June 17 from Daily Harvest informing her to throw away the crumbles and offering her a $10 store credit. (The company said in a blogpost all consumers were issued a credit for the recalled product).

"It was just like a huge f**k you," Sweet said of the email. "The fact that they're just handling it so poorly feels like such a huge slap in the face."

Sarah Schacht, a consultant and property manager in Seattle, said she similarly became "violently ill" after consuming the product that she said she was initially drawn to for its organic and health-forward marketing. "Everyone who's on the internet has been served Daily Harvest ads, right?" she said.

Schacht has been vocal on Twitter about urging people to take samples to local health departments or their Food and Drug Administration offices.

Silverstein, meanwhile, said he was incredibly dismayed by the Instagram post Daily Harvest used to alert customers of the recall. The post, which was published on June 19, simply used a previous promotional picture of the crumble -- and directed people to click a link for an "important message," which directed them to a blog post about the voluntary recall. At a first glance, Silverstein said most people would assume that the post was promoting the product. Daily Harvest has since removed the post he referenced from their Instagram, which was widely blasted as insensitive.

The FDA told CNN Business in a statement that it cannot confirm or deny if an investigation is occurring that is not already listed on its website. "However, the FDA takes seriously reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury," an FDA spokesperson said in a statement.

The agency added that when specific consumer guidance can be developed, the FDA and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will publish outbreak advisories communicating that guidance to the public.

"I'm very angry because we are all being left in the dark without answers," said Pearson. "I know that accidents happen all the time in the food industry, and I've just seen other companies who are completely transparent, speaking up and making loud and clear announcements of what's going on and what the next steps are and what they found out so far."

Silverstein added that he feels that some of the onus has fallen on influencers to alert their followers. While the company emailed customers and posted a statement on its website, he thinks they should be doing more to make people aware on social media.

While he and his wife have worked with Daily Harvest for some five years now, and never had any issues in the past, he said they have no choice but to "cut off our relationship with them."

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What fireworks will look like this Fourth of July - KKTV

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Colorado Springs will still move ahead with firework displays despite other areas cancelling. The Star Spangled Symphony and Fourth of July Block Party will be happening downtown at Pikes Peak Center.

Event planners have been working closely with the city and fire officials to ensure the safety of the firework displays. There will be multiple displays around the city- most starting around 9:15 at night.

To be able to have these events the launch zones have to be pre-inspected by C-S-F-D, where they clear out dead brush and mow down tall grass in the areas. The events also went through a permit process. C-S-F-D will have crews on standby in case a fire does breakout.

Fire officials do say if we enter back into a burn ban that all displays will be cancelled.

As for resident hosted events and parties, C-S-F-D wants to remind everyone personal use of the fireworks remains illegal. They say only novelty items such as poppers or snappers are allowed.

C-S-P-D will be patrolling the Fourth of July and handing out citations to those using illegal fireworks.

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To Tap Like This Is To Feel Joy - Duke Today

Tap dancing is very much about the moves and the sounds.  Three hundred people, including several dozen American Dance Festival students, enjoyed that insight during a performance Wednesday afternoon at the Nasher Museum of Art.

MacArthur Fellow and Chapel Hill native Michelle Dorrance and Byron Tittle of Dorrance Dance tap company performed in collaboration with New York City-based visual artist John Felix Arnold, who grew up in Durham, as part of his Echoes series.

Arnold created a 6-by-8 foot “stage” out of wood reclaimed from the Triangle and New York, upon which Dorrance and Tittle emphasized the role of movement language and sound in tap dance. During a rehearsal Tuesday afternoon, the two dancers were found getting familiar with the piece, exploring the different sounds resonating from its diverse array of wood, while feeling out the materials in relation to their movements.

During the 40-minute performance on Wednesday, which included long solos from both dancers, they transformed the materials into a new art piece, a type of experimental drawing, which recorded the marks of every tap, skid and slide.

“Echoes: From Here” was commissioned by Duke Arts and co-presented by American Dance Festival and the Nasher Museum with support from Cassilhaus.

Video by Bill Snead

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Tiny homes are coming, whether San Jose lawmakers like it or not - San José Spotlight - San José Spotlight

Tiny homes in San Jose are being hailed as a fix to a growing homelessness crisis. But two policymakers are saying the sites in their districts won’t work.

The City Council this week voted 8-2 to approve a plan that would add 400 transitional homes, as the region’s housing crisis continues to push more people on to the streets. Councilmembers David Cohen and Matt Mahan voted no on the plan.

Under the plan, San Jose will expand two existing projects to add a total of 120 more homes and develop two new sites—each with 100 homes—in Districts 4 and 10 this year. The city is also looking to develop 80 homes at two other locations next year. The decision will double the city’s inventory of tiny homes for unhoused people. San Jose already has 397 homes at five locations. Tiny homes are much faster—and cheaper—to build compared to a traditional home.

But Cohen opposes the plan to build new tiny homes at the city’s proposed site in North San Jose because the neighborhood has been left out of the planning process.

“It’s more important to do this right than to do it quickly,” Cohen told San José Spotlight, noting he’s disappointed the city only focused on one location in District 4. “There were many feasible sites in the district and (city officials) didn’t come forward with any options other than a site that they had floated to the community years ago that received vigorous opposition.”

The chosen site, at 14630 Noble Ave., is lodged between two elementary schools and steps away from the Berryessa library and Noble Park. Neighbors vehemently opposed the site for tiny homes when it was proposed in 2015. Cohen wanted the city to solicit community feedback before approving the project.

Cohen’s office pushed for the city to consider two different sites—one along Montague Expressway and one on King Road—both of which are close to grocery stores and public transit. The city will explore the options, officials said at the meeting, but won’t halt progress on the selected site.

City officials said the 2.5-acre vacant lot on Noble Avenue is among the six best options from a list of more than 140 sites in the city. San Jose already owns the land, and the location would allow for up to 100 temporary tiny homes. Officials will explore prioritizing seniors and families at the North San Jose site.

“None of these are perfect,” Jim Ortbal of the city manager’s office said Tuesday. “But we’re running out of sites. All the easy ones are gone.”

This week’s decision came after San Jose promised to add 600 transitional homes for homeless people. San Jose saw its homeless population explode in 2019, as the crisis continued to grow over the pandemic. A new tally of the unhoused population shows more than 6,700 people are sleeping outdoors in the heart of Silicon Valley this year.

As of April this year, only 76 short-term units were under construction in San Jose. The city is waiting on new state grants through the Project Homekey program to build a 204-unit project at the corner of Branham Lane and Monterey Road.

City officials also have a goal of converting 300 motel rooms into transitional housing. The city has secured funding through the Project Homekey program to convert 165 rooms at two motels so far.

Not an ideal choice

Cohen said he isn’t afraid of homeless housing in his district—but not at the Noble Avenue site.

“This site (was) a particularly difficult discussion with the community before,” Cohen said, adding the city has not revisited the issue with residents since. “To go back and say, we didn’t do it then but now we’re just gonna go ahead and do it, is not the right approach.”

San Jose officials will ask residents for feedback on the design of the homes, but not where they’ll go. That’s because many homeless housing projects were previously squashed by resident opposition, said Jacky Morales-Ferrand, the city’s housing director.

Allowing residents to say ‘no’ to a site will slow down the city’s progress and defeat the purpose of tiny homes, she told Cohen at the meeting.

But even homeless advocates aren’t supportive of the North San Jose site.

Advocate Shaunn Cartwright worries neighbors might harass homeless people there by calling the cops. The location is also isolated from services and public transit options, she said, which would make it difficult for those without a car.

“There’s no way us advocates would support this,” Cartwright told San José Spotlight. “The city will put unhoused people in such an uncomfortable position with the neighbors.”

A map of the new tiny home site in District 10. Photo courtesy of Office of Councilmember Matt Mahan.

Mahan also voiced concerns with the tiny homes proposed in his district on Great Oaks Boulevard. The site is half a mile from two existing homeless housing projects, a proposed safe parking site and a motel being considered under the Project Homekey program.

“I co-authored the original memo that called for distributing transitional sites equitably around the city and I strongly support adding a new site in District 10,” Mahan told San José Spotlight, “That said, I think it’s a mistake to cluster four transitional sites all within a half-mile radius at the southern end of the city. This proposal fails the equitable distribution test from my perspective.”

San Jose has 120 days to explore alternative options to the sites selected, officials said.

Contact Tran Nguyen at [email protected] or follow @nguyenntrann on Twitter.

Where will the new tiny homes go?

• Rue Ferrari Emergency Interim Housing in District 2, located 5898 Rue Ferrari, is an existing site serving 118 people. San Jose will add 100 homes here.
• San Jose Police parking lot site in District 3 has 76 homes under construction. San Jose will add 20 homes here.
• Noble Ave site District 4, located at 14630 Noble Ave, will have 100 homes.
• Highway 85 off-ramp at Great Oaks Blvd in District 10, (no address), will have 100 homes.
• Highway 680 off-ramp at South Jackson in District 5, (no address), will have 50 homes.
• Prospect Road near Highway 85 in District 1, (no address), will have 30 homes.

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Here's Google's letter saying employees can relocate to states with abortion rights - The Verge

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In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, Google’s chief people officer Fiona Cicconi sent a staff-wide email to employees informing them of Google’s response to the ruling. Among other things, the email highlights that Googlers can “apply for relocation without justification” and that people in charge of the relocation process “will be aware of the situation” in assessing their requests. In an email last August reported by Bloomberg, Google told employees that of 10,000 requests over the prior few months to work remotely or relocate, 85 percent were approved.

The Supreme Court’s ruling does not make abortion illegal throughout the US — instead, it leaves the decision to individual state governments. A number of states have immediately restricted abortion rights, including Louisiana, Missouri, and Kentucky. Other states, including California, where Google is headquartered, have vowed to protect abortion rights within their borders.

Here’s the letter in full:

Hi everyone,

This morning the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that rolls back Roe v. Wade.

This is a profound change for the country that deeply affects so many of us, especially women. Everyone will respond in their own way, whether that’s wanting space and time to process, speaking up, volunteering outside of work, not wanting to discuss it at all, or something else entirely. Please be mindful of what your co-workers may be feeling and, as always, treat each other with respect.

Equity is extraordinarily important to us as a company, and we share concerns about the impact this ruling will have on people’s health, lives, and careers. We will keep working to make information on reproductive healthcare accessible across our products and continue our work to protect user privacy.

To support Googlers and their dependents, our US benefits plan and health insurance covers out-of-state medical procedures that are not available where an employee lives and works. Googlers can also apply for relocation without justification, and those overseeing this process will be aware of the situation. If you need additional support, please connect 1:1 with a People Consultant via [link to internal tool redacted].

We will be arranging support sessions for Googlers in the US in the coming days. These will be posted to Googler News.

Please don’t hesitate to lean on your Google community in the days ahead and continue to take good care of yourselves and each other.

Google spokesperson Nicolas Lopez confirmed to The Verge that “there have been no changes” to the company’s relocation policy following the Supreme Court’s ruling. This means Google is just reminding employees of their options, rather than providing them with a new benefit.

Update 9:12PM ET: Added additional information on Google’s relocation policies.

Update June 25th, 4:49PM ET: Updated to clarify that Google’s relocation policy has been in place prior to the ruling.

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Remarks by President Biden at Signing of S.2938, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act - The White House

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Roosevelt Room

8:36 A.M. EDT

    THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, folks.  Yesterday, I spoke about the Supreme Court’s shocking decision striking down Roe v. Wade.  We’ve had a lot of discussion about that in our whole household.  We think it’s a — anyway.

Jill and I know how painful and devastating a decision is for so many Americans — and I mean so many Americans.  The decision is implemented by states.  My administration is going to focus on how they administer it and whether or not they violate other laws, like deciding to not allow people across state lines to get public health services.  And we’re going to take actions to protect women’s rights and reproductive health.

This morning, though, I’m here — we’re here to — on a critical issue: gun violence. 

You know, I’m about to sign into law a bipartisan safety legi- — gun safety legislation.  And time is of the essence.  Lives will be saved. 

When we return from Europe, Jill and I will be hosting an event in the White House on July 11th to mark this historic achievement with members who voted for these families and the families who, in fact, were victimized by the gun shooting that we’ve seen this so — so incredible to see so much of it of late.

And advocates have worked really hard to do something about it.  I’ve been at this work for a long, long time, and I know how hard it is, and I know what it takes to get it done.  It was there — I was there 30 years ago, the last time this nation passed meaningful gun safety laws.  And I’m here today for the most significant law to be passed since then, since — for the last 30 years.

I’d like to thank the leaders and members of the House and Senate for working together to get this done.  I especially want to thank the families that Jill and I — many of whom we sat with for hours on end across the country.  So many we’ve gotten to know who lost their souls and — to an epidemic of gun violence.  They lost their child, their husband, their wife.  Nothing is going to fill that void in their hearts, but they led the way so other families will not have the experience and the pain and trauma that they had to live through.

From Columbine to Sandy Hook, to Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, El Paso, Atlanta, Buffalo, Uvalde, and for the shootings that happen every day in the streets that are mass shootings — and we don’t even hear about them, the number of people killed every day in the streets — their message to us was: “Do something.”  How many times we heard that?  “Just do something.”  For God’s sake, just do something.

Well, today, we did.  While this bill doesn’t do everything I want, it does include actions I’ve long called for that are going to save lives.  It funds crisis intervention, including red-flag laws.  It keeps guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and to others.  And it finally closes what is known as the “boyfriend loophole.”  So if you assault your boyfriend or girlfriend, you can’t buy a gun or own a gun. 

It requires young people ages 18 to 21 to undergo enhanced background checks.  It includes the first-ever federal law that makes gun trafficking and straw purchases distinct federal crimes for the first time.  It clarifies who needs to register as a federally licensed gun dealer, and run background checks before selling a single weapon.

You know, this is — also provides historic funding to address the youth mental health crisis in this country, especially — especially the trauma experienced by the survivors of this gun violence.

Look, you know, it invests in antiviolence programs that work — that work directly with the people who are most likely to commit these crimes or become victims of gun crimes.  Today, we say more than “enough.”  We say more than “enough.”  It’s time — when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential.  If we can reach compromise on guns, we ought to be able to reach compromise in other critical issues, from veterans’ healthcare to cutting-edge American innovation, and so much more.

I know there’s much more work to do, and I’m never going to give up.  But this is a monumental day.  God bless us with the strength to continue to work to get the work that’s left undone done, and the lives lost that can’t be saved that obviously are gone but will be an inspiration for us to do more.

I’m now going to sign this bill into law. 

(The bill is signed.)

God willing, it’s going to save a lot of lives.  Thank you all so very much.

Q    Mr. President, will you take a couple questions?

THE FIRST LADY:  Congratulations.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thanks.

I have a helicopter waiting for me to take off.  We’re going to have plenty of time to talk about a lot of this.

Q    Do you think the Supreme Court is broken, in your view?

THE PRESIDENT:  I think the Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions.  Thank you.

8:42 A.M. EDT

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Is Bitcoin Dead? Here Is What The Fundamentals Are Showing - Forbes