Tom Ragan of the Santa Cruz Sentinel called yesterday asking what was the status of the Dole Spinach Litigation:

The family of an 81-year-old Nebraska woman who died after eating spinach grown at a San Benito County ranch has reached an undisclosed settlement - the first announced agreement in what could be a long line of cases stemming from last year's E. coli outbreak. Two other fatal cases linked to the outbreak in August and September also have been settled. But the circumstances surrounding the wrongful-death lawsuits of Betty Howard, 83, of Richland, Wash., and June Dunning, 86, of Hagerstown, Md., weren't as "cut and dried" as the death of Ruby Trautz, according to Bill Marler, the Seattle-based attorney representing the three families as well as dozens of others who were sickened in the outbreak.

Full Story here.