LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Legal experts say a South Dakota beef processor that is suing ABC News for defamation faces a steep climb for a victory in court.

Beef Products, Inc. (BPI) sued ABC News, Inc. for defamation Thursday over its coverage of a meat product that critics dub “pink slime.” The company alleges the network created an inaccurate impression that the product is unsafe.

The lawsuit seeks damages under South Dakota’s defamation law, as well as a 1994 state law that allows businesses to sue anyone who knowingly spreads false information about a food product. A company lawyer said BPI will seek $1.2 billion in damages.

Drake University law professor Neil Hamilton said BPI may struggle to convince a jury that the news stories were defamatory or that harm was intended.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — A missing Peoria woman whose body was found stuck in a farmer’s combine in a central Illinois cornfield died from multiple gunshot wounds.

The Journal Star reported results of a Sept. 12 autopsy by the Peoria County coroner on 24-year-old Tashyra McDowell. A farmer harvesting corn found McDowell’s body the day before. McDowell was the mother of a 7-year-old autistic son, who was found unattended earlier last week in Peoria. Later that day McDowell’s car was found abandoned.

McDowell’s mother, Twila Rutherford, said she last had contact with her daughter Sept. 7. McDowell’s son is now with Rutherford, who said the boy was her daughter’s “pride and joy.”

It took authorities about two hours to disassemble the picker to remove McDowell’s body. Peoria County authorities are investigating.

DENVER, Colo. — R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) and co-plaintiff Made in the USA Foundation filed a lawsuit that asks the federal district court in Denver to declare the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) recent ruling against the U.S. country of origin labeling law (COOL) to be contrary to U.S. law, and null and void.

The lawsuit names U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk as defendants and alleges they failed their respective duties to protect and preserve U.S. sovereignty, by allowing the WTO to second-guess the U.S. COOL law.

R-CALF USA Region VI Director and COOL Committee Chair Mike Schultz said, “For nearly eight years, the multinational meatpackers, the governments of Canada and Mexico and even the U.S. Department of Agriculture fought to prevent U.S. citizens from knowing the origins of their food by vigorously opposing the implementation of the 2002 COOL law. But we cattle producers joined with consumers in that long battle and we finally prevailed. COOL went into effect in March of 1999.

“But, the governments of Canada and Mexico persisted and filed a complaint at the WTO, essentially asserting that U.S. citizens do not need to know where their food, particularly their meat from livestock, was born, raised and slaughtered.”

According to a Sept. 7 Denver Post article, Melonhead LLC, operator of Mile High Organics, is also a co-plaintiff in the suit, which was filed Sept. 1.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana farm linked to a deadly outbreak of salmonella in cantaloupes said last week it had voluntarily withdrawn its watermelons from the market and was working with state and federal officials to find the source of the foodborne illness in the larger fruits.

Chamberlain Farm Produce, Inc. of Owensville issued a statement saying it was unaware of anyone becoming ill from eating any of its watermelons. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy confirmed the agency was investigating watermelon from Chamberlain, located about 20 miles north of Evansville.

Indiana State Department of Health spokeswoman Amy Reel said the watermelon strain was found as a result of an inspection of the farm prompted by the cantaloupe salmonella outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that outbreak affected 204 people in 22 states, including Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois. Two of those people died and 78 were hospitalized.

The farm produces only cantaloupes and watermelons, Reel said. She confirmed no illnesses have been linked to the watermelon. But she said the same strain of salmonella as found in the watermelon has been linked to some illnesses.

The CDC reported last month that the strain identified in the watermelon was among three salmonella strains linked to live poultry identified in 163 people from 26 states, including Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois.

Chamberlain Farms attorney Gary Zhao of Chicago said he could not disclose any information beyond the company’s statement. The statement did not reveal where the watermelons were distributed, but Reel said the distribution area for the watermelons was smaller than for the cantaloupes.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Two Iowa residents have been ordered to serve probation and pay back more than $300,000 for submitting false applications for farm loan payments made eligible to wool producers.

Fifty-nine-year-old Reena Slominski and 62-year-old Howard “Jack” Aleff, both of Knoxville, Iowa, were charged in the South Dakota district of federal court with conspiracy to defraud the government. Authorities said Slominski and Aleff prepared and submitted 132 false applications for loan deficiency payments for sheep that were never sheared.

U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann ordered both defendants to serve five years of probation and pay back nearly $304,000 in joint restitution. Aleff was fined $40,000 and Slominski, $20,000.