Li-Hsuan Lu, a Wham-O intern, shows her proficiency with Hula Hoops. A huge best-seller upon their U.S. introduction in 1958, Wham-O rang up more than 100 million sales of them, at $1.98 each, in the first year. That amounted to one Hula Hoop for every two Americans.

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CAMP PENDLETON — A military judge dismissed charges Tuesday against a Marine officer accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis.

Col. Steven Folsom dismissed charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani after finding that a four-star general overseeing the case was improperly influenced by an investigator probing the November 2005 shootings by a Marine squad in Haditha.

Chessani, of Rangely, Colo., was the highest-ranking officer to face a combat-related court-martial since the Vietnam War.

The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled, but Folsom barred Marine Forces Central Command from future involvement in the case.

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials have learned of 106 more cases of salmonella linked to tainted tomatoes, putting the outbreak's toll at 383 on Wednesday and counting.

"We do not think the outbreak is over," said Dr. Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of this newest influx of cases were people who got sick weeks ago but hadn't been counted yet. Some states began doing a better job of checking for salmonella as the outbreak has dragged on, while part of the surge comes from test results that had been backlogged in jammed laboratories.

What hasn't changed is that the earliest known victim got sick on April 10, and the latest on June 5.

But New Hampshire and Pennsylvania reported their first cases, bringing to 30 the number of states — plus Washington, D.C. — that have reported sick residents, although some may have been infected while traveling. At least 48 people have been hospitalized.

BOULDER — Prosecutors have dropped charges against a Colorado restaurant owner after he and a security company supervisor shot each other with Tasers in a dispute over parking.

Prosecutors say the case against Harvey Epstein was weak. They also cite a weak case for the security company to have clamped a metal boot on a wheel of a van owned by one of Epstein's employees — the incident that set off the May 17 confrontation.

Epstein, co-owner of Mamacitas restaurant, was arrested on suspicion of felony menacing and using a stun gun.

Police say Epstein and Case M. Dane, a supervisor for Colorado Security Services Inc., shot each other with Tasers.

ANCHORAGE — A Denali National Park and Preserve spokeswoman says two backpackers missing for nearly a week in the Alaska park are alive and well.

National Park Service spokeswoman Kris Fister says 25-year-old Abby Flantz and 23-year-old Erica Nelson of Las Vegas were located in the park Wednesday. She says one of the women called her mother on a cell phone and a helicopter was sent out to pick up the hikers.

The two had been last seen Thursday when they left for what was supposed to be an overnight camping trip.

LOUISVILLE — Attorneys for a Kentucky teen whose feet were severed on an amusement-park ride want to add two friends to her lawsuit.

Attorney Jennifer Barber says Blair Johnson and Arin Valsted of Louisville suffered injuries and emotional trauma when a cable broke on the Superman Tower of Power ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom last summer.

They were riding with 14-year-old Kaitlyn Lasitter. Doctors reattached her right foot, but some of her left leg was amputated.

NEW YORK — A man convicted of secretly cutting up corpses — including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke — has received a sentence of nine to 27 years in prison for his role in a ghoulish multimillion-dollar body-parts scheme.

Christopher Aldorasi, 36, was convicted in April of 20 counts, including enterprise corruption, grand larceny and reckless endangerment

Prosecutors said Aldorasi and others took bone and tissue without family permission and sold the pieces to medical companies for use in transplants and other medical procedures.

The scheme's ringleader, Michael Mastromarino, 44, pleaded guilty earlier this year and admitted that he didn't get consent for any of the hundreds of bodies he plundered.

NEW YORK — New York City is set to start fining chain restaurants that don't post calorie counts on their menus by next month.

The state Restaurant Association is fighting the law in court. The industry group says the law meant to combat obesity violates restaurants' First Amendment rights.

An appeals court Wednesday refused to postpone enforcement of the rule until after its case is decided in court.

That means the city can begin issuing fines on July 19, unless the appeals court makes a ruling in the case as a whole before then.

The city is already issuing citations to restaurants breaking the law. It applies to chains with at least 15 outlets across the country.