February, 2009Philip Morris Must Pay $8 Million to Widow of Florida Chain Smoker, Jury Finds
Tobacco giant Philip Morris must pay $8 million in damages to the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer, a Florida jury has ruled.
Continue →Is Billionaire Stanford on the Run? Banker’s Whereabouts Unknown As SEC Details Earlier Investigation
Officials with the Securities and Exchange Commission have no idea where in the world billionaire banker R. Allen Stanford may have gone as they continue to investigate allegations of an $8 billion fraud allegedly carried out by Stanford’s massive financial empire. At the same time, it was announced that the SEC has been looking into Stanford’s financial operations since 2007 or earlier and focused on the offering of fraudulent certificates of deposit, the same instruments now at the center of …
Continue →Another Insurance Giant Brought to Its Knees by NY Prosecutors
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has reached an agreement with another large insurer to settle ongoing allegations that insurance companies rigged the system used to calculate reimbursement rates for out-of-network medical care, cheating patients and physicians across the United States. The agreement with WellPoint, Inc., which covers 35 million Americans, is the seventh such deal reached with an insurer forcing the company to change its practices and following an investigation led by Cuomo and other New York state …
Continue →Disease Screening of Newborns Now Nearly Uniform Across the U.S., Saving Lives and Money
Beginning today, February 18, 2009, all 50 states and the District of Columbia will require hospitals to screen newborns for the same range of life-threatening diseases and conditions. The new regulations put an end to the days of states having their own individual policies and only screening babies for certain medical conditions.
Continue →Anti-Cervical Cancer Vaccine Gardasil Gaining Popularity in California
Gardasil, the controversial vaccine designed for the prevention of cervical cancer in young girls and women, is becoming more accepted and widely used in California, university researchers say. In a study conducted by the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, researchers found that about one in four teenage girls in the state got at least one dose of the vaccine in 2007, the first year Gardasil was in full distribution. That means about 378,000 …
Continue →Fewer Medical Device Testing Labs are Being Inspected, Consumer Watchdog Group Alleges
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has drastically cut back on enforcement of safety regulations and inspections of facilities for testing pacemakers, stents, and other medical devices before they are implanted in patients, according to an independent consumer watchdog group.
Continue →Nervous Investors Flood Tiny Island Nation to Withdraw Funds Tied to Stanford Bank
Hundreds of investors are flooding two Caribbean islands and other locations around the world looking to withdraw their funds from banks associated with financial adviser R. Allen Stanford, who is accused of orchestrating an $8 billion fraud. A line of about 600 people formed in front of the Bank of Antigua, even after the nation’s financial authorities tried to reassure the anxious crowd that the bank had sufficient reserves to protect their investments. Some investors flew in from the United …
Continue →True Value Recalls Wheelbarrows; Over-Inflated Tire Can Cause Wheel to Break and Pose Injury Hazard
Over-inflating the tire could cause the wheel’s plastic rim to break, posing an injury to the user.
Continue →MRSA Infections in Hospital ICUs on the Decline, Health Officials Say; But Other Areas Still At Risk
The rate of certain life-threatening infections linked to an aggressively drug-resistant strain of staph germ in hospital intensive-care units has dropped dramatically in the past decade, according to a new government health report.
Continue →Peanut Company Behind Salmonella Outbreak Closes Another Plant
Peanut Corp. of America, the Virginia-based food processor blamed for shipping salmonella-tainted peanut butter and peanut paste to consumers, has closed another facility which had not been smeared with allegations of food contamination. The plant, called Tidewater Blanching and located in Suffolk County in southeastern Virginia, was shut down on February 13, 2009, the same day the Peanut Corp. filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. The plant had about 13 employees, officials said. State officials said inspectors had found chipped …
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