Latest USA Headlines

All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.

J&J Recalls Some Baby Powder After FDA Reports Traces of Asbestos

Oct 18 2019 // Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it is recalling around 33,000 bottles of baby powder in the United States after U.S. health regulators found trace amounts of asbestos in samples taken from a bottle purchased...

U.S. to Update Crash Test Standards and Dummies

Oct 18 2019 // U.S. auto safety regulators next year will propose several changes to federal crash testing standards that critics say have failed to keep pace with new vehicle technologies and lag behind other nations. The U.S. New Car...

U.S. Safety Board Wants to Learn Cause of Fatal Uber Autonomous Car Crash

Oct 18 2019 // The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will hold a Nov. 19 hearing to determine the probable cause of a March 2018 Uber Technologies Inc. self-driving vehicle crash that killed a pedestrian in Arizona. The...

Judge Calls on Big 3 Drug CEOs to Discuss Opioid Settlement

Oct 18 2019 // The chief executives of the three largest U.S. drug distributors and a drugmaker have been summoned to appear before a federal judge to discuss a proposal to resolve thousands of lawsuits alleging they fueled the U.S....

Michigan’s Ban on Flavored E-Cigarettes Blocked by Judge

Oct 17 2019 // A Michigan judge temporarily blocked the state’s weeks-old ban on flavored e-cigarettes Tuesday, saying it may force adults to return to smoking more harmful tobacco products and has irreparably hurt vaping...

Bipartisan Group Calls for Pulling Internet Firms’ Liability Immunity

Oct 17 2019 // A bipartisan group of lawmakers is stepping up efforts to have U.S. trade officials eliminate a legal liability shield that tech companies are pushing to keep in new agreements, including a deal to replace the North...

Formosa Plastics Agrees to Pay $50M to Settle Texas Water Pollution Suit

Oct 16 2019 // Petrochemical manufacturer Formosa Plastics has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit in which a judge ruled the company illegally dumped billions of plastic pellets and other pollutants into Lavaca Bay and other...

Three Major Drug Distributors Negotiating to Settle Bellwether Opioid Case: WSJ

Oct 16 2019 // Three drug distributors are in talks with state and local governments to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits for $18 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the...

Bayer Anticipates Jump in Cancer Claims Linked to Roundup’s Glyphosate

Oct 16 2019 // Bayer expects the number of claims in the United States related to Roundup herbicide to have surged in the third quarter, as the German drugs and pesticides maker tries to reach a settlement after earlier court rulings...

Cannabis Banking Challenges in Legal States Go Far Beyond Pot

Oct 16 2019 // Kat Merryfield was ready to share her farm-to-home oils, chocolates and creams with the rest of the country. But banks and credit card processors weren’t ready to work with her small business. “We started out...

More Research Needed Into How Crash Risk Is Related to Roadway Design

Oct 15 2019 // How dangerous is travel in the United States? It depends on how the question is framed. If it’s risk per kilometer (about 6/10ths of a mile), the U.S. has 6.71 deaths per billion vehicle kilometers of travel compared...

Price Forbes Launches U.S. Healthcare Practice Headed by JLT Hires

Oct 15 2019 // London-based specialty broker Price Forbes has launched a U.S. healthcare practice headed by market veterans Paul Voller and David Fairbank, who are joining from JLT Group. Based out of London the practice will focus on...

Behind the Foggy Curtain: A Peek Into Secret U.S. Cybersecurity Operation

Oct 15 2019 // The National Security Agency is normally so secretive that its creation was classified, leading to the nickname “No Such Agency.” But in a move that surely caused hand-wringing and murmurs among the...

J&J’s Legal Beating May Only Get Worse with Baby Powder, Opioid, Hip and Other Claims

Oct 14 2019 // Johnson & Johnson has taken some costly beatings in court this year. And it could get worse. Just last week, a jury ordered J&J to pay $8 billion for wrongfully pushing doctors to prescribe the anti-psychotic drug...

Hurricane Dorian Ties as Strongest Landfalling Atlantic Hurricane on Record: Aon

Oct 14 2019 // Hurricane Dorian made landfalls in the Bahamas, North Carolina, and Canada in early September, bringing total economic and insured losses in the billions, according to Aon’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap...

Berkshire’s MedPro Acquires Swiss Re Corporate Health Care Liability Business

Oct 14 2019 // Berkshire Hathaway health care liability insurance unit MedPro Group has agreed to acquire the healthcare professional liability business of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions effective Oct. 11. The agreement includes hospital...

Vaping-Related Illnesses Could be Due to Multiple Causes: U.S. Health Agencies

Oct 11 2019 // U.S. health officials said on Friday there may be more than one cause to the outbreak of the mysterious lung illness linked to e-cigarette use and said they do not see a meaningful drop in new cases. As of Tuesday, 1,299...

Iranian Oil Tanker Struck, Probably by Missiles: Iran Media

Oct 11 2019 // An Iranian-owned oil tanker was struck, probably by missiles, in the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia’s coast on Friday, Iranian media said, an incident that if confirmed will stoke tension in a region rattled by attacks on...

Court Allows Judge Opposed by Drug Firms to Oversee Nationwide Opioid Trial

Oct 11 2019 // A federal appeals court on Thursday cleared the way for a landmark trial over the nation’s opioid crisis, rejecting a bid by eight drug retailers and distributors to disqualify the judge, and a request by Ohio and...

Global Safety Regulators Fault U.S., ‘Undue Pressure’ from Boeing for 737 Max Approval

Oct 11 2019 // U.S. aviation regulators assessing Boeing Co.’s 737 Max sometimes didn’t follow their own rules, used out-of-date procedures and lacked the resources and expertise to fully vet the design changes implicated in...