Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
U.S. Making Some Progress Against Opioid Epidemic, Says Health Chief
Oct 25 2018 // The number of U.S. drug overdose deaths has begun to level off after years of relentless increases driven by the opioid epidemic, health secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday, cautioning it’s too soon to declare...
Apple CEO Calls for U.S. Privacy Law to Protect User Data
Oct 24 2018 // Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Wednesday customer data was being “weaponised with military efficiency” by companies to increase profit. Cook, speaking at the International Conference of Data Protection...
Court Says Nestle, Cargill Can Be Sued Over Child Labor Overseas
Oct 24 2018 // A U.S. federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a lawsuit by a group of former child slaves accusing the U.S. unit of Nestle SA, the world’s largest food maker, and Cargill Co of perpetuating child slavery at...
U.S. Agency Calls for Better Safety Metrics for Autonomous Cars
Oct 24 2018 // Autonomous vehicle manufacturers need a better yardstick to show that their products are safe, said Derek Kan, under secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation. The metrics that are most widely used by...
Midwest Food Distributor to Pay $3.6M to Settle Sex Discrimination Lawsuit
Oct 23 2018 // A food distributor with warehouses in Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, will pay $3.6 million to settle a class sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission...
Head of Crumbling Foundations Fund in Connecticut Says $1B Needed
Oct 23 2018 // The superintendent of a new captive insurance company charged with distributing millions of dollars to Connecticut homeowners with crumbling foundations is warning he doesn’t have nearly enough money to address the...
CoreLogic to Buy Toronto-Based Claims Workflow Firm Symbility Solutions
Oct 23 2018 // CoreLogic, the Irvine, Calif.-based property data and analytics firm, has agreed to acquire the outstanding shares of Symbililty Solutions Inc. not already owned by CoreLogic. CoreLogic currently holds approximately a 28...
U.S. Hog Farmers on Alert Over African Swine Fever Disease
Oct 23 2018 // U.S. hog farmers are ramping up safety procedures and leaving animal-feed ingredients imported from China in storage in an attempt to keep out a highly contagious swine disease that is sweeping through Asia and...
Verisk Product Scores Properties on Flood Risk; Could Replace Outdated Flood Maps
Oct 23 2018 // Data analytics firm Verisk is touting the launch of WaterLine, an underwriting tool that scores flood risk for all properties in the contiguous United States, helping identify homes and businesses vulnerable to flood. The...
GenX Undetected in Bloodstreams of North Carolina Chemical Plant Neighbors
Oct 19 2018 // Dozens of neighbors of a North Carolina chemical plant had industrial compounds in their bloodstreams, but tests by state and federal health officials outlined Tuesday didn’t find the much-debated and little-studied...
Firms Sued Over Missouri Duck Boat Sinking Seek Mediation, Cite 1851 Law
Oct 18 2018 // Two companies facing multiple lawsuits over a summer tourist boat accident in Missouri that killed 17 people have invoked an 1851 law that allows vessel owners to try to avoid or limit legal damages as they also seek...
15 Emerging Risks from Policies to Playgrounds, Sandboxes to Scooters
Oct 18 2018 // When insurance experts are asked what they see as the most important emerging risk for the property/casualty insurance industry, their consensus is cyber in some form. While cyber obviously poses tremendous risks, some...
Barge-Mounted Crane Hits Louisiana Bridge; Closing it for Months
Oct 17 2018 // A barge-mounted crane has slammed into a Louisiana bridge, shuttering a travel artery for what Louisiana officials say will be at least a few months. Operators for Marquette Transportation hit the Sunshine Bridge at...
Supreme Court Declines Paint Manufacturers’ Appeal of $400M Public Nuisance Ruling
Oct 17 2018 // The U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from Sherwin-Williams Co. and Conagra Brands Inc., leaving intact a ruling that requires them to pay more than $400 million for lead-paint remediation in California. The rebuff,...
Hackers with Russian Ties Hit 3 E. European Companies: Cyber Security Firm
Oct 17 2018 // Hackers have infected three energy and transport companies in Ukraine and Poland with sophisticated new malware and may be planning destructive cyber attacks, a software security firm said on Wednesday. A report by...
Texas Pilot Who Crashed Plane for Insurance Sentenced to Prison for Fraud Scheme
Oct 17 2018 // A 33-year-old pilot, formerly of Kemah, Texas, was sentenced in early October to more than five years in prison and ordered to repay nearly $1 million in an insurance fraud-related case. Theodore Robert Wright III...
Lead-Paint Makers Rejected by Top Court in $400M Case in California
Oct 16 2018 // The U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from Sherwin-Williams Co. and Conagra Brands Inc., leaving intact a ruling that requires them to pay more than $400 million for lead-paint remediation in California. The rebuff,...
Chicago Restaurant Chain to Settle Sexual Harassment, Retaliation Suit for $160K
Oct 16 2018 // Chicago-based Rosebud Restaurants Inc. will pay $160,000 to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC’s lawsuit charged...
Canada Gets Ready for Legalized Recreational Marijuana on Oct. 17
Oct 16 2018 // Mat Beren and his friends used to drive by the vast greenhouses of southern British Columbia and joke about how much weed they could grow there. Years later, it’s no joke. The tomato and pepper plants that once...
Drug Ads on TV Would Show Prices Under Trump Administration Proposal
Oct 16 2018 // The U.S. government, in an effort to increase pressure on drugmakers to lower costs for U.S. consumers, said on Monday it will propose requiring companies to include the price of their prescription medicines in television...