Current Events

The number of Americans hospitalized with heart infections caused by use of injected opioid drugs is on the rise, a new study indicates. Researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston said the finding is a disturbing outgrowth of a rising tide of opioid addiction in the United States.

You can add Suffolk County, N.Y., to the list of local and state governments that are filing lawsuits against the drug makers that market opioid painkillers.

The Long Island county on Wednesday accused several companies — Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, and Endo International, among others — of using deceptive marketing to downplay the risks of their painkillers.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) penned a letter with 19 other senators to the maker of EpiPens Tuesday, questioning the company's recent attempt to address the outrage over its price hikes. 

Former NFL players who objected to a $1 billion concussion settlement with the league will not take their case to the Supreme Court, clearing the way for retirees to get payouts, The Post has learned.

The group’s decision not to appeal means that former players who suffer from medical conditions linked to repeated head hits can start collecting benefits, likely within three or four months.

Google recently added a new head for its autonomous driving initiative and the Mountain View-based tech giant didn’t have to go far to find its new man—it poached him from Airbnb, located just up the road in San Francisco.

Vehicles Affected: Approximately 370,000 model-year 2013 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain SUVs

The Problem: The ball joints in the windshield wiper module may corrode and wear over time, possibly resulting in one or both of the windshield wipers becoming inoperative, which could reduce the driver's visibility and increase the risk of a crash

The Fix: The remedy for this problem was still being developed.

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New Jersey researchers said on Monday they had identified perhaps the first strain of E. Coli bacteria in the United States with mobile genes that make it resistant to two types of antibiotics now considered last-line defenses against superbugs.

Researchers said the strain of bacteria was found in a 76-year-old man who was treated in 2014 for a complicated urinary tract infection. Further analysis in 2016 showed the bacterium carried mcr-1, a gene that creates resistance to the last-ditch antibiotic colistin. It was also shown to carry blaNDM-5, a gene that blocks effectiveness of carbapenems, which are considered medicine's most reliable current antibiotics now that bacteria have found ways of outwitting other families of antibiotics.
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In the late 1990s, General Motors got an unexpected and enticing offer. A little-known Japanese supplier, Takata, had designed a much cheaper automotive airbag.

G.M. turned to its airbag supplier — the Swedish-American company Autoliv — and asked it to match the cheaper design or risk losing the automaker’s business, according to Linda Rink, who was a senior scientist at Autoliv assigned to the G.
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The Food and Drug Administration on Friday took steps to safeguard the nation’s blood supply from the Zika virus, calling for all blood banks to screen donations for the infection even in states where the virus is not circulating.

The recommendations are an acknowledgment that sexual transmission may facilitate the spread of Zika even in areas where mosquitoes carrying the virus are not present. Officials also want to prepare for the possibility that clusters of local infection will continue to pop up in parts of the United States for years to come.

“There could be multiple outbreaks of Zika happening outside the known current ones in South Florida, but because we are not actively looking they could be happening silently,” said Dr. Peter J.
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Approximately 20,000 baby strollers have been voluntarily recalled after many were found to have a defect that caused small children to fall out of their seat.

The Safety 1st brand's Step and Go Travel Systems strollers have a defect that allows the tray folding mechanism to disengage while it is supporting the infant car seat that can be attached to the stroller, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Units with the model number TR314, 01451CCYA, 01451CDGI and 01451CDGJ are affected.

The CPSC said there have been 30 reports of the front stroller tray disengaging on one side. Another eight incidents were reported in Canada, according to the Canadian government.

  Automakers have to perform a veritable high-wire act as they balance the burgeoning need to reduce the carbon footprints of their products with their long-standing need to make money.

Like fleet-wide fuel economy standards, the tightrope is steadily rising while the economic winds are blowing the companies asunder, with consumer demand gusting one way, toward gas-guzzling SUVs, and the threat of polluter penalties billowing in the opposite direction. It’s a delicate situation and one that doesn’t seem to be getting easier for the industry, but more on that later.

Let’s start with a bunch of gas-powered vehicles that don’t how to handle their fuel.

Welcome to your Friday Jr.