Current Events

Mercedes-Benz has joined the ranks of automakers troubled by airbag malfunctions, recalling about 126,000 vehicles in the United States, according to a report from the automaker posted this week on the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The automaker said a control unit in the airbag could malfunction in one of two ways: The airbags might not deploy in a crash, or they might deploy without being in a crash. The action covers 2008-9 C300, C350 and C63 AMG models, as well as the 2010 GLK350.

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Major foodborne outbreaks in the United States have more than tripled in the last 20 years, and the germs most frequently implicated are familiar to most Americans: Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria.

In the most recent five-year period -- from 2010 to 2014 -- these multistate outbreaks were bigger and deadlier than in years past, causing more than half of all deaths related to contaminated food outbreaks, public health officials said Tuesday. A wide variety of foods were involved, ranging from vegetables and fresh fruits to beef and chicken. Some had never before been linked to outbreaks, such as the caramel apples, tainted with Listeria, that led to an outbreak in which seven people died and 34 were hospitalized in late 2014.

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The Japanese maker of air bags linked to the deaths or injuries of dozens of motorists has agreed to pay a record U.S. civil penalty of up to $200 million and have an independent monitor oversee the nation’s largest-ever automotive safety recall.

Under a five-year consent decree reached with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and announced Tuesday, Takata Corp. agreed to pay $70 million and as much as $130 million more in fines if it doesn’t adhere to terms of the settlement, a U.S. regulator said Tuesday.

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Volkswagen’s pollution problems took a costly new turn on Tuesday when the company said it had understated emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, for about 800,000 of its vehicles sold in Europe, and overstated the cars’ fuel economy.

A limited number of gasoline-powered cars are affected, said Eric Felber, a company spokesman, expanding the focus of Volkswagen’s crisis beyond its diesel engines.

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An Omaha, Neb., company is recalling nearly 84 tons of ground beef after federal inspectors traced E. coli to the company on Friday.

All 167,427 pounds were produced by All American Meats, Inc., on Oct. 16 for sale in 60- and 80-pound boxes and shipped to retailers nationwide. No deaths or illnesses have been linked to the contaminated batch.

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Health officials in two states aren’t yet reporting how many people have been sickened in an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning that shuttered Chipotle restaurants in Washington and Oregon, saying more investigation and testing need to be done.

At least 22 people have fallen ill since Oct. 14 in the outbreak tied to the popular Mexican fast-food chain. That includes 19 confirmed cases in Washington and three in Oregon, though officials there say another case is suspected.

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The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday levied additional charges against Volkswagen, pulling its subsidiary Porsche into the global emissions-cheating scandal.

The agency also added a new engine -- the 3.0-liter diesel six-cylinder -- and several more models to the list of vehicles it says were illegally equipped. The models include the 2014 VW Touareg, the 2015 Porsche Cayenne and the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L and Q5.

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A few months before he took a toxic mix of drugs and died on a stranger’s couch, Nicklaus Ellison wrote a letter to his little sister.

He asked for Jolly Ranchers, Starburst and Silly Bandz bracelets, some of the treats permitted at the substance abuse program he attended in Florida. Then, almost as an aside, Mr. Ellison wrote about how the Christian-run program that was supposed to cure his drug and alcohol problem had instead “de-gayed” him.

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WASHINGTON — A case about false information on the Internet gave rise to a vivid and occasionally personal argument on Monday at the Supreme Court.
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The question in the case was whether companies that say false but seemingly benign things about consumers may be sued under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that many sorts of apparently harmless misinformation could cause damage.

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On Page 5 of a credit card contract used by American Express, beneath an explainer on interest rates and late fees, past the details about annual membership, is a clause that most customers probably miss. If cardholders have a problem with their account, American Express explains, the company “may elect to resolve any claim by individual arbitration.”

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Honda Motor Co. is recalling 2016 models of its popular CR-V small sport-utility vehicle because of a new, potentially deadly Takata Corp. air-bag defect.

The Honda recall, posted to its website late Friday, involves a manufacturing defect in a metal housing surrounding the driver’s air-bag inflator. In the event of a crash triggering an air-bag deployment, “the inflator could rupture, with metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants, resulting in serious injury or death,” Honda said in documents posted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website Saturday.

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