Current Events

A federal judge gave final approval on Wednesday to a far-reaching settlement agreement intended to remake Rikers Island by addressing pervasive brutality at the New York City jail complex.

The decision brought an end to four years of contentious litigation over alleged abuses at Rikers and made way for various changes, including the addition of thousands of surveillance cameras and more restrictive policies governing when officers can use force. It also provides for the appointment of a federal monitor to oversee conditions at the country’s second-largest jail system.

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FRANKFURT — Volkswagen has suspended its top quality-control executive, a person close to the company said on Tuesday, as the company’s widening emissions scandal is sidelining some of the carmaker’s most seasoned managers.

The executive, Frank Tuch, 48, Volkswagen’s head of quality control, is the fifth in a high-ranking post to be suspended in connection with revelations that 11 million Volkswagen vehicles were equipped with software designed to trick emissions tests. Mr. Tuch’s suspension was reported last week by Bild, a German newspaper.

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Two-thirds of new cancer drugs in the past five years were approved not because they extended or improved life but based on so-called surrogate measures of effectiveness, such as scans showing tumor shrinkage, according to a paper published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

What's more, even four years after being allowed on the market by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, many of the drugs still had not showed they were making people live longer, according to the paper, which closely echoes findings from a Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation from last October.

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As Dean Cole's dementia worsened, he began wandering at night. He'd even forgotten how to drink water. His wife, Virginia, could no longer manage him at home. So after much agonizing, his family checked him into a Minnesota nursing home.

"Within a little over two weeks he'd lost 20 pounds and went into a coma," says Mark Kosieradzki, who was the Cole family's attorney. Dean Cole was rushed to the hospital, says Kosieradzki, "and what was discovered was that he'd become totally dehydrated. They did get his fluid level up, but he was never, ever able to recover from it and died within the month."

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Millennium Health LLC agreed to pay $256 million to resolve claims that it misrepresented the need for procedures and offered gifts to doctors in exchange for referrals.

The biggest U.S. lab-testing company now plans to file for bankruptcy protection by Nov. 10, enabling it to turn over control of the business to its lenders, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

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ALBANY — Lamar Odom’s near-deadly binge on drugs, hookers and herbal sex supplements has moved two state lawmakers to take a hard look at stopping so-called herbal Viagra.

“This incident raises serious concerns about FDA enforcement of prescription drugs,” said state Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx).

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A month after agreeing to pay $900 million to settle criminal charges arising from an ignition switch defect, General Motors said Friday it will recall about 3,300 large pickup trucks and SUVs for a similar problem.

The trucks have ignition lock gears with an outer diameter that is larger than specifications, making them difficult to turn. The keys can get stuck in the "start" position at high interior temperatures, and if driven that way, they could slip into "accessory" if jostled or the cabin temperature cools, GM said in a statement.

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Add another several hundred vehicles to the more than 23 million involved in the Takata air bag defect recall.

General Motors is recalling 395 certain 2015 Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Camaro, Equinox, Malibu, and GMC Terrain vehicles. The vehicles have front seat-mounted side impact air bags that may rupture when deployed, causing possible serious injury or death, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says.

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BERLIN — Reacting to pressure from German regulators, Volkswagen on Thursday recalled its entire fleet of rigged diesel cars in Europe, as the carmaker scrambles to come up with a remedy for its emissions cheating.

While a broad recall has been expected, the move reflects the difficulty that Volkswagen faces in fixing the 11 million vehicles worldwide that contain a so-called defeat device, which effectively lowered emissions for testing purposes. The company is indicating that the repairs may stretch beyond the end of 2016.

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MILWAUKEE — A jury late Tuesday awarded more than $5 million in damages to two police officers who were severely wounded with a pistol that a local gun shop sold to a straw buyer in 2009.

Deliberating only nine hours after a two-week trial in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, the jury of eight women and four men decided the unusual lawsuit here in favor of the plaintiffs. Gun-control advocates hoped the verdict would encourage more victims and lawyers to sue what they say is a small minority of gun stores that make questionable sales.

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Dietary supplements send at least 23,000 Americans a year to the emergency room and cause at least 2,000 to be hospitalized, according to a study published online Wednesday.

The true number of ER visits caused by dietary supplements – which include vitamins, minerals, herbs and other products – could be much larger than the study's estimates because many patients don't mention their supplement use when visiting the doctor, according to the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

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