Current Events

Washington — Two senators want the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to take “immediate action” to investigate to potential widespread risk to consumers of vehicle hacking in the wake of Fiat Chrysler’s recall of 1.4 million vehicles for cyberintrusion risks.

U.S. Sens Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. urged NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind on Tuesday to take speedy action.

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In a rare demand that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles buy back as many as 193,000 flawed vehicles, the top U.S. traffic safety agency signaled a tougher stance on automakers that don't identify and quickly repair defects.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, criticized for its slow response to past auto problems, also wrestled admissions from Fiat Chrysler that it violated safety regulations and ordered the automaker to pay a record $105-million fine.

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Here’s how we think we discover powerful new medicines: Scientists dig deep into biology and zero in on a molecular Achilles’ heel that could disable a devastating disease, be it cancer or an infection. They concoct experimental drugs that hit the target. Then they conduct trials to find one that is safe and effective in people.

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WASHINGTON — When the call came to officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, they knew they had a problem they had never faced but had long feared.

On the line was Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, with news that two technology researchers had hacked wirelessly into a Jeep Cherokee, through its dashboard connectivity system. They had managed to gain control of not just features like the radio and air-conditioning, but the actual functions of the car: the engine, the brakes and the steering.

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Senior U.S. health officials have squelched a Food and Drug Administration proposal that for the first time would have curbed dentists’ use of mercury – one of the planet’s nastiest toxins because it attacks the central nervous system – in treating Americans’ decayed teeth.

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A study into the safety of surgical robots has linked the machines' use to at least 144 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries over a 14-year period in the US.

The events included broken instruments falling into patients' bodies, electrical sparks causing tissue burns and system errors making surgery take longer than planned.

The report notes that the figures represent a small proportion of the total number of robotic procedures.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) agreed to pay $388 million to settle a suit by investors claiming that the largest U.S. bank had misled them about the safety of $10 billion worth of residential mortgage-backed securities it sold before the financial crisis.

The lawsuit, brought by Fort Worth Employees' Retirement Fund and other investors in offerings made before the 2008 financial crisis, accused JPMorgan of misleading them about the underwriting, appraisals and credit quality of the home loans underlying the certificates.

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Doctors, nurse practitioners and other health care workers who prescribe drugs may be helping to drive the overuse of antibiotics in the United States, new research suggests.

Experts have long warned that using antibiotics for illnesses for which they are useless -- viral infections, for example -- helps foster resistance by germs to these potentially lifesaving drugs.

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The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund awarded nearly $1 billion over the past year to people who were injured in the terrorist attacks or to the relatives of those who died, according to its latest report.

Those awards brought the fund's total payouts to $1.3 billion.

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General Motors is recalling about 686,000 midsize crossover utility vehicles made between 2007 and 2012 because their rear liftgates could fall off and injure people.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website, the vehicles are equipped with power liftgates that are supported by gas struts when they are open. The struts may prematurely wear and the open liftgate may suddenly fall.

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Takata Corp. rejected a U.S. senator’s request to form a compensation fund for victims of rupturing air bags at the center of the largest automotive recall in U.S. history.

The Japanese manufacturer, under widespread scrutiny over defective air bags linked to at least eight deaths and more than 100 injuries, said in a letter to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) that “a national compensation fund is not currently required.”

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