Current Events

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court divided down the middle Tuesday in a case that requires them to choose between free speech and an independent judiciary.

The court's four liberal justices sided during oral arguments with the Florida Bar, which prohibits candidates for judgeships from soliciting campaign donations.

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Actavis ($ACT) has another drug recall to deal with, this one involving nearly 65,000 bottles of the generic version of the seizure drug Neurontin that it manufactures at a plant in India. The voluntary recall follows one in November of a drug that was key to its acquisition last year of Forest Pharmaceuticals.

The drugmaker is voluntarily recalling different doses of gabapentin after it got complaints that capsules were clumping and breaking and that some bottles from one distribution center had popped-out or rounded bottoms and creased labels. The company said the drugs were manufactured at a plant in Tamil Nadu, India.

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Auto safety regulators began a defect investigation into the latest model of the Jeep Cherokee sport-utility vehicle after an owner reported 20-foot flames shot out of its engine compartment after being parked.

The probe covers 50,415 vehicles from the 2015 model year made by the U.S. unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCAU), according to documents posted online Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington. Opening an investigation based on a single complaint isn’t unusual if NHTSA believes the alleged defect is especially dangerous.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The compensation program for people with health problems related to the Sept. 11 terror attacks says it has approved payments of $804 million to 3,100 claimants.

Officials at the Sept. 11th Victim Compensation Fund say they've paid $59 million as of Jan 2.

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At least 40 patients mistakenly received unsterilized, "simulated" intravanous fluids -- meant for training only -- instead of the sterile saline solution normally given to people in the hospital, health officials said Wednesday.

Many of the patients became ill and one died, although doctors aren't sure that the unsterilized solution caused the death, according to the Food and Drug Administration. An unspecified number of patients were hospitalized. Many developed fevers, chills, tremors and headaches almost immediately.

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In a sharp escalation of penalties against automakers that skirt safety laws, the nation’s top auto safety agency has fined Honda Motor a record $70 million for grossly underreporting fatal accidents and injuries to the government, regulators said on Thursday.

The penalty doubles a fine levied against General Motors last year as the agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, faces scrutiny for being slow to identify safety problems and failing to use the full extent of its legal powers.

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Bank to end lawsuit, pay $500 million.

JPMorgan Chase has agreed in principle to settle class action litigation arising from Bear Stearns’ sale of $17.58 billion of mortgage securities that proved defective during the recent U.S. housing and financial crises.

The largest U.S. bank, which bought Bear in 2008, will pay about $500 million to investors led by a group of pension funds, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The person requested anonymity because the terms have not been made public.

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Driving to a meeting in 2008, Jay Lichter, a venture capitalist, suddenly became so dizzy he had to pull over and call a friend to take him to the emergency room.

The diagnosis: Ménière’s disease, a disorder of the inner ear characterized by debilitating vertigo, hearing loss and tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.

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2014 was a good year for pharmaceutical innovation – the best, in fact, since the industry’s all-time record of 1996. FDA approved a total of 44 drugs – 39 by CDER, and 5 by CBER (Exhibit 1). As usual, this total excludes imaging agents (i.e., Lumason and Neuraceq), and only includes the biological drugs from CBER that are of rDNA origin.

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After a tumultuous 2014, General Motors kicked off 2015 by issuing three new safety recalls.

On Thursday, when the stock market was closed for the New Year’s holiday, the automaker issued the call-backs, the biggest involving the ignition design of several SUV and pickup truck models. GM  GM 0.55%  shares were pressured throughout 2014 as ignition switch problems led to accidents that caused more than 40 deaths and the recall of millions of vehicles.

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A breast surgeon removes a suspicious lump found in the breast of a patient in Lanham, Maryland. Death rates from breast cancer are down by one-third from their peak.

The number of Americans dying from cancer has continued to fall since peaking in 1991, averting 1.5 million deaths that otherwise would have stemmed from one of the most feared diseases in the world.

The American Cancer Society, in its annual statistical report, estimates that 1.7 million Americans will be diagnosed with malignancies and 589,430 will die from them in 2015, roughly 1,600 people a day. Cancer already is the leading cause of death among Americans ages 40 to 79, and is expected to overtake heart disease as the nation’s top killer in the next several years, said Chief Executive Officer John R. Seffrin.

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