Current Events

The long-awaited decision declaring the New York Police Department’s use of stop-and-frisk tactics unconstitutional was mostly expected; even the staunchest defenders of the practice anticipated that Judge Shira A. Scheindlin would find the stops violated the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

But it was her other finding — that the police had violated the 14th Amendment by engaging in racial profiling in carrying out those stops — that drew blood.

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Hyundai will recall 259,000 cars in two separate actions, the automaker has informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The first action covers about 215,000 Sonatas from the 2006-10 model years and 24,000 Azeras from 2006-11, in which a rear cross member may rust, possibly causing handling problems. In a separate action, Hyundai will recall about 20,000 front-wheel-drive 2013 Santa Fe Sports equipped with a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine because a front axle shaft might break.

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As of Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been notified of 539 cases of Cyclospora infection from the following 19 states: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York (including New York City), Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The California case was likely acquired out of state, according to CDC. It is not yet clear whether the cases from all of the states are part of the same outbreak. Iowa and Nebraska have linked illnesses in those states to bagged salad served at Olive Gardens and Red Lobsters and produced by Taylor Farms de Mexico.  In addition, Wisconsin added four to its count and Georgia deducted one.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- In response to the first lawsuit stemming from the crash of Asiana Flight 214, the South Korean airline denied responsibility and said passengers contributed to their own injuries -- while at the same time quietly offering each one $10,000.

Asiana's denial of responsibility, made in a filing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is "standard stuff," said Gerald Sterns, an attorney with offices in Oakland and San Francisco who handles aviation cases but is not a party to any litigation related to the Asiana crash.

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a news conference hours later blasting the decision and said the city will appeal the ruling of Judge Shira Scheindlin, who appointed Peter Zimroth as an independent monitor to overhaul the policy.

Scheindlin stopped short of throwing out stop-question-frisk, the policy that permits officers to stop someone and pat him down for weapons or contraband if they suspect criminal activity, but charged Zimroth with developing changes to police policies, training, supervision, monitoring and discipline. She also ordered that officers test out body-worn cameras in the police precinct where most stops occurred.

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The company that distributes a salad mix linked to as many as 535 cases of a diarrheal disease has stopped making and shipping salad mixes from Mexico, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.

The salad mix linked to the outbreak was produced by Taylor Farms de Mexico, based about 180 miles north of Mexico City in San Miguel de Allende. It is the Mexican subsidiary of an American food-service company, Taylor Farms of Salinas, Calif.

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The Food and Drug Administration has announced a voluntary nationwide recall of all sterile products from a Texas compounding pharmacy, the latest in a series of recalls since last year's outbreak of fungal meningitis.

Fifteen patients at two Texas hospitals have developed bacterial bloodstream infections after receiving injections from Specialty Compounding from Cedar Park, Texas, the FDA said Sunday.

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Children may be in awe of how magnets work, but doctors are warning that the common household items can be a serious health hazard if kids shove them in their mouths.

A study published Aug. 6 in the Annals of Emergency Medicine found that emergency room cases of children ingesting magnets increased five-fold between 2002 and 2011. Some kids experienced severe damage to their intestinal walls that required surgery after swallowing several magnets.

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More cases of cyclospora infections continue to be reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of the evening of Aug. 7, 504 cases of cyclosporiasis have been reported in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York (including New York City), Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. Investigators are still struggling to pinpoint sources of the outbreaks in most of the 16 affected states.

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DETROIT—Six of 12 small cars performed well in front-end crash tests conducted by an insurance industry group, but some popular models fared poorly in the safety evaluations.

Only the two-door and four-door Honda Civic models earned the top rating of "good" in the tests done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Dodge Dart, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra and the 2014 Scion tC got "acceptable" ratings.

But popular models such as the Chevrolet Cruze and Sonic and the Volkswagen Beetle got "marginal" ratings, while the Nissan Sentra and the Kia Soul and 2014 Kia Forte each were rated "poor."

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JPMorgan Chase disclosed on Wednesday that it faced a criminal and civil investigation into whether it sold shoddy mortgage securities to investors in the run-up to the financial crisis, the latest legal threat to the nation’s biggest bank.

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