Current Events

A faulty traffic control system might have led vehicles to back up at a Metro-North crossing in Valhalla in February 2015, contributing to a crash that killed the driver of an SUV who had pulled onto the tracks and five train passengers.

Nestled in the 1,000-plus pages of documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board in the wake of the commuter train crash is an analysis of two traffic preemption systems — groups of sensors that respond to existing conditions and modify traffic light patterns in response — in place at the Commerce Street-Taconic State Parkway intersection, roughly 100 feet from the railroad crossing.

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DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. on Thursday issued a safety recall for nearly 32,000 vehicles with faulty Takata airbag modules, a problem unrelated to the exploding Takata airbag inflators that prompted massive recalls across the industry.

The automaker said certain driver frontal airbag cushions installed in the vehicles may not inflate as intended. The issue stems from a misalignment of components within the airbag module, Ford said.

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BOSTON - A physician from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vividly described the extensive damage to the brains and spinal columns of patients who were victims of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.

Testifying in U.S.
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A multi-state cluster of at least 10 people infected with E. coli bacteria has been identified and public health officials are interviewing victims about possible foodborne sources.

As of this afternoon, patients had been identified in four states, said a spokeswoman with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Takata has finally pleaded guilty to deceiving automakers about the safety of its airbags. Now automakers are disputing charges that they knowingly installed the defective airbags in their cars.

But what about the millions of U.S. consumers still waiting to replace or fix the potentially deadly Takata airbags?

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Juno Therapeutics Inc on Wednesday said it decided to shut down development of an experimental leukemia treatment from a highly promising new class of immunotherapy following an investigation into toxicity that led to a handful of patient deaths.

The drug, JCAR015, uses a technology known as CAR-T being pursued by other companies as well. CAR-T therapy removes a key component of the immune system called T cells from a patient's blood and re-engineers them to more efficiently attack cancer before returning them to the patient.

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Japanese auto parts maker Takata Corp. has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, and agreed to pay $1 billion for concealing a defect in millions of its air bag inflators.

The decision played out in a federal courtroom in Detroit on Monday, following a deal with the U.S. Justice Department.
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Pfizer Inc. received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after inspectors found “significant violations” at a manufacturing plant for drugs made by its Hospira unit.

The inspection, conducted over about three weeks in May and June last year at a McPherson, Kansas, drug plant, found “significant violations of current good manufacturing practice” rules, according to a Feb.
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(Reuters Health) - Pacemakers may fail to properly regulate patients’ heartbeats near certain appliances and tools that generate electric and magnetic fields, a German study suggests.

Researchers tested how electric and magnetic fields impact pacemakers, small battery-operated devices that help patients’ hearts beat in a regular rhythm, for 119 people under different conditions.

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Vehicles Affected: Approximately 5,500 model-year 2017 Volvo XC90 SUVs, S90 sedans and V90 Cross Country wagons
The Problem: The bolts that secure the inflatable curtain airbags in place may break, possibly resulting in the airbag deploying improperly in a crash and increasing the risk of an injury.

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Feb 27 A federal judge has certified a class-action lawsuit accusing the big U.S. debt collector Midland Funding LLC of violating New York usury laws by charging thousands of struggling borrowers interest rates above 25 percent when trying to collect.

Monday's decision by U.S.
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