Current Events

Nearly 308,000 Chevrolet Impala sedans were recalled Wednesday because potentially faulty wiring could potentially cause air bags not inflating in a crash, according to a filing to the National HIghway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall covers 2009 and 2010 Impalas manufactured between April, 2008, to February, 2010.

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Federal officials will not be thrown off course by the May crash of a partially automated Tesla, a top U.S. road safety official said Wednesday.

The U.S.
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The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it had approved generic versions of the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering pill Crestor, rejecting a last-ditch and controversial effort by AstraZeneca to stop cheaper competition from reaching pharmacy shelves.

The move should considerably decrease the price of the drug and result in a sharp loss of market share for AstraZeneca. The brand-name drug has a retail price around $260 a month, according to GoodRx.com. With multiple generics now coming onto the market, the price could eventually drop as much as 80 to 90 percent.
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Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz USA and Daimler Vans units and Ferrari NV are among a small group of automakers selling some new vehicles with faulty Takata airbags that will be subject to recalls by the end of 2018, a U.S. Senate report said on Wednesday.

The vehicles are legal to sell since the U.S.
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GlaxoSmithKline is recalling a “small” number of batches of its Bactroban penicillin following a harsh rebuke from US regulators about contamination at a key plant. The move comes after the US Food and Drug Administration sent a stern warning letter Tuesday to the drug maker about a host of quality-control problems at the facility, which is located in Worthing in the United Kingdom.
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Volkswagen AG is facing new lawsuits by New York and at least two other states that might cost the company hundreds of billions of dollars for cheating on pollution-control tests.

The suits include claims that former VW Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn and other top company executives orchestrated an elaborate coverup when the scam came to light, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. New York’s complaint was filed Tuesday in state court in Albany, the attorney general said.

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The Justice Department is preparing lawsuits to block two giant health insurance deals, according to a person briefed on the matter, continuing a spate of antitrust actions in a whirlwind year for mergers and acquisitions.

Antitrust officials are concerned that Aetna’s $37 billion deal with Read more . . .

As automakers race to create cars that can drive themselves, a growing chorus of consumer advocates is demanding that the companies — and their federal regulators — slow down.

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The airbag maker Takata on Friday settled a closely watched lawsuit involving the injury and eventual death of a woman whose car crashed in 2014.

The settlement was announced moments before a critical hearing in which a judge in Jacksonville, Fla., could have ordered the company’s chief executive, Shigehisa Takada, to testify in the case.

Even the lawyer representing the family of the victim, Patricia Mincey, said the sudden turn of events was unexpected.

“I had no expectations at all” of a settlement, said the lawyer, Theodore J.
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It was one of the fastest civil settlements in the history of corporate malfeasance, coming together in six months instead of the years usually required for such complex negotiations. But the path to Volkswagen’s $15 billion deal last month with American Read more . . .

A Bear man received second-degree burns to his leg and had to undergo skin graft surgery after an electronic cigarette battery exploded in his pocket, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Delaware.

George Ayers was walking from his car to his house with his arms full of groceries when one of the two batteries in his front pants pocket exploded on March 9, according to the lawsuit. His attorney described a chaotic scene in which Ayers' son saw the fire and could smell burning flesh.

"The public needs to be made aware of the danger of this product," his attorney Laura Simon said. "People are using it with no idea an explosion and severe burns can result.
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