The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week announced that it hopes to weed out false or misleading animal-welfare claims on meat and poultry packaging with new guidance and testing. The claims — such as "pasture-raised," "humanely raised," and "raised without antibiotics" — are increasingly popular with consumers and allow producers to charge a premium. Perdue [...]
WASHINGTON — Thick, smoky air from Canadian wildfires made for days of misery in New York City and across the U.S. Northeast last week. Yet for much of the rest of the world, breathing dangerously polluted air is an inescapable fact of life — and death. Almost the entire world breathes air that exceeds the [...]
COLUMBUS (AP) — At Cleveland's Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or they can help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: "Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips." Owner Waverly Willis has given out strips for [...]
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A judge’s order that would eliminate requirements that health insurance plans include cost-free coverage of cancer screenings and various other types of preventive care should remain on hold while it is appealed, the Biden administration argued before an appellate panel earlier this week. It's the latest legal skirmish over mandates in [...]
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — With the rail industry relying on longer and longer trains to cut costs, the Biden administration is handing out $570 million in grants to help eliminate many railroad crossings in 32 states. The grants announced earlier this week will contribute to building bridges or underpasses at the sites of more than [...]
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — As a high school senior, Nick was blessed with a deadly accurate jump shot from the three-point range — something he was quick to monetize. He and his gym classmates not far from the Jersey Shore would compete to see who could make the most baskets, at $5 or $10 [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government’s auto safety agency plans to require that within three years all new passenger cars and light trucks include potentially life-saving automatic emergency braking and meet stricter safety standards. Last week’s announcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration represents the agency’s latest move toward regulating electronic systems that take [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer received full approval last week for its COVID-19 pill Paxlovid that's been the go-to treatment against the coronavirus. More than 11 million prescriptions for Paxlovid have been dispensed since the Food and Drug Administration allowed emergency use in late 2021. The emergency status was based on early studies and was intended [...]
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation's largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping highly addictive painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended it be stripped of its license for its "cavalier disregard" of thousands of suspicious orders fueling the opioid crisis. The DEA did [...]
The nation’s surgeon general is warning there is not enough evidence to show that social media is safe for children and teens — and is calling on tech companies, parents and caregivers to take "immediate action to protect kids now." While young people's social media use is "near universal,” its true impact on mental health [...]