- Courtney Mills | November 30, 2007 2:26 PM |
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Workplace DiscriminationA huge scrap metal fire at a metal recycling plant broke out early this morning, sending reams of smoke billowing over an entire portion of southern Hillsborough County. Firefighters attempted to out the scrap metal fire at Trademark Metal Recycling with water, to no avail. Large clouds of smoke from the fire could be seen from miles away.According to media reports, the Hillsborough...
- Joe Saunders | November 28, 2007 8:34 AM |
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Motorcycle AccidentsThe holiday season is once again upon us as is the rise in drunk driving accidents and fatalities around the Bay area. This morning we're unfortunately hearing about a yound motorcyclist from Brandon who lost his life as a result of an auto accident with a drunk driver. Motorcyclists are more vulnerable to serious injury in a car accident especially when that accident involves an impaired...
- Joe Saunders | November 27, 2007 3:29 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsThe UN Committee Against Torture has bluntly singled out the use of taser stun guns as a form of torture. It also disagreed with Taser International by stating that several reliable studies have shown that taser shock can lead to death. The UN Committee's strong stance has been the latest in a growing public debate about the safety and proper use of tasers by police. Amnesty International has...
- Shannon Weidemann | November 27, 2007 2:42 PM |
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Automobile AccidentsA 20-year-old woman in Syracuse was hit by a car on Sunday afternoon. The pedestrian accident happened at Midland Ave. and W. Brighton Ave. The victim was crossing Midland Ave when she was hit by a minivan. There is a light at the intersection and police are trying to determine who had the right of way at the time of the crash.The victim was taken to a local hosptial to be treated for...
- Joe Saunders | November 26, 2007 8:17 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsThe FDA is recommending additional safety reviews of three children's asthma drugs. The drugs Serevent, Advair, and Foradil are considered beta agonists and are used for long term prevention of asthma. The three drugs drew a black box warning from the FDA last year. According to a Wall St. Journal article, "a safety review conducted by FDA staff found nine adverse-event reports in children...
- Shannon Weidemann | November 24, 2007 3:24 PM |
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Automobile AccidentsA man driving a car through the streets of Tampa was killed in an accident involving a utility pole. The car accident happened on Wednesday morning. No other vehicles were involved in the accident. The police believe that the car rolled over once before coming to rest. Police say a a car hit a wooden power pole just before 1 a.m. The man driving was killed at the scene.Police say a male...
- Joe Saunders | November 20, 2007 8:04 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsTakeda Pharmaceutical Co., maker of the diabetes drug Actos, has launched a new marketing campaign designed to take advantage of Avandia's recent woes. In the new print edition advertisements, the marketing execs state that Actos lowers blood sugar without increasing the risk of heart attack. The ad copy cites "studies" to bolster its argument. However, as is often the case, no scientific...
- Joe Saunders | November 19, 2007 12:47 PM |
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MiscellaneousThe Society of Jesus a.k.a. the Jesuits have agreed to pay $50 million to 110 survivors of priest sex abuse. The agreement involves 15 priests who abused Eskimo children from 1961 to 1987. The Jesuits have been in the news recently concerning Fr. Donald McGuire, a Chicago Jesuit who is in jail for molesting a boy. He is also facing a new federal charge of molestation as well as numerous civil...
- Joe Saunders | November 17, 2007 12:20 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsAccording to a Wall St. Journal article, the Senate Finance Committee has found that Glaxo Smith Kline intimidated and coerced a prominent critic of its diabetes drug Avandia so that he would no longer speak critically of the drug. Dr. John Buse, a diabetes expert and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, began to criticize the drug in 1999. Buse became concerned over...
- Joe Saunders | November 16, 2007 9:29 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsIn a move to make the relationship between the FDA and the outside advisors more transparent, the FDA will require them to disclose potential financial conflicts of interest in writing. In 2006, a study found that a quarter of all experts the FDA relied on for advice on drugs, including whether or not to approve them for public use, had a financial conflict of interest. The proposed changes...
- Shannon Weidemann | November 14, 2007 9:37 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsThe FDA announced today that the diabetes drug Avandia will now carry a black box warning label on the packaging. The black box warning label will state that the risk of heart attack may increase from taking the drug. The FDA notes that the greater risk of a heart attack has not been confirmed by three other studies done on Avandia. Despite this addition to Avandia's black box -- the FDA's...
- Joe Saunders | November 13, 2007 8:08 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsGlaxo Smith Kline has sued Abbott Laboratories for increasing its AIDS drug Norvir, five-fold. Norvir, approved by the FDA in 1996, is known as a protease inhibitor. Abbott is also being sued by 2 AIDS patients as well as the SEIU Health and Welfare Fund. This suit has been classified as a class action. According to Glaxo, the quintuple increase in drug price undercut Glaxo's Lexiva, another...
- Joe Saunders | November 10, 2007 9:58 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsCephalon Inc. has agreed to pay $425 million to end a federal investigation into its marketing practices concerning sleep and pain drugs. It will also have to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating federal prescription drug laws. Cephalon was sued by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission for attempting to delay generic drug competition.For more information on this subject, please...
- Brenda Fulmer | November 09, 2007 9:26 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsPutting an end of rumors that have been circulating for the past several weeks, Merck announced on November 9, 2007, that it had reached a proposed settlement agreement valued at $4.85 billion to resolve the Vioxx litigation that has plagued the company for years. As early 2000, reports began to emerge implicating Vioxx as the cause of heart attacks and strokes. After these first reports,...
- Joe Saunders | November 08, 2007 6:14 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsAqua Dot became so popular that it made Wal Mart's list for top toys to give for Christmas. Yesterday, 4 million of the toys have been recalled because the toys are toxic if ingested. They've already induced comas in at least 2 children. Scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. When eaten, the compound...
- Brenda Fulmer | November 07, 2007 2:27 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsIn the United States, nearly twenty million people suffer from substance abuse and addiction, yet more than 95% of patients are unaware of their condition and are therefore not receiving appropriate treatment. As a result of an initiative by the American Medical Association, starting next year, any physician, not just substance abuse specialists such as psychiatrists, will be able to give their...
- Brenda Fulmer | November 07, 2007 2:15 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsThe Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning directed to healthcare professionals regarding Byetta (also known as exenatide), a medication used to treat individuals with type 2 diabetes produced by the pancreas and glucose made by the liver. There have been several reports of acute pancreatitis in patients who were taking Byetta. Several of the patients required hospitalization...
- Joe Saunders | November 07, 2007 10:42 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsNovartis AG has decided to delay it diabetes drug Galvus because of concerns with liver toxicity problems. The drug is supposed to compete favorably with Merck's diabetes drug Januvia but problems with high dosage of Galvus has forced its delay to the market. Januvia is a once daily diabetes drug that works in a similar fashion to Galvus but doesn't have the same liver toxicity concerns as...
- Shannon Weidemann | November 06, 2007 8:23 PM |
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Motorcycle AccidentsA 17-year-old Senior at Ridgewood High School died in a motorcycle accident on Thursday night. He was driving the motorcycle and a 16-year-old girl was a passenger on the bike at the time of the accident. The motorcycle accident took place in Port Richey. The motorcycle was driving on U.S. 19 going north. The driver of the car was westbound on Commons Boulevard in a 1993 Honda when she...
- Joe Saunders | November 05, 2007 9:30 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsSuccumbing to pressure from industry regulators as well as mounting scientific data, Bayer AG has suspended sale of its antibleeding drug Traylol. The evidence has pointed to a greater than acceptable risk of death as a result of using the drug during heart transplant surgery. Safety issues for the drug began to surface in January 2006 when a report in the New England Journal of Medicine...
- Joe Saunders | November 03, 2007 1:11 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsCargill Meat Solutions is recalling 1 million pounds of ground beef after inspectors found a sample testing to be contaminated with the Ecoli 0157:H7, a potentially lethal form of the bacteria that causes bloody diarrhea and dehydration. The young, elderly, and those with compromised immune systems are particularly susceptible to the dangers of the Ecoli bacteria. This marks the second beef...
- Joe Saunders | November 02, 2007 5:10 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsBausch & Lomb, Inc., the maker of ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution, has been acquired by the private equity firm Warburg Pincus for $3.67 billion. This may have implications for the pending for the lawsuits pending against the eye contact lens manufacturer. ReNu with MoistureLoc has been associated with fusarium keratitis, a bacteria that has the potential to cause blindness. As of...
- Joe Saunders | November 01, 2007 2:32 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsAnother food product has been recalled due to mislabeling. This time it's a hickory barbecue sauce manufactured by Dutch Kettle. The issue has to do with the company's failure to include anchovy as an ingredient. Anyone with an allergy to fish protein could be susceptible to a serious, life-threatening reaction if the barbecue sauce is ingested. The company is recalling 94 cases of 12/19 oz....