MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — A woman who tested positive for Ebola in Liberia last week is dating a survivor of the disease, a health official said Tuesday, offering a possible explanation for how she became the country’s first confirmed case in weeks.
Commentary: feds say they’re catching health care crooks, but Center reporting showed that Medicare Advantage avoided scrutiny
WASHINGTON (AP) — A budding bipartisan deal to shelter physicians from Medicare cuts, championed by the House's two top leaders, is drawing powerful allies including the American Medical Association and a rainbow of conservative and liberal groups.
More than half of the undergraduates at the University of Oregon have not been vaccinated against meningitis, despite the fact that one student has died and five others have been sickened since January.
By Letitia Stein PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – A tradition of around-the-clock spring break partying has drawn Lance Granata to this small Florida Gulf Coast town three times. The Michigan student ran afoul of a new community effort to tamp down on the debauchery that comes with being a leading collegiate spring break destination, without breaking up a lucrative party. He was arrested for smashing a window at a Subway store and for underage drinking, which he considered “beyond ridiculous.” Like previous Florida spring break hot spots Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach, this Panhandle town is facing a crisis of conscience over the trade-offs involved in hosting a binge for some 300,000 students who arrive through mid-April with coolers, beer funnels and credit cards. Unwilling to evict spring break, a crucial season in a community where tourism brings in more than $1 billion annually, the city has passed new rules to counter the worst excesses.
Former National Football League tight end Jerramy Stevens, the husband of U.S. women's soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo, was charged with drunken driving on Monday following his arrest in the Los Angeles area earlier this year, a county prosecutor said. Stevens, 35, was charged with one misdemeanor count each of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a .08 percent blood alcohol content, both within 10 years of another DUI, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in a statement. He had a blood alcohol concentration that was .15 percent or more, the prosecutor said. If convicted, Stevens faces a possible maximum sentence of one year in county jail, Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said.
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Ten clinicians with a Boston-based nonprofit organization responding to Sierra Leone's Ebola outbreak are to be evacuated to the United States after one of their colleagues was infected with the deadly disease.
DALLAS (AP) — The deaths of three people who developed a foodborne illness linked to some Blue Bell ice cream products have prompted the Texas icon's first product recall in its 108-year history.
By Yasmeen Abutaleb NEW YORK (Reuters) – Raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 or 25 years old would significantly reduce their use and tobacco-related illnesses in the United States, a study published Thursday found, suggesting that states and local authorities should consider passing such laws. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which sponsored the report, cannot increase the minimum age to buy tobacco in the country from 18, but states and local authorities can do so. The report was presented to the FDA on Tuesday, said Richard Bonnie, chair of the report committee. Among people who smoked daily, 90 percent had tried their first cigarette before the age of 19 while the remaining 10 percent had tried tobacco products by 26, the study found.
By Naomi Tajitsu and Adam Jourdan WELLINGTON/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese demand for New Zealand infant formula has fallen after a threat by suspected environmental activists to contaminate the product with an agricultural poison, the head of an exporter group said on Wednesday. Orders for infant formula, prized among China’s growing middle class, have slumped after New Zealand police on Tuesday said letters were sent to the national farmers’ group and dairy giant Fonterra in November accompanied by packages of infant formula laced with poisonous pesticide 1080, formally called sodium fluoroacetate. Following the announcement, China said it would increase scrutiny of milk powder imports from New Zealand, which depends on dairy products for about a quarter of its export earnings.