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Drugmaker lobbying group sues over plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

A key drugmaker lobbying group has joined the legal fight against the federal government’s plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices.The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, is suing over plans laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act to give the federal coverage program more control over its pharmaceutical costs.PhRMA said in a federal court complaint filed Wednesday that the act forces drugmakers to agree to a “government-dictated price” under the threat of a heavy tax. The complaint said Congress delegated too much authority to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to set prices.It also says the program violates the due process clause of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment “by exempting key decisions from public input and insulating them from administrative or judicial review.”The lawsuit names HHS and its secretary, Xavier Becerra, as defendants. It also names Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services...

Three years too long a wait for Line 5 reroute, Indigenous band in Wisconsin says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

WASHINGTON — The Indigenous band that’s fighting Line 5 says three years is too long to wait for the controversial cross-border pipeline to be moved. A U.S. judge has given Enbridge Inc. until June 2026 to remove the 19 kilometres of pipe that crosses an Indigenous reservation in Wisconsin.  But the chairman of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa says that’s more than enough time for a catastrophic oil spill to happen.Mike Wiggins says he also fully expects Enbridge, which operates Line 5, to fight the order in court.District court Judge William Conley also ordered the company to pay the band US$5.1 million in compensation for operating the pipeline without permission. But band attorney Erick Arnold says the award will do little to discourage other energy companies from exploiting Indigenous communities in the future.   This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2023. The Canadian Press

Live updates | The search for the missing Titanic sub

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

Follow along for live updates on the submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic. ____The Coast Guard says it is bringing in more ships and underwater vessels to search for a submersible missing in the North Atlantic after underwater sounds were detected, providing a glimmer of hope three days after the Titan disappeared while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.Although the exact location and source of the sounds were not yet determined, they allowed searchers to focus on a more narrowly defined area. The full scope of the search was twice the size of Connecticut and 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) deep, said Capt. Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District.“This is a search and rescue mission, 100%,” Frederick said. “When you’re in the middle of a search and rescue case, you always have hope.”But even those who expressed some optimism warned that many obstacles remain: from pinpointing the vessel’s location, to reaching it ...

Prosecutors avoid misconduct questions by dropping charges in killing of Chicago police officer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped charges against two of three men accused of killing an off-duty Chicago police officer, including a man who spent nearly 12 years in jail awaiting trial as authorities challenged allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct. Tyrone Clay faced nearly 80 counts and Edgardo Colon almost 20 counts in the shooting death of Officer Clifton Lewis during the robbery of a convenience store where Lewis was working as a security guard in December 2011.Colon was convicted in 2017 but the verdict was overturned in 2020 after he argued that police obtained a confession even though he’d asked for an attorney during an interrogation that lasted some 50 hours. Clay has spent almost a dozen years in jail awaiting trial while prosecutors appealed a judge’s ruling that he, too, had repeatedly asked for an attorney before giving an incriminating statement.Prosecutors dropped the charges Wednesday just ahead of a hearing where detectives and prose...

Bear that fatally attacked man at Arizona campsite didn’t have rabies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — A bear that fatally attacked a 66-year-old Tucson man at a campsite in central Arizona last week tested negative for rabies and had no apparent signs of disease, authorities said Wednesday.Anne Justice-Allen, the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s wildlife veterinarian, conducted a necropsy on the carcass of the adult male black bear that killed Steven Jackson on Friday at his property about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Phoenix.Jackson was killed in the Groom Creek area near Prescott.The bear acted in what appeared to be an unprovoked predatory attack, Game and Fish officials said.The bear’s cause of death was determined to be from multiple gunshot wounds from a neighbor who was trying to stop the attack. Authorities said it’s illegal to shoot or hunt a bear in Arizona unless there is an immediate threat. The bear’s brain stem was tested for rabies at the state Department of Health Services state laboratory. Arizona has recorded only one case of a b...

Gang slaughtered 46 women at Honduran prison with machetes, guns and flammable liquid, official says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Gang members in a women’s prison in Honduras slaughtered 46 other women inmates by spraying them with gunfire, hacking them with machetes and then locking survivors in their calls and dousing them with flammable liquid, an official said Wednesday.The carnage in Tuesday’s riot was the worst atrocity at a women’s prison in recent memory, something President Xiomara Castro called “monstrous.” Relatives said inmates at the facility had been threatened for weeks by members of the notorious Barrio 18 gang. Chillingly, the gang members were able to arm themselves with prohibited weapons, brush past guards and attack; they even carried with them their own locks, to shut their victims inside apparently to burn them to death. The intensity of the fire left the walls of the cells blackened and beds reduced to twisted heaps of metal.“A group of armed people went to the cellblock of a rival gang, locked the doors, opened fire on those inside and apparently — th...

Police say Idaho dad killed neighbors over alleged indecent exposure by neighbor’s oldest son

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho father killed a neighboring family because he was upset that the neighbor’s 18-year-old son had reportedly exposed himself to the man’s children, a police document alleges.Majorjon Kaylor, 31, of Kellogg, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the Father’s Day shooting in Kellogg, nearly 400 miles (644 kilometers) north of Boise.Kaylor shot Kenneth Guardipee, 65; his daughter Kenna Guardipee, 41; and her youngest son, 16-year-old Aiken Smith, in the temple at close range, an Idaho State Police detective said in a probable cause affidavit that was released Tuesday evening. Smith’s older brother, 18-year-old Devin Smith, was shot multiple times in the head, according to the document. Kaylor and his wife, Kaylie Kaylor, told investigators that they were upset because Devin Smith had masturbated in front of his bedroom window in full view of the Kaylor’s young daughters several days earlier. The families shared a duplex, and the gi...

Two dead, two injured in crash of small plane on Vancouver Island

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

TOFINO, B.C. — Mounties on Vancouver Island said two people have been killed in the crash of a small plane northwest of Tofino. The B.C. Ambulance Service said in a statement that two others were injured. A spokeswoman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said Wednesday that the single-engine Quest Kodiak 100 went down Tuesday near Nootka Island.She said the centre was alerted to an emergency locator beacon at 1:42 p.m., and rescue vessels, helicopters and a C130 Hercules military plane responded.A statement from BC Emergency Health Services said the two injured patients were airlifted from the scene by Canadian Armed Forces rescuers and transferred to paramedics in Comox.The plane was flying from Masset on Haida Gwaii to Tofino, RCMP said. “The RCMP is working alongside the Transportation Safety Board and the BC Coroners Service to determine the cause of this incident,” police said in a statement issued Wednesday. The safety board said it is sending a team of inves...

Some 40 previously contained wildfires could become out of control: minister

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

MONTREAL — Several Quebec communities were told to prepare to evacuate their homes on Wednesday, as the province’s forests minister warned that firefighters were on the verge of losing control of dozens of fires that were previously contained.Maïté Blanchette Vézina told reporters that hot and dry conditions were fuelling the fires in many parts of the province, allowing some that were considered contained to regain strength. “What we announced, and what will probably happen in the next days is that fires that were contained — we’re talking about 40 contained fires — could go out of control,” she told reporters in Quebec City. Blanchette Vézina said the greatest areas of concern were the Lac-St-Jean region, north of Quebec City; northern Quebec; and the Abitibi region, in the province’s northwest. She said a fire that came to within 500 metres of Normétal, Que., 720 kilometres northwest of Montreal, was among those that were out of control, although the...

Suburban man facing hate crime after Pride flag torn down at College of Lake County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:03:40 GMT

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. — A College of Lake County student has been charged with a hate crime after allegedly tearing down a Pride flag and attacking two CLC staff members.On June 15, officers were dispatched to College of Lake County's Grayslake campus. Police allege student Jason May approached a staff member while they were at their desk and tore down a Pride flag the employee had hanging behind them.May allegedly struck the employee and another staff member who attempted to intervene as he attempted to take the flag.On June 17, May was taken into custody and has been held on a $50,000 bond. Prosecutors said they sought a bond of $150,000, but it was denied.“This was an unprovoked attack not only on the CLC employees, but also on the LGBTQIA community. It is important to point out that this offender went out of his way to enter the workspace of the CLC staff so that he could pull down the Pride flag which proudly represents tolerance, love, and equality," Lake County State's Attorn...