Oscar Mayer Chicken Linked toBacterial Contamination

Oscar Mayer issued a nationwide recall of their fully cooked chicken breast strips because they may be tainted with Listeria monocytogenes. The bacteria can cause listeriosis, a rare but serious infection. The company recalled 52,650 pounds of chicken breast strips that had been produced on Jan 9th and distributed nationwide to retailers.

Counterfeit Drugs Cause Increasing Number of Deaths

A growing epidemic of fake medications in Asia has been linked to as many as hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. A recent sampling found that 53 percent of malaria drug treatments purchased in Southeast Asia were fakes and also discovered counterfeit treatments for AIDS and tuberculosis. The World Health Organization estimates that one fifth of the one million annual deaths from malaria would be prevented if all treatments taken were genuine.

Court Upholds Ruling Agains General Electric

General Electric Co. must pay $115 million to cover thousands of asbestos claims. An appeals court did not allow GE to tap into secondary insurance to pay claims filed by people who were exposed to asbestos-insulated turbines. GE currently has 509,000 asbestos claims pending.

Drug maker Settles lawsuit Over Aids Treatment

EMD Sorono Inc. will settle accusations of deceptive marketing of Serostim. The company will pay $24 million to resolve a civil lawsuit alleging they promoted the use of an unapproved medical device that gives improper diagnoses and marketed its AIDS drug for uses not approved by the FDA. The settlement will reimburse health plans, health insurance providers and individuals who paid for the drug.

Homeowners Near LandmarkSettlement in Hurricane Suits

The Citizen’s Property Insurance Corporation, LA’s state run insurer, has agreed "in principle" to settle out of court with 165 homeowners who were denied coverage for hurricane damage. The broad settlement will be the first of its kind in LA since Hurricanes Rita and Katrina led to thousands of lawsuits. The terms of the settlement may be announced later this week.

Former IBM Employee Sues Over Internet Addiction

A NY man claims IBM was wrong in firing him for visiting an adult chat room during work and has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the company. The plaintiff considers himself an Internet addict who deserves protection under the American with Disabilities Act. According to the suit, the plaintiff visits chat rooms to treat traumatic stress caused by seeing his best friend killed in Vietnam in 1969.

Honda and Acura odometers Show Inaccurate Mileage

Six million owners of Hondas and Acuras will be entitled to warranty extensions or compensation because their odometers counted miles too fast. The attorney who filed suit suspects that car makers deliberately manufacture their odometers to count off miles more quickly in order to help trim warranty costs. The National Highway Safety Traffic Safety Administration does not regulate odometer accuracy and the Society of Automotive Engineers’s voluntary standard allows a plus or minus 4 percent variation in accuracy. 

Student Sues Blue Shield Over Dropped Policy

Blue Shield of California is facing a lawsuit after dropping a college student following his hospitalization. The suit seeks a court order that would prevent the insurer from canceling policies for people who become ill and submit claims for treatment. Recent reports found that Blue Shield and its competitors routinely drop policyholders who run up medical bills.

JetBlue Founder ‘Humiliated’ over Flight Cancellations

A huge breakdown in JetBlue Airways’ operations has led to nearly 1,000 cancelled flights in the course of five days. The CEO of the airline attributes the crisis to their understaffed communication system and an undersized reservation system. The company on Tuesday plans to announce a compensation plan for stranded passengers.

Organic food maker Recalls Baby Food

Hain Celestial Group Inc. has pulled their baby food off shelves because of potential contamination with the bacteria that causes botulism. The company is recalling close to 100,000 individual jars and almost 39,000 variety packs. The FDA reports that botulism is potentially deadly, but no illnesses have been reported.

Websites SendConsumers Wrong Medications

The FDA warned consumers about purchasing medications over the internet after a number of people received the wrong medications. Consumers who ordered sleep aids, antidepressants and other drugs were instead shipped a powerful antipsychotic, which caused some to require emergency hospital treatment. The individuals who received the drugs ordered them from a variety of commercial websites.

Contaminated Peanut Butter Spurs Serveral Lawsuits

Consumers in TX, MO and NY began filing the first of many expected lawsuits over a salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter. An attorney based in Seattle claims over 500 people contacted his firm regarding possible lawsuits against ConAgra Foods Inc, the maker of the tainted peanut butter. Officials continue to investigate the source of the contamination.

The world’s two proviersof satellite radio agreed to merge, vowing to endtheir brutal battle for customers and to work together to persuade more people to pay for a medium that most use for free.

In implicitly acknowledging that the market can’t support two such services, the deal also posed a bigger question: Can it support even one?

More than 80 million people listen to AM or FM radio.Some 90 million people have iPods. About 65million people listen to Internet radio.Yet only 14 million have satellite radio receivers – and have agreed to pay $13 a month to subscribe to digital feeds of music, sports, and talk – despite the two rivals’ investments of billion of dollars in marketing and technology.

Jury Finds for Family in "Wrongful Birth" Case

The family of an unborn child whose life-threatening genetic defect went undiagnosed was awarded $28 million in damages. Health care professionals reported that tests showed no signs of defects in the fetus, but upon birth all signs of a life-threatening genetic defect were present. The jury found the child’s high-risk-birth specialist to be 50 percent negligent, while the remaining liability was placed on a medical testing lab and its director.

Researchers Find Disparities in Patients’ Care

A recent study showed that hospitals treating more African-American stroke patients provided inadequate treatment as opposed to hospitals that treated more Caucasian stroke patients. A study reviewed data on 656 hospitals and found African-Americans were less likely to receive proper medication and referrals for smoking cessation efforts. Researchers attributed the variation in care to the hospitals where patients were treated rather than to the race itself.

Report Confirms Increasing Autism Rates

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that one child in 150 develops a type of autism spectrum disorder by the age of 8. Average delays in diagnosis were reported at a year and a half from the time parents noted any symptoms. Researchers analyzed cases of the disorders in 14 states.

Hospital Accused of "Dumping" Paraplegic on Street

Witnesses reported seeing a Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center van "dump" a homeless paraplegic on a skid row. Police are investigating an earlier dumping case linked to the same hospital. California authorities have brought "homeless dumping" charges against dozens of CA hospitals and outside law enforcement agencies.

State Detention Center Agrees to Settle Child Abuse Claims

Multiple abuse lawsuits against an Alabama youth detention center will be settled by a $12.5 million payment by the state. Forty-eight girls alleged they were sexually and physically abused at the center during detainment. Fifteen employees were fired or resigned from the center after allegations surfaced.

Exonerated Man Settles Lawsuit Against Kentucky City of Police Officers

A former prisoner agreed to a $3.9 million settlement after being the first Kntucky resident exonerated through DNA evidence. His lawsuit alleged he was wrongly arrested on rape charges that caused him to endure seven years of degradation while imprisoned. The court sided with the plaintiff, who demonstrated that police used discredited identification procedures to arrest him.

Appeals Court Stands By Verdict Against Drilling Company

A Colorado sheep rancher will keep a $4 million jury award after an appeals court rejected arguments from the defendant, a natural-gas drilling company. The rancher sued Williams Production Co. for failing to pay the royalties he was due over several years. The company ineffectively argued that evidence was improperly excluded and that the jury instructions and damage calculations were inaccurate.

A terminally ill woman in England is seeking to avoid an "undignified" death has asked the High Court to force her doctors to let her die.

In an unusual case, lawyers for Kelly Taylor, 30, who suffers from heart, lung and spinal conditions, argued that doctors are breaching Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which bans “inhuman or degrading treatment", by making her live in pain until her condition naturally ends her life.

Mrs Taylor has been told that she may have less than a year to live, but she wants her doctors to first end her suffering by sedating her with morphine and then, following instructions laid out in a "living will", to make no attempt to keep her alive by feeding or hydrating her.

“I have made the decision because enough is enough. I don’t want to suffer any more," Mrs Taylor said. "My consultant has told me that he does not expect me to live for another year.

“In that time I will deteriorate and that deterioration will become quite undignified. I want to avoid that.”

But doctors have refused, saying it would amount to euthanasia.

Human rights lawyers believe that Mrs Taylor may have difficulty convincing the court that she should be allowed to die.

One expert said: “The case highlights the inherent tension within the European Convention of Human Rights between Article 2, which upholds the right to life and Article 2, which protects against degrading treatment.

“Mrs Taylor is likely to run into difficulty because there is no existing European case law to support her position that Article 3 compels doctors to assist her in dying.”

Today’s case, which will proceed to a full hearing next month, is thought to be unique, although terminally ill patients have attempted similar arguments in the past.

Put yourself in the driver’s seat of this accident. You are heading down the street when a truck comes out of nowhere and slams into the right side of your car. The damage to the vehicle is obvious: dents across the passenger door.

You are hurt too, thought it’s not obvious how much: a slight cut above your eye, an ache in the neck.

Your doctor says your spine was injured, you have soft muscle tears, and the pain in your neck mostly likely is whiplash.

It’s going to need therapy, she says, and some time off work to heal. And in the end it’s going to cost you $15,000 in medical payments and another $10,000 in lost wages, because you took so much time off work.

But when you send the $25,000 bill to the insurance company of the person who hit you, the insurance company says it’s only going to pay you $15,000. You can take it or leave it.

Consumers sue TrimSpa over "Misleading" ads

TrimSpa Inc. and spokesperson Anna Nicole Smith face a lawsuit accusing them of deceptive business practices in their marketing of a weight-loss pill, TrimSpaX32. Plaintiffs seek unspecified damages, restitution and an injunction that would prevent the company from making false claims. TrimSpa recently agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve allegations of unsubstantiated weight-loss claims.

New Mexico faces lawsuit over same-sex retiree health benefits

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against NM seeking retirement health benefits for the domestic partners of all lesbian and gay state employees. The organization sued on behalf of three lesbian couples who claim NM violates the state constitution’s equality rights by denying full benefits to same-sex couples. Legislation is pending that would include the domestic partners of same-sex couples in retiree health benefits.

Oil drilling companies resolve bribery charges

The U.S. government will receive a $26 million settlement to drop foreign corruption charges against three oil drilling firms. The government accused the companies of bribing Nigerian officials for fast custom clearance, and at least one company settled similar accusations in 2004.

Nevada residents oppose bomb test

Residents living downwind from a NV test site fear that the government’s plan to test a conventional bomb in NV will stir up radioactive dust. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency expects the bomb to set off a mushroom cloud 4,500 feet in the air and release radiation equivalent to the amount released by a smoke detector. In a period of four decades, the government has detonated 952 bombs in NV, resulting in thousands of cases of radiation-related cancer.

Class action status granted in lawsuit against Wal-Mart

A federal appeals court approved a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart accusing the retailer of gender discrimination. Plaintiffs’ lawyers estimate that as many as 1.6 million current and former female employees may join in the class making it the largest group ever to sue for gender discrimination.

Heart-survey drug linked to higher death rate

A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that the drug Trasylol increased a patient’s risk of dying by almost 50 percent. The report estimated that 10,000 deaths worldwide could be avoided by preventing the use of Trasylol. The FDA approved the heart-surgery medicine in 1993 and added a warning about kidney failure to the product’s label last year.

Newer contraceptives double risk of fatal blood clots

The Public Citizen’s Health Research Group reported that "third generation" birth-control pills containing synthetic progestin have an increased risk of blood clots and do not prevent pregnancy any more effectively than older contraceptives do. According to the group’s director, the FDA has been aware of the risks since 1995. The group filed a petition with the FDA to ban these contraceptives.

Samsung settles claims of price-fixing

Samsung Electronics Co. will pay a $90 million settlement to resolve claims that the company added billions of dollars to the cost of computer chips by fixing their prices. Forty-one states sued Samsung and seven other companies for overcharging consumers and state governments. Consumers will be reimbursed $80 million while the remainder will go to states and localities.