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FDA panel backs over-the-counter sales of birth control pill

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

By MATTHEW PERRONE (AP Health Writer)WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health advisers said Wednesday that a decades-old birth control pill should be sold without a prescription, paving the way for a likely U.S. approval of the first over-the-counter contraceptive medication.The panel of FDA advisers voted unanimously in favor of drugmaker Perrigo’s request to sell its once-a-day medication over the counter. The recommendation came at the close of a two-day meeting focused on whether women could safely and effectively take the pill without professional supervision. A final FDA decision is expected this summer.If the agency follows the nonbinding recommendation, Perrigo’s drug, Opill, would become the first contraceptive pill to be moved out from behind the pharmacy counter onto store shelves. The company said sales could begin late this year if OK’d.The outside experts said they were mostly confident that women of all ages could use the drug appropriately without seeing a health provider fi...

DHS releases plan to manage migrants after Title 42

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) -- The Biden administration on Wednesday morning unveiled a lengthy plan on how it plans to deter and stop immigrants from crossing the southern border from Mexico once Title 42 expires. Undocumented migrants surrender themselves just two days before Title 42 ends Title 42 is the pandemic-era public health order that was put in place in March 2020 by the Trump administration that has restricted migrants from claiming asylum at the border in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus between countries. It expires at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday night.Most of the U.S. plan relies on reverting back to the longstanding Title 8 law, which forbids entry into the United States by those who cross in between legal ports of entry, or who have not scheduled an asylum interview either at U.S. ports or at regional processing centers that will be opening up in other countries, the Department of Homeland Security and State Department said in a joint statement Wednesday."...

Documents: Prosecutor claims evidence shows Matt Araiza was not at party at time of alleged gang rape

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Documents detail when a San Diego District Attorney told the teen who accused Matt Araiza in a gang rape, prosecutors would not file charges.According to a more than 200-page transcript of a Dec. 7, 2022 recorded meeting between the accuser, a district attorney investigator, a deputy district attorney and people advocating for Jane Doe, a prosecutor told to the accuser, “I cannot file criminal charges against any of the suspects in the case.”The documents, provided by Araiza's attorney, claim prosecutors found that Araiza was not at the party when the accuser claimed she was raped.Prosecutors and Araiza's attorney said Araiza admitted to having sex with the teen during the party. But, according to prosecutors who have pieced together a timeline of the night, Araiza had left the party about an hour before video shows several men having sex with the accuser. Judge to unseal records in SDSU alleged rape case Prosecutors said they've been able to piece together a timeline...

US to limit asylum at Mexico border as COVID-19 restrictions end

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday will begin denying asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through, marking a fundamental shift in immigration policy as the U.S. readies for the end of a key pandemic restriction.The new rule represents a significant shift in the way the U.S. deals with asylum seekers who have been showing up at the border in huge numbers in anticipation of this week’s end of the the use of a restriction known as Title 42 that allows the government to quickly expel migrants to Mexico. U.S. officials warned of difficult days ahead as the program tied to the COVID-19 pandemic expires this week.The rule announced Wednesday is part of new measures meant to crack down on illegal border crossings while creating new legal pathways, including a plan to open 100 regional migration hubs across the Western Hemisphere, administration officials said. U.S....

Vermont governor signs 1st-in-nation shield bills that explicitly include medicated abortion

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

Vermont’s Republican governor signed abortion and gender affirming shield bills into law Wednesday that are the first in the country to explicitly include protecting access to a medication widely used in abortions even if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration withdraws its approval of the pill, mifepristone.The bills protect providers from discipline for providing legally protected reproductive and gender affirming health care services.“Today, we reaffirm once again that Vermont stands on the side of privacy, personal autonomy and reproductive liberty, and that providers are free to practice without fear,” Republican Gov. Phil Scott said in a statement.In the identical bills passed by the House and Senate, “reproductive health care services” includes “medication that was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for termination of a pregnancy as of January 1, 2023, regardless of the medication’s current FDA approval status.” Planned Parenthood believes other statesR...

Israeli-Palestinian fighting continues, despite Egyptian cease-fire announcement

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian militants fired hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Wednesday, while Israel pressed ahead with a series of airstrikes that have killed 21 Palestinians, including three senior militants and at least 10 civilians.As the fighting continued, a state-run Egyptian TV station announced that Egypt had brokered a cease-fire. But shortly after the announcement, more rockets were fired toward Israel, including a new salvo at the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv, while Israel struck more targets in Gaza. The continued fighting raised questions about if or when a truce would take effect.In a prime-time TV address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Israel had dealt a harsh blow to the militants. But he cautioned: “This round is not over.”“We say to the terrorists and those who send them. We see you everywhere. You can’t hide, and we choose the place and time to strike you,” he said, adding that Israel would...

Ex-Raider Henry Ruggs pleads guilty to driving drunk, causing fatal 156-mph crash

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ex-Las Vegas Raiders player Henry Ruggs pleaded guilty Wednesday to driving his sports car drunk at speeds up to 156 mph on a city street before causing a fiery crash that killed a woman and her dog.“Guilty,” said the former first-round NFL draft pick, 24, who will avoid trial and is expected to be sentenced Aug. 9 to three to 10 years in state prison under terms of his plea deal with prosecutors. The minimum three-year sentence cannot be reduced by converting the year-and-a-half that he has spent on house arrest to time already served.Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson cited possible legal obstacles to obtaining a conviction at trial, said he met several times with relatives of the woman who died, and said the plea agreement with Ruggs “accomplished our three most important goals.” Ruggs was convicted of felony DUI causing death, will go to prison, and won’t be able to appeal his conviction and sentence, the elected district attorney, a Democrat, said in ...

Massachusetts’ high court upholds $37M judgment for woman who smoked Marlboro Lights, got cancer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

BOURG-DU-BOST, France — The highest court in Massachusetts has upheld a nearly $37 million judgment for a woman who said she developed cancer after switching to Marlboro Light cigarettes because she thought they were less dangerous than the Marlboro Red cigarettes she had previously smoked.The Supreme Judicial Court’s unanimous ruling on Tuesday said that Patricia Walsh Greene might have smoked less or quit sooner had she not been swayed by Philip Morris’ claims that Marlboro Lights were safer.“Philip Morris represented that such products, including Marlboro Lights, delivered lower tar and nicotine and were a healthier alternative to regular cigarettes,” the court wrote in its decision. But Philip Morris never disclosed to its consumers that internal research it conducted in the late 1970s showed that the smoke of Marlboro Lights was more likely to cause the DNA damage that can lead to cancer, the court said.An email seeking comment was left with Altria, Philip Morris’ p...

NYC Mayor Adams calls fatal subway chokehold ‘tragedy that never should have happened’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that the death of Jordan Neely at the hands of a fellow subway rider was “a tragedy that never should have happened” and pledged to do more to help people experiencing mental health crises.“My heart goes out to Jordan’s family, who is suffering great pain and uncertainty about the circumstances of his death,” said Adams, a former police officer who was criticized for his initial muted response to Neely’s death.Neely died on May 1 when U.S. Marine veteran Daniel Penny put him in a chokehold aboard a subway train in Manhattan.The 30-year-old Neely was a former Michael Jackson impersonator who was well-known to city outreach workers who try to help unhoused people experiencing mental illness.A freelance journalist who recorded video of Neely’s final minutes said Neely had been screaming at other passengers but hadn’t attacked anyone when Penny pulled him to the floor and pinned him. The video shows two other subw...

Google is giving its dominant search engine an artificial-intelligence makeover

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:17 GMT

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Google on Wednesday disclosed plans to infuse its dominant search engine with more advanced artificial-intelligence technology, a drive that’s in response to one of the biggest threats to its long-established position as the internet’s main gateway. The gradual shift in how Google’s search engine runs is rolling out three months after Microsoft’s Bing search engine started to tap into technology similar to that which powers the artificially intelligent chatbot ChatGPT, which has created one of Silicon Valley’s biggest buzzes since Apple released the first iPhone 16 years ago.Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., already has been testing its own conversational chatbot called Bard. That product, powered by technology called generative AI that also fuels ChatGPT, has only been available to people accepted from a waitlist. But Google announced Wednesday that Bard will be available to all comers in more than 180 countries and ...