Health / Disease

Drug-overdose antidote is put in addicts' hands

WEST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — Steve Wohlen lay on his front lawn, blue, unconscious and barely breathing, overdosing on heroin.

His mother ran outside, frantically assembling a pen-like canister. Her heart pounding, she dropped to her knees and used the device to deliver two squirts up her son's nostrils.

Within ...

Report: Fla. troopers erred before Jan. crashes that killed 11

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida Highway Patrol lieutenant didn't have any formal training or know the procedures before he reopened a fog- and smoke-shrouded highway where a series of crashes killed 11 people in January, investigators said in a report released Thursday.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement report ...

Cash-strapped R.I. city backing down in cross fight

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Wisconsin group challenging the constitutionality of a cross on a war memorial in Rhode Island says it expects to prevail without the type of long legal battle that unfolded over a prayer banner ordered removed this year from a public high school.

The Freedom From ...

Crane owner cleared in deadly 2008 collapse in NYC

NEW YORK — A construction crane owner was acquitted of manslaughter and all other charges Thursday in the May 2008 collapse of his 200-foot-tall rig that snapped apart and killed two workers, which fueled concerns about crane safety.

James Lomma sat expressionless, looking frozen, as a judge announced his verdict ...

Quick response averts market scare in mad cow case

DES MOINES, Iowa — The announcement that mad cow disease was found in a California cow drew a rapid response this week from the beleaguered American beef industry, which has been enduring one crisis after another for more than a year.

First, a severe drought in the Southwest cut cattle ...

EPA official apologizes for viral 'crucify' quip

A top official at the Environmental Protection Agency apologized Thursday after being caught on video bragging that his agency's method of enforcing oil and gas regulations was to find a few bad actors to "crucify" and hold up as examples.

But his mea culpa didn't satisfy some Republicans in Congress, ...

Senator seeks to allow goose kills near N.Y. airport

NEW YORK (AP) — The problem of birds living near some of the nation's busiest airports is coming under renewed scrutiny after two emergency landings in a week and more than three years after the famous ditching of a jetliner in the Hudson River.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Democrat, ...

Secret Service investigating another trip

WASHINGTON — Expanding the prostitution investigation, the Secret Service acknowledged Thursday it is checking whether its employees hired strippers and prostitutes in advance of President Barack Obama's visit last year to El Salvador.

The disclosure came not long after the Homeland Security secretary assured skeptical senators that the recent prostitution ...

Meteorites found in Calif. along path of fireball

RENO, Nev. — Robert Ward has been hunting and collecting meteorites for more than 20 years, so he knew he'd found something special in the Sierra foothills along the path of a flaming fireball that shook parts of Northern California and Nevada with a sonic boom over the weekend.

And ...

Research says 'God spot' does not exist

Turns out the other "G-spot" is a myth.

Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that the so-called "God spot," an epicenter of the brain responsible for feelings of spirituality and connection to a higher power, doesn't exist. Their study instead shows that several regions of the human mind ...

GOP wants to keep politics out of domestic-violence bill

House Republicans said Wednesday that they intend to swiftly pass a domestic-violence law and remove the issue from election-year politicizing, though the Democrat-led Senate is prepared to vote on a different bill on the issue Thursday.

It's not clear yet how the two bills - the Senate version contains provisions ...

Teacher sues over Catholic school firing for using IVF

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana teacher who says she was fired from a Roman Catholic school for using in vitro fertilization to try to get pregnant is suing in a case that could set up a legal showdown over reproductive and religious rights.

Emily Herx's lawsuit accuses the Diocese of Fort ...

Barrett takes momentum in recall primary as union favorite fades

MADISON, WIS. — Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is showing signs of pulling ahead of the Democratic competition in the race to determine who faces Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election that has become a nationally watched battle over union rights.

Polls show Mr. Barrett with a lead ...

Homeowner groups taking a dim view on solar panels

CUMMING, GA. — The government wants you to install solar panels at your house, and will even give you a tax break to do it. But your neighbors? Maybe not.

It's a lesson Angel and David Dobs discovered when their homeowners association north of Atlanta denied their request to install ...

American Scene: Calif. yacht accident survivor wants focus on safety

CALIFORNIA

SAN FRANCISCO — A survivor of the fatal grounding of a racing yacht on rocky islands west of San Francisco is calling on the sailing community to make safety a higher priority.

Bryan Chong is one of three crew members who survived after the sailboat Low Speed Chase wrecked ...

Equal-opportunity agency says transgender people protected

WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency that enforces the federal job discrimination laws has ruled for the first time that transgender people are protected from bias in the workplace.

In a groundbreaking decision late last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said a refusal to hire or otherwise discriminate on the ...

Burger King makes cage-free promise

The movement by U.S. food corporations toward more humane treatment of animals experienced a whopper of a shift Wednesday when Burger King announced that all of its eggs and pork will come from cage-free chickens and pigs by 2017.

The decision by the world's second-biggest fast-food restaurant raises the bar ...

Young heart patient taken from hospital found safe

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis police have issued arrest warrants for the father and paternal grandmother of a 5-year-old boy taken from a hospital where he was on a heart transplant waiting list.

The department issued a statement Wednesday saying it had issued felony warrants for kidnapping, interfering with ...

Discovery of mad cow in U.S. was stroke of luck

HANFORD, California (AP) — A nondescript building in the heart of California's dairy country has become the focus of intense scrutiny after mad cow disease was discovered in a dead dairy cow.

The finding, announced Tuesday, is the first new case of the disease in the U.S. since 2006 — ...

Rodney King reflects on an up-down life since riot

LOS ANGELES — We saw his face a bloody, pulpy mess. And in 1992, when the four Los Angeles Police officers who beat him after a traffic stop were acquitted, it touched off anger that affected an entire generation. Now, 20 years later, this is the face of Rodney King, and ...

Syndicate content