Reuters: U.S.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Big Pharma goes on trial in Oklahoma

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Tuesday 5.28.19

Burnout is more than just a feeling. It's now an official medical diagnosis. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.

By Doug Criss
President Trump
 
President Trump is headed back home after wrapping up his four-day trip to Japan. Before he hopped on Air Force One, the President gave Memorial Day remarks to US service members stationed on the USS Wasp. Trump's trip will be remembered for two things. The first is the President disagreeing with his host, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and his own national security adviser by saying he wasn't "personally bothered" by North Korea's recent short-range missile tests. The second is Trump agreeing with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's assessment that his potential Democratic rival Joe Biden is a "low-IQ individual." Many observers were troubled that the President publicly sided with a dictator to attack a former vice president -- but busting presidential norms is what Trump does best.
 
Weather
 
This spring's spate of severe weather continued overnight, with two suspected tornadoes barreling through Dayton, Ohio, just 30 minutes apart. The twin twisters caused significant damage and injuries. A third suspected tornado injured several people in a town 90 miles north of Dayton. There were some 27 reports of tornadoes yesterday in Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Colorado, and much of the Midwest is at risk today for more severe weather. 

Meanwhile, flooding is the big issue in the Midwest and Plains states, with the swollen Arkansas River hitting Tulsa, Oklahoma, especially hard. In the South, an early heat wave is baking Georgia, South Carolina and parts of Florida, with some triple-digit temperatures expected today and tomorrow. And if that weren't enough, a steady snowfall out West has dusted the Grand Canyon. That's only the eighth time on record there's been snowfall there so late in May.
 
Opioid trial
 
A historic trial starts today in Oklahoma. It will be the first major test in the nation of whether a state can make a pharmaceutical company pay for the opioid epidemic. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has already won major settlements from two drug companies: $270 million from Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and another $85 million from Teva Pharmaceuticals, one of the biggest makers of generic drugs. (The companies settled without admitting any wrongdoing.)

Hunter now sets his sights on Johnson & Johnson. He claims the company acts like a drug "kingpin" and created a public nuisance that cost the state billions of dollars and destroyed thousands of lives. Johnson & Johnson and its parent company deny the allegations. This is the first major trial of nearly 2,000 cases around the country in which states, cities and hard-hit municipalities seek to hold opioid makers accountable for an epidemic that's left hundreds of thousands of Americans dead and strapped resources in every state.
 
Japan knife attack
 
Two people were killed and 15 children injured in a stabbing spree in Japan. It's a rare act of public violence in a country deemed one of the safest in the world. A 12-year-old girl and a 39-year-old man were killed in the attack, which took place in a park in a city near Tokyo. It's believed the suspect, who was in his 40s or 50s, stabbed himself in the neck and died. Japan, which strictly regulates weapons, boasts one of the world's lowest homicide rates.
 
Bill Buckner
 
Say the name Bill Buckner, and what do you think of? Probably a baseball rolling under his glove and through his legs. And that's just not fair. Buckner, who died yesterday at age 69, was an elite hitter, winning a batting title with the Chicago Cubs in 1980 (hitting .324), and he was an All-Star in 1981. He managed to hang around the big leagues for 22 years, an accomplishment in itself. But he'll always be associated with that fielding error in the 1986 World Series that led to the Boston Red Sox losing Game 6 to the New York Mets. Still, he deserves to be remembered for so much more.
 
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Buckle up, we're just getting started!
 
A Facebook post shared by We Build the Wall, a group that says it's started building its own wall on the US border with Mexico, using millions of dollars donated in a GoFundMe campaign
Gettin' eggy wit it
Sometimes it's the simplest things that bring the most joy, like watching a couple of Great Danes play with a giant plastic egg. (Click to view.)
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