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| Health secretary resigns after Obamacare launch woes Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 08:07 PM PDT  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning after overseeing the botched rollout of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, a White House official said on Thursday. Her departure removes one lightning rod for critics as Obama and nervous Democrats try to retain control of the U.S. Senate in November midterm elections, but Republicans continue to see problems with the Affordable Care Act as a winning issue. I think it's just going to embolden Republicans," said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. The October 1 launch of new Obamacare health insurance marketplaces, which was plagued by computer problems that stymied access for millions of people, has been condemned by Republicans as a step toward socialized medicine. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. judge accepts SAC guilty plea, approves $1.2 billion deal Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 07:12 PM PDT  By Nate Raymond and Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - SAC Capital Advisors' $1.2 billion criminal settlement for insider trading received final court approval on Thursday, as a U.S. judge accepted a guilty plea from the hedge fund firm run by billionaire Steven A. Cohen. At a hearing in Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain accepted SAC Capital's guilty plea to fraud charges and payment of a $900 million fine. In total, SAC Capital has agreed to pay $1.8 billion to resolve criminal and civil probes into insider trading. Full Story | Top |
| Democrats relish chance to attack Republicans over austere budget Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 06:04 PM PDT  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. Congress can hardly contain their glee over the latest Republican budget plan, even though they loathe the details of the blueprint that would cut programs for the poor and funding of medical research. Democrats view the document as a potent weapon in the November congressional elections and are betting that its emphasis on austerity and cuts to popular programs such as Medicare will provoke a backlash against Republicans. Crafted by Representative Paul Ryan, the leading Republican voice on fiscal policy, the budget proposes to eliminate annual deficits within 10 years. It won approval on Thursday in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. Full Story | Top |
| Jim Flaherty dies soon after quitting as Canada's finance minister Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 04:39 PM PDT  By Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) - Former Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who steered Canada through the global financial crisis and then nearly eliminated the huge budget deficits he had run up in the process, died on Thursday just weeks after resigning. An unnamed source close to the family told CBC television that Flaherty had suffered a massive heart attack. Canada's federal and provincial legislatures, where Flaherty had served, suspended their sessions. "Today is a very sad day for me, for our government and for all of our country," Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his voice quaking, said of the friend who had stood at his side since the Conservatives took power in 2006. Full Story | Top |
| Obama's health secretary resigns after Obamacare launch woes Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 04:26 PM PDT By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. health secretary who oversaw the botched rollout of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reforms, has resigned, a senior administration official said on Thursday. Obama has chosen Sylvia Mathews Burwell, his budget director, to replace Sebelius, a second official said. Obama was due to announce the change with Sebelius and Burwell at his side at a White House event at 10:45 ET on Friday. Sebelius, 65, became the public face for the problem-plagued start to the enrollment period for Obamacare, which was meant to reduce the number of Americans without health insurance and cut into massive U.S. healthcare costs. Full Story | Top |
| Varian wins partial victory in radiation device patent case Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 04:25 PM PDT Medical device company Varian Medical Systems Inc won a partial victory in a patent fight with the University of Pittsburgh on Thursday, when an appeals court disagreed with a lower court's multimillion-dollar damages award. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the earlier finding that the infringement was willful on one portion of the patent, also called a claim. The appeals court also questioned the district court's reading of a second claim. It vacated the damages award based on that claim and sent it back to the lower court for reconsideration. Full Story | Top |
| Former Massachusetts Senator Brown comes out swinging on Obamacare in New Hampshire Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 04:20 PM PDT  By Scott Malone PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Former U.S. Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts launched a Republican campaign on Thursday to represent neighboring New Hampshire in the Senate, with an attack on incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen's vote for Obamacare. Brown, who moved to his native New Hampshire late last year to explore a run for office, has focused much of his energy on attacking the Affordable Care Act, an issue Republicans are making a centerpiece of 2014 campaigns. And Obamacare could not have happened without a rubber-stamp 'yes' vote from Senator Shaheen," Brown told a crowd of a couple hundred supporters in a hotel ballroom in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, near the state's southern coast. Full Story | Top |
| Look out, romantics: Half of all sexts are lies Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 04:15 PM PDT By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a survey of college students, nearly half of those who had ever sent a sexy text had lied while doing so. "This already exists in face-to-face interactions, like with orgasms it's common," lead author Michelle Drouin told Reuters Health. "I expected people would also be 'faking it' in sexts." Drouin worked on the study at Indiana University - Purdue University in Fort Wayne. She and her coauthors gave 155 college students who had been in at least one committed relationship an anonymous online survey about their sexting histories. Full Story | Top |
| California town moves against Sriracha hot sauce plant Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 04:12 PM PDT  The small Southern California town of Irwindale has opened a new front in its battle against what it says is a pungent, tear-inducing odor from a chili processing factory owned by the makers of Sriracha-brand hot pepper sauce. The City Council voted 4-0 at a meeting on Wednesday night to authorize staff to prepare a resolution to declare the plant's peppery fumes a public nuisance, and giving Huy Fong Foods 90 days to remedy the situation. A fifth council member who lives within 500 feet of the plant abstained to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Huy Fong's red-colored Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, sold in clear squeeze bottles with a green cap and trademark rooster logo, is one the top-selling condiments in the United States. Full Story | Top |
| Sebelius to resign as U.S. health secretary: New York Times Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 03:56 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kathleen Sebelius, who oversaw the problem-ridden rollout of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform, has decided to resign as U.S. Health Secretary, the New York Times reported on Thursday. It said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, U.S. budget director, would replace Sebelius. (Reporting by Breaking News Team; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| Deadly bat disease found in Wisconsin, Michigan: wildlife officials Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 03:40 PM PDT By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - Bats in Wisconsin and Michigan have been infected with a disease that has killed millions of the mosquito-eating mammals elsewhere in the U.S. and could have a detrimental impact on farming and forestry, wildlife officials said on Thursday. White-nose syndrome appeared in five small brown bats collected in February and March in northern Michigan during routine surveillance, the state's Department of Natural Resources said in a statement. "Even though we've known this disease was coming, it is a disappointing day," said Dan O'Brien, a department wildlife veterinarian. Two bats in Wisconsin tested positive for the fungal disease after they were collected in a mine during winter surveillance in Grant County, near the Illinois border, where the disease was confirmed in 2012. Full Story | Top |
| Scientists grow viable vaginas from girls' own cells Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 03:34 PM PDT  By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Four young women born with abnormal or missing vaginas were implanted with lab-grown versions made from their own cells, the latest success in creating replacement organs that have so far included tracheas, bladders and urethras. Follow-up tests show the new vaginas are indistinguishable from the women's own tissue and have grown in size as the young women, who got the implants as teens, matured. It is not yet clear whether these women can bear children, but because they are menstruating, it suggests their ovaries are working, so it may be possible, said Dr Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina. The feat, which Atala and colleagues in Mexico describe in the journal the Lancet, is the latest demonstration from the growing field of regenerative medicine, a discipline in which doctors take advantage of the body's power to regrow and replace cells. Full Story | Top |
| Nasdaq drops 3 percent, worst day since November 2011 Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 03:14 PM PDT  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq suffered its biggest drop in two-and-a-half years on Thursday after another sharp selloff in biotech and momentum names, including Gilead Sciences and TripAdvisor , increasing investor anxiety about a broader pullback. The Nasdaq biotechnology index shed 5.6 percent, its biggest one-day drop since August 2011, adding to recent losses since a large drop in Gilead more than two weeks ago triggered a wider selloff for biotechs and other recent big gainers. The S&P 500 also posted its biggest percentage loss since February 3, while the Nasdaq has dropped 7 percent from its closing high for the year, set on March 5. All stocks in the Nasdaq 100 index posted a loss, with the exception of CH Robinson Worldwide , which ended up 1.6 percent at $53.80. Full Story | Top |
| Pennsylvania officials seek motive for school stabbing rampage Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 03:12 PM PDT By Elizabeth Daley MURRYSVILLE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Pennsylvania officials sought a motive on Thursday for what may have driven a 16-year-old student to turn on his classmates with two kitchen knives, stabbing startled victims in the stomach and back and leaving nearly two dozen wounded. Sophomore Alex Hribal was charged with attempted homicide and aggravated assault after allegedly using 8-inch steel blades in a stabbing frenzy through the hallways of Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville near Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Three teenage boys remained hospitalized in critical condition with stab wounds, while other survivors and witnesses struggled on Thursday to find an explanation for the attack. Full Story | Top |
| More than 100 passengers sick on cruise off California Thursday, Apr 10, 2014 03:09 PM PDT By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A cruise ship with more than 100 passengers and crew suffering from a gastrointestinal ailment caused by Norovirus, have arrived in San Diego, a cruise line spokeswoman said on Thursday. The Crown Princess, carrying 3,141 passengers in all, docked in San Diego and planned to continue on to Los Angeles on its normal itinerary along the coast of California and Northern Mexico. Onboard testing proved the presence of Norovirus, said Princess Cruises spokeswoman Karen Candy. Outbreaks of Norovirus have been reported by nearly a dozen cruise lines sailing from U.S. ports in recent years, including Holland America, Celebrity, Cunard Line and a National Geographic cruise on Lindblad Expeditions. Full Story | Top |
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