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Cellphone Radiation May Alter Your Brain

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Suit Filed over Death from Contaminated IV Fluid

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Jury Awards $2.8 Million in Fatal Motorcycle Crash

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Wyly Brothers Fail to get SEC Suit Dismissed

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Trio Linked to 'Pill Mill' Faced Earlier Discipline

Products

Cellphone Radiation May Alter Your Brain

In a culture where people cradle their cellphones next to their heads with the same constancy and affection that toddlers hold their security blankets, it was unsettling last month when a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that doing so could alter brain activity. The report said it was unclear whether the changes in the brain — an increase in glucose metabolism after using the phone for less than an hour — had any negative health or behavioral effects. But it has many people wondering what they can do to protect themselves.  KATE MURPHY, The New York Times  04/01/2011

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Laws/Cases

Suit Filed over Death from Contaminated IV Fluid

An Alabama family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a local drug company allegedly responsible for mixing a contaminated batch of IV fluid that killed at least three people. The lawsuit claims Meds IV, LLC made the fluid that was contaminated with bacteria that led to the deaths. Health officials have confirmed that either the fluid or the fluid bags were contaminated with bacteria, "but a direct link between the contaminated products and the illness and deaths has yet to be established."  Peggy Gargis, Reuters  04/01/2011

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Jury Awards $2.8 Million in Fatal Motorcycle Crash

A Florida jury has awarded $2.8 million in total damages to the family of a man who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2007. The man was riding his motorcycle near Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach when a car failed to yield the right-of-way and collided with the motorcycle. The lawsuit had accused the driver of the car of negligence.  Jay Stapleton, Daytona Beach News Journal  03/30/2011

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Wyly Brothers Fail to get SEC Suit Dismissed

A federal judge has rejected arguments by Dallas business tycoons Sam and Charles Wyly that an insider trading and financial fraud lawsuit against them should be dismissed. U.S. District Judge Shira Sheindlin rejected numerous arguments Thursday by lawyers defending the Wyly brothers against the Securities and Exchange Commission suit. The suit alleges the Wylys used offshore entities to hide hundreds of stock transactions involving four companies they controlled or partially owned. The suit alleges that the Wylys profited unfairly from those transactions at the expense of other investors.  ERIC TORBENSON , The Dallas Morning News  04/01/2011

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Issues

Trio Linked to 'Pill Mill' Faced Earlier Discipline

A physician and two pharmacists arrested for their alleged roles in a high-volume pill mill operation in Houston had previously faced disciplinary probes or punishment for improperly distributing controlled drugs, though all three had been allowed to continue to work despite those allegations, professional disciplinary records show. For nearly two years Dr. Gerald Ratinov, described as the state's top prescriber of the popular pain drug hydrocodone in 2010, has been under investigation by the Texas Medical Board based on complaints he previously ran another rogue Harris County pill mill. At that site, an unlicensed foreign graduate dispensed drugs and patients received pain pills without proper examinations in 2008, the complaint says.  LISE OLSEN, Houston Chronicle  04/01/2011

Read Article: Houston Chronicle