Lawmakers from states that have been ravaged by opioid addiction said such labeling changes have "done little" to help their communities. "Unfortunately, it has taken FDA far too long to address the grave risks of these drugs that have claimed the lives of thousands this year alone," said Sen. Markey. Critics of the FDA, including Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, called on the agency to add such warnings years ago. Doctors are not required to follow the FDA's label instructions.   read more

Pummill failed to exercise proper oversight as Graves and Rubens transferred lower-ranking managers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their senior-level pay while reducing their responsibilities. Accountability at the VA "is almost non-existent," Rep. Miller said. "This dysfunctional status quo will never change until we eliminate arcane civil service rules that put the job security of VA bureaucrats ahead of the veterans they are charged with serving."   read more

During the war, the women were considered civilians. But since 1977, federal law has granted them status as veterans. They had been eligible since 2002 to have their ashes placed at Arlington with military honors. But the Army ruled last year that the WASPs never should have been allowed in and revoked their eligibility. McSally's bill reverses that decision.   read more

Doctoral candidate Ryan Shapiro sent Freedom of Information Act requests to the CIA, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and the FBI looking for records mentioning former South African President Nelson Mandela, hoping to learn if the U.S. had a role in Mandela's 1962 arrest and imprisonment. The CIA and NSA blocked his requests, with the CIA claiming the search would be "unreasonably burdensome" and the NSA refusing to confirm or deny the existence of Mandela-related records.   read more

Republican presidential candidates denounce "Obamacare" for a litany of woes. But some prominent conservative experts recognize that the law has increased coverage. The prospect of taking away health care coverage from millions of people could trigger a backlash if the eventual GOP nominee's plan to replace it is seen as coming up short. "Repealing the law without a plausible plan for replacing it would be a mistake," said a policy paper from 10 leading GOP health policy experts.   read more

Roberts couldn't have known how timely his comments would be. They now amount to a stern rebuke to Republican senators who refuse to hold hearings on Obama’s nomination of Judge Garland. “Look at my more recent colleagues, all extremely well qualified for the court,” Roberts said, “and the votes were, I think, strictly on party lines...and that doesn’t make any sense. That suggests to me that the process is being used for something other than ensuring the qualifications of the nominees.”   read more

The FDA said Monday that the powder added to some latex gloves can cause breathing problems, wound inflammation, and scar tissue on internal organs when used during surgery. Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to ban powdered gloves in 1998, citing allergic reactions in most brands. "The fact that it took the FDA 18 years to propose banning powdered surgical gloves from the market highlights how recklessly negligent the agency is," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen.   read more

The district is offering blood tests of as many as 17,000 kids who were potentially exposed. "By the time school opened Wednesday morning, we were shutting off all water fountains and other affected sites at any school that had received a positive reading," Cerf said. But Newark's teachers union has criticized the state-controlled district for not taking such action in previous years.   read more

"When I look at the new February 2016 temperatures, I feel like I'm looking at something out of a sci-fi movie," said climate scientist Kim Cobb. "In a way we are: it's like someone plucked a value off a graph from 2030 and stuck it on a graph of present temperatures. It is a portent of things to come, and it is sobering that such temperature extremes are already on our doorstep." NOAA's Deke Arndt said, ""We are in a new era. We have started a new piece of modern history for this climate."   read more

“There’s a climate emergency happening,” said protester Coby Schultz. “It’s a life-or-death struggle.” A wave of actions across the nation combines not-in-my-backyard protests against fossil-fuel projects with concern about climate change. Activists have been energized by President Obama's decisions to block offshore drilling along the Eastern Seaboard and to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Far-flung activists are opposing virtually all new oil, gas and coal infrastructure projects.   read more

The constitutional obligation to provide criminal defense for the poor has been endangered by funding problems across the U.S., but nowhere is it in free fall like in Louisiana, where public defenders represent 80% of criminal defendants. Offices have been forced to lay off lawyers, leaving those remaining with caseloads well into the hundreds. Judges have ordered private lawyers to represent people for free. Some are tax and real estate lawyers without any background in criminal law.   read more

The probe is a fresh blow to a nuclear missile corps that has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for a string of lapses in training and personal conduct. The 14 have been removed from duty while the Air Force Office of Special Investigations looks into the case. Rand said the allegations are "credible." Two other defense officials said the drugs included cocaine; a third said the allegations include the possession, use or distribution of illegal drugs.   read more

In more than one in six cases, or 129,825 times, government searchers said they came up empty-handed last year. Such cases contributed to an alarming measurement: People who asked for records under the law received censored files or nothing in 77 percent of requests, also a record. "It's incredibly unfortunate when someone waits months, or perhaps years, to get a response to their request — only to be told that the agency can't find anything," said attorney Adam Marshall.   read more

Some Apple employees say they may quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have created. “It’s an independent culture and a rebellious one,” said a former Apple engineering manager. “If the government tries to compel testimony or action from these engineers, good luck with that.” The fear of losing a paycheck may not have much impact on security engineers whose skills are in high demand. Indeed, hiring them could be a badge of honor at other companies.   read more

The misuse of the information has raised questions on privacy abuse in cases across the country, and in some instances has raised the risk of physical harm to residents. In one case, a former police officer was convicted of using a police database to look up information for a plot to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women. The conviction was later overturned. In another case, an officer gave information from a database to a friend that was used to harass her ex-boyfriend’s pregnant girlfriend.   read more

Flint's leaded-water crisis drives home the discrimination inherent in Michigan's scheme of putting unelected emergency managers in poor, usually black, communities. The emergency-manager law allows Gov. Rick Snyder to suspend all elected officials in financially distressed municipalities and transfer their power to an appointee of his choosing. While the measure affects only 2% of the state's white population, 50% of black Michiganders are under emergency-manager rule.   read more