Free Republic

Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits which alleged that the company failed to warn patients about possible cancer risks caused by the anti-heartburn medication Zantac.The lawsuits were filed in state courts across the country, but the agreements don’t completely resolve Pfizer’s exposure to the claims linking Zantac and cancer, according to Bloomberg News.Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.The Post has sought comment from Pfizer.Zantac was brought to market in 1983 by Glaxo Holdings, a company that is now part of the GlaxoSmithKline company.By 1988, it was the world’s best selling drug as patients reported benefits for...

President Joe Biden settled back into hiding at the White House on Monday as he cleared his schedule of any public events. Biden returned to the White House from another weekend at his home in Delaware, but he did not engage with reporters shouting questions about the death of his Build Back Better bill or Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) declaration that he would not vote for it.

NetJets, the luxury plane unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, agreed to settle U.S. charges that it discriminated against immigrant workers by requiring them to provide extra documents to prove their employment eligibility. The settlement calls for NetJets to be monitored by the U.S. Department of Justice for two years, improve training of its human resources staff, and pay a $41,480 civil penalty, the department said on Friday. NetJets denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, and cooperated in the probe. A spokesman had no immediate comment. Based in Columbus, Ohio, NetJets specializes in "fractional" aircraft ownership, which lets individuals...

July 13, 2015 How Big Is Pluto? New Horizons Settles Decades-Long Debate A portrait from the final approach. Pluto and Charon display striking color and brightness contrast in this composite image from July 11, showing high-resolution black-and-white LORRI images colorized with Ralph data collected from the last rotation of Pluto. Color data being returned by the spacecraft now will update these images, bringing color contrast into sharper focus. Credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI Pluto’s bright, mysterious “heart” is rotating into view, ready for its close-up on close approach, in this image taken by New Horizons on July 12 from a distance of...

A Chicago woman has settled with the city of Chicago after she was left with more than $100,000 in parking fines when her ex-boyfriend abandoned her car in an inaccessible airport parking lot for nearly three years. Jennifer Fitzgerald initially owed the city of Chicago a whopping $105,000 after a 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo – a used car that was bought for $600 and registered in her name – was parked at O’Hare Airport for three years starting in November 2009. It was parked there by Fitzgerald’s ex, According to DNA Info Chicago the city agreed to drop $100,000 in...

NEW YORK (AP) - The Associated Press will collect undisclosed damages as part of a settlement of its lawsuit against All Headline News, a site that allegedly misappropriated AP stories online. The AP considered the lawsuit an important test of the "hot news" doctrine, which was established in a 1918 Supreme Court case involving the AP. That principle holds that while facts cannot be copyrighted, news organizations can sue when competitors copy time-sensitive stories.

PASADENA, Calif. - The most powerful spacecraft ever sent to Mars has settled into a nearly circular orbit, a move that allows scientists to begin studying the planet in unprecedented detail, NASA said Tuesday. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter fired its thrusters for 12 minutes Monday to adjust to its final position six months after it arrived at the planet. Its altitude ranges between 155 to 196 miles above the surface. "Getting to this point is a great achievement," said Dan Johnston, deputy mission manager at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $720 million mission. Over the next...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has settled a lawsuit in London brought by a former British TV host who accused the governor of fondling her and later said the governor's aides had smeared her reputation, attorneys for both sides said today. Anna Richardson, a former late-night personality, sued Schwarzenegger and two of his top aides in London's High Court in May 2004. She accused them of falsely saying she had forced herself on Schwarzenegger and said the accusation was intended to protect his "ruthless political ambition" during the 2003 recall election. In the final week of that turbulent campaign, Richardson...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An aide to a California assemblywoman who claimed her boss discussed intimate details of her sex life and solicited comments about her low-cut clothing has received a $118,000 settlement from the state. Erika Weaver-Taylor, 37, of San Jose, received the money after making the charges last year against Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, D-Saratoga, according to documents released Friday. Cohn called the settlement by the Assembly Rules Committee ridiculous and said she "wouldn't have given a dime" to her former spokeswoman. Cohn said she had done nothing improper and pointed to Weaver-Taylor's unwillingness to pursue a lawsuit as proof...

SACRAMENTO - The state could spend several hundred million dollars or more to buy new textbooks and repair dilapidated urban schools under a tentative out-of-court settlement to a long-running class-action lawsuit aimed at unequal educational opportunities endured by many poor and minority students. The agreement would give sweeping new powers to parents and county superintendents of education to ensure that hundreds of thousands of students in 2,400 schools statewide learn from current textbooks and in decent classrooms. Schools scoring in the lowest three rungs of the state's Academic Performance Index -- including several in San Jose, East Palo Alto, San...

Rapper Combs settles with club shooting witness Sean "P Diddy" Combs has settled a £1.7 million lawsuit filed by his former driver, who said he suffered emotional damage after a nightclub shooting four years ago. US Supreme Court Justice Harold Beeler announced the settlement and dismissed the Manhattan jury which had been hearing the lawsuit filed by Wardell "Woody" Fenderson. Lawyers for both sides, having agreed to keep the settlement terms secret, refused to disclose details. They would say only that "the matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties". Fenderson's lawsuit arose after three people were wounded...

<p>Republican Party leaders endorsed Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor Monday, a move to unite behind a single candidate that angered supporters of Republican rival Tom McClintock.</p> <p>"Tom McClintock has been a strong member of the party," said Mario Rodriguez of San Clemente, vice chairman of the state party governing board. "But the numbers were not there for him."</p>

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Gloria Aker got a late Christmas present this week when the U.S. Air Force agreed to settle a claim for damage it caused when it accidentally bombed her Monahans home in July. Aker's West Texas home was hit by a dummy bomb accidentally dropped from an Air Force F-177A Nighthawk on a practice run from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Although the dummy didn't contain explosives, it pierced the roof of Aker's home, flew across a bathroom, slammed through a wall into a closet, then plowed six feet into the ground. On top...