Monthly Archives: <span>December 2018</span>

More Than 100 Anchorage Buildings Deemed Unsafe to Enter After Quake

More than 100 homes and buildings in the Anchorage, Alaska, area have been found unsafe to enter because of damage caused by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake, according to city data. At least another 182 buildings received some kind of damage …

California Firefighter Says State Should Consider Home Ban in Fire-Prone Areas

California’s increasingly deadly and destructive wildfires have become so unpredictable that government officials should consider banning home construction in vulnerable areas, the state’s top firefighter says. Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Director Ken Pimlott will leave his job Friday …

Cuba Mysterious Health Ailment Caused Inner Ear Damage in American Diplomats

American diplomats affected by mysterious health incidents in Cuba showed damage in the inner ear shortly after they complained of weird noises and sensations, according to their earliest medical exams, publicized Wednesday. The detailed findings were published in a medical …

Travelers: Nearly Half of Philadelphia Area Drivers Distracted by Texts, Emails

Mobile devices continue to distract drivers in the greater Philadelphia area. Travelers recently commissioned a survey of 435 of them and found that 75 percent use a mobile device while driving, with 91 percent of millennials, 79 percent of Gen …

About $9B in Insured Losses After Three California Wildfires

Three of last month’s California wildfires will cost insurers about $9.05 billion, according to preliminary information from state regulators. That figure is based on initial claims that insurers have received from the Camp, Woolsey and Hill fires, California Insurance Commissioner …

J&J Begins Settling Pinnacle Hip Defect Lawsuits

Johnson & Johnson has begun settling consumers’ claims that it sold artificial hips knowing they were defective, marking the first settlements in the seven-year-old litigation. A federal judge in Texas overseeing the cases said about 3,300 of 10,000 “have settled …

Earth’s Warming Occurring During Odd Times and in Strange Places

Scientists are seeing surprising melting in Earth’s polar regions at times they don’t expect, like winter, and in places they don’t expect, like eastern Antarctica. New studies and reports issued this week at a major Earth sciences conference paint one …

Massachusetts Lawmakers Say Gas Firms Are Compromising Safety

Natural gas companies in Massachusetts are compromising safety by increasingly turning to outside contractors for pipeline work while cutting back on staff that would oversee these projects, state lawmakers said Tuesday at a hearing following September’s natural gas explosions in …

Los Angeles-Area Development Approved in Wildfire-Prone Zone

The conflict between the need for more housing in California and the danger of building in fire-prone mountains was decided in favor of homes Tuesday as Los Angeles County supervisors approved a massive rural housing development. The supervisors voted 4-1 …

Attorneys for Wrong-Way Driver Blame Arizona DPS for Crash, Injuries

Attorneys for a wrong-way driver say an Arizona Department of Public Safety sergeant who used his vehicle as a traffic break is to blame for a crash on Interstate 40 that sent both of them to the hospital. The driver, …