National News

NTSB Highlights Transportation Safety Wish List

Federal safety officials say they want a crackdown on impaired and distracted drivers, wider use of collision-avoidance technology in cars, and tougher regulations for operators of air tours and medical flights. The National Transportation Safety Board laid out a wish …

Research Finds Compounded Topical Pain Creams No Better Than Placebos

In an effort to reduce chronic pain, many people look for hope by paying $20 to thousands of dollars for a tube of prescription topical pain cream or gel. Now, results of a rigorous federally funded study mandated by Congress …

5 Reasons Autonomous Cars Won’t Be Available Anytime Soon

In the world of autonomous vehicles, Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley are bustling hubs of development and testing. But ask those involved in self-driving vehicles when we might actually see them carrying passengers in every city, and you’ll get an almost …

Study Finds Chronic Pain Drives Patients to Use Medical Marijuana

As of 2018, 33 states and the District of Columbia have approved the medical use of cannabis, while 10 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Despite this fact, at the federal level, marijuana remains a Schedule 1 drug under …

NICB Releases First Report on U.S. Snowmobile Thefts Between 2015-2017

While not nearly as pervasive as vehicle thefts, snowmobile can impact public safety and basic transportation in areas of the country where snowfall renders other forms of transportation inoperable, according to the first report on the snowmobiles thefts in the …

#MeToo Movement Continues Within State Capitols

In the first week of 2019, an investigation by Oregon’s labor agency deemed the state Capitol to be a hostile workplace because of an unchecked pattern of sexual harassment among lawmakers. A few days later, two Washington state lawmakers accused …

Rapid Thaw Follows Polar Blast

In Illinois, temperatures rose by 80 degrees within days. In Michigan, melting snow and rain and a 17-mile ice jam led to flooding fears. Across the Midwest, the sudden warmth brought more broken roads and busted water mains. The polar …

Change in Location of Ocean Mixing That Drives Climate Found

One of the key drivers of the world’s climate is an area in the North Atlantic Ocean where warmer and colder water mix and swirl. When scientists went for their first close look at this critical underwater dynamo, they found …

Crash Probes Paused During Government Shutdown, Risking Critical Evidence

The 35-day partial government shutdown stopped the National Transportation Safety Board from dispatching investigators to 22 accidents that killed 30 people, jeopardizing some perishable evidence, the agency said Monday. The NTSB will start investigations, but with some crashes now weeks …

The Changing Nature of Insurance Claims Litigation

Mergers and acquisitions, sophisticated litigation management technology and hedge fund-backed capital has made the plaintiffs’ bar a formidable opponent in recent years. In the last podcast in the Insights on InsurTech series, The Future of Insurance Claims Litigation, Wesley Todd, …

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