Articles

Trump administration $21M gamble on Pepcid as a COVID remedy fizzles

As the coronavirus began its deadly march through the world, two well-respected American doctors identified a possible but seemingly unlikely remedy: Pepcid, the heartburn medication found on drugstore shelves everywhere. There were no published data or studies to suggest its effectiveness against the novel coronavirus. But that didn’t stop the Trump administration from granting a $21 million emergency contract that is now the subject of whistleblower complaints.

Read More

Poll: 3 in 4 Americans back requiring wearing masks

Three out of four Americans, including a majority of Republicans, favor requiring people to wear face coverings while outside their homes, a new poll finds, reflecting fresh alarm over spiking coronavirus cases and a growing embrace of government advice intended to safeguard public health.

Read More

Trump, Barr to expand anti-crime surge to several US cities

President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr are expected to announce Wednesday that federal agents will surge into several American cities including Chicago to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention in local enforcement as Trump runs for reelection under a “law and order” mantle.

Read More

Courts, attorneys fear wave of COVID evictions

A moratorium on evictions of families in federally subsidized housing is set to end July 25, and Indiana’s moratorium prohibiting evictions is set to end July 31. Advocates warn a wave of evictions is coming that could leave many Hoosiers without a place to live, but because of how these cases are tracked, they lack data to how big that wave will be and when it will arrive.

Read More

Scams and schemes rising with spread of coronavirus

Schemes to con people out of their stimulus checks, to get money for face masks that are never delivered and to get payments for bogus COVID-19 treatments or cures have surged. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission has a special coronavirus page on its website devoted to advising consumers on how to identify real contact tracers and to ignore offers for home test kits.

Read More

US executes 3 in first federal death sentences since 2003

The federal government last week carried out its first executions in almost two decades after the US Supreme Court in separate 5-4 rulings turned away last-minute appeals from two condemned inmates’ legal teams. Their executions, and that of a third defendant, were carried out by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute.

Read More