Nearly two weeks after a partial government shutdown left federal workers out of work and landmarks closed, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders continue to wrangle over border wall funding.
Another drugmaker is recalling a medication used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure over concerns that tablets could be contaminated with a cancer-causing agent.
Drug maker Aurobindo Pharma USA is voluntarily recalling 80 lots Amlodipine Valsartan Tablets USP, Valsartan HCTZ Tablets, USP and Valsartan Tablets USP.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that traces of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a "probable human carcinogen," was found in the active ingredient valsartan in the recalled products.
The recalled medications were distributed nationwide. The New Jersey-based company has not received any reports of adverse effects related to the drugs as of Dec. 31, 2018, when the recall was announced, the FDA said.
A full list of the recalled products is available here. Products can be identified by checking the product name, manufacturer details, and batch or lot number on the bottles. Expiration dates range from May 2019 to March 2021.
Valsartan tablets are used to control high blood pressure and for treatment of heart failure. The FDA says patients who are prescribed Amlodipine Valsartan Tablets USP, Valsartan HCTZ Tablets, USP and Valsartan Tablets USP should continue taking their medication, “as the risk of harm to the patient’s health may be higher if the treatment is stopped immediately without any alternative treatment.”
If a patient's medicine is included in the recall, they should contact their health care professional to discuss alternative treatment options before returning their medication.
Consumers can contact the company at 1-866-850-2876 or by email at: pvg@aurobindousa.com.
Aurobino’s recall follows a growing list of companies recalling their blood pressure medication in the last year. In November, Teva Pharmaceuticals voluntarily recalled two of its drugs over the same concerns. In July, the FDA announced a recall of several medicines containing valsartan due to traces of NDMA contamination. A month later, the agency expanded the recall list of medications that contained the active ingredient valsartan over concerns that it could be contaminated with the cancer-causing agent.
"The agency continues to investigate and test all angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) for the presence of NDEA and N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and is taking swift action when it identifies these impurities that are above interim acceptable daily intake levels," the FDA said in a news release.
The FDA also updated the list of valsartan products under the recall and the list of valsartan products not under recall.
The agency encourages patients and health care professionals to report any adverse reaction to the FDA’s MedWatch program.
The flu season has spread significantly across Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania states. Health departments in each state report a huge surge in flu cases, with Delaware and Pennsylvania reporting multiple deaths from the flu in the past few weeks.
A Philadelphia police officer driving a motorcycle was involved in a serious crash near Pennypack Park in Philadelphia's Holesburg section.
Members of the string band visited the scene of yesterday's deadly crash that killed two of their members and another person. Loved ones are still trying to make sense of what happened. Police have charged the driver of the other vehicle with vehicular manslaughter.
A Philadelphia police officer was critically injured when he was struck while driving his police motorcycle in the city's Holmesburg section.
A Delaware mom says she couldn't be more thankful that her son chose not to listen to her. Her son was binge watching Netflix and if he wasn't up watching late, he wouldn't have been able to smell the smoke when a power strip caught fire. They don't believe they would have made it out alive, if it the son was not awake.
Starting with your Friday morning commute to work, it will be dry. However, rain and wind will pick up Friday night until Saturday. Sunday will be a beauty, though many will be inside watching the Eagles game.
A Philadelphia police officer on a motorcycle was struck by a vehicle in Northeast Philadelphia Thursday evening, and is in critical condition, officials said.
The type of his injuries was not immediately known after the crash at Rhawn Street and Rowland Avenue.
He was struck near Pennypack Park in the Holmesburg section of the city.
A heavily-damaged motorcycle could be seen in the middle of the street about 6 p.m. as an ambulance, with police escort, rushed the officer to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital on Knights Road.
He went into the hospital about 6:10 p.m. Police have not yet said what caused the crash.
A minivan with front-end damage was stopped feet from the motorcycle on Rhawn Street.
Check back for more details as they become known.
A 24-year veteran of the Philadelphia police department, Andy Chan, suffered a "very significant" head injury in a crash Thursday evening. The 48-year-old father of three was rushed into emergency surgery, and officials asked for the public's prayers that Chan pulls through following the surgery.
2019 is getting off to a type of start that will remind you of 2018: wet, rainy, stormy. But after a Saturday storm, Sunday turns into something worth venturing out in.
Damir Carter knew he shouldn't be up binge-watching "The Flash" on Netflix.
His mother told the 13-year-old to go to bed hours earlier. But now Damir's defiance is being credited with saving his family from a fire that destroyed their Delaware home.
The teen had been sent to bed by his mom around 9:30 p.m. but instead stayed up binging "The Flash" on his phone, which allowed him to wake up the family when a fire broke out around 1 a.m.
"If he was not awake I don't know the outcome because as soon as I had found out it was about four minutes and my kitchen was in flames," mom Angela Borden said.
Carter said he was watching Netflix when he began to hear things breaking. At first, he thought it was his cat playing around in the bathroom.
"I went to get up to check on her and then I saw smoke in my hallway and then I saw the fire," Carter said.
He immediately began yelling for his parents, though unbeknownst to him his dad was out working an overnight shift.
Carter's screams woke his mother and the two scrambled to open doors and let the pets out. Unfortunately, at least eight didn't make it before the flames consumed the trailer, including four dogs, a cat and three bearded dragons.
This is not the first time the family has lost a home to a fire. Around four years ago, another blaze destroyed their old home, Borden said.
Authorities told the family the cause of the most recent fire was a power strip that was pulling too much electricity and overheated.
Though they lost their possessions and some pets, Borden said she was just happy she and her son were safe.
Carter, meanwhile, is getting a pass on this instance of defying mom's orders.
"He didn't get grounded this time," Borden said.
As the Wild-Card weekend is almost here, NBC10's Steven Fisher is in Chicago catching up with Eagles fans. There's even an Eagles bar, Diag Bar & Grill, in the Windy City.
It used to be the stuff of stoner comedies and “Just Say No” campaigns. Today, marijuana is becoming mainstream as voters across the country approve ballot questions for legalization or medical use.
In response, state governments are testing ways to ensure that the integration of this once-illicit substance into everyday life doesn’t create new public health risks. These efforts are sparking a difficult question: At what point is someone too high to get behind the wheel?
The answer is complicated. Brain scientists and pharmacologists don’t know how to measure if and to what extent marijuana causes impairment.
The reason: Existing blood and urine tests can detect marijuana use, but, because traces of the drug stay in the human body for a long time, those tests can’t specify whether the use occurred earlier that day or that month. They also don’t indicate the level at which a driver would be considered “under the influence.”
“It’s a really hard problem,” said Keith Humphreys, a psychiatry professor and drug policy expert at Stanford University in California, the first state to legalize medical marijuana and where recreational pot use among adults became legal in 2016. “We don’t really have good evidence — even if we know someone has been using — [to gauge] what their level of impairment is.”
Marijuana is now legal for recreational use in 10 states and the District of Columbia — including Michigan, where a ballot initiative passed in November took effect Dec. 6. In New York, the governor said Dec. 17 that legalization would be a top priority for 2019. And nearly three dozen states have cleared the use of medical cannabis.
For alcohol, there is a clear, national standard. If your blood alcohol content (BAC) is 0.08 percent or higher, you’re considered cognitively impaired at a level that is unsafe to drive. Extensive research supports this determination, and the clarity makes enforcement of drunken driving laws easier.
Setting a marijuana-related impairment level is a much murkier proposition. But states that have legalized pot have to figure it out, experts said.
“You can’t legalize a substance and not have a coherent policy for controlling driving under the influence of that substance,” said Steven Davenport, an assistant policy researcher at the nonprofit Rand Corp., who specializes in marijuana research.
Marijuana, after all, weakens a driver’s ability to maintain focus, and it slows reflexes. But regulators are “playing catch-up,” suggested Thomas Marcotte, a psychiatry professor at the University of California-San Diego and one of a number of academics around the country who is researching driving while high.
States have put forth a bevy of approaches. At least five have what’s called a “per se” law, which outlaws driving if someone’s blood level of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, exceeds a set amount. THC is marijuana’s main intoxicant.
Colorado, where voters approved legalization of recreational marijuana in 2012, has this type of driving law on the books. It took three years to pass amid fiery debate and deems “intoxicated” any driver who tests higher than 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood.
Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Indiana are among states that forbid driving at any THC level. Still others say drivers should be penalized only if they are impaired by the chemical — a standard that sounds reasonable but quickly gets difficult to measure or even define.
None of these approaches offers an ideal solution, experts said.
“We’re still definitely evaluating which policies are the most effective,” said Ann Kitch, who tracks the marijuana and driving issue for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
States that set a THC-level standard confront weak technology and limited science. THC testing is imprecise at best, since the chemical can stay in someone’s bloodstream for weeks after it was ingested. Someone could legally smoke a joint and still have THC appear in blood or urine samples long after the high passes.
There’s general agreement that driving while high is bad, but there’s no linear relationship between THC levels and degree of impairment. States that have picked a number to reflect when THC in the bloodstream becomes a hazard have “made it up,” argued Humphreys.
“The ones who wrote [a number] into legislation felt they had to say something,” he said. But “we don’t know what would be the analogy. Is the legal amount [of THC] equal to a beer? Is that how impaired you are? Is it a six-pack?”
Roadside testing for THC is also logistically difficult.
Blood, for instance, needs to be analyzed in a lab, and collecting urine gets … complicated.
In Canada, which legalized recreational pot just this year, law enforcement will test drivers with a saliva test called the Dräger DrugTest 5000, but that isn’t perfect, either.
Some private companies are trying to develop a sort of breathalyzer for marijuana. But Jonathan Caulkins, a drug policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, said, “There are fundamental issues with the chemistry and pharmacokinetics. It’s really hard to have an objective, easy-to-administer roadside test.”
Some states rely on law enforcement to assess whether someone’s driving appears impaired, and ascertain after the fact if marijuana was involved.
In California, every highway patrol member learns to administer “field sobriety tests” — undergoing an extra 16 hours of training to recognize the influence of different drugs, including marijuana. Because medical marijuana has been legal there since 1996, officers are “very used” to recognizing its influence, said Glenn Glazer, the state’s coordinator for its drug recognition expert training program.
That kind of training is taking off in other states, too, Kitch said. Lobbying groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving are pushing to bump up law enforcement training and rely on officers to assess whether a driver is impaired.
These tests, though, risk their own kind of error.
“They are subjective,” Rand Corp.’s Davenport warned.
For one thing, officer-administered tests can be influenced by racial bias. Someone who has previously had poor experiences with law enforcement may also perform worse, not because of greater impairment but nervousness.
Indeed, relying on more subjective testing is in some ways the direct opposite of conventional wisdom.
“A general pattern of the last … 40 years is to try to take human judgment out of decision-making processes when possible. Because we fear exactly these issues,” Caulkins said. “The idea that you could come up with a completely objective test of performance … is ambitious.”
Researchers like Marcotte are trying to devise some kind of test that can, in fact, gauge whether someone is showing signs of marijuana impairment. But that could take years.
In the meantime, the public health threat is real. States with legalized pot do appear to experience more car crashes, though the relationship is muddled. “This is going to be a headache of an issue for a decade,” Caulkins said.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Police and firefighters were called to a residential West Philadelphia block overnight to find a woman’s body on fire.
They found the woman’s burning body between two cars parked along Ludlow Street near 44th Street just before 1:30 a.m. Friday, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. An accelerant, possibly gasoline, and lighter were found about 6 feet from the woman’s body.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames and pronounced the woman dead.
“She was burned from head to toe beyond recognition,” Small said.
Police couldn’t tell the woman’s age.
It was unclear if the woman was dead prior to being set on fire, police said.
The case remained under investigation Friday.
Philadelphia and its surrounding counties always have something going on. Whether it's a holiday light show, ice skating, Longwood Gardens Christmas or Three Kings Day, this area is full of holiday fun every weekend. We've found the top (and affordable) choices of what to do this weekend, Jan. 4-6, in Philly and down the shore.
What: Holiday Light Show
Watch the more 100 Christmas trees magically float and light up along the lake while listening to holiday classics.
Where: Historic Smithville, 615 E. Moss Mill Road, Smithville, NJ
When: Thursday through Sunday, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
What: Christmas in Peddler's Village
This holiday fest kicks off when Santa turns on the holiday lights to officially begin the holiday season. Enjoy festive holiday lights, food, visits with Santa and plenty of shopping opportunities throughout the season.
Where: Peddler's Village, 2400 Street Road, New Hope
When: through Saturday
Cost: Free
What: Three Kings Day
A holiday celebration largely for Spanish and Latin American communities, this event features music, food and gifts.
Where: Various locations including the Kimmel Center
When: Sunday
Cost: Varies
What: A Longwood Christmas
Thousands of poinsettias, Christmas trees, flowers and lights fill the indoor garden for the holidays. Seasonal music and the fountain dance outdoors is not to be missed either!
Where: Longwood Gardens, 1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square, Pa.
When: through Sunday
Cost: Varies
What: Winter at Dilworth Park
In the shadow of City Hall, families can enjoy ice skating, the Wintergarden, shopping and plenty of snacks and hot chocolate outside at Dilworth Park. Look for the light show projected onto City Hall at night, too!
Where: Dilworth Park, 1 S. 15th Street, Philadelphia
When: through Feb. 24, 2019
Cost: Free to explore
What: Blue Cross RiverRink Winterfest
When the weather gets chilly, head to rink for some ice skating, fire pits, food, drinks, an arcade and more.
Where: Blue Cross RiverRink Winterfest, 101 S. Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia
When: through March 3, from 1 to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday
Cost: Free for general admission, $4 skating admission, $10 skate rentals
Local businesses in our area our seeing green now that the Eagles are in the playoffs. Delis and bakers will be working around the clock in the next couple of days to fill your orders for Sunday's game.
Just two weeks after issuing a recall for 874,000 F-Series pickups, Ford is announcing another two additional recalls of approximately 953,000 vehicles over Takata airbag inflators and an insufficient seat weld.
The larger of the two recalls is related to airbag inflators. Ford said in a news release Friday they were expanding the safety recall to 953,000 vehicles after the manufacturer declared more inflators were defective.
"This action represents a planned expansion of previously recalled vehicles to additional model years within the geographic zones defined earlier by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration," Ford said in a statement.
Ford said the recall expansion included 782,384 vehicles in the United States and federalized territories and 149,652 in Canada. A list of the vehicles affected by the recall expansion is below:
• 2010 Ford Edge and 2010 Lincoln MKX vehicles built at Oakville Assembly Plant, Nov. 28, 2008 to July 12, 2010
• 2010-11 Ford Ranger vehicles built at Twin Cities, Aug. 14, 2008 to June 21, 2014
• 2010-12 Ford Fusion, 2010-12 Lincoln MKZ and 2010-11 Mercury Milan vehicles built at Hermosillo Assembly Plant, July 3, 2008 to July 29, 2012
• 2010-14 Ford Mustang vehicles built at Flat Rock Assembly Plant, June 8, 2009 to Dec. 16, 2011
Ford also announced a second recall over insufficient seat welds in certain 2019 EcoSport vehicles. The bad weld is between the side member and A-bracket on the front seat back and may reduce the strength of the weld, potentially increasing the risk of injury in a crash.
This action affects approximately 87 EcoSport vehicles in North America including 63 in the United States and federalized territories and 13 in Canada, Ford said.
No injuries have been reported with the passenger side frontal inflators or the bad weld included in these recalls, Ford said.
Recall repairs will be done at local dealerships at no cost to the customer. Ford said they'll replace the frontal airbag inflator or module on those affected vehicles and they'll replace the front seats on the EcoSport vehicles with insufficient welds.
If your vehicle is in need of repair due to a recall, contact your local Ford dealer.
ONLINE: North American Ford Vehicles Recalled
A special prosecutor will oversee the investigation into the controversial Mariner East pipelines that have pitted Chester County residents against the energy companies responsible for the project.
Seth Weber, a former federal prosecutor who served for 26 years as Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, will act as special prosecutor over the investigation, the Chester County District Attorney's Office announced Friday.
Weber currently works as an adjunct professor at Villanova and DeSales universities, but spent his career prosecuting environmental crimes, as well as political corruption, drugs and violent crimes.
"I look forward to being part of the Chester County District Attorney's Office team of prosecutors and investigators," Weber said in a statement. "Working together, we want to do everything possible to avoid any risk of environmental hazards which may endanger the citizens of Chester County."
The investigation into the pipelines began in December 2018 and is focusing on both past and future construction of the three pipelines that, collectively, span three states, including several local counties.
Potential charges could include causing or risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief, environmental crimes and corrupt organizations, according to Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan, who welcomed Weber's involvement in the investigation.
"In the last two years, we have seen these pipelines rip through the heart of Chester County ... We have seen sinkholes created by the pipeline drilling, contaminated well water and some subtle, and not-so-subtle, bullying of Chester County citizens by big corporate interests."
The investigation involves Sunoco Pipeline's Mariner East projects stretching across the region, including near heavily populated areas, railroad tracks and schools.
The Mariner East 1, 2 and 2X pipelines were created to funnel natural gas from western Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery in Delaware County. From there, the gas would be transported to Ohio and West Virginia.
Natural gas liquid includes propane, ethane, butane and natural gasoline that can be used for heating, cooking and filling up motor vehicle gas tanks.
Part of the problem in Chester County, Hogan said, is that much of the area is built on limestone, which is easily disturbed. Residents in East Whiteland Township have reported sinkholes in their backyards and a Beaver County home was destroyed when a portion of pipeline burst this fall, according to the district attorney's office.
"They can't cut corners," Hogan said of the energy partners. "They cannot make a mistake here."
Construction of the multi-billion dollar pipelines has been fraught from the beginning. Since their inception, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has issued more than 80 violation notices to Sunoco and collected more than $13 million in penalties, according to Gov. Tom Wolf's office. This included enforcing a one-month shutdown and setting guidelines to alert nearby public and private water suppliers prior to pipeline construction.
Despite these efforts, accidents continued to happen.
Last year, a leak in Delaware County caused thousands of gallons of drilling mud to flow into Chester Creek in Middletown Township, Pennsylvania.
The mud, which consisted of potable water and non-toxic bentonite clay, entered a tributary of the creek near the pipeline.
Later, a judge granted an injunction to halt construction in West Goshen Township after officials accused Sunoco Pipeline LP of violating a settlement agreement. A spokesperson for West Goshen claimed Sunoco started construction to install and operate the pipeline near Greenhill and Boot roads without notifying local officials.
The parent company, Energy Transfer LP of Dallas, Texas, said it was "surprised" to learn of the investigation and "vehemently" denied any wrongdoing in an emailed statement.
"We are confident that we have not acted to violate any criminal laws in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and we are committed to aggressively defending ourselves against these baseless allegations," the statement said.
Meanwhile, Wolf said he welcomed the opportunity to speak with any "partners who want to constructively talk about improving state oversight."
"The commonwealth is living up to our promise to hold this project accountable to the strong protections in the permits and our abilities under existing law," a spokesman for Wolf said in a statement.
But Hogan bristled at the notion that the Wolf administration has been monitoring the pipelines.
"I'd like to see the governor step up, step in and actually do something," Hogan snapped.
The Pennsylvania Farm Show has debuted a new piece of butter art. The half-ton work is sculpted from butter donated by Land 'O Lakes in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The sculpture is based on the "Find Your Power" campaign and features an athlete, a soldier, a doctor, a firefighter, and a dairy farmer. Jim Victor and Marie Pelton of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, started crafting the artwork in mid-December.
