Proponents of raw milk are pushing to make the unpasteurized product more widely available and easy to obtain. More than three dozen bills supporting raw milk have been introduced in statehouses across the nation, the AP found. The momentum is growing even as a new outbreak sickens U.S. children. Health officials have long warned that raw milk can contain potentially deadly germs. But government officials like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with social media influencers, have fueled sharp new interest in unproven health benefits.
Backers of raw milk are pushing to make the potentially dangerous product more widely available, even as a new disease outbreak sickens U.S. children. More than three dozen bills supporting raw milk have been introduced in statehouses, The Associated Press found. More states are legalizing it. Top government officials and internet influencers are helping drive this momentum. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downed shots of raw milk at the White House last year and previously promised to halt “aggressive suppression” of the product. Social media posts about raw milk have surged. This alarms public health officials, who warn that unpasteurized milk can harbor risky germs.
The Supreme Court is siding with a faith-based pregnancy center that raised First Amendment concerns about an investigation into whether it misled people to discourage abortions. The high court’s ruling Wednesday is a procedural victory for First Choice Women’s Resource Centers. It's challenging a New Jersey probe of its practices. The conservative-majority court has given abortion opponents high-profile wins in recent years, most notably the watershed case that overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022. First Choice had also drawn support from the American Civil Liberties Union, which supports abortion rights but backed the group’s First Amendment concerns.
An Associated Press investigation finds that a business known for tough-love boarding schools for rebellious, rich teenagers has set its sights on a different demographic: adopted kids. Experts say adoptees account for an estimated 25-40% of those in residential treatment. What some call the “troubled teen industry,” a sprawling network of loosely regulated, for-profit residential treatment centers and boarding schools advertise to adoptive parents, promising to help adoptees heal, at a cost as high as $20,000 a month. Adoptees told AP they believe were in a shadow orphanage system where children end up institutionalized in oppressive, sometimes abusive facilities.
Takeaways from an Associated Press investigation that finds a business known for tough-love boarding schools for rebellious, rich teenagers has set its sights on a different demographic: adopted kids. Experts say adoptees account for an estimated 25-40% of those in residential treatment. What some call the “troubled teen industry,” a sprawling network of loosely regulated, for-profit residential treatment centers and boarding schools advertise to adoptive parents, promising to help adoptees heal, at a cost as high as $20,000 a month. Adoptees told AP they believe they were in a shadow orphanage system where children end up institutionalized in oppressive, sometimes abusive facilities.
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is expected to be ordered to pay $225 million in a criminal case related to how it sold its blockbuster opioid painkiller. If a judge accepts the negotiated deal on Tuesday, it opens the door for a separate settlement of thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids to take effect. Under that deal, the company would dissolve and members of the Sackler family who own the company would pay up to $7 billion over 15 years. Some advocates want that deal blocked and are calling on members of the family to be criminally charged instead.
Tick season seems to be off to a fast start, with an unusually high number of bites already reported across the country. Some U.S. doctors are worried about the potential for a bad year for tick-borne diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an early advisory to the public this week to guard against ticks.