NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Overdose antidote: A company whose prescription opioid marketing practices are being blamed for sparking the addiction and overdose crisis says it’s helping to fund an effort to make a lower-cost overdose antidote. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma announced Wednesday that it’s making a $3.4 million grant to Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, to help develop a low-cost naloxone nasal spray. The announcement comes as lawsuits from local governments blaming Purdue, based in Stamford, Conn., and other companies in the drug industry for using deceptive marketing practices to encourage heavy prescribing of addictive painkillers. Last week, the number of lawsuits against the industry being overseen by a federal judge topped 1,000.
2 Tropical storm: Blamed for the death of a Florida baby and intense wind and rain that pummeled parts of the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, Tropical Depression Gordon weakened Wednesday but still spread bands of heavy rains across a swath of the South as it swirled over central Mississippi. It promised more of the same on a forecast track expected to take it northeast into Arkansas, which was forecast to get heavy rain Wednesday evening. By Saturday, what’s left of the storm was forecast to hook to the north, then northeast on a path toward the Great Lakes.
3 Plane quarantined: A large commercial jet from Dubai caused a scare on Wednesday after a pilot radioed that it would be landing at New York’s Kennedy Airport carrying several passengers and crew members who fell ill with flu-like symptoms. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immediately quarantined the double-decker Emirates aircraft holding 520 passengers so it could evaluate about 100 of them. Some had complained about coughs, headaches, sore throats and fevers.
4 $1 fine: A Virginia man convicted of an assault against the organizer of last summer’s violent white nationalist rally during a news conference has been handed a $1 fine with no jail time. Prosecutors said Jeffrey Winder could be seen on video punching Jason Kessler, who was mobbed after he attempted to hold a news conference on the day after violence erupted in Charlottesville. The Daily Progress reports Winder was found guilty of misdemeanor assault and battery for a second time during an appeal trial Tuesday. The jury could have sentenced Winder to up to 12 months of jail time and $2,500 in fines.
5 Terror plot: A Boston police captain’s son, who authorities called a “committed soldier” of the Islamic State, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for plotting to use assault rifles and homemade bombs to kill Americans on a college campus. Alexander Ciccolo pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in May, three years after his father alerted the FBI about his son’s desire to fight for the terror group. Ciccolo was arrested after receiving four guns from a person who was cooperating with the FBI.