U.S. Courts News Reporter
You can hit your snooze button a little later on Tuesdays. Effective January 1, 2025, the Court of Appeals’ scheduled filing days for opinions will be the first and third Wednesday of the month, Since the Court will be issuing a big batch of opinions on New Year’s Eve (and no one wants to read opinions on New Year’s Day), January 15 will be January 2025’s only opinion release date. The rest of the year will follow the new schedule.… Read the rest
On December 11, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published a Special Fraud Alert warning against suspect payment arrangements involving the Medicare Advantage (“MA”) program which could implicate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”), the False Claims Act (“FCA”), and other health care fraud and abuse laws. These suspect payment schemes can improperly steer Medicare enrollees to specific MA plans or health care providers based upon financial incentives rather than the enrollees’ needs.
OIG … Read the rest
And, undercooked burgers.
Minnesota health officials are urging people to contact their health care provider if they ate a hamburger, especially if undercooked, at a table-service restaurant since Oct. 31 and then developed diarrhea, particularly bloody diarrhea, in the following week.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has identified at least 10 cases of E. coli O157:H7 infection in people who had eaten burgers at multiple locations of Red Cow, a table-service restaurant chain with locations in Hennepin, Ramsey … Read the rest
County officials in California are urging the public to not consume unpasteurized, raw milk because it may have caused a bird flu infection in a child.
Marin County Public Health is reporting a suspected case of bird flu in a child who experienced fever and vomiting after drinking raw milk. The child has recovered, and no other family members became sick, indicating no person-to- person transmission, according to the health department.
There have been 32 confirmed cases of bird flu … Read the rest
6 min read
The Federal Government has released a proposal paper for consultation on the framework for a new digital competition regime, which aims to promote competition by addressing anti-competitive conduct, unfair treatment of business users and barriers to entry and expansion that prevent effective competition in digital platform markets.
The regime outlined in the proposal is broadly similar to the framework recommended by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in … Read the rest
The Federal Court recently refused to order a defendant to produce samples of cell culture because there was no “reasonable possibility” that testing the samples would yield evidence of patent infringement. In pharmaceutical patent cases, testing samples of a defendant’s product – or samples from a defendant’s process – can lead to crucial evidence of infringement for trial. However, as seen in the Court’s recent decision, a defendant can resist producing samples where the plaintiff only proposes “speculative undefined tests”. … Read the rest
As of November 17, 2024, 39 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli have been reported from 18 states according to the CDC: Wyoming 1, Washington 8, Virginia 1, Texas 1, South Carolina 2, Pennsylvania 1, Oregon 3, Ohio 1, North Carolina 1, New York 5, New Jersey 2, Missouri 1, Minnesota 5, Michigan 1, Massachusetts 1, Colorado 1, California 3 and Arkansas 1. Illnesses started on dates ranging from September 6, 2024 to October 28, 2024. Of … Read the rest
“Over the last few months, we have seen a stunning number of outbreaks, and I know because I have been doing this work since the 1993 Jack-in-the-Box E. coli Outbreak,” said William “Bill” Marler. “From Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli and foods as varied as cucumbers, deli meat, chicken, carrots, hamburger, onions, lettuce and eggs, it seems that out food safety net is fraying at best and broken at worst, and we are not even talking about the countless … Read the rest