FDA proposes shorter deadline for e-cigarette applications

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it can advance the date for the submission of e-cigarette applications, responding to a ruling that the agency had exceeded its authority by allowing e-cigarettes to remain on the market until 2022 before companies applied for regulatory approval.

The FDA in a court filing on Wednesday proposed adoption of a timeline of not less than 10 months to submit the applications after a final ruling, if the court decides not to remand the case back to the agency for further action.

“Should the Court order premarket applications to be submitted by a date certain, it should set that deadline no sooner than 10 months from the date of its decision, along with a one-year period for FDA review,” FDA said in the court filing.

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Trump asserts executive privilege to withhold documents on citizenship census question

President Donald Trump has asserted executive privilege to withhold documents from Congress about the administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

A Wednesday Department of Justice letterexplaining the decision said the materials were being withheld to protect the deliberative process as well as attorney-client privilege and attorney work product. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have coverage.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr had asked Trump on Tuesday to assert the privilege. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform had scheduled a Wednesday vote on whether to recommend that Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross be held in contempt for failing to turn over the materials.

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Ohio doctor charged with 25 counts of murder for giving fatal opioid doses

An Ohio doctor was charged with 25 counts of murder for administering high and sometimes fatal doses of opioid painkillers to dozens of very sick patients, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The doctor, William Husel, turned himself in to Columbus police following a six-month long investigation into what Mount Carmel Hospital called his administration of “inappropriate” doses of fentanyl to patients, Franklin County prosecutor Ron O’Brien said at a news conference.

He became the latest in a wave of U.S. doctors charged for their role in a public health crisis that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said led to a record 47,600 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2017.

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Illinois posed to legalize marijuana sales, expunge criminal records for pot crimes

Illinois is poised to legalize marijuana sales with sweeping legislation that would also automatically expunge the criminal records of people convicted of minor pot possession.

State lawmakers gave final approval to the bill Friday and Gov. JB Pritzker said he will sign the measure, which make Illinois the first state to legalize marijuana sales via its legislature. Most other states that have legalized cannabis did so via a ballot initiative process. Vermont’s legislature legalized cannabis but prohibited commercial sales.

“This will have a transformational impact on our state, creating opportunity in the communities that need it most and giving so many a second chance,” Pritzker said in a statement. “In the interest of equity and criminal justice reform, I look forward to signing this monumental legislation.”

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U.S. Supreme Court sides with Native American elk hunter

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of a Native American elk hunter, citing an 1868 treaty between his tribe and the U.S. government as it revived his legal challenge to a conviction for hunting out of season in Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming.

In a 5-4 ruling, the high court sided with Crow Tribe member Clayvin Herrera. It found that the treaty, which gave tribe members hunting rights on “unoccupied” lands, is still in force even though it was signed before Wyoming became a U.S. state in 1890.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who has a record of backing tribal rights, sided with the court’s four liberals, with the other four conservative justices in dissent. The same lineup voted in favor of tribal rights in a previous case this term, ruling that members of the Yakima Nation did not have to pay taxes for importing fuel into Washington state.

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