Republican lawmakers want to know what would make financial regulators step in and force troubled banks to sell its assets or take other drastic steps, Reuters reports.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg got the third degree from House lawmakers over how to deal with compounding pharmacies linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak, according to The Hill’s Healthwatch blog.

A new slate of eight GOP bills is aimed at curtailing the president’s authority to set aside land under the Antiquities Act, RegWatch reports.

The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said regulators would pounce if Google violates the terms of its recent antitrust settlement, according to Reuters.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint with the FTC accusing wireless carriers of “deceptive” practices for failing to keep Android smartphones updated, leaving them susceptible to hackers, The Washington Post reports.

The Obama administration is delaying Tax Day for all of those affected by the bomb attacks in Boston on Monday.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday blocked drug manufacturers from making a generic version of the addictive drug OxyContin.

A global biotechnology company has agreed to pay $24.9 million to settle allegations that it paid off pharmacy providers to get patients to switch to its own drug.

Amgen, based out of California, will pay the the settlement to resolve charges that it gave kickbacks to three long-term care pharmacy providers to implement a program designed to get Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to switch to Aranesp, a drug used to treat the blood disorder anemia.

The Department of Justice claims the company gave performance-based rebates to the pharmacy providers in exchange for getting people to switch to the drug. Read more...

The Produce Marketing Association (PMA) named Dr, Jim Gorny to serve as its vice president for food safety and technology, the industry group announced Tuesday.

Gorny, formerly an advisor at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), comes to the group at a time when the food safety world is in flux, thanks to a sweeping overhaul proposed by the Obama administration in January. If enacted, the new regulations would reflect the biggest changes to American food safety policies since the 1930s.

A federal board is enacting an increase in royalty rates that satellite radio and subscription distributors of music pay to be able to broadcast music.

The rates are paid by Sirius XM satellite radio, the cable TV music service Music Choice and the music distributor Muzak to the nonprofit organization SoundExchange, which distributes the money to artists and rights owners.

Music Choice and Muzak, which sell music subscriptions, are the only two companies the government refers to as "preexisting subscription services," and Sirius XM is the only satellite radio service that the government regulates. The new rates were determined by the Copyright Royalty Board, a division of the Library of Congress tasked with determining royalty rates. Read more...

A leading consumer advocacy group is throwing its support behind a proposal to make it legal for people to unlock their cellphones and shop around for another wireless service provider, once their contract is complete.

Consumers Union, the policy arm of the publication Consumer Reports, lauded last month’s announcements from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the White House in support of the change.

The growing support for the rule-change, “presents an important opportunity to empower consumers with greater choice in how they obtain mobile devices and wireless service,” the group wrote in letters to the FCC, and leaders in both chambers of Congress.

Read more...

Rep. Duffy said if "community banks can't get dollars out the door" the whole community suffers.

Particles that were in the air after the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City could cause breast cancer, according to new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)