PENNSYLVANIA, WISCONSIN
Election recounts at end
Presidential election recount efforts came to an end Monday in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with both states certifying Donald Trump as the winner in contests that helped put him over the top in the Electoral College stakes. Trump’s Wisconsin win was reaffirmed after a vote recount that showed him defeating Hillary Clinton by nearly 23,000 votes. Meanwhile, a federal judge issued a stinging rejection of a Green Party-backed request to recount ballots in Pennsylvania’s presidential vote and scan some counties’ election systems for signs of hacking.
WASHINGTON
Funds aid health research
With a stroke of his pen Tuesday, President Barack Obama will commit billions of dollars in federal funds to boost medical research. The budget increase for the National Institutes of Health is authorized in the 21st Century Cures Act. The act, passed with rare bipartisan support, includes $1 billion in grant money to help states fight the opioid epidemic, $1.8 billion for Vice President Joe Biden’s “moonshot” to cure cancer and $4.8 billion for the National Institutes of Health over a decade.
CHICAGO
Surge in addicted babies
A surge in U.S. infants born with symptoms of withdrawal from heroin or strong prescription painkillers is driven largely by rising drug use among women in rural areas, a new study found. The problem in urban and rural areas was about the same in 2004 — about 1 in 1,000 births were affected. But by 2013, the rural rate had climbed to almost 8 in 1,000. In urban areas, it reached 5 per 1,000 births. The rates correspond with women’s use of opioid drugs during pregnancy. This includes use of prescription painkillers and illegal narcotics.
NEW YORK
34,000 accounts hacked
Medical laboratory operator Quest Diagnostics said a Nov. 26 hack of an internet application on its network has exposed the personal health information of about 34,000 customers. The data included names, dates of birth, lab results and, in some cases, telephone numbers but not Social Security numbers, credit card accounts or any other financial information.
Compiled from wire reports.