CALIFORNIA - Major restaurant chains including Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang’s wil be required to post warnings for customers about mercury in fish, as part of a settlement announced early Feb. by Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
“We’re not trying to discourage people from eating fish, which is an important source of protein and an important part [...]

Ten of the 32 drug safety experts who voted to keep Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx on the market had ties to either Pfizer Inc., or Merck & Company, an advocacy group said.
The Food and Drug Administration on February 16-18, 2005 held an advisory committee meeting to discuss the cardiovascular risks posed by pain relief drugs [...]

A new study found Perchlorate, a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel, in every one of 36 samples of breast milk taken from nursing mothers in 18 states.
The study by Texas Tech University comes after Environmental Protection Agency adopted a reference dose of perchlorate in drinking water that is not expected to cause adverse health [...]

ChoicePoint, a data-aggregation company, said Monday that it is notifying nearly 145,000 consumers nationwide whose confidential data - including credit reports and Social Security numbers - may have been obtained through fraud.
The company said it is unknown how many of these approximately 145,000 consumers may be actual victims of identity theft. Law enforcement officials have [...]

Two residents of San Francisco filed a class action lawsuit against Dell, the world’s largest personal computer maker, accusing the company of “systematically” deceiving customers who buy dell products.
The lawsuit alleges that Dell uses “multi-media advertising, bait-and-switch marketing tactics and false promises of low-cost financing to lure and defraud purchasers with installment payment schemes offered [...]

Hundreds of Vioxx lawsuits, individual and class actions, will be consolidated in a federal court in New Orleans before Judge Eldon E. Fallon, favored by many plaintiffs’ lawyers, the New York Times reported last week.
The lawsuits filed against Merck & Company allege death and heart problems from taking its pain relief drug Vioxx.
According to the [...]

Saying it is a critical step toward ending the lawsuit culture in our country, President Bush signed on Friday a bill that makes it harder for Americans to hold companies accountable that violate state consumer, health, civil rights and environmental protection laws.
The so-called “Class Action Fairness Act 2005″ makes it easier for defendants to move [...]

At least 259 Texans died in 2002 from an asbestos-related disease, according to a new report on asbestos mortality by the Environmental Working Group. More than one third of the deaths in 2002 (103) were in Houston with 44, Beaumont with 34, and Dallas with 25.
The report, “A Slow Death in Texas,” is based on [...]

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, agreed last month to pay $135,540 for violating the youth employment provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the U.S. Department of Labor announced on Monday.
The department’s investigation revealed that Wal-Mart allowed 85 teenage workers to operate hazardous equipment at stores in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Arkansas, resulting in one [...]

A federal judge granted preliminary approval on Wednesday to a $1 billion settlement between 298 companies that issued initial public stock offerings during the internet bubble and thousands of investors who cliam they were victims of fraud.
The agreement, reached in June 2003, shifts focus on the investbanks. Investors legal claims against them are still pending.
Plaintiffs [...]