Doctors paid billions by industry, U.S. says

WASHINGTON – From research grants to travel junkets, drug and medical device companies paid doctors and leading hospitals billions of dollars last year, the government disclosed Tuesday in a new effort to spotlight potential ethical conflicts in medicine.

Industry spent nearly $3.5 billion on such payments in the five-month period from August through December 2013, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which released data on 4.4 million payments.

The massive trove of information named companies and many of the recipients. Also listed were types of payments, with details down to travel destinations. About 546,000 clinicians and 1,360 teaching hospitals received payments. Some doctors had ownership stakes in companies.

It’s part of a new initiative called Open Payments, mandated by President Barack Obama’s health-care law.

Plastic bag makers to seek repeal of law

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed the nation’s first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery and convenience stores, driven to action by pollution in streets and waterways.

A national coalition of plastic bag manufacturers immediately said it would seek a voter referendum to repeal the law, which is scheduled to take effect in July 2015.

Under the bill, plastic bags will be phased out of checkout counters at large grocery stores and supermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Target starting next summer, and convenience stores and pharmacies in 2016. The law does not apply to bags used for fruits, vegetables or meats, or to shopping bags used at other retailers. It allows grocers to charge a fee of at least 10 cents for using paper bags.

Beheading was act of revenge, DA says

An Oklahoma man was charged with murder and assault Tuesday after he allegedly beheaded a co-worker in revenge for being suspended from work, a prosecutor said.

Although Alton Alexander Nolen was a recent convert to Islam and used Arabic terms during his assault, police said there are no known links to Islamist terrorists or the recent beheadings of Westerners in Syria. However, one official said Nolen apparently had “an infatuation with beheadings.”

If convicted, Nolen, 30, could face the death penalty in the knife attack last week at a Vaughan Foods plant in Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City. He is charged with killing one co-worker and wounding another, said Greg Mashburn, the district attorney for the area, which includes Cleveland County.

Associated Press, The Washington Post