Be Heard

Over 6,000 Lay’s bags in Pacific Northwest contain undeclared dairy ingredient Frito-Lay initiated a recall of 6,344 bags of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips on December 18, 2024, after discovering undeclared milk ingredients in select packages. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that the safety alert affected 13-ounce bags distributed exclusively in Oregon and Washington....

Police Trace Identity of Subway Attack Victim After Nine-Day Investigation Debrina Kawam, a 57-year-old former Merck employee from Toms River, New Jersey, died after being set on fire while sleeping on a New York City subway train on December 22, 2024. Police identified Kawam on December 31 following a nine-day investigation using forensics and surveillance...

Denver Airport Workers Report Illness Following Company-Provided Holiday Dinner A food safety incident at Denver International Airport affected United Airlines employees who consumed company-provided Christmas meals on December 25, 2024. The Association of Flight Attendants confirmed that 24 employees reported food poisoning symptoms from the 492-holiday meals served to flight attendants. United Airlines launched an...

Two Dead, Thousands Without Power as Rare Late-December Storm System Moves East The final days of 2024 brought devastating tornadoes across the Southern United States, killing two people and leaving thousands without power. The storm system spawned at least 40 reported tornadoes from Texas to Alabama on December 28 and 29, with confirmed touchdowns destroying...

Holiday Performance Halted After Multiple Drones Fall Into Crowd A 7-year-old boy underwent emergency open-heart surgery after being struck by a falling drone during Orlando’s Holiday Drone Show at Lake Eola Park on December 21, 2024. The incident occurred during the first of two scheduled performances when multiple drones collided mid-air and plummeted into the...

Whistleblower Exposes Company’s Knowledge of Chemical Risks Dating to 1970s In a startling revelation, former 3M scientist Kris Hansen has come forward about her 1997 discovery of PFAS chemicals in human blood samples and the company’s subsequent efforts to downplay the findings. Hansen, who was 28 then, recently disclosed that 3M executives had known about...

State Files 100-Page Lawsuit Against UnitedHealth Group and Express Scripts in Summit County Court The Utah Attorney General’s Office and Utah Division of Consumer Protection filed a nearly 100-page lawsuit on December 23, 2024, against UnitedHealth Group and Express Scripts, targeting their alleged role in fueling the state’s opioid crisis. Filed in Summit County’s 3rd...

Southern California Wildfire Destroyed Multiple Structures, Threatened Coastal Communities The Franklin Fire erupted in Southern California’s Malibu Canyon on December 10, forcing 20,000 residents to evacuate as fierce Santa Ana winds pushed flames toward the coastal community. The blaze consumed 3,000 acres, destroyed seven structures, and jumped the Pacific Coast Highway during its initial spread....

Developer Harnesses Million Weekly Scans for Real-World Mapping Niantic, the developer behind Pokemon Go, revealed its development of a Large Geospatial Model (LGM) trained on player-submitted location data. The company collects one million new location scans weekly through its Visual Positioning System, building a dataset that enables AI to predict and map real-world locations. On...

Medical Toxicologists Identify Six Everyday Items Linked to Chronic Health Conditions Medical toxicologists at leading U.S. healthcare institutions have identified six everyday household products that could pose serious health risks through regular use. Dr. Peter Chai from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dr. Natasha Bhuyan from One Medical reveal that products ranging from nonstick cookware...

Environmental Science & Technology Letters Study Reveals PFHxA Concentrations Up to 16,000 PPB University of Notre Dame researchers discovered dangerous perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) levels in smartwatch bands, with concentrations reaching 16,000 parts per billion in premium models. The December 18, 2024 study, published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, tested 22 commercial wristbands across various...

Mohawk Industries Claims Deception While Multiple Cities Face Water Contamination Dalton, Georgia’s carpet manufacturing industry, faces unprecedented scrutiny as Mohawk Industries pursues legal action against 3M, claiming the chemical giant concealed information about harmful PFAS chemicals. The city of Dalton escalated the crisis on December 10 by filing its own federal lawsuit against Shaw Industries...