The Department of Justice approved UnitedHealth’s acquisition of Nevada insurer Sierra Health Tuesday, allowing the top US health plan provider to widen its girth yet again …
Archive for February, 2008
Hallmark/Westland beef recall: shutting the barn door just a little too late
by Barbara Murray, February 28, 2008, 7:00 am“We’re dead meat.”
That’s what Anthony Magidow, general manager at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. said last week after his company recalled some 143 million pounds of beef produced by the Chino, California meatpacker since February 2006. It is the largest beef recall in US history.
An interesting …
Genentech wins big with Avastin approval, but will patients lose?
by Kristi Park, February 27, 2008, 6:37 amGenentech scored a huge regulatory victory recently when the FDA approved its cancer drug Avastin as a treatment for breast cancer. The approval came as a surprise: An agency advisory committee had recommended against approval back in December.
There’s no denying this is big for …
Slave-free Chocolate: Who’s making your sweets?
by Barbara Murray, February 26, 2008, 5:06 amNestled in that red heart-shaped box of bon-bons you received this past Valentine’s Day is a boatload of guilt. It’s not just the calories — our waistlines and cholesterol counts having barely recovered from our Christmas/Hanukah/New Year’s eating extravaganzas — but it’s also knowing that there are people …
Microdisplays, big-screen TVs, and business failures
by Jeff Dorsch, February 25, 2008, 7:00 amThis is the story of an eye-opening technology that promises to revolutionize the way we watch TV, play video games, and show presentations. It is also the story of how the same technology has led to the failure of two small companies, to two others abandoning the technology, …
Oil sands — the vast oil resource that doesn’t flow
by Stuart Hampton, February 22, 2008, 7:00 amIt’s a viscous lie. No, it’s the truth. Not all oil flows.
Canada and Venezuela both have oil sands (bituminous sands) reserves about equal to the world’s total reserves of conventional crude oil. World energy crisis solved then, right? …
Penney’s billion dollar gamble on Ralph Lauren
by Alexandra Biesada, February 21, 2008, 6:01 amRalph Lauren is coming soon to a J.C. Penney store near you. Actually the blue-eyed arbiter of American WASP style won’t be appearing in person. Rather, Ralph’s new …
UK government nationalizes Northern Rock
by Patrice Sarath, February 20, 2008, 6:02 amFirst a run and now nationalization: Northern Rock is a poster child for the subprime mortgage crisis — and it’s not even an American bank. Despite two offers to buy the ailing bank, one from Virgin …
Can Warren Buffett play the bond market?
by Ryan Caione, February 19, 2008, 6:53 amThat imp Warren Buffett is at it again. America’s favorite financial guru (and the mastermind behind legendary Berkshire Hathaway) has offered a helping hand to that most mundane and arcane of sectors, the bond insurers. The companies no one hears about until …
Baxter, FDA trapped in horror story over mysterious heparin quality blunders
by Anne Law, February 15, 2008, 6:50 amThe tale begins with pharmaceutical maker Baxter International’s January recall of nine batches of its heparin drug after reports of possible adverse reactions, including four deaths. Baxter is responsible for …
