RECORD $417M AWARD IN BABY POWDER SUIT
ANGELES» A Los Angeles LOS jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay a record $417 million to a hospitalized woman who claimed in a lawsuit that the talc in the company’s iconic baby powder causes ovarian cancer when applied regularly for feminine hygiene.
The verdict in the lawsuit brought by the California woman, Eva Echeverria, marks the largest sum awarded in a series of talcum powder verdicts against Johnson & Johnson in courts around the U.S.
Echeverria alleged the company failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder’s potential risks. She used its baby powder on a daily basis beginning in the 1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to court papers.
Echeverria developed ovarian cancer as a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder,” she said in her lawsuit.
Echeverria’s attorney said his client is undergoing cancer treatment while hospitalized and told him she hoped the verdict would lead Johnson & Johnson to put additional warnings on its products.
Management shakeup at L.A. Times.
LOS ANGELES
» In a dramatic shakeup at the Los Angeles Times, its Chicago-based parent company has installed new leadership and plans to invest more resources in the news organization to move it more quickly into the digital age.
Ross Levinsohn, 54, a veteran media executive who worked at Fox and served as interim chief of Yahoo, was named publisher and chief executive of the 135-year-old news organization. The move was announced Monday by Justin Dearborn, chief executive of Tronc, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times and eight other daily papers.
Jim Kirk, 52, a veteran Chicago news executive, who was publisher and editor of the Chicago Sun-Times until last week, was named interim editor of the storied newspaper.
The two men replace Davan Maharaj, who has served as both editor and publisher since March 2016. Maharaj and a handful of other senior editors also were terminated Monday morning.
Boeing, Northrop win contracts for missile work.
WASHINGTON» The Air Force said Monday it has awarded contracts to Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. for work that could lead to replacement of the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The contracts are part of a planned overhaul of the U.S. nuclear arsenal that will cost tens of billions of dollars. The Air Force said it gave Boeing a $349 million contract and Northrop Grumman a $329 million award to advance the technology needed to replace the Minuteman III missiles that date to the 1970s. A third bidder was Lockheed Martin Corp.
Android operating system gets its official name.
At the height of the day’s solar eclipse in New York, Google finally revealed the name of its latest Android operating system - in honor of another dark disc: the Oreo. The company turned the beloved cookie into a superhero based on the familiar Android robot logo. Google traditionally names its operating systems after sweet treats; its last system was called Nougat.
Google did not pay the famous cookie’s maker, Mondelez, any money to use the name.