Calif. AG to review video targeting Planned Parenthood

July 25, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris said Friday that she plans to review undercover videos released by anti-abortion activists aimed at discrediting Planned Parenthood’s procedures for providing fetal tissue to researchers to see if any laws were broken.

Harris announced the move in a letter to four members of Congress who had requested an investigation, saying she’ll use her office’s authority to regulate charity organizations to see if the organization that made the videos violated registration or reporting requirements, or broke any other rules.

The video shows a Planned Parenthood medical director in California meeting with people posing as potential buyers of intact fetal specimens.

Turkish jets hit targets in Syria

ANKARA, Turkey

Turkish jets flying from a base in Turkey’s southeast have struck Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria for the second-straight night, Turkish news reports said today. The fighter jets also hit camps of Kurdish PKK militants in northern Iraq, the reports said.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the airstrikes reported by the state-run TRT television and other media. If confirmed, it would be the first time Turkey has struck Kurds in northern Iraq since a peace deal was announced in 2013 between Ankara and the rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Anthem to buy Cigna for $48 billion

NEW YORK

Anthem is buying rival Cigna for $48 billion in a deal that would create the nation’s largest health insurer by enrollment, covering about 53 million U.S. patients.

In just three weeks, starting with Aetna’s $35 billion bid for Humana Inc. on July 3, the landscape of U.S. health care has been altered in a buyout frenzy that could transform five massive U.S. health companies into just three, including UnitedHealth Group.

Hitchhiking robot is off to a slow start

BOSTON

A robot’s hitchhiking journey across the U.S. is off to a slow start.

The robot named hitchBOT caught its first ride in Marblehead, Mass., last week, bound for San Francisco, but it still hasn’t left the state.

Instead, it has bounced around the Boston area and was taken to sea briefly. On Friday, the humanoid robot took in a Red Sox game.

The robot is immobile and relies on strangers to transport it from place to place. It’s the creation of two researchers in Canada who wanted to study how people interact with robots. The robot automatically documents its travels on social media.

FDA OKs new cholesterol drug

WASHINGTON

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a first-of-a-kind drug that lowers artery-clogging cholesterol more than older drugs that have been prescribed for decades.

The drug from Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. offers an important new option for millions of patients at high risk of heart disease. But the drug’s sky-high price tag – $14,600 per year – is certain to escalate debate about the cost of breakthrough drugs and who should take them.

Praluent is the first in a new class of biotech medications that use a novel approach to lower bad, or LDL, cholesterol. The drugs are considered the first major advance in treatment since the introduction of statin drugs more than 20 years ago, and analysts expect them to generate billions in sales.

Associated Press