Health Care

With California voters likely to consider legalizing recreational marijuana use next year, state lawmakers approved a package of legislation that would create the first statewide licensing and operating rules for pot growers and retail weed outlets since the state became the first to legalize medical marijuana in 1996.

Ten automakers have committed to the government to include automatic emergency braking in all new cars, a step safety advocates say could significantly reduce traffic deaths and injuries.

Food manufacturers must be more vigilant about keeping their operations clean under new government safety rules released Thursday in the wake of deadly foodborne illness outbreaks linked to ice cream, caramel apples, cantaloupes and peanuts.

About 1,200 hoodies for kids are being recalled because it has a drawstring around the neck that can cause a strangulation risk.

A dispute between state prosecutors and a suburban hospital over the fate of nearly 1,400 bottles of confiscated wine will play out in a southeastern Pennsylvania courtroom Thursday, as a county judge decides whether the contraband ends up going down the hatch or down a drain.

Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk said Wednesday it will open new factories in North Carolina and Denmark as pharmaceutical companies seek to keep up with demand for diabetes medications in an increasingly overweight world.

A new poll finds that Americans strongly support government action to control prescription drug costs, regardless of their political affiliation.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage's administration missed its chance to challenge the federal government's decision to strip the Riverview Psychiatric Recovery Center of its federal certification, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Toledo's only remaining abortion clinic can't get a backup-care agreement from the University of Toledo Medical Center that could help it avoid a potential shutdown, but it has partnered with the public school in a different way, to train doctors in the graduate medical program.

A lawyer representing 36 Republican lawmakers told a judge Thursday that keeping a hospital assessment in effect to help fund the state's Medicaid expansion would gut a voter-approved law requiring a two-thirds vote for tax increases.

Congress has passed a three-month bill to keep highway and transit money flowing to states, one day before the deadline for a cutoff of funds.

The Senate is moving toward the likely passage this week of a sweeping, six-year transportation bill, but the House is putting off consideration of the measure until this fall.

Fiat Chrysler will buy back about 300,000 Ram pickup trucks in the biggest such action in U.S. history as part of a potentially expensive deal with U.S. safety regulators to settle legal problems in about two-dozen recalls, two people briefed on the matter say.

Fiat Chrysler has decided to recall about 1.4 million cars and trucks in the U.S. after two hackers were able to take control of a Jeep over the Internet.

Anthem is buying rival Cigna in a deal valued at $54.2 billion that will create the nation's largest health insurer by enrollment, covering about 53 million patients in the U.S.

Looking at the big picture, the financial health of Social Security and Medicare doesn't appear to have worsened.

UPPAbaby is recalling 71,000 strollers and seats because of a choking hazard, saying children could bite off a piece of the stroller's foam crossbar, according to federal regulators.

General Motors Co. is looking past last year's safety recalls of 36 million vehicles worldwide as recall costs continue to shrink.

Scientists have developed a vaccine strain that is 100 percent effective in protecting chickens from bird flu and testing is underway to see if it protects turkeys.

The government says people who receive Social Security disability face steep benefit cuts next year unless Congress acts.