First state-licensed marijuana retailers to open Jan. 1 in Colorado

By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - The world's first state-licensed marijuana retailers, catering to Colorado's newly legal recreational market for pot, are stocking their shelves ahead of a New Year's grand opening that supporters and detractors alike see as a turning point in America's drug culture. Possession, cultivation and private personal consumption of marijuana by adults for the sake of just getting high has already been legal in Colorado for more than year under a state constitutional amendment approved by voters. But starting January 1, cannabis will be legally sold and taxed at specially regulated retailers in a system modeled after a regime many states have in place for alcohol sales - but which exists for marijuana nowhere outside of Colorado. For the novelty factor alone, operators of the first eight marijuana retailers slated to open on Wednesday morning in Denver and a handful of establishments in other locations are anticipating a surge in demand for store-bought weed.

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Family finds facility to take 'brain-dead' girl

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The family of a 13-year-old girl declared brain dead says it has located a second nursing home willing to provide for her long-term care, after another facility backed out.

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Relatives seek extended care for brain-dead California girl

By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Relatives of a California girl declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy want her moved to a long-term care facility, but face resistance from the hospital where she is due to be disconnected from a breathing machine on Monday. The family of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, who has been without brain function and on a ventilator for two weeks at Children's Hospital in Oakland, California, said they had found an extended-care center willing to take the girl on an indefinite basis, hospital officials said on Friday. But the center will not accept Jahi unless she has surgically implanted ports for breathing and feeding tubes placed in her body before the transfer, family attorney Christopher Dolan said on Thursday.



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Abbott Labs settles with U.S. over kickback claims

(Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories has agreed to pay the United States $5.48 million to resolve allegations that it paid improper kickbacks to induce doctors to use some of its products, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday. The settlement resolves allegations that Abbott paid well-known doctors for teaching assignments, speaking engagements and conferences, expecting that they would arrange for the hospitals with which they were affiliated to buy Abbott's carotid, biliary and peripheral vascular products. Carotid and peripheral vascular products are implanted to treat circulatory disorders by increasing blood flow, while biliary products are implanted to treat obstructions in the bile ducts, the government said. "Patients have a right to treatment decisions that are based on their own medical needs, not the personal financial interests of their health care providers," Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery of the Justice Department's civil division said in a statement.



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Miley Cyrus says after Disney, it was time to be herself

It is sex, drugs and pop music - and Miley Cyrus is fine with it that way now that the provocative singer has shed her innocent Disney star image along with most of her clothes. Cyrus, 21, who has grabbed headlines in the past year for her admitted drug use, sexually suggestive dancing and wearing as little as boots in a music video, said she was surprised by the scrutiny her new persona has attracted. I don't really dress as a teddy bear and, like, twerk on Robin Thicke, you know?" Cyrus, who rose to prominence as a teen star of the Disney musical TV series "Hannah Montana," has become a bad girl of pop music since her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in September when she "twerked" (a sexually suggestive dance) during a performance of Thicke's hit "Blurred Lines." "I don't have a bunch of celeb friends, because I feel like some of them are a little scared of the association," Cyrus said of her new persona. I'm like, 'Walk out with me right now and get this picture, and this will be the best thing that happens to you, because just you associating with me makes you a little less sweet.'" Cyrus, whose newest music video "Adore You" shows her writhing between bed sheets in her underwear, sucking her thumb and rubbing her body, said she feels more free to be herself now that she is no longer under a Disney contract.

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Small changes in kids' fast food meal cut calories

By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Changes made last year to McDonald's Happy Meals selections for children may be helping kids to cut calories, according to a new study. "We were curious to know how diners might have changed what they were ordering in order to make up for the reduction of calories," Andrew Hanks, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health. "That was the component we were really interested in because there's evidence of compensation when your calories decrease," he said. In addition to adding apple slices, the new Happy Meals contain a smaller portion of French fries and non-fat chocolate milk was offered along with 1 percent-fat white milk.



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Cold germs are hardier than previously thought: study

Prior research has already concluded that two common bacteria that cause colds, ear infections, and strep throat don't often live for long outside the human body, but a new study finds that they can linger a lot longer than previously thought. University of Buffalo researchers in New York published a study December 27 in the journal Infection and Immunity that found that Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes can live on surfaces such as toys, books, and cribs for weeks or even months. "These findings should make us more cautious about bacteria in the environment since they change our ideas about how these particular bacteria are spread," says senior author Dr. Anders Hakansson. Hakansson and his co-authors became interested in the possibility that some bacteria might persist on surfaces when they published work last year showing that bacteria form biofilms when colonizing human tissues.

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