In the wake of numerous scandals involving the sexual abuse of young boys, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has announced that it will be ending its 105-year-old association with the Boy Scouts of America, effective December 31, 2019. In the announcement, issued in a joint press release with the BSA last month, the church stated that it has “increasingly felt the need to create and implement a uniform youth leadership and development program that serves its members globally.”

In 2010, an Oregon jury awarded $18.5 million in damages to former Boy Scout Kerry Lewis, who had been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of his scoutmaster, Timur Dykes, two-and-a-half decades earlier. At the time, it was the largest amount ever awarded to a single plaintiff in a child abuse lawsuit.

Last week, the Los Angeles Police Department began an in-depth investigation of Dr. George Tyndall, a 71-year-old gynecologist formerly an employee at the University of Southern California. For almost three decades, he worked at the Engemann Student Health Center.

On April 10, fifty-five of the nearly 100 plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits against medical device manufacturers C.R. Bard, Davol Inc., and BD Medical Technology filed a petition asking the court to centralize all cases into multidistrict litigation (MDL). In the filing, they specifically requested that the cases be heard before a U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri or Ohio's Southern District.

As of April 27, all five bellwether trials over the anticoagulant medication Xarelto (rivaroxaban) have ended in outcomes for the defense.

On May 1^st, Ohio's GOP governor John Kasich officially filed a request with the Department of Health and Human Services to institute Trump's new “work requirements” for Medicaid recipients, forcing approximately 700,000 Ohioans to prove they are employed at least half-time or face losing their health care benefits.

A recently published study from George Washington University looks at how the nation's courts address the issue of public health in lawsuits related to climate change and coal-fired power plants. Because the courts play a pivotal role in the creation and crafting of public policy, the researchers conclude that greater consideration of health impacts could have a positive effect on such policy in the future. Unfortunately, health concerns are not raised in most climate-related cases.

Since Mary Shelly penned the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus some two centuries ago (a story about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein), one of humanity's greatest fears has been that we will wind up creating our own successors – and that those successors will eventually cause our demise. Two recent incidents highlight the dangers of that scenario coming to pass.

Last Thursday, an eight-member jury in a New Jersey state court awarded $23 million in compensatory damages to Mary McGinnis after finding that a pelvic mesh manufactured by C.R. Bard, Inc. was the cause of her pain and suffering. Her husband, Thomas McGinnis, was awarded an additional $10 million for loss of consortium.