Current Events in March 2019

From the first moments following this month’s crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet, suspicion centered on the aircraft itself -- a new Boeing 737 Max 8 jet. Five months earlier, a Lion Air 737 Max 8 had crashed into the sea.

On Sunday, the Ethiopian Minister of Transport announced that a preliminary investigation had found “similarities” between the two disasters. The aircraft has been grounded worldwide while the investigation continues.

Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating the approval process for the Boeing 737 Max aircraft type and whether there were “lapses” in that process.

Ethiopia’s top transportation official reports that all relevant data from the Ethiopian Airlines jet has been obtained from the aircraft’s flight data recorder and is being closely analyzed. Without elaborating further on what has been found, Dagmawit Moges said the data would receive additional study.

Similarities?

In the Lion Air crash, which occurred in October, the open investigation focused on a sensor located on the outside of the aircraft that monitors the plane’s angle of attack. When it determines the angle is too steep and could cause the craft to stall, it triggers an automated function that brings down the nose of the plane.

If the sensor transmits faulty data during the plane’s take off, the automatic software called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) could force the nose of the plane down at a critical time when it should be climbing.

In the case of the Lion Air crash, the flight crew reported difficulty controlling the aircraft shortly after take off, with the plane rising and then falling several times before plunging into the ocean. Both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes occurred just minutes after taking off, when the aircraft was supposed to be climbing.

Investigating the approval

In Washington, the Transportation Department is reportedly focused on how government regulators approved the 737 Max aircraft type for use by the world’s airlines. According to The Journal, the probe began last year shortly after the Lion Air crash.

In its report Sunday, the newspaper said a grand jury in Washington has now issued a subpoena  to at least one person who was said to be involved in the development of the Boeing 737 Max. The report says investigators want to see relevant documents associated with the approval of the aircraft.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 is the fourth generation of the 737, entering service in 2017. According to Boeing, it is the “fastest-selling airplane in Boeing history with about 5,000 orders from more than 100 customers worldwide.”

A new study conducted by researchers from Northwestern could have egg lovers reconsidering their go-to breakfast choice.

The researchers found that consuming large amounts of eggs or foods with high cholesterol could increase the risk of heart disease and death from any cause.

“The take-home message is really about cholesterol, which happens to be high in eggs and specifically yolks,” said researcher Norrina Allen. “As part of a healthy diet, people need to consume lower amounts of cholesterol. People who consume less cholesterol have a lower risk of heart disease.”

A balanced diet

To see how cholesterol -- and egg intake -- was affecting consumers’ overall health, the researchers gathered data from over 30,000 participants from six studies and evaluated their dietary habits.

The most recent iteration of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans that is valid from 2015 through 2020 doesn’t recommend that consumers limit their cholesterol intake; however, prior to 2015, experts put the daily cholesterol target at 300 milligrams per day.

Eggs come into play in this study because the researchers note the popular breakfast food as one of the primary sources of cholesterol intake, as one egg yolk has nearly 190 milligrams of cholesterol. Moreover, the researchers found that, on average, adults nationwide eat roughly three or four eggs per week.

“Our study showed that if two people had the exact same diet and the only difference in diet was eggs, then you could directly measure the effect of egg consumption on heart disease,” said Allen. “We found cholesterol, regardless of the source, was associated with an increased risk of heart disease.”

Ultimately, the researchers found that the more cholesterol the participants consumed, the greater their risk for heart disease and death.

More specifically, eating the average number of eggs per week (three or four) increased the risk of death by eight percent and the risk of heart disease by six percent. However, consuming 300 milligrams of cholesterol per day -- the recommended amount pre-2015 -- increased participants’ risk of death by 18 percent and their risk of heart disease by 17 percent.

The egg debate

The research on eggs -- whether to incorporate them or avoid them -- has gone on for quite some time, and health experts continue to volley back and forth. Most recently, researchers found that an egg a day could keep type 2 diabetes away -- and heart disease and stroke.

Allen and her team don’t think consumers should ban eggs from their diets, but they should take these findings into consideration and limit their intake moving forward.

“We want to remind people there is cholesterol in eggs, specifically yolks, and this has a harmful effect,” Allen said. “Eat them in moderation.”

Chrysler (FCA US LLC) is recalling 47,771 model year 2018 Chrysler Pacificas and Pacifica hybrids.

The right front lower control arm may separate from the steering knuckle, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the right front knuckle and lower control arm for damage, replacing the components as necessary.

The right front lower control arm knuckle pinch bolt will be replaced with a larger-diameter pinch bolt free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin April 19, 2019.

Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler's number for this recall is V15.

American Health Packaging is recalling one lot of Valsartan tablets, which are used to control high blood pressure and for the treatment of heart failure.

Trace amounts of an unexpected impurity, N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) -- a probable human carcinogen – have been found in the product.

There are no reports of injury or adverse events to date.

The following product, which was distributed nationwide, is being recalled:

What to do

Patients should continue taking their medication, as the risk of harm to their health may be higher if the treatment is stopped immediately without any alternative treatment. Patients should contact their pharmacist or physician who can advise them about an alternative treatment prior to returning their medication.

Consumers who have the recalled product should call (877) 475-5864 to receive a return packet.

Fullei Fresh of Miami, Fla., is recalling Organic Bean Sprouts that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

There are no reports of any illnesses associated with this recall to date.

The recalled product, packaged in 4-oz., plastic clamshells, has a lot code 041, a sell by date of February 28, 2019, and the UPC code 017442052108, was shipped to Whole Foods Markets in Florida and Freedom Fresh (a Miami distributor) on February 18, 2019.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should not consume it, but discard it.

Consumers with questions may call (305) 758-3880 Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (EST).

Ford Motor Company is recalling 2,992 model year 2019 Rangers equipped with 10-speed automatic transmissions.

The transmission shift lever in some vehicles can be moved from the "Park" position without the key in the starting system and without depressing the brake pedal.

If the vehicle can be shifted out of Park without the brake applied, the vehicle may move unexpectedly, increasing the risk of injury or crash.

What to do

Ford has notified owners, and dealers will inspect and repair the transmission floor shift selector interlock assembly, as necessary, free of charge.

The recall began February 22, 2019.

Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 19C02.

The rate at which students are able to pay off their student loans could be altered under the Trump administration’s 2020 budget plan, which includes a proposal to eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

The proposal, titled “A Budget for a Better America: Promises Kept. Taxpayers First,” includes $64 billion in funding for the U.S. Department of Education, which represents a $7.1 billion decrease compared to the 2019 funding.

Under the plan, the PSLF program -- which forgives student loans for borrowers who are employed full-time in government and some nonprofit positions who make 120 eligible on-time payments over ten years -- would be cut.

The elimination of the program would affect borrowers who take out a new student loan starting July 1, 2020. It would exclude borrowers who are currently completing their education.

‘Draconian cuts’

The proposed plan aims to balance taxpayer interests with students’ needs. The White House said it would save an estimated $53 billion over nine years by cutting the PSLF program.

The budget plan might also make colleges share some of the responsibility for student loans. It  includes a “request to create an educational finance system that requires postsecondary institutions that accept taxpayer funds to have skin in the game through a student loan risk-sharing program.”

American Council on Education President Ted Mitchell called the cuts "draconian.”

​“This is the third year in a row that the Trump administration has proposed to walk away from adequately investing in student financial aid and incredibly important, life-saving biomedical research,” Mitchell said in a statement.

“If enacted, the president’s proposal would cut over $200 billion in federal student aid and also cut billions more in funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, threatening the well-being of our nation’s students and citizenry.”

James Kvaal, president of The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), also criticized the proposed budget cuts.

"These deep cuts overshadow otherwise worthwhile changes, such as automatically enrolling distressed borrowers in income-driven repayment, automating the annual income recertification process, and modernizing student loan servicing," Kvall said in a statement.

The proposal hasn’t been finalized yet, and it will likely be altered before taking effect. On Monday, Presidential adviser Ivanka Trump is expected to appear at an event that will discuss college affordability and reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Taking pills and supplements can be an integral part of many consumers’ daily routine, but a new study found that it may come with some risks.

According to researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, many pills are made with inactive ingredients that are intended to make them taste better and last longer, but they could actually cause negative side effects and allergic reactions.

“When you’re a clinician, the last thing you want to do is prescribe a medication that could cause an adverse reaction or allergic reaction in a patient,” said researcher C. Giovanni Traverso.

“This project was inspired by a real-life incident where a patient was prescribed a medication and the formulation of the pill they picked up from the pharmacy had gluten in it. We wanted to understand the problem and drill down to characterize the entire universe of inactive ingredients across thousands of drugs.”

Finding out what’s inside

To get a better understanding of what’s inside consumers’ prescriptions, the researchers evaluated over 42,000 different medications that contained over 350,000 inactive ingredients.

While these ingredients aren’t meant to be part of the medical aspect of the pill, and are safety-tested, previous studies have shown the adverse ways consumers can be affected by them.

Of the different medications and ingredients involved in the study, the researchers found that over 92 percent contained ingredients that could cause an allergic reaction. The study found that over 30 percent of the medications contained some kind of food dye, nearly 45 percent contained lactose, and under one percent contained peanut oil.

“What’s really striking about this data set is its complexity,” said researcher Daniel Reker, PhD. “There are hundreds of different versions of pills or capsules that deliver the same medication using a different combination of inactive ingredients. This highlights how convoluted the possible choices of inactive ingredients are, but also suggests that there is a largely untapped opportunity today to specifically select the most appropriate version of a medication for a patient with usual sensitivities.”

The researchers couldn’t determine how much of the inactive ingredient is necessary to cause a patient to have an allergic reaction, but not much of a substance would need to be present in order for consumers with acute sensitivites to feel the negative effects.

“While we call these ingredients ‘inactive,’ in many cases, they are not,” said Traverso. “While the doses may be low, we don’t know what the threshold is for individuals to react in the majority of instances. This pushes us to think about precision care and about the role for regulation and  legislation when it comes to labeling medication that contain an ingredient that may cause an adverse reaction.”

Finding the right prescription

While one recent study has explored how errors in prescription drugs are on the rise, another study found that older people with heart failure who take too many prescription drugs are at risk for a number of associated health risks.

Researchers found that consumers who take five or more prescription drugs are more likely to experience some kind of adverse reaction because of the combination of pills, which can often lead to hospital visits, disability, or falls.

“This suggests that providers may not sufficiently consider functional impairment when prescribing medications to adults with [heart failure] and thus may unnecessarily expose individuals to risk of adverse outcomes,” the researchers wrote.

Researchers from the University of Central Florida examined veterans’ health when they returned from their service, and they found that this group was much more likely to suffer from heart disease at a younger age than those who didn’t serve.

“I think it’s sort of the first indications of a coming public health crisis for veterans,” said researcher Ramon Hinojosa. “Because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have a relatively large, new, younger generation of veterans who are going to survive for 30 or 40 years after their war experience.”

Studying veterans’ health

To see how veterans’ health was affected after their time in the war, the researchers examined the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Health Interview Survey. Because the study was focused on veterans’ heart disease, the researchers looked at responses concerning cardiovascular health by analyzing over 150,000 participants’ responses from 2012 through 2015.

In addition to physical health, the researchers factored in age and veteran status. They found that veterans were not only more likely to be diagnosed with a cardiovascular issue, but it occurred at a younger age when compared with those who didn’t serve in the military.

Veterans between the ages of 35 and 70 were most at risk, whereas after 70, incidents of heart disease were more common in non-veterans than veterans, which the researchers think could be because of heart disease-related deaths at younger ages.

While the researchers couldn’t pinpoint exactly why this trend is occurring, they did offer several possibilities. These included higher rates of smoking, drinking, and mental illness among veterans; modern warfare; higher rates of obesity in younger veterans; and new approaches to exercise and leisure.

“I think that being aware we sort of have the first rumblings of what seems to be a public health crisis will help us focus our attention on health resources and providing on health resources and providing younger veterans with access to resources that can help them ameliorate the likelihood of early onset cardiovascular disease,” Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa and his team were most surprised by these findings because much research has shown that returning vets tend to be in better shape than those who didn’t enlist.

“The outcome of the analysis suggested that not only does the healthy-soldier effect not seem as potent as it once was, in fact, what I see is veterans tend to have cardiovascular morbidity earlier than non-veterans, and they tend to have a greater number of conditions,” he said.

Overall, the researchers hope that more healthcare providers take heed of these findings, particularly for younger people returning from service, and try to prevent as many cases of heart disease or other cardiovascular issues as possible.

"It's concerning to know that the physical benefits of military service seem to be not holding as well for the younger veterans," Hinojosa said. "This suggests the health protective benefits of military service are not what they used to be. I think that should cause us to really look at what's going on among the veterans after they leave military service.”

Keeping a secure record

Last month, Apple revealed that it would be launching a new Health Records feature specifically for veterans.

The Health Records app would allow veterans to keep a safe, secure record of their known conditions, allergies, procedures, medications, and more, all on their phones. Apple has yet to reveal an exact release date of this feature, but it did say that the app would be available “soon.”

“We have great admiration for veterans, and we’re proud to bring a solution like Health Records on iPhone to the veteran community,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “It’s truly an honor to contribute to the improved healthcare of America’s heroes.”

The counterblast on the “Operation Varsity Blues” scandal has officially begun.

The Stanford Daily reports that, on Thursday, two Stanford students filed a federal class action lawsuit against the university and other schools implicated in the alleged admissions bribery affair -- including Georgetown, Yale, and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) -- arguing that they and other students had less than a fair chance in applying for admission to these schools.

Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods claim that even though their own applications proved they had the credentials and grades necessary to get into schools like Stanford and its upper-crust peers, they “did not receive what [they] paid for — a fair admissions consideration process.”

“Each of the qualified, rejected students was damaged by the fraudulent and negligent conduct of the Defendants in that, at a minimum, each Class member paid college admission application fees to the Defendant universities without any understanding or warning that unqualified students were slipping in through the back door of the admissions process by committing fraud, bribery, cheating, and dishonesty,” allege Olsen and Woods.

“Each of the universities took the students admission application fees while failing to take adequate steps to ensure that their admissions process was fair and free of fraud, bribery, cheating and dishonesty.”

The backstory

In case you’ve been off-the-grid over the past few days, the alleged multimillion-dollar college admissions scheme revolves around a hodgepodge of skeletons in the closet. At the top of the pile is William Singer, the operator of the non-profit Key Worldwide Foundation (Key), a charity that postured itself as “provid(ing) education that would normally be unattainable to underprivileged students, not only attainable but realistic.”

“With programs that are designed to assist young people in every day situations, and educational situations, we hope to open new avenues of educational access to students that would normally have no access to these programs. Our contributions to major athletic university programs, may help to provide placement to students that may not have access under normal channels.”

If you read between the lines of the Key’s mission statement, maybe a flag should’ve been raised a long time ago.

Nonetheless, Singer escaped scrutiny for years, while finding lots of clients -- like Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin -- and currying favor with a variety of admissions counselors, test proctors, and athletic department personnel and coaches. Singer’s connections purportedly accepted bribes to grease the skids for prospective students to get into “selective” colleges they might not have had the qualifications or athletic talent to get in with otherwise.

The Stanford lawsuit may be just a start in a spate of lawsuits given the potential outrage of more exemplary students who were rejected to make space for less-than-qualified applicants whose parents hired Singer to get their child accepted.

Other Stanford students weigh in

In the Stanford Daily’s coverage of the lawsuit, commenters weighed in on both sides of the lawsuit.

“I don't understand how someone who got into Stanford could be suing Stanford University for an unfair admissions process, especially considering that neither of the two people who were recommended by the sailing coach were admitted,” wrote Jonathan Brandt. “Can someone please explain the legal logic?”

To which someone replied, “Her degree is now not worth as much as it was before, because prospective employers may now question whether she was admitted to the university on her own merits, versus having rich parents who were willing to bribe school officials.”

In an update, the Daily reports that an attorney representing Erica Olsen, one of the two students who filed the suit, says she is dropping out of the suit. The attorney “... wrote that ‘several’ other plaintiffs will be added when an amended complaint is filed later today,” according to the publication.

Apple has issued a statement in response to Spotify’s antitrust complaint, arguing that Spotify “wants all the benefits of a free app without being free.”

Earlier this week, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a blog post that Apple’s App Store rules limit innovation and consumer choice and give the company an “unfair advantage at every turn.”

Ek said that if Spotify were to pay Apple’s 30 percent “tax” on subscriptions made from within the app, it would “force us to artificially inflate the price of our Premium membership well above the price of Apple Music."

On Thursday, Apple fired back, saying the Swedish music streaming service’s claims are misleading.

“The only contribution that Apple requires is for digital goods and services that are purchased inside the app using our secure in-app purchase system,” Apple said in a press release published to its website. “As Spotify points out, that revenue share is 30 percent for the first year of an annual subscription — but they left out that it drops to 15 percent in the years after.”

‘Misleading rhetoric’

Apple also noted that a majority of Spotify customers use the free, ad-supported version of the app, which makes no contribution to the App Store.

“A tiny fraction of their subscriptions fall under Apple’s revenue-sharing model,” Apple said. “Spotify is asking for that number to be zero.”

“Let's be clear about what that means,” Apple continued in its refute to Spotify’s claims. “Apple connects Spotify to our users. We provide the platform by which users download and update their app. We share critical software development tools to support Spotify's app building. And we built a secure payment system — no small undertaking — which allows users to have faith in in-app transactions. Spotify is asking to keep all those benefits while also retaining 100 percent of the revenue.”

In its lengthy response, Apple addressed all of Spotify’s claims but did not address any of its demands.

Apple also called Spotify’s claim that it “routinely blocks” some of its product upgrades “surprising,” noting that Spotify has an Apple Watch app that’s ranked as the top app in the wearable App Store’s Music section.

“Spotify wouldn't be the business they are today without the App Store ecosystem, but now they're leveraging their scale to avoid contributing to maintaining that ecosystem for the next generation of app entrepreneurs. We think that's wrong,” the tech giant concluded.

There is little doubt that drug companies are facing growing pressure to lower prescription drug prices. This week, AARP added to the pressure.

The group representing people over 50 has launched a public campaign to persuade policymakers at both the state and federal levels to take action to contain skyrocketing prices.

"Americans are paying the highest prescription drug prices in the world," said Nancy LeaMond, AARP’s executive vice president. "It's time for pharmaceutical companies to stop deflecting blame and acknowledge that the root cause is the price they set for their products."

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, pharmaceutical company executives acknowledged that the list price of some prescription drugs is high. However, they said deep discounts are provided to pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) that operate various prescription drug benefits.

They argued that most consumers don’t pay the list price if they have good insurance coverage, but they admitted that consumers without good, or any, coverage can face high costs.

Bipartisan agreement

AARP says it surveyed consumers age 50 and older and found that party affiliation played almost no role in how they came down on drug prices. Seventy-two percent said they are concerned about the cost of their medications. Sixty-three percent of respondents went so far as to say their drug costs were “unreasonable.”

Currently, Medicare is not allowed to negotiate for lower drug prices, and 90 percent of people in the survey said that should change. If the government health program for seniors was able to use its clout with drug companies, the respondents said that prices would have to come down.

While 80 percent said their doctors had written at least one prescription for them, 40 percent said they did not fill a prescription because of the cost.

With both Republicans and Democrats appearing ready to act on drug costs, AARP said it plans to launch a national marketing campaign to channel public support for action. Consumers will soon see advertisements that advocate for:

• Allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices;

• Allowing states to negotiate lower prices with drug companies;

• Giving state Attorneys General authority to crack down on outrageous price increases;

• Clamping down on pay-for-delay and other loopholes that keep lower cost generic drugs off the market;

• Capping consumers' prescription drug out-of-pocket costs; and

• Preserving state pharmacy assistance programs.

Finger-pointing

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of finger-pointing within the health care industry when it comes to prescription drug prices.

While drug companies have been known to blame PBMs and the drug distribution system for high prices, the trade group representing PBMs has pushed back.

This week, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) charged that drug store lobbyists in Illinois are urging the state legislature to “weaken PBM tools, add unnecessary regulation, and increase prescription drug costs in Illinois.”

Ford has confirmed that it is trimming its workforce amid concerns that consumers will not purchase as many new cars and trucks as in years past.

At the same time, Toyota is increasing its investment in U.S. manufacturing, in part because of concerns about U.S. tariffs.

A spokesman for Ford has told Reuters that it is eliminating an undetermined number of mostly salaried jobs in the U.S., following through on plans it announced last year. Ford last year announced a significant reorganization that it said would result in a reduction in payroll.

After reporting that Trump administration tariffs were cutting into profits, Ford announced in October that it would eliminate an unspecified number of people in its global workforce, many of them management employees based in the U.S. Investment bank Morgan Stanley estimated the layoffs at about 12 percent of Ford's global workforce.

Ford's September sales were sharply lower, but so were results for most other automakers. September 2017 sales were abnormally high because so many vehicles had to be replaced after Hurricane Harvey. September 2018 sales suffered in comparison. Ford's total vehicle sales last month were down nearly 12 percent year-over-year.

Selling more expensive vehicles

Ford said its overall average transaction price increased $1,500 for September, expanding more than twice the rate of the overall industry average.

Ford has been trimming its sales ever since. In February, the automaker announced it is closing a factory in Brazil and would exit the commercial truck business in South America. Those moves alone could reduce Ford’s payroll by 2,700 jobs.

Because of lackluster sales in 2018, Ford may look at other options for trimming overhead, including the closing of some unprofitable plants in Europe.

Toyota moving in the opposite direction

While Ford is cutting back Toyota is expanding, at least in the U.S. The Japanese automaker says it’s increasing its budget for U.S. manufacturing from $10 billion to 13 billion over five years.

The company is adding the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, the best-selling SUV in the U.S., and Lexus ES 300h hybrid vehicle production at its Georgetown, Kentucky, manufacturing plant; expanding engine capacity at its Huntsville, Alabama, facility; doubling hybrid transaxle capacity at its plant in Buffalo, West Virginia; and a building expansion for additional castings at Bodine Aluminum’s Jackson, Tennessee, facility as well as additional castings at its Troy, Missouri, facility.

“These latest investments represent even more examples of our long-term commitment to build where we sell,” said Jim Lentz, chief executive officer for Toyota Motor North America. “By boosting our U.S. manufacturing footprint, we can better serve our customers and dealers and position our manufacturing plants for future success with more domestic capacity.”

Over the last 30 years, Toyota says it has produced more than 25 million vehicles in the U.S.

Spring is approaching -- and with it, higher gasoline prices. Supplies were down again last week while demand was up.

The AAA Fuel Gauge Survey shows the national average price of regular gasoline is $2.53 a gallon, seven cents higher than last Friday. It’s almost exactly the same price as a year ago at this time. The average price of premium is $3.06, also seven cents a gallon higher than last week. The average price of diesel fuel is $3.01, just a penny higher than a week ago.

Prices are moving higher as refineries curtail operations for annual maintenance. Over the next few weeks, they’ll begin the switch to production of summer blends, which will also reduce output.

Meanwhile, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports motorists are driving more. Last week, demand rose by more than 9 million barrels a day, which drained the domestic supply by 4.6 million barrels.

“As demand strengthens and gas stocks tighten, pump prices will likely follow suit and continue to increase,” AAA said in its latest market update. “Since Monday, the national average for unleaded regular gas has increased a nickel.”

In the last week, several states saw large price increases. Illinois and Michigan moved into the top 10 states with the highest gas prices. The statewide average jumped 14 cents a gallon in both states.

Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, reports that the average price has risen 34 cents per gallon in Minnesota over the last month and is 32 cents a gallon higher in Illinois and Iowa.

The states with the most expensive regular gas

These states currently have the highest prices for regular gas, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Survey:

• Hawaii ($3.34)

• California ($3.33)

• Washington ($2.93)

• Nevada ($2.85)

• Oregon ($2.83)

• Alaska ($2.82)

• Pennsylvania ($2.70)

• Illinois ($2.63)

• New York ($2.62)

• Michigan ($2.62)

The states with the cheapest regular gas

The survey found these states currently have the lowest prices for regular gas:

• Arkansas ($2.28)

• Missouri ($2.30)

• Mississippi ($2.26)

• South Carolina ($2.29)

• Alabama ($2.27)

• Texas ($2.29)

• Utah ($2.29)

• Louisiana ($2.30)

• Virginia ($2.31)

• Colorado ($2.31)

Butterball of Mount Olive, N.C., is recalling more than 78,000 pounds of raw ground turkey.

The products may be contaminated with Salmonella Schwarzengrund.

Five illnesses have been reported in two states.

The following prepacked items, produced on July 7, 2018, are being recalled:

• 48-oz. plastic wrapped tray containing “BUTTERBALL everyday Fresh Ground Turkey WITH NATURAL FLAVORING (85% LEAN/15% FAT)” with sell or freeze by date of 7/26/18, lot code 8188, and UPC codes 22655-71555 or 22655-71557 represented on the label.
• 48-oz. plastic wrapped tray containing “BUTTERBALL everyday Fresh Ground Turkey WITH NATURAL FLAVORING (93% LEAN/7% FAT)” with sell or freeze by date of 7/26/18, lot code 8188 and UPC code 22655-71556 represented on the label.
• 16-oz. plastic wrapped tray containing “BUTTERBALL everyday Fresh Ground Turkey WITH NATURAL FLAVORING (85% LEAN/15% FAT)” with sell or freeze by date of 7/26/18, lot code 8188 and UPC code 22655-71546 represented on the label.
• 16-oz. plastic wrapped tray containing “BUTTERBALL everyday Fresh Ground Turkey WITH NATURAL FLAVORING (93% LEAN/7% FAT)” with sell or freeze by date of 7/26/18, lot code 8188 and UPC codes 22655-71547 or 22655-71561 represented on the label
• 48-oz. plastic wrapped tray containing “Kroger GROUND TURKEY FRESH 85% LEAN – 15% FAT” with sell or freeze by date of 7/26/18, lot code 8188, and UPC code 111141097993 represented on the label.
• 48-oz. plastic wrapped tray containing “FOOD LION 15% fat ground turkey with natural flavorings” with sell or freeze by date of 7/26/18, lot code 8188 and UPC code 3582609294 represented on the label.

The recalled products, bearing establishment number “EST. P-7345” inside the USDA mark of inspection, were shipped to institutional and retail locations nationwide.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled products should not consume them, but discard or return them to the place of purchase.

Consumers with questions regarding the recall may call (800) 288-8372.

General Motors is recalling 26,772 model year 2016-2018 Cadillac CTSs, and model year 2017 Cadillac ATSs, Chevrolet Camaros, and Chevrolet Corvettes.

The electric power steering (EPS) assist system may fail, requiring a higher steering effort -- especially at lower speeds -- which may increase the risk of a crash.

What to do

GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the power steering gear assembly free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin in March 2019.

GM's number for this recall is N182182760.