Nevada
State secures $285M opioid settlement with Walgreens
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The state of Nevada has reached a $285 million settlement with Walgreens regarding the pharmacy chain’s role in the opioid epidemic, the state’s top lawyer announced Wednesday.
The last in a series of multiyear settlements with pharmaceutical companies, retailers and others, it pushes Nevada’s total anticipated payments stemming from opioid claims to $1.1 billion, state Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office said in a news release. Nevada is among numerous states that have reached settlements now totaling more than $50 billion nationwide.
“When I first took office as attorney general, I made it clear that seeking justice for those harmed by the opioid epidemic was one of my top priorities,” Ford said.
Walgreens had no comment on the settlement, a company spokesman said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Walgreens is the final defendant named in a lawsuit the state filed in 2019, Ford’s office said.
The $285 million settlement will be paid over 15 years and will be split between the state and the signatories of the One Nevada Agreement, a coalition of Nevada county and city governments, Ford said.
The state will retain about $98.1 million, which will be placed in a fund that was created to help finance opioid recovery programs through the state Department of Health and Human Services. The coalition will receive about $116.2 million.
The state reached a $193 million agreement with Teva Pharmaceuticals in June and a $152 million deal with CVS in May.
Much of the more than $50 billion obtained through settlements nationwide is to be used to deal with an overdose crisis linked to more than 100,000 deaths a year in the U.S.
Last year, CVS agreed to pay state and local governments nearly $5 billion to settle lawsuits over the toll of opioids. But Nevada did not join in that litigation in order to pursue the single-state settlement, Ford spokesperson John Sadler said.
Nevada joined another multistate settlement with three of the nation’s largest opioid manufacturers in April 2022 totaling $232 million over nearly two decades.
New Mexico
Court outlines guidance for gerrymandering lawsuit
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court issued guidance Wednesday to a lower court on how to handle a challenge to the state’s new congressional maps.
The high court also set a deadline of Oct. 1 for a district court in Roswell to resolve the case.
The state’s Republican Party sued last year, claiming that newly redrawn maps of New Mexico’s three congressional districts amounted to gerrymandering. Democrat defendants argued that the maps were a policy matter that fell under the purview of the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
The state Supreme Court, which is made up of Democrats, stated in its order that given the political nature of redistricting, a reasonable degree of partisan gerrymandering is permissible under the New Mexico Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment.
“At this stage in the proceedings, it is unnecessary to determine the precise degree that is permissible so long as the degree is not egregious in intent and effect,” the order states.
Among the things the judge will have to consider is evidence comparing the district’s voter registration data under the new maps and the data associated with the prior maps.
Republicans have argued that the congressional districts drawn by Democrats diluted GOP voting strength in violation of the equal protection clause of the New Mexico State Constitution. They cited public comments by top Democratic legislators as evidence of partisan bias in decisions about the district’s boundaries.
Consultants to the Legislature have said the redrawn maps gave Democrats an advantage in all three districts to varying degrees, based on past voting behavior.
For example, the traditionally conservative-leaning 2nd District shifted to incorporate heavily Hispanic neighborhoods of Albuquerque and cede parts of an oil-producing region in southeastern New Mexico.
The outcome holds implications for the southern New Mexico district, where Republican incumbent Yvette Herrell was ousted by Democrat Gabe Vasquez, a former Las Cruces city councilor, in a close race during the 2022 midterm elections.
Herrell pointed to the redrawn map at the time, saying it was enough to give Democrats an advantage. She announced in April that she would be running for the seat again in 2024.
Connecticutt
Hackers claim responsibility for hoax email claiming UConn’s president died
STORRS, Conn. (AP) — A shadowy hacking group has taken responsibility for breaching the University of Connecticut’s network and sending an email to the community that claimed the school’s president had died.
The hoax email, sent early Wednesday morning, went to everyone on the school’s undergraduate listserv informing students of the “Unfortunate Passing of Radenka Maric.”
A hacking group called “SiegedSec” claimed responsibility. The group has also claimed responsibility for hacking government websites in several states that it said on its Telegram channel were targeted for acting to ban gender-affirming care.
In an online chat interview with The Hartford Courant, a person claiming to be the group’s leader said the UConn break-in was not political. Instead, he did it “for the lulz,” the pure hacker pleasure of showing it could be done.
He said the group was able to get the username and password for the UConn Daily Digest email account in publicly available data on a source code repository platform. He said the system did not have a two-factor authentication system, allowing them to log in and send the email.
Stephanie Reitz, the school’s spokeswoman, said the school has taken corrective action to prevent a repeat of the hack.
“UConn’s IT department removed the messages from in-boxes (Wednesday) morning, determined the avenue used to gain access, and took corrective action to prevent it from recurring,” she said. “IT and UConn Police are investigating the incident.”
