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Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Albany sneaks in budget item for NY taxpayer pay for Tish James’ legal bills if probed by Trump admin

Taxpayers could be on the hook for legal bills New York Attorney General Letitia James racks up during Justice Department probes into her alleged fraudulent real estate dealings, The Post has learned.

New York’s operations budget bill includes specific language that indicates certain state officials could tap into a $10 million fund to cover “any reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred” as part of a Trump administration-led probe tied to their state-based employment.

Multiple sources told The Post that the language in the bill, which will be made public later Wednesday, would apply to James’ looming legal fight.

It would also cover other state employees whom the Trump administration considers going after, the sources added.

While the bill language shared with The Post doesn’t mention James by name, the relevant section indicates state employees could be covered if the “legally compulsive process” was initiated by the US government after Jan. 1, 2025.

James, who infamously declared that “no one is above the law” when she was prosecuting former President Donald Trump, was hit with a DOJ criminal referral for instances of alleged mortgage fraud last month.

The bill would cover those who “obtained representation by private counsel in response to any request, summons, command, subpoena, warrant, investigative interview or document request, audit or legally compulsive process initiated after January 1, 2025 by the United States government and in which the employee was or is involved as a result of the employee’s New York State employment or duties.”

James plans to rely on both state funds and a private legal defense fund to fight the battle, a spokesman for the AG’s Office confirmed.

“Donald Trump promised a vicious revenge tour when he ran in 2024, and he’s put Attorney General James at the top of his list, and we’re ready to respond to these attacks,” the rep said Wednesday.

It comes after the Democrats’ lawyer last month urged the DOJ to refuse a Trump administration official’s request to prosecute James for mortgage fraud, calling it “improper political retribution.”

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte had sent a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 14 asking her to investigate and consider prosecuting James, alleging she “falsified bank documents and property records.”

He alleged James falsely listed a home in Virginia as her principal residence.

Records show that James was listed as a co-borrower on a house being purchased by her niece.

NY GOP Chair Ed Cox quickly lashed out over the move to slip a legal “bailout” to James, calling it an “outrageous abuse of power and a slap in the face to every New Yorker.”

“This is what corruption looks like in plain sight: political insiders rigging the system to protect their own, while hardworking families get shortchanged,” he said in a statement.

“Tish James used her office to wage partisan lawfare against her political opponents, and now New Yorkers are footing the bill for the consequences.”

https://nypost.com/2025/05/07/us-news/taxpayers-could-be-on-hook-for-ny-ag-tish-james-legal-bills/

Crackdown On Student Loan Defaulters To Begin With Benefit Seizure, Then Wage Garnishment

by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. government will begin seizing federal benefits from 195,000 student loan defaulters in June, with wage garnishment notices set to reach 5.3 million borrowers later this summer, the Education Department announced on May 5, marking the formal restart of involuntary collections after a years-long pause.

The renewed enforcement effort begins with the Treasury Offset Program, which allows the federal government to intercept tax refunds, Social Security checks, and other federal payments to recover unpaid student debt. Borrowers affected by the program began receiving notices this week, the department said.

“Starting today, approximately 195,000 defaulted student loan borrowers will begin receiving an official 30-day notice from the U.S. Department of Treasury notifying them that their federal benefits will be subjected to the Treasury Offset Program,” the Education Department said in Monday’s announcement.

Following the notice period, administrative wage garnishment will begin later this summer for all 5.3 million borrowers who remain in default. Guaranty agencies have also been authorized to resume involuntary collections on defaulted loans under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, the department added.

The move officially ends a pandemic-era freeze first imposed in March 2020 under President Donald Trump and extended multiple times under the Biden administration. Although payments officially resumed in fall 2023, most collection efforts remained paused—until now.

In an April 21 statement previewing the shift, the department said the decision was necessary to “restore common sense and fairness” and protect taxpayers, citing data that only 38 percent of the 42.7 million federal student loan borrowers were current on their loans, while nearly 10 million were delinquent or in default. The remainder were in forbearance, deferment, or grace periods.

“Student and parent borrowers–not taxpayers–must repay their student loans,” the Education Department said at the time.
“There will not be any mass loan forgiveness.”

As of early 2025, roughly 5 million borrowers were already in default and another 4 million were in late-stage delinquency, defined as 91 to 180 days behind on payments. The New York Federal Reserve estimated that delinquent student debt reached $250 billion by the end of 2024.

To help borrowers avoid wage garnishment or benefit offset, Federal Student Aid (FSA) has launched direct outreach and expanded support services, encouraging borrowers to enroll in income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, make voluntary payments, or begin loan rehabilitation.

Alongside the repayment restart, the Education Department also issued a Dear Colleague letter to colleges and universities on May 5, warning that schools must act quickly to avoid federal penalties tied to rising default rates.

The letter reminded institutions that the cohort default rate—the share of former students who default soon after leaving school—must stay below 40 percent in a single year or 30 percent for three years in a row, or the school risks losing access to Pell Grants and federal student loans.

To mitigate that risk, the department urged schools to immediately contact former students with reminders of their loan obligations and information on repayment plans.

“As we begin to help defaulted borrowers back into repayment, we must also fix a broken higher education finance system that has put upward pressure on tuition rates without ensuring that colleges and universities are delivering a high-value degree to students,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
“For too long, insufficient transparency and accountability structures have allowed U.S. universities to saddle students with enormous debt loads without paying enough attention to whether their own graduates are truly prepared to succeed in the labor market.”

The department also said it plans to publish institution-level nonpayment rates later this month to increase transparency and accountability across the higher education sector.

The enforcement restart follows the collapse of former President Joe Biden’s sweeping student loan forgiveness plan, which aimed to cancel hundreds of billions in debt through executive action. The Supreme Court struck down the plan in 2023, ruling that the administration lacked the authority to cancel loans without congressional approval.

In April, McMahon made clear that the department would no longer pursue blanket debt forgiveness.

“American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies,” McMahon said in April.
“The executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear.”

While supporters of Biden’s proposal argued that widespread forgiveness would reduce inequality and stimulate economic growth, critics said it was fiscally reckless and unfair to borrowers who had already repaid their loans—or never borrowed at all.

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/crackdown-student-loan-defaulters-begin-benefit-seizure-then-wage-garnishment

New Opioid Data May Lowball Harms: FDA Advisors

New research about the harms of long-acting opioids may underestimate risks, members of two FDA advisory committees said Monday.

Data did not represent large segments of the U.S. population and relied on varying definitions of misuse and abuse, including a pain-adjusted outcome measure for opioid use disorder (OUD), noted members of the FDA's Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products and Drug Safety and Risk Management advisory committees at a joint meetingopens in a new tab or window.

"There's a real risk of reporting underestimates of some of these adverse effects and giving the wrong message," said James Floyd, MD, MS, of the University of Washington in Seattle. "Should any of those specific findings go on a label? I would say no."

There's "no compelling robust evidence that long-term therapy with opiates has any efficacy on outcomes that matter to patients," Floyd continued. "That is the most important thing -- and that actually does not show up on the label -- and it changes the equation entirely about how we think about these harms, the potential harms, and trying to estimate the quantity of them."

In a prospective study -- one of two analyses discussed at the meeting -- the 12-month incidence of long-acting opioid misuse was about 22%, the incidence of abuse was roughly 9%, and about 1-6% had moderate-to-severe OUD, depending on the definition. A cross-sectional study suggested about 15% of people on long-acting opioids had misuse, 6% had abuse, and approximately 3-6% had moderate-to-severe OUD.

The studies were postmarketing requirements the FDA requested in 2013 of all companies with new opioid analgesics for chronic noncancer pain, including extended-release, long-acting opioids. The agency called the non-voting meeting this week to ask its advisory committees to discuss and interpret the data.

Allergan, Endo, Hikma, Janssen, Mallinckrodt, Pfizer, Purdue, Rhodes, and Zogenix pharmaceutical companies were in the original postmarketing requirements consortium.

Most participants in the studies were white, and the findings were based on surveys conducted with English-speaking patients. Many participants were recruited at university-affiliated centers or lived in West Coast regions.

Despite limitations, several FDA advisors thought the findings carried a clear message.

"The results are quite consistent," said Krista Huybrechts, MS, PhD, of Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Risk is high, it increases with higher dose, and it increases with longer duration."

The misuse and abuse estimates were "in line with a lot of what we've seen in the published literature. Settling on what numbers to put on a label seems like a big challenge, given that there's going to be a range in the empirical data that we have," said William Becker, MD, of Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

"I would also like to point to the elephant in the room ... which is the lack of long-term data on effectiveness," Becker emphasized. "If we're talking about the impact a label may have on guiding practice, I think we would have to acknowledge that the label as it currently stands is an implication that there is known effectiveness data, but it truly is not."

Quantitative data from a better-designed study might be warranted on a label, suggested Elizabeth Joniak-Grant, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who attended the meeting as a patient representative.

"In research that I've done with general lay people and also with clinicians, everybody's definition of a high risk or a low risk is exceedingly different. That being said, I don't think this study by itself is sufficient to warrant giving those numbers."

Ascribing a dichotomous risk above a certain dose also can have consequences, observed Adam Gordon, MD, MPH, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. "We know that higher doses are always going to contribute higher risk to the patient populations," he said.

"I worry -- and we learned from the CDC guidelines -- that these [numbers] can be weaponized in some ways," Gordon added. "If you have a label change that gives a certain dose as a target dose, we'll have regulators, states, lawmakers, and insurers trying to drive everybody down to that certain dose. And we know that there are some untoward outcomes associated with that action."

https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/opioids/115442

H5N1 Bird Flu Cases Have Slowed in Animals and People

Detections of H5N1 avian influenza have slowed in both animals and humans, but continued surveillance is warranted, CDC researchers said.

In dairy cattle, cases surged over the fall and early winter but eased in January, while cases in poultry flocks fell after February, and came down last month in backyard flocks, according to data on CDC's websiteopens in a new tab or window that was shared during a clinician outreach and communication activity (COCA) call on Tuesday.

"Most of our human cases are known to be associated with animal exposures, so fewer infections in the animals leads to fewer infections in people," Alicia Budd, MPH, team lead of the national surveillance and outbreak response team at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), said during the call.

"It's certainly great to see these declines in both animal and human cases, but it's also critical that we maintain targeted monitoring and our general surveillance, so that if this situation changes, we'd be able to identify that quickly," Budd added.

During the question and answer session of the call, someone questioned whether there was seasonality to H5N1, and whether that may be tied to the lull in cases.

Todd Davis, PhD, chief of the virology, surveillance, and diagnosis branch at NCIRD, said any seasonality noted in other countries "primarily corresponds to migratory bird patterns."

"It's quite different from seasonality for human influenza viruses, in that the distribution of the virus among wild birds tends to follow migratory patterns, so we expect to see more circulation of H5N1 in wild birds in the fall and early winter as birds are migrating south," Davis said.

That's when poultry flocks and dairy cattle are most at risk of exposure, "and then subsequently the chances of human exposure correspond with when those viruses are circulating either in poultry flocks or dairy cattle," he said.

However, that picture may be different in the U.S., noted James Lawler, MD, MPH, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Global Center for Health Security in Omaha, who was not involved in the CDC call.

Transmission among dairy cows was "primarily due to cow-to-cow transmission and not reintroduction from wild birds," so migration patterns are unlikely to be the main reason for the recent decline in cases.

On the other hand, "migration and wild bird mixing likely does drive emergence of new subtypes," he cautioned.

Overall, there have been 70 cases of H5N1 detected in humans since the outbreak began in the U.S. in 2022.

Of those, 64 were detected through targeted H5 surveillance, and six were detected through national influenza surveillance, Budd said.

Those 70 cases have occurred in 13 states, with the majority (41) being associated with dairy cattle; 24 with commercial poultry; two with backyard poultry; and three with unknown exposures.

A total of four patients were hospitalized, and there was one death -- a patient in Louisianaopens in a new tab or window who had been exposed to sick birds in a backyard flock.

Among animals, more than 169 million commercial poultry or backyard birds have been infected in the current H5N1 outbreak, along with 1,049 herds from 17 states, Tim Uyeki, MD, MPH, chief medical officer of NCIRD, said during the call.

Budd emphasized that the overall risk to the public remains low, and those at the greatest risk are those with close, prolonged exposure to infected animals.

Lawler said that while some reporting challenges remain, and that the U.S. still "has limited visibility into the true scope," there does appear to be a lull in H5N1 transmission.

"The real question," he said, "is what happens next? I doubt we will be so lucky that H5 has run its course in the U.S. and we are done with it."

"I assume we will see a resurgence, perhaps of a new subtype," Lawler said. "2.3.4.4b has been unique among H5 clades, and I think it likely has more surprises left for us."

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/birdflu/115454

India-Pakistan tensions threaten South Asia’s manufacturing ambitions

Rising hostilities between India and Pakistan are casting a shadow over South Asia’s economic outlook, whose stability is essential for a region increasingly seen as vital to global manufacturing supply chains. India, which has positioned itself as a key alternative to China for international companies seeking to diversify production, now faces a geopolitical flashpoint that could rattle investor confidence and disrupt its industrial growth narrative.

The latest tensions flared after Indian airstrikes hit targets in Pakistan and the disputed Kashmir region, in retaliation for a deadly April attack that killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir, according to multiple news reports.

While the threat of escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors looms, both countries are also contending with pressing domestic issues -- India with its push to expand high-tech and industrial exports, and Pakistan with a deepening political and economic crisis.

Although military activity along the border has increased, including cross-border shelling and reported aircraft losses, both countries appear to be treading carefully to avoid triggering a full-scale war. The Indian government described its strikes as limited and tactical, aimed at neutralizing alleged terrorist camps, and emphasized that they were not designed to escalate hostilities.

Pakistan claims the Indian strikes killed 26 civilians and downed five Indian fighter jets. India has not confirmed these claims, and local reports in Kashmir mentioned sightings of crashing aircraft during the night.

In Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration denounced India’s air campaign as a blatant breach of international law and authorized its military to respond in kind. Pakistani officials continue to deny any link to the April attack, which India says was carried out by militants affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba -- a group with a history of violence against India, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The United States has been urging both nuclear-armed countries to step back from the brink, but its leverage appears limited. While Washington has strengthened ties with India in recent years, its influence in Pakistan has waned, in part due to Islamabad’s growing strategic alignment with Beijing.

Since the April attack in the Pahalgam region, India and Pakistan have exchanged sporadic gunfire across the Line of Control. On Tuesday night, hostilities intensified with shelling and air activity that reportedly resulted in civilian casualties on both sides. Indian officials said 15 of its citizens were killed in the latest cross-border bombardments.

Residents near the de facto border in Kashmir recounted a night of chaos. One village south of Srinagar was rocked by explosions and the sight of a flaming jet crashing from the sky, leaving behind scorched debris and the heavy stench of aviation fuel.

Analysts say both governments appear to be seeking room for maneuver, news reports said. India avoided targeting Pakistani military assets, which some see as a deliberate signal to Islamabad that further escalation can still be avoided. Still, uncertainty remains over how Pakistan might respond, especially as its military seeks to maintain influence amid ongoing domestic turmoil.

The April attack marked India’s deadliest terrorist incident involving civilians since 2008. India’s foreign secretary said on Wednesday that the country’s intelligence services had uncovered signs of additional planned assaults, compelling authorities to act both as a deterrent and a preemptive strike.

Pakistan’s top military officer, General Asim Munir, has recently adopted a hardline tone on India. Just before the Kashmir attack, he delivered a speech portraying the ongoing dispute as rooted in deep ideological conflict, reiterating Pakistan’s claim over the contested territory.

The Kashmir region, a flashpoint for decades, remains at the center of tensions. It was the only Muslim-majority state in India until 2019, when New Delhi revoked its autonomy and reclassified it as a union territory -- a move that further inflamed the long-standing dispute between the two neighbors. Both countries claim the region in full but control different portions of it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/india-pakistan-tensions-threaten-south-asia-s-manufacturing-ambitions/ar-AA1EkHk3

FDA to review UroGen’s bladder cancer drug on May 21

UroGen Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ: URGN), a biotech company specializing in urothelial and specialty cancer treatments, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set a meeting for May 21, 2025, to discuss the new drug application for UGN-102, a potential treatment for bladder cancer.

The FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) will review data for UGN-102 (mitomycin) for intravesical solution, which is under investigation for patients with recurrent low-grade intermediate-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (LG-IR-NMIBC). The ODAC’s role is to provide independent expert advice to the FDA, but the agency is not obligated to follow the committee’s recommendations.

UGN-102 is a formulation of mitomycin using UroGen’s proprietary RTGel technology, intended to allow prolonged exposure of bladder tissue to the drug and offer a non-surgical treatment option. The application is supported by the Phase 3 ENVISION trial, which showed a 79.6% complete response rate at three months post-treatment and an 82.5% duration of response at 12 months.

The FDA plans to decide on the approval of UGN-102 by the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target date of June 13, 2025. Liz Barrett, President and CEO of UroGen, expressed optimism about presenting their data and the potential benefits of UGN-102 for patients with bladder cancer.

https://in.investing.com/news/company-news/fda-to-review-urogens-bladder-cancer-drug-on-may-21-93CH-4814466

Shionogi Falls on Report of $1 Billion Offer to Buy Torii Pharma

Shares of Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co. dropped the most in almost a month after the Nikkei newspaper reported the company will buy Torii Pharmaceutical Co. for about ¥150 billion ($1 billion).

The acquisition will include buying a stake from Japan Tobacco Inc., which owns about 53% of Torii, through a tender offer and other means, the newspaper said Wednesday, without citing where it obtained the information.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-07/shionogi-falls-on-report-of-1-billion-offer-to-buy-torii-pharma

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Wednesday, May 7, 2025