LOS ANGELES — When Francisco Rodriguez, 31, was incarcerated in a federal prison near San Diego, he began writing songs. He had grown up in Santa Maria, Calif., listening to corridos, a form of traditional Mexican ballads that his parents and grandparents loved, so that is what he gravitated toward writing. Corridos are ballads born…
Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, the drug widely seen as igniting the opioid crisis, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday night, a move at the center of the company’s efforts to shield itself and its owners from more than 2,600 federal and state lawsuits. The terms of the filing, which include a proposed resolution…
BRISTOL, Wis. — The drug bust shattered the early-morning stillness of this manicured subdivision in southeastern Wisconsin. The police pulled up outside a white-shuttered brick condo, jolting neighbors out of their beds with the thud of heavy banging on a door. What they found inside was not crystal meth or cocaine or fentanyl but slim…
Amid a surge of vaping-related illnesses and deaths, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced on Sunday that he would pursue emergency regulations this week to quickly ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. The governor’s action comes days after President Trump announced an effort to ban similar vaping products on a federal level. If…
It was 2015 when I first began to grapple with tipping when ordering at a counter-service restaurant. I had ordered a fried chicken sandwich at Pine State Biscuits in Portland, Ore., and a friend chided me for not tacking on a gratuity to my credit card payment. I hadn’t even considered it. “They’re working hard…
Good morning. “That old September feeling,” Wallace Stegner wrote in “Angle of Repose,” his 1971 novel about the myth of the American West, “…another fall, another turned page: There was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year’s mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.” Which is to say, it’s time…
The largest and most detailed study of its type concludes that there are links between physical fitness and improved cognitive performance. The researchers also show that this boost in mental powers is associated with white matter integrity. A new study tests the theory that a fit body goes with a fit mind. Over recent years,…
LONDON — In Greek myth, when Pandora opened her box, she let all the evils out into the world. Just one thing was left inside: hope. The Danish jewelry group of the same name, which first became a global success story 15 years ago with its distinctive customizable sterling silver charm bracelets, has been increasingly…
The next time you pass a Tiffany & Co. store, peer through the window. You may be surprised to see that about half of the shoppers are men. For decades, the company has sold a men’s collection, although most of the items have reflected the more old-fashioned rigors of male accessorizing: Think tie bars and…
A new study finds that hearing devices benefit older adults in multiple ways, from physical safety to brain health. A recent study investigates the wide ranging impacts of wearing hearing aids. Almost 1 in 4 people in the United States aged 65–74 have disabling hearing loss. In people over 75, the figure is 1 in…