The federal government has issued a subpoena asking for documents from NuVasive, a company that makes spine devices, NuVasive revealed in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The subpoena came from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General and is related to alleged "improper claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid."
The bottom line: Receiving a subpoena from the OIG is always a huge red flag. NuVasive, which got hammered by investors for a poor second quarter, did not elaborate further on the subpoena and said it will "fully cooperate with the OIG's request."
As the climate changes, dead zones in lakes and oceans could increase in size, while toxic algal blooms and "red tides" could become commonplace, according to a new study. The paper, published Thursday in the journal Science, suggests increased rainfall will cause more nitrogen from fertilized fields to enter waterways around the world.
What they found: All told, the total nitrogen runoff is expected to increase by 19% for the continental US, and other regions around the world are vulnerable as well.The impacts of this increase are predicted to be especially strong in the Northeast and Midwest U.S., India, China, and Southeast Asia.
Why it matters: "When we think about water sustainability, it's not just enough to think about the quantity of water. It's also the quality of water," Anna Michalak, an earth scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, in Stanford, California, and an author on the study, tells Axios. Nitrogen runoff can destroy lakes and cause toxic algal blooms that close beaches, kill animals and shut down fisheries, causing massive economic damage.
House and Senate leaders struck a deal late Wednesday night that would ramp up sanctions against Russia for its meddling in the 2016 election (in a package that also heightened sanctions on Iran and North Korea) while also limiting President Trump's power to nix them.
Where Europe comes in: European allies are concerned that the sanctions against Russia would inadvertently be damaging to their economies as well.
