The FDA cracks down on flavored e-cigarettes, President Trump endorses bipartisan criminal-justice reform, U.S. national defense at risk, the elderly will outnumber the young by 2034, and rich New Yorkers are purchasing hiking trips for their dogs.

Here are the top newsworthy items from this past week as shared on our Facebook page.

• New York City (Long Island City, Queens) and Northern Virginia (Crystal City in Arlington County) will be the homes for Amazon’s second and third headquarters. The company plans to evenly split the offices with as many as 25,000 employees.

From The Wall Street Journal

• The Food and Drug Administration today will announce a series of actions aimed at cracking down on youth vaping, despite e-cigarette maker Juul’s last-minute effort to self-police. The FDA’s actions are expected to include a ban on sales of most flavored e-cigarettes in most retail settings, along with age-verification rules for online sales, as well as a proposal to ban menthol in regular cigarettes.

From Axios

• Boeing withheld information about potential hazards associated with a new flight-control feature suspected of playing a role in last month’s fatal Lion Air jet crash in Indonesia, according to safety experts involved in the investigation, as well as midlevel FAA officials and airline pilots.

From The Wall Street Journal

• The 13-month string of California’s deadliest and most destructive blazes has been driven by unusually warm and dry preceding conditions, strong winds that have caused the fires to spread rapidly, and populated areas that are difficult to evacuate on short notice.

From Axios

• The Trump administration is pushing for stricter limits on pollution from commercial trucks, a rarity from an administration that has prioritized deregulation. This initiative targets smog-causing nitrogen oxide, whose largest source in the U.S. is highway driving.

From The Wall Street Journal

• President Trump endorsed bipartisan criminal-justice overhaul efforts at a White House ceremony on Wednesday, throwing his support behind changes to U.S. sentencing laws that he said also would give federal inmates a second chance when they are released. The latest effort was spearheaded by Mr. Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been working with lawmakers on the legislation.

From The Wall Street Journal

• U.S. national security is in greater peril “than at any time in decades,” according to a new report from national security experts tasked by Congress with reviewing American national defense. The U.S. has entered into an era of “great power competition” with China — posing an unprecedented challenge to U.S. dominance, both economically and militarily — and with an increasingly assertive Russia.

From Axios

• The Census Bureau projects that in 2034, for the first time ever, people 65 and older will outnumber those under 18. A similar demographic shift is underway around the globe, and no one seems to have a solid plan for addressing it.

From The New York Times

• Rich New Yorkers who feel bad about keeping their dogs inside all day are paying dog hikers to let them run free in the country. For $85 to $130 a day, the new services will put city dogs in a van, then take them “hiking in beautiful places like Harriman State Park and South Mountain Reservation, while their owners are cooped up in cubicles.”

From The New York Times

• Sunday marked 100 years since Germany signed an armistice with the Allied forces, bringing to an end a four-year conflict that claimed the lives of approximately 10 million soldiers.

From The Wall Street Journal

 

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