Walmart, Walgreens, CVS to pay $650M

Walmart Inc., CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. were ordered to pay $650 million over their failure to properly monitor opioid prescriptions in two counties in Ohio.

A federal judge in Cleveland ruled Wednesday that the companies had to pay “abatement” fees to help local officials deal with the fallout from the public health crisis created by improper sales of millions of opioid-based painkillers.

The ruling comes after a jury found in November that the three had helped create that crisis – the drug industry’s latest loss in the expanding litigation over the painkillers.

The jury backed claims by northeast Ohio’s Trumbull and Lake counties that the pharmacy chains had failed to create legally mandated monitoring systems to detect illegitimate opioid prescriptions.

Public charging stations fail test

Many U.S. public charging stations fail to work when electric-vehicle drivers need them, according to a new J.D. Power report that underscores the Biden administration’s challenge in building out a network of stations nationwide.

In a survey of more than 11,550 drivers, the firm found that one in five didn’t manage to charge their vehicle during a visit to a station.

Of those that didn’t get their vehicles charged, 72% blamed faulty equipment.

Diminished driver satisfaction with the patchwork network of U.S. charging stations threatens to slow the pace of electric-car sales-a key piece in President Joe Biden’s plan to slash carbon emissions.

Fear of drained batteries, after all, is a key barrier for many drivers contemplating ditching gasoline-powered vehicles.

From wire reports