• Meet the health care critics Trump picked to lead top U.S. health agencies under RFK Jr.

    Meet the health care critics Trump picked to lead top U.S. health agencies under RFK Jr.

    Nov 27, 2024 10:03 PM EST

    Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Food and Drug Administration Kennedy has been extremely critical of the ...

  • Trump names a Fox News personality, a COVID mandate critic and an anti-vaccine doctor to key public health roles

    Trump names a Fox News personality, a COVID mandate critic and an anti-vaccine doctor to key public health roles

    Nov 24, 2024 12:47 AM EST

    ... with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle ...

  • News Wrap: Blinken pledges to rush aid to Ukraine in Biden administration's final months

    News Wrap: Blinken pledges to rush aid to Ukraine in Biden administration's final months

    Nov 13, 2024 11:40 PM EST

    Federal authorities have been looking into recent security breaches involving telecoms companies, random individuals and public figures, including president-elect Donald Trump. Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. appear to be showing a sustained decline. Provisional data from the CDC today shows there were 97,000 overdose deaths in ...

  • October 20, 2024 - PBS News Weekend full episode

    October 20, 2024 - PBS News Weekend full episode

    Oct 20, 2024 09:57 PM EST

    Sunday on PBS News Weekend, as recovery from Helene and Milton continues, why the economic toll of these massive hurricanes can reach far beyond the storm’s path for months to come. Then, how laws targeting transgender people affect the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth. Plus, why overdose deaths involving ...

  • News Wrap: 100 people dead or missing in latest Israeli strikes on northern Gaza

    News Wrap: 100 people dead or missing in latest Israeli strikes on northern Gaza

    Oct 20, 2024 09:45 PM EST

    ... sent half of them into the water. It was on Sapelo Island, where a celebration of a community of slave descendants was being held.Still to come on PBS News Weekend, the effect anti-transgender legislation is having on LGBTQ youth and the complex connection between antidepressants and overdose deaths.

  • Ethel Kennedy, social activist and Kennedy matriarch, dies at 96

    Ethel Kennedy, social activist and Kennedy matriarch, dies at 96

    Oct 10, 2024 04:30 PM EST

    In 2019, she was grieving again after granddaughter Saoirse Kennedy Hill died of an apparent drug overdose. “One wonders how much this family must be expected to absorb,” family friend Philip Johnson, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, told the Boston Herald after Michael Kennedy’s death. Ethel Kennedy ...

  • Republican candidate in key Pennsylvania Senate race backs using military to fight fentanyl

    Republican candidate in key Pennsylvania Senate race backs using military to fight fentanyl

    Oct 02, 2024 11:00 PM EST

    The vast majority of fentanyl seized is brought into the United States by American citizens at the southern border, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. McCormick and other Republicans compare fentanyl deaths to combat losses in the Vietnam War: Roughly 110,000 drug overdose deaths each of ...

  • One of two doctors who helped supply Matthew Perry ketamine pleads guilty to drug charge

    One of two doctors who helped supply Matthew Perry ketamine pleads guilty to drug charge

    Oct 02, 2024 10:14 PM EST

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — A San Diego doctor became the third person to plead guilty in the case of Matthew Perry ’s fatal drug overdose, as prosecutors collect cooperators in an attempt to convict two bigger targets they say are responsible for the death of the “Friends” star. Dr. Mark Chavez ...

  • Fact-checking the VP debate between Vance and Walz on abortion, immigration and Iran

    Fact-checking the VP debate between Vance and Walz on abortion, immigration and Iran

    Oct 02, 2024 04:24 PM EST

    The U.S. had an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in 2023 — a 3 percent decrease from the 111,029 deaths estimated in 2022. This is the first annual decrease in overall drug overdose deaths since 2018. Nevertheless, the opioid death toll remains much higher than just a few ...

  • Kris Kristofferson, prolific songwriter and superstar actor, dies at 88

    Kris Kristofferson, prolific songwriter and superstar actor, dies at 88

    Sep 30, 2024 02:43 PM EST

    ... with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin. Hits that Kristofferson recorded include "Watch Closely Now," "Desperados Waiting for a Train," "A ...