For your health: State health and environmental officials are warning against eating catfish and crab fat from parts of Bayou D’Inde and the Calcasieu Ship Channel in southwestern Louisiana, The Associated Press reports. The same warning, issued Thursday, also suggests limiting consumption of other fish and shellfish from those areas to two meals per month. And it warns against eating fat from crabs in portions of the Calcasieu Estuary. The advisory was the result of recent sampling of finfish and shellfish from the area. The tests found elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans in some finfish species and in crab fat.
Almost settled: President-elect Donald Trump is nearing a settlement of about $20 million in fraud lawsuits relating to Trump University, a person familiar with the matter tells Reuters. Lawyers for Trump are squaring off against students who claim they were they were lured by false promises into paying up to $35,000 to learn Trump’s real estate investing secrets from his hand-picked instructors. There are three lawsuits relating to Trump University: two class actions in California and a case brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. A spokesman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman declined to comment. Read the full story.
Job cuts: Volkswagen today announced plans to cut 30,000 jobs in a wide-ranging restructuring of its namesake brand as it tries to recover from a scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests. The Associated Press reports the job cuts, which account for around 5% of its global workforce, are part of a long-term plan to improve profitability and shift resources and investment to electric-powered vehicles and digital services. The announcement caps a difficult year for Volkswagen, which has been embroiled in an emissions-rigging scandal that damaged the company’s reputation and cost it billions. Volkswagen has agreed to pay $15 billion to U.S. authorities and owners of some 500,000 vehicles with software that turned off emissions controls. Around 11 million cars worldwide have the deceptive software. Read the full story.
