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A woman on a whitewater rafting trip drowned earlier this month when the raft she was in flipped in a class III rapid on the New River Gorge National River, reports say. The woman, Judy Brown, of Cumberland, MD, was thrown into the water with several other passangers at the Upper Railroad Rapid as she took an Alpine Adventures rafting trip down the river on July 16th. Brown swam part of the rapids, but became trapped at a point known…

Eric Brimlow, 27, of Syracuse, New York, fell from the rim of the Crater Lake caldera in Crater Lake National Park after venturing beyond a barrier wall at Sinnott Memorial overlook. Reports say he had jumped from a walkway onto a snow bank, then slid down several hundred feet of steep terrain, coming to rest at the base of a tree 300 feet below the rim. Rangers immediately sent rescue equipment to him, hoisting him first to a small ledge,…

Reports say that a study has suggested that Chantix patients face a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and other serious cardiovascular events. The study, conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, say Pfizer Inc.’s controversial stop-smoking drug, Chantix or varenicline, has several possible side-effects. The study reportedly involved more than 8,000 patients, with more than half taking placebos, and excluding patients with a history of heart disease. The study was performed over the…

According to reports, birth defects in central Appalachian where mountaintop coal mining wears down the topography and destroys wildlife and botanical life in a process called “coal washing” that involves many thousands of gallons of contaminated water or slurry are higher than normal. Reports say the contaminated by-product liquid contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals. The sludge is hazardous to the residents of the area; and if slurry ponds break, huge sludge rivers are released killing and injuring people, wildlife…

Officials of the Sea Princess, a Princess Cruises cruise ship, found evidence of a third norovirus aboard, prompting a “prolonged and intensive sanitization” before the ship set sail from San Francisco on a 10-day Alaska sailing. The cleanup was reportedly thorough and extensive, delaying the departure of the ship by more than five hours last week. According to reports, it was too soon to tell if the illness had been contained or if any were sickened by the contamination. Reports…