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On August 19, CannTrust Holdings Inc. announced that the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) was returning its entire $2.2 million inventory of CannTrust products. The return is in response to the suspension of CannTrust’s sales and shipments last month, after a Health Canada inspection revealed the company had grown plants in several unlicensed greenhouses. Prior to…

On August 1, TechCrunch reported that online retailer StockX did not reveal that it had suffered a data breach in May that exposed 6.8 million user records. Within days of discovering the breach, StockX emailed users and instructed them to change their passwords following what the company referred to as system updates on its platform,…

On July 2, lightning struck and ignited a fire at two Jim Beam distillery warehouses in Versailles, Kentucky. The fire, fueled by the 45,000 barrels—over 2 million gallons—of bourbon, burned for several days and reduced one warehouse and its contents to rubble. Bourbon from barrels destroyed in the fire flowed from the site into nearby…

July 25 proved to be a harrowing day for pedestrians in Boston, Massachusetts. That morning a metal railing fell from the roof of a building in Boston’s North End, striking and seriously injuring a woman walking nearby. Hours later, a crane on a construction site at the TD Garden arena dropped several steel beams weighing…

Temperatures near and in the triple digits have scorched the U.S. Midwest, Northeast and parts of Canada this month, accompanied by blackouts, extreme weather and other heat-related headaches. On July 19, violent thunderstorms in Michigan cut power to a half million people in the Greater Detroit area. Earlier that day an unexplained explosion and fire…

Barry touched down on the Louisiana coast as a Category 1 hurricane on July 13, shutting down businesses, tearing roofs from homes, flooding streets and halting oil production across the Gulf of Mexico. Even as the country’s first hurricane of the year diminished in power and was downgraded to a tropical storm, it continued to…

On July 5, approximately 125 miles northeast of Los Angeles in Ridgecrest, California residents experienced a 7.1-magnitude earthquake, only 34 hours after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake shook the same location. Fortunately, there were no deaths. As homeowners and businesses evaluate damage, early estimates predict at least $100 million in losses. California is the site of more…

Shortly before 9 p.m. on June 23, a tornado with wind speeds up to 125 miles per hour cut a two-mile path of destruction through South Bend, Indiana. A potentially treacherous stovepipe tornado was reported in northern Indiana’s St. Joseph County a few minutes later, at 9:15 p.m. A day earlier, tornadoes touched down in…

The United States has 328 ports of entry. Each day more than 1 million individuals enter or leave the country; their movements and identities are recorded for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to use under a strict data policy that stresses use limitation and information security. Despite the CBP’s stringent precautions, the agency announced…

On May 26, four Catholic churchgoers in Burkina Faso perished in the latest terrorist attack in a series that began on April 29, when a Protestant pastor and five parishioners were killed following Sunday services. Three other attacks were carried out last month against Christian worshipers in the country—two during mass and one during a…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Perdue Foods’ third major product recall of 2019 in a news release on May 31. The company recalled approximately 31,703 pounds of frozen and refrigerated chicken products for potentially containing foreign materials. In early January Perdue Foods also recalled approximately 68,244 pounds of gluten-free chicken breast nuggets due to…

A fire that destroyed a 100-year-old mansion in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan on May 16 was so intense that several local fire companies were required to help douse the flames. Thankfully no fatalities or serious injuries were reported, though two responding public safety officers sustained minor injuries. Two months ago and less than a mile…

On Monday, May 20, 34-year-old professional gambler James Holzhauer won $89,229 on his return to “Jeopardy!” following a two-week hiatus from regular play. He won another $86,905 on Tuesday, May 21 and set a series record for highest per-game winnings average: $77,798. Holzhauer is the biggest single-game cash winner – $131,127 – and second-biggest overall…

May 18 marks the beginning of National Safe Boating Week, a project of the National Safe Boating Council and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Service. Set before Memorial Day, when boating season begins in earnest, the annual campaign provides free resources and education, seeking to raise public awareness of life-saving safety measures such…

According to the 2019 Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, more artwork is fetching higher sale prices worldwide. Art sales at auctions, art fairs and online reached $67.4 billion in 2018, up 6 percent from the previous year. With the network of dealers and collectors spread across the globe, more art winds up…

On April 10, Symantec released a study showing two-thirds of hotel websites leak guests’ booking details to third-party sites. Marriott International, which experienced a massive data breach in November 2018, was not included in that study. On February 14, the City of Chicago filed a lawsuit against Marriott International for that breach that exposed the…

As the global economy expands and oceans become more crowded, the shipping industry is looking to autonomous ships to reduce accidents, increase efficiencies and cut costs. Last month a Dutch consortium engaged a vessel equipped with collision avoidance technology in 11 test scenarios in the North Sea, and earlier this month the Maritime and Port…