Author: NY TIMES

On a Monday in early February, Michael Salem was contemplating some silicone breast enhancers at a booth inside the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Midtown Manhattan. A section of the venue had recently been taken over by Curve New York, a lingerie trade show.The fake breasts were from Nood, a so-called solutionwear brand that, according to promotional material, offers products intended “to make all women feel seen.” With a soft feminine design, the enhancers were a modern and more subtle version of the ponderous breast forms Mr. Salem has sold for decades as a merchant who has catered largely…

An independent federal agency has become one of the most reliable executors of President Biden’s attempts to fight inflation, at a time when the White House has few weapons of its own to quickly bring down stubbornly high prices of consumer staples like groceries.The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on Monday, joined by several state attorneys general, to challenge a merger between the supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons. The agency’s rationale in many ways echoed Mr. Biden’s renewed attempts to blame corporate greed for rising prices and shrinking portions in grocery aisles.“If allowed, this merger would substantially lessen competition,…

A recent outbreak of lead poisoning from cinnamon in applesauce has drawn attention to the toxic effect the heavy metal can have on children. The cinnamon in the applesauce was believed to have been intentionally contaminated, possibly to add to its value as a commodity sold by weight. It had unusually high levels of lead.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 400 children were poisoned in the applesauce outbreak. Their median blood lead levels were six times higher than the average seen during the height of the Flint water crisis, the C.D.C. said.While such poisoning cases…

The world of experimental medical research might not seem like it has much to say to the world of theater, but Lucy Prebble sees connections. Both require subjects and observers, both take place within a carefully controlled environment and both depend on a certain amount of luck.“The more I thought about it, the more I thought, ‘That’s kind of what we do,’” said Prebble, a British playwright and screenwriter.In 2006, Prebble became fascinated with one botched medical trial in particular, in which six healthy young Britons experienced multiple organ failure after taking a novel drug. The incident partly inspired “The…

A sealed case filled with unopened boxes of Canadian hockey trading cards sold for $3.72 million on Sunday after a father and son found them while cleaning the father’s house in Saskatchewan.The high price takes into account the mystery inside: The case could contain as many as 30 of the holy grail of collectible hockey cards, a Wayne Gretzky rookie card from 1979. Or it might not.The buyer is likely content with the uncertainty, and prepared to never know the answer, explained Jason Simonds, a sports card specialist at Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house that brokered the sale.“The person…

PGA Tour rookie Jake Knapp is now the PGA Tour champion, beating rookie Sami Valimaki by two strokes on Sunday after shooting 19-under this week. Sami Valimaki, won the Mexican Open.Knapp started the round with a four-shot advantage, but let the lead slip away as his driver – the foundation of his first three rounds – betrayed him. Knapp hit two fairways in 18 holes on Sunday, becoming the first PGA Tour player since 1983 to hit two or fewer fairways in the final round and win. Knapp hit 33 of 39 fairways Thursday through Saturday.Still, he sealed the win…

The Federal Reserve may have a housing problem. At the very least, it has a housing riddle.Overall inflation has eased substantially over the past year. But housing has proved a tenacious — and surprising — exception. The cost of shelter was up 6 percent in January from a year earlier, and rose faster on a monthly basis than in December, according to the Labor Department. That acceleration was a big reason for the pickup in overall consumer prices last month.The persistence of housing inflation poses a problem for Fed officials as they consider when to roll back interest rates. Housing…

At the Kawasaki Disease Clinic at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, led by Dr. Burns, caring for children affected by Kawasaki disease is always linked to the search for the cause.On a recent Wednesday morning, Dr. Kirsten Dummer, a pediatric cardiologist, was examining the heart scans of a 2-year-old who showed signs of a large aneurysm on the right side of the heart.“The biggest question from parents is: How did this happen? How did my child get this? In every patient room, that’s what they fundamentally want to know,” she said. “Year after year after year, they come back and ask…

Ye, the rapper and provocateur formerly known as Kanye West, has the No. 1 album for a second week with “Vultures 1,” narrowly beating out a new release from the Oregon rapper Yeat.“Vultures 1,” a joint LP with the singer Ty Dolla Sign, holds the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart with the equivalent of 75,000 sales in the United States, including 95 million streams and 2,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to the tracking service Luminate.A year and a half ago, the always-controversial Ye became radioactive in the music industry after a series of antisemitic remarks…

Iran has made a concerted effort to rein in militias in Iraq and Syria after the United States retaliated with a series of airstrikes for the killing of three U.S. Army reservists this month.Initially, there were regional concerns that the tit-for-tat violence would lead to an escalation of the Middle East conflict. But since the Feb. 2 U.S. strikes, American officials say, there have been no attacks by Iran-backed militias on American bases in Iraq and only two minor ones in Syria.Before then, the U.S. military logged at least 170 attacks against American troops in four months, Pentagon officials said.The…