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Associated Press: The company has agreed to pay $40 million for claims about its shoes endorsed by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Brooke Burke.

California Progress Report: Zack Kaldveer reports on California’s rapidly rising health insurance premium rates and what can be done to slow them.

Associated Press: A judge declared the statutory cap on non-economic damages unconstitutional because “the rights of a person to a remedy for an injury and to have that decided by a jury include the assessment of damages.”

New York Times: MetLife has agreed to pay $40 million after accusations it didn’t check its database of policyholders against Social Security death records to determine if it needed to send benefit payments to survivors.

Safety Research & Strategies: It’s not just Toyota that faces allegations of sudden unintended acceleration; Kia and Subaru have both reached confidential settlements regarding similar issues with their vehicles.

Associated Press: A Chinese drywall manufacturer has agreed to pay for repairs of about 4,500 homes ruined by contaminated product in a settlement that would also cover health problems stemming from the drywall.

Washington Monthly blog: An investigation by journalists found some members of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration committee of medical experts that looked into the potential dangers of the Bayer birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin had potential conflicts of interest.