Ripped from the Headlines: November 2019: This Week In Words: November 30–December 6, 2019

The presence of cancer-causing asbestos in some talcum powder has observers questioning the way the FDA lets industries regulate themselves. Companies use their own scientists to test their products, and many workers at government agencies used to work for the people they're supposed to be regulating. Carcinoma is "tumor" or "ulcer" in Latin; the suffix -gen comes from the same root as genesis, meaning "origin."

States suing Purdue Pharma for causing the opioid epidemic say that bonuses should not be given to executives who contributed to the problem. Purdue CEO Craig Landau is slated to receive a $1.3 million bonus this year, bringing his total pay to $3.9 million, despite having allegedly downplayed the risks of OxyContin to doctors and regulators. Unless a judge intervenes, the company plans to proceed with the bonuses, which total $24 million.

After months ridiculing the charges of campaign finance violations brought against him, Congressman Duncan Hunter changed his plea to "guilty." Activists and commentators are now calling on Hunter to resign immediately. Hunter was the second member of Congress to endorse Trump during the campaign; the first, Rep. Chris Collins of New York, recently resigned after pleading guilty to insider trading.

Bloomberg News, owned by billionaire candidate Mike Bloomberg, was banned from attending Trump rallies. After Bloomberg entered the race, editors told their employees to avoid investigative stories about him. The network recently said that in the interest of fairness, it would not investigate any of the Democratic candidates during the remainder of the campaign.

China's national DNA database is causing concern about privacy, human rights, and surveillance as biometrics and internet monitoring all become cheaper and more sophisticated. Observers worry that having so much information in the hands of a government, especially a repressive one like China's, will further erode freedoms. Genome, gene, and genetic all come from that same genesis root found in carcinogen above.

The House Intelligence Committee released its impeachment report, stating that the President abused his power by soliciting a bribe from the President of Ukraine, covering up this activity, and obstructing justice in the Congressional investigation of these and other crimes. The action now moves to the Judiciary Committee, which will likely draw up articles of impeachment based on this report.

One of the Ukrainian prosecutors who helped Rudy Giuliani in his effort to manufacture dirt against Joe and Hunter Biden was fired in an anti-corruption purge. Over 500 prosecutors in total have lost their jobs as part of a widespread effort to control corruption in the Ukrainian legal system. The former Prosecutor General, who gave Giuliani false information about the Bidens, is under criminal investigation.

California Senator Kamala Harris suspended her campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, citing a lack of fundraising. Her bid got off to a quick and successful start, with big crowds and a famous exchange with Joe Biden at the first debate, but over time she lost momentum and the spotlight and donations shifted to other candidates. vacillare means "to sway" or "to stagger" in Latin.

McKee Kentucky is a small, poor, rural town that happens to have some of the fastest internet in the whole country. The local telephone cooperative decided ten years ago to replace all the copper phone lines with fiber optic cable; now members of the Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative (P.R.T.C.) get up to a gigabit per second. Rabbits live in a warren, so any crowded neighborhood or area with tight, winding passages can be described as a warren.

The President said he would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina. This move would escalate his global trade war, adding more uncertainty to markets. The two countries were exempted from earlier tariffs when they were imposed last year. The stock market dropped sharply after the news.