ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota jury awarded $65.5 million on Friday to a mother of three who claimed talcum products made by Johnson & Johnson exposed her to asbestos and contributed to her developing cancer in the lining of her lungs.

Jurors determined that plaintiff Anna Jean Houghton Carley, 37, should be compensated by Johnson & Johnson after using its baby powder throughout her childhood and later developing mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused primarily by exposure to the carcinogen asbestos.

Johnson & Johnson said it would appeal the verdict.

During a 13-day trial in Ramsey County District Court, Carley’s legal team argued the pharmaceutical giant sold and marketed talc-based products to consumers despite knowing it can be contaminated with asbestos. Carley’s lawyers also said her family was never warned about potential dangers while using the product on their child. The product was taken off shelves in the U.S. in 2020.

“This case was not about compensation only. It was about truth and accountability,” Carley’s attorney Ben Braly said.

Erik Haas, worldwide vice president of litigation for Johnson & Johnson, argued the company’s baby powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer. He expects an appellate court to reverse the decision.

The verdict is the latest development in a longstanding legal battle over claims that talc in Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower body powder was connected to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, which strikes the lungs and other organs. Johnson & Johnson stopped selling powder made with talc worldwide in 2023.

“These lawsuits are predicated on ‘junk science,’ refuted by decades of studies that demonstrate Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer,” Haas said in a statement after the verdict.

Earlier this month, a Los Angeles jury awarded $40 million to two women who claimed Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder caused their ovarian cancer. And in October, another California jury ordered the company to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma, claiming she developed the cancer because the baby powder she used was contaminated with asbestos.

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By JACK DURA

A nearly 100-year-old bridge over the Mississippi River between Iowa and Wisconsin was imploded Friday, an unusual spectacle that clears the way for a modern replacement.

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The Mississippi River Bridge, also known as the Black Hawk Bridge, was completed in 1931. It connects Lansing, Iowa, to Wisconsin. The landmark stood out for its unique cantilever design — a center arch and two towerlike trusses.

People gathered near the snow-covered riverbank under a sunny sky and cheered when explosives fired off. Black smoke and white spray flew up as the center span and a truss dropped into the water below. The spans rested half-submerged in the river.

Lansing Mayor Michael Verdon, who watched the demolition from a houseboat dock, called it “pretty bittersweet, actually.”

“Every time I looked at the river, I saw that bridge profile in the horizon,” the Lansing native said. “On a personal level, it’s sad to see that it’s gone.”

This combo of images provided by Iowa Department of Transportation shows, top, the 94-year-old Black Hawk Bridge over the Mississippi River between Iowa and Wisconsin and, bottom after the bridge was emploded on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (Iowa Department of Transportation via AP)

The bridge, which closed in October, was the only one for about 30 miles in each direction and carried about 2,100 vehicles per day, according to the Iowa transportation department. Drivers can use a ferry service while a new crossing is under construction. The planned $140 million replacement is expected to be in service in 2027.

Though it was beloved, the narrow bridge made for a harrowing experience when two large trucks met, Verdon said. Barges sometimes struck the bridge because of the river geography and configuration of the bridge piers.

Another implosion, for the bridge’s eastern ramp, was set to follow the main event later on Friday, the mayor said. Officials plan to disassemble the bridge’s western section in the future because parts of it extend over homes and the railroad.

Some parts of the bridge had already been removed, but an implosion was the most efficient way to remove the largest portions of the superstructure, Iowa Department of Transportation spokesperson Daniel Yeh said.

Residents plan to salvage material for keepsakes and to construct a tribute to the bridge in the city, Verdon said.

Lansing, population 968, has deep roots as a river town with a history of steamboats, fur trading and commercial fishing, the mayor said.

Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation said Friday she trusts the Trump-appointed chairman of a federal planning commission to do his job and give serious review to President Donald Trump’s proposal to add a ballroom to the White House.

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Carol Quillen said in an interview that she takes Will Scharf, chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, “at his word” after he said at the panel’s December meeting that the review process would be treated seriously once the White House submits the plans.

Scharf said at that meeting that he expected to receive the plans sometime this month, and the panel’s review process would happen at a “normal and deliberative pace.”

Quillen said she trusted that would be the case.

“I take him at his word that the process will be conducted as it always is, deliberately and seriously, and that the commission will do its job,” she said.

The White House has not responded to multiple queries about when the ballroom plans will be shared with Scharf’s panel as well as the Commission of Fine Arts. The planning commission on Friday released the agenda for its January meeting and the “East Wing Modernization Project” is listed for an “information presentation,” often the first step in its review of a project.

The National Trust last week asked a federal court to halt the ballroom construction until it is subjected to multiple independent reviews, public comment and wins approval from Congress. The government argued in court that the lawsuit was premature.

A federal judge this week denied the National Trust’s request for a temporary restraining order but scheduled a January hearing on its motion for a preliminary injunction. Such a step would halt all construction until the reviews, which could take months, are completed.

Quillen said her private nonprofit organization was not asking for the Republican president’s proposal to go through reviews just for the sake of doing so. She said the process inevitably leads to a better project because multiple independent parties get to comment on it.

The National Trust was chartered in part to ensure the public participates in decisions that affect the country’s historic resources, she said, “and the White House is arguably the nation’s most iconic building.”

She said the organization did not sue earlier because legal action is “our last resort” and because of its history of working with administrations.

In Trump’s first term, the administration submitted plans to the National Capital Planning Commission for new fencing for the White House perimeter and a tennis pavilion on the south grounds.

Quillen declined to speculate about why Trump had not already done so for a White House ballroom he has long desired and has moved quickly to build since he returned to office. He complains regularly that the East Room and State Dining Room — two of the largest public spaces in the White House — are too small and has criticized the practice of hosting foreign leaders at state dinners in tents on the south grounds.

Trump has proposed building a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, big enough to accommodate 999 people, where the East Wing of the White House stood for decades until he had it torn down in October in a move that “caught us by surprise,” Quillen said.

He recently upped the construction cost estimate to $400 million, double the original $200 million price, and has said no public money will pay for it. The White House has said the ballroom will be ready before Trump’s term ends in January 2029.

The National Trust asserted in its lawsuit that the ballroom plans should have been submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts and Congress before any action.

The lawsuit notes that the organization wrote to those entities and the National Park Service, which oversees the White House grounds, on Oct. 21, after the East Wing demolition began, asking for the projects to be paused and for the administration to comply with federal law. It received no response, the lawsuit said.

The government said in its written response that the ballroom plans have not been finalized despite continuing demolition and other work to prepare the site for eventual construction, which is not expected to begin until April 2026, at the earliest.

The administration also argued that Trump has authority to modify the White House and included the extensive history of changes and additions to the Executive Mansion since it was built more than 200 years ago. It also asserted that the president is not subject to statutes cited by the National Trust.