See: Last Call For 2016
"Three Boston bars absolved in state ‘pay-to-play’ case" by Dan Adams Globe Staff December 29, 2016
Three prominent Boston bars whose corporate owners accepted payments from a beer distributor to stock certain brews over others will not be penalized, a frustrating setback for state investigators trying to stamp out the banned practice of “pay-to-play” in the Massachusetts beer industry.
There was never any doubt about the conduct — the restaurant groups that own the bars admitted to state investigators they received inducements from the beer distributor. But commissioners of the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission said Thursday there was no proof the “kickbacks,” as the commissioners termed the payment, were passed on from the corporate parents to their bars.
In their ruling Thursday, the ABCC’s three commissioners said the evidence showed only that the payments went to the parent restaurant groups, which could not be charged because, unlike the bars, they do not hold liquor licenses overseen by the agency.
As a result, the commissioners determined that the bars did not violate the pay-to-play ban, a decision the ABCC’s top lawyer suggested they made reluctantly.
“By the tenor and tone of the decisions, the commissioners seemed to express their displeasure that there was nothing they could do,” said Kris Foster, the ABCC’s general counsel. “The commission is constrained by the Legislature in that it can only regulate licensees,” not their corporate parents....
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Me$$age: Corruption and law-breaking shall be absolved unless it's, you know, that other thing.
Also see:
"In the age of opioid addiction — when getting prescribed painkillers has grown more difficult — little has been done to increase access to other treatments for the ceaseless pain that afflicts one-third of Americans...."
If you need to quit....
Related: Study finds nationwide medical marijuana laws could save money
You know what, though? That would really put a crimp into that CIA black ops budgets and money laundering banks bottom lines. Now you see why they dragged their feet on medical and are doing the same with recreational. Pharmaceutical lobby holds much more $way than some tax loot that won't be going into campaign coffers.
"Family members stranded on holiday road trip now recovering" by SARAH RANKIN Associated Press December 29, 2016
RICHMOND — It was supposed to be a nine-hour drive from New Jersey to North Carolina, one Barbara Briley had made many times. But something went awry on the Christmas road trip, and the 71-year-old and her great-granddaughter spent days stranded in a wooded area of rural Virginia before a passerby spotted them and called for help.
Briley and 5-year-old La’Myra Briley were recovering Thursday, authorities and relatives said. They were found a day earlier in Dinwiddie County, south of Richmond.
They were near their vehicle, which was stuck on private property about a mile from a paved road, State Police said.
The Brileys left from Mays Landing, N.J., on Christmas Eve, headed for Morven, N.C., but they never arrived.
They were reported missing, and their disappearance sparked a search across a wide swath of Virginia. Before Wednesday, they had last been seen at a gas station about 30 miles north of Richmond, where a store clerk said that Barbara Briley had asked for directions and help with her GPS before she continued on her way.
No foul play is suspected in the case, according to police.
It was not clear how the Brileys ended up on the private property, where, police said, it appeared that they had been for ‘‘several days.’’
The two had snacks and drinks to get by, police said....
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