"Inside auditors saw lack of focus on safety at RMV, according to new report" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, November 27, 2019
Employees leaving cash payments lying on their desks during lunch breaks. Alleged threats of termination if wait times at service centers didn’t drop. Workers scanning the driving records of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for no clear reason.
Reminiscent of the drug lab scandal, and that is unfortunately standard operating procedure for the political patronage system that is Ma$$achu$etts $tate government.
Amid its high-profile failure to track alerts on troubled drivers, the Registry of Motor Vehicles has grappled with other serious issues that have frustrated internal auditors, in some cases for years, according to a trove of interviews conducted by an outside firm and made public Wednesday.
My initial reaction the the years worth of troubles is how it impacts the presidential campaign of Deval Patrick.
The details were among nearly 300 pages of notes the firm, Grant Thornton, compiled for its state-commissioned review of the Registry.
This was all brought about by the crash that the Globe grabbed onto.
The interview “notes” — which often read like a transcript — underscore many of the conclusions Grant Thornton has previously made public. It also laid out in further detail former registrar Erin Deveney’s claim that she had previously told Governor Charlie Baker’s deputy chief of staff, Mindy d’Arbeloff, and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack about a Registry unit’s struggle to process the alerts, but in alarming, and sometimes unvarnished detail, the interviews also paint a vivid picture of criticisms that the Baker administration was so consumed with the Registry’s customer service functions, it pushed aside or neglected its public safety responsibilities.
Government is an agent of corporations, so what's the surprise?
Jim Logan, the Department of Transportation’s director of audit operations, said the pressure was so intense from the administration to slash the abysmal wait times at Registry service centers that employees were “being threatened with their job to get wait times down.” He also said he’d been told second-hand accounts that d’Arbeloff “made the threats to both managers and staff.”
IMPEACH!
“The customer facing side of the RMV was more important,” Logan told interviewers from Grant Thornton. “I am not a fan of Mindy. We saw what went on to fix customer service things.”
Sarah Finlaw, a Baker spokeswoman, denied that officials made such threats, and said that Logan was not involved in what officials had dubbed its “War on Wait Times” initiative after Baker promised to reshape the Registry as part of his 2014 campaign.....
That's when I got sick of waiting and left.
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It used to be the DMV, but what's in a name?
Straddling the fold:
"Weston man charged with defrauding high schools, international students" by James Vaznis Globe Staff, November 27, 2019
As head of an Allston company that recruited international students, Keenam “Kason” Park collected more than $5 million in tuition and fees from families, money that should have been sent to the private high schools that would be educating the students.
Instead, Park allegedly spent the money lavishly on himself, buying homes in Massachusetts, California, and Korea, and a luxury Aston Martin sports car, according to a federal complaint. When funds ran out and his business, popularly known as Eduboston, was on the brink of closure, Park came up with a scheme to win back the money, traveling twice to Connecticut where he gambled millions of dollars at a casino. His plan backfired, and he lost $3 million at the casino, according to the complaint.
Why didn't he gamble in Ma$$achu$etts?
Now Park is in big legal trouble.
Park’s arrest comes as many Catholic and private schools have been banking heavily on foreign-student recruitment to help remedy declining enrollment and to diversify their student bodies. Park’s business, which closed in September and was officially known as K&B Education Group, had been partnering with schools in Massachusetts and other states for about a decade or longer.
Park played a critical role: His business had people on the ground in many countries, especially China, where they would connect students and families with a high school in the United States.....
What if the kids are spies for the Chinese government?
Or are turned into informants like the Tsarnaev?
Furthermore, where does this sort of thing fit with the recent protest in Hong Kong, the concentration camps for Uighurs, and China's alleged military aggression and cyberspying is anyone's guess.
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Time to go $hopping (Made in China):
For this reformed shopaholic, a new take on Black Friday
Maybe Santa will be there:
Globe Santa kicks off its 64th year Thanksgiving Day
I gave to it once. Must have been 25 years ago now. Never again.
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My National Lead is a whitewash:
"Russia inquiry review is expected to undercut Trump claim of FBI spying" by Adam Goldman New York Times, November 27, 2019
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s inspector general found no evidence that the FBI attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 as agents investigated whether his associates conspired with Russia’s election interference operation, people familiar with a draft of the inspector general’s report said.
The determination by the inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is expected to be a key finding in his highly anticipated report due out on Dec. 9 examining aspects of the Russia investigation. The finding also contradicts some of the most inflammatory accusations hurled by Trump and his supporters, who alleged not only that FBI officials spied on the Trump campaign but also at one point that then-President Obama had ordered Trump’s phones tapped. The startling accusation generated headlines but Trump never backed it up.
Accusations of WMD in Iraq generated headlines and Bush never backed them up, but oh well.
What we are seeing here is the cover-up of the Obama spying and infiltration effort, for such a scandal would destroy the political charade under which we are ruled.
On to 2020, right?
The finding is one of several by Horowitz that undercuts conservatives’ claims that the FBI acted improperly in investigating several Trump associates starting in 2016. He also found that FBI leaders did not take politically motivated actions in pursuing a secret wiretap on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page — eavesdropping that Trump’s allies have long decried as politically motivated, but Horowitz will sharply criticize FBI leaders for their handling of the investigation in some ways, and he unearthed errors and omissions when FBI officials applied for the wiretap, according to people familiar with a draft of the report. The draft contained a chart listing numerous mistakes in the process, one of the people said.
Time to turn the page, and who remembers Halper, huh?
Horowitz concluded that the FBI was careless and unprofessional in pursuing the Page wiretap, and he referred his findings in one instance to prosecutors for potential criminal charges over the alteration of a document in 2017 by a front-line lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 37, in connection with the wiretap application.
There is your Deep State scapegoat or willing sacrifice falling on his sword.
Horowitz’s mixed bag of conclusions is likely to give new ammunition to both Trump’s defenders and critics in the long-running partisan fight over the Russia investigation. Last week, Trump described the coming report in a phone interview with “Fox & Friends” as potentially “historic” and predicted “perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country.”
He is right, but is going to be very, very disappointed unless this is NYT spin.
A spokeswoman for Horowitz declined to comment. The people familiar with the inquiry cautioned that the draft report was not final. The New York Times has not reviewed the draft, which could include other significant findings.
So who leaked it?
Trump has long chafed at the Russia investigation, which overshadowed the first years of his presidency. Ultimately, the special counsel who took over the Russia inquiry, Robert Mueller, found insufficient evidence to charge any Trump associates with conspiring with Russia’s interference, but the president’s allies have seized on the FBI’s conduct in opening the inquiry as potentially problematic. Attorney General William Barr prompted alarm among defenders of the FBI by accusing the bureau this year of spying on the campaign.....
He's backed away from that and closed the case on the Epstein incident, so it is becoming clear that Barr is nothing more than a bag man for the Deep State like he was during the Iran-Contra days. There is no sense in reading this anymore.
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Related:
Appeals court stays ruling that McGahn must comply with House subpoena pending appeal
It was an Obama judge that ordered him to testify, and "the filings noted that presidents of both parties have invoked immunity for top aides, including most recently a 2014 Justice Department opinion that concluded David Simas, director of President Barack Obama’s Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, did not have to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee."
The pre$$ didn't raise a ruckus then.
Giuliani was in talks to be paid by Ukraine’s top prosecutor as they together sought damaging information on Democrats
I'm more interested in why a former federal prosecutor helped destroy a 9/11 crime scene and who told him those buildings were going to fall.
Three women accuse Gordon Sondland of sexual misconduct, report says
The first-hand testimony that exonerated Trump must now be thrown out!
"Frank Wuco, a senior adviser at the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, came under scrutiny last year when his past comments involving the promotion of far-right conspiracy theories surfaced. They included debunked claims that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, former CIA Director John Brennan converted to Islam, former Attorney General Eric Holder had been a member of the Black Panthers, and former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood....."
My pre$$ is becoming increasingly unhinged as impeachment implodes like a WTC tower.
Also see:
"A Hawaii man tormented a Utah family for over a year by sending more than 500 people to their house for unwanted services including food deliveries, repairs, tow trucks, locksmiths, plumbers, and prostitutes, according to a US prosecutor who called it “extreme cyberstalking.”
The problem became so severe that they converted to Christianity.
5 dead, 3 hurt in ‘devastating’ Minneapolis high-rise fire
Why didn't it fall into its own footprint at free fall speed?
Warren Wants to Revoke Medals of Honor for Wounded Knee Massacre
She has dropped 14 points since she had the temerity to mention Palestinian deaths regarding Israel's latest war-criminal foray, which is thankfully ongoing (excuse the disgusted sarcasm, please).
Speaking of people who called them out:
Jimmy Carter out of hospital after treatment for brain bleed
Oddly enough, the director is now dead.
The chemical inferno in Texas only merited a photograph in the printed piece of slop I bought this morning.
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The World Lead:
Albania starts to grasp earthquake toll
Below it was a photo of French farmers snarling traffic with tractors in protest.
Next to it:
"The EU Commission president said Wednesday that her ambitious agenda at the head of the European Union’s executive will center on the “existential issue” of battling climate change so the EU can continue to be a leader on global warming......"
Yeah, forget about that early winter.
"Protesters angry over government-set gasoline prices spiking in Iran attacked hundreds of banks, police outposts, and gas stations in the demonstrations, Tehran acknowledged Wednesday as its supreme leader alleged without evidence that a “conspiracy” involving the United States caused the unrest. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comment while addressing members of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force, which help put down the demonstrations. Meanwhile, one lawmaker was quoted as saying authorities arrested more than 7,000 people over the protests while a security official claimed demonstrators attempted to take over Iranian state television. The remarks represent the latest swing in the response by Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy to the protests, which has seen officials either downplay or demonize demonstrators. Unlike the 2009 Green Movement protests over Iran’s disputed presidential election, or its 2017 economic protests, demonstrations this month rapidly turned violent within a day, showing the boiling anger of many as the country’s economy struggles under renewed US sanctions. Iran’s government still hasn’t offered any statistics on injuries, arrests, or deaths in the protests and security crackdown that followed government-set gasoline prices rising Nov. 15. Amnesty International said it believes the violence killed at least 143 people, which Iran disputes without offering any evidence to support its claims. In comments reported by state media, Khamenei said the Iranian people extinguished “a very dangerous deep conspiracy that cost so much money and effort.” He praised the police, the Guard, and the Basij for “entering the field and carrying out their task in a very difficult confrontation.” Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, described the protests as being orchestrated by “global arrogance,” which he often uses to refer to the United States, “and Zionists.” He described the United States as seeing the price hikes as an ‘‘opportunity’’ to bring their ‘‘troops’’ to the field but the ‘‘move was destroyed by the people.’’
My simple commentary regarding the above is how lame and ludicrous the AmeriKan pre$$ has become. The lead war liars for the AmeriKan Empire hollering conspiracy and citing lack of evidence. That's rich!
I guess we can all see where this is going. I'm wondering which American city will be selected for the mushroom-cloud false flag. My bet is Chicago. If "they" can attack the heartland, none of us are safe, right?
I also would like to note the Juman rights group Amnesty rushing in on time with an agenda-advancing report.
Related:
Amnesty: Egypt uses prosecution branch to crush dissent
My sense there is that Sissi has not yet signed up for the Iran campaign, and thus the report and article above appear in my printed paper.
"Prime Minister Hun Sen has responded positively to a letter from President Trump that encouraged him to promote democracy and improve strained relations between the two countries. A letter from Hun Sen, dated Tuesday and shared online Wednesday by members of his government, accepted Trump’s invitation to a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in the United States early next year, as well as an offer for the two countries’ foreign policy teams to hold talks. Washington has long criticized Hun Sen’s government for its poor record on democratic and human rights. Hun Sen, in power for 34 years, has accused the United States of seeking ‘‘regime change’’ to oust him. Trump’s Nov. 1 letter assured Hun Sen that the United States does not seek regime change. The president counseled Hun Sen to ‘‘put Cambodia back on the path of democratic governance.’’
I've given up on that stooge as he mouths the platitudes of the Deep State.
"Pope Francis has tapped a Bank of Italy executive to take over the Vatican’s financial intelligence unit following a scandal that resulted in the Vatican being suspended from an international anti-money-laundering network....."
That is the flip side of the centuries-old child sex abuse, the questions about the Vatican’s "murky finances" concealing money-laundering operations. So what do they do? Hire an insider!
Netanyahu unleashes populist fury over indictments as party members back away
I really don't care about Israeli politics and which blood-pouring-from-the-fangs Zionist frontman is in charge, but I understand why the pre$$ is so interested.
Of course, findings by psychologists suggest that religion may reduce violent antisocial behavior (they must be crazy given the history of the Crusades as well as the rise of ISIS™ and Al-CIA-Duh).
Hong Kong police to enter campus to clear hazardous items
My attitude with the Chinese on that is do what you have to do.
Bodies of victims found in UK truck repatriated to Vietnam
They have been delivered to God and were sent by UPS:
"UPS employees allegedly ran massive drug shipment operation, evading authorities for a decade" by Arelis R. Hernández Washington Post, November 27, 2019
TUCSON, Ariz. — A group of United Parcel Service employees allegedly helped import and traffic massive amounts of drugs and counterfeit vaping oils from Mexico during the past decade, part of a scheme that exploited a vulnerability in the company’s distribution system, according to police.
The lucrative operation at times involved moving thousands of pounds of marijuana and narcotics each week from narco-traffickers into the US to destinations across the country, using standard cardboard boxes that were carefully routed through the private carrier’s trucking and delivery systems, authorities said. The cash the operation generated was used to buy opulent homes, vacations, properties, and luxury vehicles, detectives said.
Four UPS employees have been charged with drug trafficking in state court, and court records show that at least 11 people — including two UPS supervisors and drivers — have been arrested in the past two weeks on a slew of state charges stemming from the decade-long investigation by a task force of local, state, and federal law enforcement.
Investigators from the Counter Narcotics Alliance said accused ringleader Mario Barcelo — a 20-year UPS employee and dispatch supervisor — used a simple method to obscure the origin and destination of drug shipments, a tactic they worry could be replicated by other UPS employees and other drug-trafficking organizations.
Authorities said Barcelo, 49, used his position as a supervisor in the Tucson distribution facility to ensure known drug shipments were loaded onto the correct trucks and were delivered on time to their destinations without any interference or drug interdiction, bypassing security measures the employees knew well.
Attempts to reach Barcelo were unsuccessful, and it is unclear whether has a lawyer, as none was listed on publicly available court records in the case.
Tucson-area law enforcement had been tracking Barcelo since at least 2009, but Kaderly said detectives were frustrated for years that the company did not work more ‘‘proactively’’ with them to intercept and prevent the suspected criminal behavior. Barcelo was arrested Nov. 13.
‘‘He’s been able to provide this service to drug traffickers without being detected both internally and externally by law enforcement for years,’’ said Tucson Police Sergeant William Kaderly. ‘‘They’ve been doing it for so long that they were truly comfortable that they were never going to get caught.’’
UPS declined to answer questions about the suspected ‘‘vulnerability,’’ as police described it, in its internal delivery system, [and] said in a statement that the company is cooperating with law enforcement officials but that the company is ‘‘not at liberty to discuss the details of the arrests as this is an ongoing investigation.’’
Might as well keep tracking it.
The Arizona attorney general’s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. Some of the defendants were arraigned this week, but prosecutors have withheld specific details of the investigation from public court record because more arrests are expected soon. Some of the indictments have been sealed, police said.
Barcelo and his alleged associates expanded the operation over time, transitioning from delivering marijuana to dealing in more valuable drugs and vaping pens. Similar black market vaping pens and oils have been linked to the deadly outbreak of lung disease that has sickened nearly 2,300 people and killed 47 nationwide.
This should put a dent in things, 'eh?
The drug-ring operators, who allegedly learned how to bypass all security systems, were shipping several thousand pounds of drugs a week at the peak of operation, increasing profits the farther east the packages were delivered, Kaderly said.
‘‘Their sales pitch was that because of who Barcelo was at UPS, he could make sure your package will make it out without anyone finding it,’’ he said. ‘‘He had face time with traffickers.’’
In one instance in 2017, investigators said they learned of a shipment but were prevented from entering a UPS distribution facility in Tuscon to investigate and intercept it. UPS spokesman Matthew O’Connor declined to provide details about the case, referring questions back to ‘‘law enforcement personnel.’’
The company also that the alleged conspirators used to carry out their enterprise.
Charging documents obtained by The Washington Post show that progress in the case did not come until 2017, when detectives identified some of the UPS drivers who were allegedly involved in the scheme and got investigators inside UPS’s fraud and security divisions to help.
Undercover officers posing as drug traffickers contacted Barcelo’s associates to ship parcels containing sham cocaine and cash over several months in 2018 and 2019. Investigators also placed GPS trackers inside the boxes, documenting the packages’ movement from the homes of the individuals charged in the conspiracy to the UPS hub and out for delivery.
Police also tapped the phones of UPS employees and collected video footage of the group as they coordinated using the WhatsApp messaging app for the loading, handling, shipping, and retrieval of cash and boxes from undercover agents, authorities said.
Along with Barcelo, UPS supervisor Gary Love, 40, and drivers Michael Castro, 34, and Thomas Mendoza, 47, face charges of money laundering, drug possession, and drug distribution. Seven others are facing charges related to the shipping of the drugs and operating stash houses for the illicit materials.
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I wonder if they had help tracking deliveries from the DEA.
Related:
Drug industry quashed DEA efforts to block opioids
They even have a judge to protect them.
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"In Florida and elsewhere, GOP pressured over climate change" by Bobby Caina Calvan Associated Press, November 27, 2019
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — With its 1,350 miles of coastline, Florida faces some of the starkest risks from rising oceans. Higher global temperatures bring extreme weather conditions, including more intense and destructive hurricanes. Miami and other cities could find themselves submerged as glaciers melt into the oceans.
Now the connection between storms and "climate change" is unchallenged and unquestioned in my agenda-pu$hing po$, yet the rich keep building beachfront homes and resorts.
Forty-six percent of Florida midterm voters said they were very concerned about climate change, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,700 midterm voters in Florida. Among Florida independents, 51 percent expressed great concern, slightly higher than independents nationally.
As if pre$$ polls were to be believed.
“Republicans have figured out that if you get caught crossways on the environment, you could very well lose an election. That’s how important the issue is to Floridians of all stripes,” said Susan MacManus, a former political science professor at the University of South Florida.
PFFFT!
The state’s rising population is pushing development and asphalt deeper into once-rural areas. Fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals are flowing into creeks, rivers, lakes, and eventually into the waters that surround the Florida peninsula, further damaging coral reefs and putting sensitive ocean life at risk.
One sign of Republicans’ shift is former governor Rick Scott, now a US senator. Many environmental groups accuse him of mostly ignoring the issue during his eight years in Tallahassee. In February, Scott acknowledged in an opinion piece that climate change “is real and requires real solutions.”
Yeah, he got to Wa$hington and the globalist Deep State absorbed him like a Borg.
While Trump has discouraged federal agencies from prioritizing preparation for changes, Governor Ron DeSantis has cast himself as Florida’s environmentalist-in-chief. Two days after taking office, the new governor pledged to invest $2.5 billion during his four-year term — a billion dollar increase from his predecessor’s final four years in office — to protect water resources and help restore the Everglades, the largest ecosystem restoration project in the US.
Florida’s environment — its beaches, swamps, woods, and abundant sunshine — is a fundamental pillar of the state economy, generating billions in tourism and agriculture dollars, said Noah Valenstein, the secretary of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection.
How that helping the environment? What is the carbon footprint of all the airports?
It's not about "climate change" or rising seas, it's about $$$$ -- as is everything else in my pre$$.
Also see: A lethal disease is devastating the state’s citrus industry
It is the end of Florida orange juice!
“What you see in Florida is an independent streak, a belief that the environment is important,” Valenstein said. “We as a state have determined that this is a top issue and we’re going to take that on.”
So say's Valenstein, and why then did he DeSantis hold a cabinet meeting in Israel?
How did that help the existential cause of climate change?
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The next page brought this:
Two years after hurricanes, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands say they’re desperate for help
They have waited this long so..... what's a little longer?
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Almost time to eat:
Baker shortens e-cigarette ban but signs law restricting sales of flavored tobacco, vaping products
If you can see through the smokescreen you will see how idiotically authorities have handled this. They are banning flavored tobacco, but not all of it. Vapes will be available for (with a new 75% surtax) for smokers and medical marijuana patients, but not for recreational marijuana users.
WTF?
Made me lose my appetite for more Globe fare:
This Mass. nonprofit makes Thanksgiving feasts for people with dietary restrictions
Bob’s Turkey Farm, purveyor of the Thanksgiving works, rebounds after 2016 fire
Bridge construction mishap kills worker, injures another in Haverhill
Blame gluttony, not the turkey, for post meal sleepiness, a Tufts dietitian says
77 years later, the mystery of the Cocoanut Grove fire remains unsolved
New England news in brief
SWAT officers saw ‘payback’ written on wall in murder victims’ condo
Framingham men recover wedding ring lost on N.H. mountain
Man arrested on gun charges after he was seen running from scene of Roxbury shooting
Allegedly impaired driver strikes car while trying to pass school bus in Walpole, police say
Weymouth gas project gets final federal OK
That last item had no smell (it didn't appear in print, readers).
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$ome will be thankful this Thanksgiving:
"Judge throws out some convictions in Insys opioid marketing case" by Jonathan Saltzman Globe Staff, November 27, 2019
A federal judge in Boston has tossed some of the convictions of four former Insys Therapeutics executives who were found guilty of conspiring to get doctors to prescribe a highly addictive opioid painkiller, but the judge allowed convictions of all four on other criminal charges to stand — convictions that still carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
In a blow to prosecutors, US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs on Tuesday overturned the convictions of Insys founder and former billionaire John N. Kapoor and three former executives for violating the federal Controlled Substances Act and for offering bribes and kickbacks that deprived people of “honest services.”
Burroughs concluded that prosecutors failed to prove at the Boston trial that Kapoor and three other defendants — Richard Simon, Sunrise Lee, and Joseph Rowan — persuaded doctors and other health care providers to prescribe the painkiller to patients who didn’t need it.
Sunrise Lee was a former stripper brought on to woo clients, and I am astonished at the level of influence and raw power that pharmaceuticals wield.
She didn’t dispute that pain specialists received fees through a speakers program if they prescribed the under-the-tongue fentanyl spray Subsys, and received higher fees if they prescribed higher doses. The defendants’ behavior “was reprehensible and designed to financially incentivize health care practitioners to prescribe Subsys without regard for the best interests of their patients,” she wrote in an 85-page ruling, but convicting someone of conspiring to illegally distribute a controlled substance “requires more than an ‘intentional failure to adhere to the standard of care,’ ” she wrote, quoting case law. “The threshold for criminal liability is when a physician ‘ceases to be a physician at all’ ’’ and acts more like a drug dealer, she said.
WELL?
Testimony at the 10-week trial indicated that some patients had a legitimate need for Subsys, which was approved in 2012 to treat cancer pain that could not be relieved by other medicines.
What about the patients that didn't have a need?
They were prescribed Subsys as Insys employees allegedly lied to health insurers about patients’ symptoms to get them to cover Subsys for people without cancer.
Burroughs didn’t disturb the convictions of the four former executives on mail fraud and wire fraud. Each of those convictions carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Burroughs wrote that instead of seeking convictions under the laws dealing with controlled substances and honest services fraud, the government “could have easily proved bribery, but it elected not to charge bribes or kickbacks and now must live with that decision.”
As opposed to the families of the hundreds of thousands of victims.
Thanks, judge!
A spokeswoman for US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling said prosecutors had no comment.
He's on to the next thing.
The criminal trial was believed to be the first of pharmaceutical executives who marketed an opioid painkiller since the nation’s deadly epidemic began.
The jury deliberated four weeks before reaching its verdict in May. Two jurors said afterward that they were horrified when they saw that Insys had produced a slick, thumping music video that was played in court.
Inspired by a song by A$AP Rocky, it featured two Insys salesmen rapping about increasing the dose of Subsys. It was intended to motivate the Chandler, Ariz., company’s staff to get doctors to prescribe higher amounts of the drug.
Insys filed for bankruptcy protection in June, five days after striking a $225 million settlement with the Justice Department to settle criminal and civil cases against the company.....
They used to call that a kickback.
--more--"
Remember, the crisis is in vaping!
Not even safe in your own home anymore.
"US economy looking durable despite risks from trade conflict" by Martin Crutsinger Associated Press, November 27, 2019
WASHINGTON — A series of government reports Wednesday cast a picture of a steadily growing US economy, fueled by solid consumer spending and defying threats — at least for now — from a US-China trade war and a global slowdown.
The Commerce Department estimated that the economy grew at a moderate 2.1 percent annual rate over the summer, slightly better than it had previously estimated. Other reports showed stronger consumer spending and a rebound in orders for big-ticket manufactured goods.
Many analysts worry that GDP growth is slipping, but most say the slowdown won’t likely be as severe as it might have been because consumers, who drive about 70 percent of the economy, are signaling that they will likely keep spending through the holiday shopping season and into next year. That spending is being supported by rising incomes and an unemployment rate that is near the lowest levels in a half century.
So we are told despite the lowest labor participation rate since 1964.
Economists said the flurry of reports depict an economy that is regaining its footing after absorbing threats this year, from the global slowdown to the intensifying trade war with China, which has perpetuated uncertainties for businesses. The stock market has set record highs on optimism that at least a preliminary US-China trade agreement can be reached soon.....
Not after Trump signed Hong Kong bill -- although I will bet they will interfere on his behalf in 2020.
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Say goodbye to the record highs of the $tock market.
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Madonna cancels three Boston shows that were scheduled to start this weekend
People still go to see that over-the-hill skank?
Celebs flock to David Ortiz’s annual charity golf event
The bold-faced names included Hall of Famers from three sports: Former Red Sox left fielder Jim Rice, former Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez, and former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin repped the MLB, while former Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning and former Celtics shooting guard Ray Allen repped the NBA. Also at the event were a trio of NFLers enshrined in Canton, in former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence “LT” Taylor, former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Warren Sapp.
The shooting has been forgotten, and it is nice to see LT, Sapp and Lewis there.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, dear reader.
