"There is nothing to prevent sex offenders and others with criminal records from becoming alcohol and drug counselors in California, even though such roles give them direct contact with people, including teens, at their most vulnerable," according to an investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
In June, the new FDA-approved drug Osphena will hit the shelves. Supposedly the newest answer for painful sex, it will be targeted by the drug maker Shionogi, Inc, the more than 64 million US women who have hit menopause. But Newsweek reports that numerous troubling questions loom over Osphena: is this a real disorder affecting substantial numbers of American women? How was Osphena approved? And is the drug simply a back-door replacement for the widely discredited "hormone replacement therapy"? Critics note that the two 12-week efficacy trials that satisfied the FDA were funded by the drug's developers.
"Young gymnasts battling physical discomfort to perform a sport they love is a common, almost clichéd storyline. However, more doctors and researchers now are not only paying attention to the high number of injuries gymnasts suffer but also to the increasing amounts of anti-inflammatory medication they take as a result,” according to an investigation by the Salt Lake Tribune.
"A trio of men, indicted last week for their role in selling and manufacturing the synthetic marijuana product, were warned about the murky legal territory of their multimillion-dollar K2 operation, as well as the potential health dangers of the substance," according to an investigation by the Lawrence Journal-World.
"ATF agents running an undercover storefront in Milwaukee used a brain-damaged man with a low IQ to set up gun and drug deals, paying him in cigarettes, merchandise and money, according to federal documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel." Read the Journal Sentinel's full investigation here.
There’s no argument that Mexico-based crime organizations dominate drug smuggling into the United States. But the public message that the Border Patrol has trumpeted for much of the last decade, mainly through press releases about its seizures, has emphasized Mexican drug couriers, or mules, as those largely responsible for transporting drugs.
It turns out that the Border Patrol catches more American citizens with drugs than it does Mexican couriers, according to an analysis of records obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports on a growing conflict between Montana's bar owners and craft brewers: "The draft bill is currently sitting in a pile of papers on a legislative staff attorney’s desk in Helena, but the rough outline has caused some upheaval among Montana’s craft brewing industry. It would combine two bills previously lobbied for by the Montana Tavern Association, which represents the retail end of the state distribution system, and build legal walls around the state brewers to keep them on the manufacturing side of the distribution system.
In an attempt to bust criminal operations in Milwaukee by purchasing drugs and guns from felons the ATF set up a storefront sting.
However, "the effort to date has not snared any major dealers or taken down a gang. Instead, it resulted in a string of mistakes and failures, including an ATF military-style machine gun landing on the streets of Milwaukee and the agency having $35,000 in merchandise stolen from its store, a Journal Sentinel investigation has found."
As Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday nears, the federal probe into his finances is focusing on legendary San Francisco financier Thomas Weisel, who bankrolled Armstrong's champion teams, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. CIR reports that "according to documents, the pair's business affairs are being investigated by the Major Fraud Investigations Division of the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General. At stake is $40 million in federal funds the Postal Service paid Weisel's Tailwind Sports between 1996 and 2004 to sponsor the team."