A still image from a surveillance video of off-duty Buffalo Police Officer Andrew Rechin on Oct. 31 outside Coles on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. Andrew T. Rechin admits he was the first to hurl punches in the fight that erupted after he ended his shift as a Buffalo police officer and went drinking with fellow cops. "I threw three, maybe four punches," Rechin said when he testified in his own defense days ago. But Rechin – who is now a former police officer – said the blows were justified. Rechin's adversary – another patron at Coles on Elmwood Avenue – had one hand partly in his pocket. "When you are dealing with anybody, you have to watch their hands," Rechin said as he explained in court...
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WASHINGTON (AP) — In 2012, as the death toll from the nation’s opioid crisis mounted, drug companies shipped out enough of the powerful and addictive painkillers for every man, woman and child in the U.S. to have nearly a 20-day supply. In some counties, mostly in Appalachia, it was well over 100 days. An Associated Press analysis of drug distribution data released as a result of lawsuits against the industry also found that the amount of opioids as measured by total potency continued to rise early this decade even as the number of pills distributed began to dip. The reason: Doctors were prescribing — and the industry was supplying — stronger pills. “It shows it wasn’t...
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Robert Mueller Testimony Transcript: House Congressional Testimony Jul 24, 2019 Robert Mueller testified before both the House Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committee on July 24, 2019. Mueller took questions from several members of Congress on his report, which involved primarily Russian interference in the 2016 elections and an inquiry into obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. See the full transcript of over 6 hours of testimony below. House Judiciary Committee Testimony Transcript (Part 1) Robert Mueller Opening Remarks Robert Mueller: 00:02 Good morning. Chairman Adler, and Ranking Member Collins and the members of the Committee....
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WASHINGTON (AP) — An executive at one of the nation’s largest drug distribution companies said under questioning recently that the business has no obligation to the public when it comes to the amount of prescription opioid painkillers it ships. That’s one of the exchanges included in thousands of pages of court documents, including depositions and internal emails, made public this week in lawsuits brought against the pharmaceutical industry over the nation’s deadly opioid crisis. In a testy line of questioning in a deposition earlier this year, Cardinal Health counsel Jennifer Norris was asked by a lawyer whether the company wants to “ensure that it does what it can...
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Sajid Javid is Chancellor, Priti Patel is Home Secretary, Dominic Raab is both Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State Michael Gove becomes Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, his fifth Cabinet job. Matt Hancock remains Health Secretary and Gavin Williamson is Education Secretary. Amber Rudd remains Work and Pension Secretary and Geoffrey Cox stays as Attorney General. Jacob Rees-Mogg becomes Leader of the House of Commons Grant Shapps is appointed Transport Secretary and Alok Sharma is International Development Secretary. Ben Wallace is Defence Secretary, Steven Barclay remains Brexit Secretary, Liz Truss is promoted to International Trade Secretary, Andrea Leadsom is Business...
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A former public elementary school principal in Michigan is suing her former school district after she says she was ousted for being white. The woman had been a principal at the school for five years. Shannon Blick, 39, was placed on leave by Ann Arbor Public Schools in April. Her lawyers say she had a spotless record, and that she was pushed out to make room for a black assistant principal. The district allegedly forced Blick out by first installing Taneia Giles as assistant principal and then pressuring Blick to leave her post so that Giles could take over her role, the lawsuit says. The school district has said that it has not formally received a copy of Blick's complaint and that it "...
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A Māori lawyer who is at the front-line of the justice system in New Zealand is supporting calls to overhaul it. A report called Ināia Tonu Nei - The Time is Now, is recommending the current system be abolished, and any new system be set up with the Crown and Māori working closely together, to ensure the needs of Māori, who are over-represented in prison, are met. It comes on the back of a hui held in April, where Māori were given the opportunity to openly discuss the current structure, and what needed to change. Auckland barrister Kingi Snelgar said the legacy of colonisation was still very present in the court system. "Courts were used as one of the main forms of colonisation and the...
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Sajid Javid: chancellor The former home secretary always seemed set for a high-ranking position in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, as an already prominent minister who was seen as having boosted his status in the race to succeed Theresa May. He will now replace Philip Hammond as chancellor. The former investment banker – who has never denied the theory that he took a pay cut of about 97% when he became an MP in 2010 – has risen through the ministerial ranks, serving under May as communities secretary and then replacing Amber Rudd as home secretary after she quit over the Windrush scandal. Javid used his profile and backstory to propel an energetic leadership campaign as far as the fourth round of...
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Blog Housekeeping Readers will no doubt recall my post last week on stem cell clinics. It seems to have achieved a wide audience – wide enough to include the legal profession, at any rate. Below are copies of a letter I have recently received, and what better place than here to address the points it raises? Since the AAAS was copied on this, let me start off by saying that the phrase “editorially independent” at the top of every page of my blog means what it says. The AAAS and Science Translational Medicine have no editorial input or responsibility whatsoever for the contents of this blog; they find out what I’m writing about the same time everyone else does (when...
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