OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to plead guilty to three criminal charges
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma will plead guilty to three criminal charges to settle a sweeping federal probe of its role in the opioid crisis, officials said Wednesday.
The Connecticut-based drugmaker will face more than $8.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties under the deal with the US Department of Justice, though it’s uncertain whether it will pay the entire amount once it gets through bankruptcy.
The settlement will also dissolve Purdue in its current form and wrest control of the business from members of the wealthy Sackler family who own it, according to the feds.
Prosecutors say Purdue marketed and sold OxyContin and other addictive opioids to health care providers who were diverting the drugs to abusers. The company also reported misleading information to the Drug Enforcement Administration to boost its manufacturing quotas and pushed doctors to prescribe more of its drugs through a series of kickback schemes, the feds allege.
The settlement, which is subject to court approval, will see Purdue plead guilty in New Jersey federal court to conspiracy to defraud the US along with violations of a federal anti-kickback law.
The deal calls for a $3.5 billion criminal fine and a $2 billion forfeiture payment against Purdue, which the feds called the largest penalties ever issued against a pharmaceutical manufacturer. The company has also agreed to a separate $2.8 billion civil penalty, officials said.
But Purdue will only have to pay $225 million of the criminal forfeiture if a bankruptcy court approves plans to turn the company into a public benefit corporation, according to prosecutors. It’s also unclear whether the feds will collect all of the criminal fine because it will be taken through Purdue’s bankruptcy, which involves several other creditors.
Comment: I once had a friend – a highly successful individual, beautiful wife & children and an incredible athlete. Sorry, but I’m not sorry to see Purdue pay for their crimes.
DOJ to Announce Historic Antitrust Suit against Google
Featured Image – Google building in Irvine, Calif., July 27, 2020 (Mike Blake/Reuters)
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, on Tuesday, the DOJ will file an antitrust lawsuit.
The allegation, in the suit, is Google uses a web of business agreements that maintain the search engine’s prominence to the detriment of competitors. They further allege Google uses funds, gleaned from advertisements, in order to pay other carriers and cell phone makers to maintain Google as their default browser. This practice makes Google the destination for 80 percent of all internet search queries in the U.S.
For over a year, DOJ has been conducting an investigation. The upcoming suit represents the largest legal challenge concerning Google’s dominance in the technology financial industry.
The interesting result of this lawsuit is it could generate bipartisan agreement in Congress.
Personally, I do not use Google. People seem to not understand they can change their “search engine” on their cell phones.
This past Saturday, October 17, 2020, I got wind of a story about a kooky shooting in Kingsville, Maryland; a sleepy quasi-rural community in Baltimore County, currently home for some 4400 people. Delightful, not quite the country communities like Kingsville were created by good ole boys, farmers and grand old families on properties outside city suburbs. Today, an aging local populace works its way through the first pangs of urban sprawl as modern subdivisions slowly begin to replace spaces once filled with tilled fields and pasture lands. People with multi-generational roots in Kingsville are friendly Americans, welcoming their new neighbors to the community.
Enter, Douglas Edward Kuhn – an IT professional employed by a firm in New Mexico, and one of those newer Kingsville residents. Last April, 50 year old Kuhn paid $675,000 for an absolutely lovely piece of real estate. The parcel of well tended land measures just under 15 acres and features a stunning, fully updated Colonial house, built circa 1915. Locals in Kingsville breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the Cedar Lane property was purchased with its Agricultural Use designation intact. There were no signs the lovely single home estate would be turned into blocks of houses for 30+ families. Unfortunately, the change in ownership still shattered the peace in this off-the-beaten-trail community.
Shortly before 2:30 pm on Saturday, police responded to a disturbance call near Cedar Lane and Mt. Vista Road in Kingsville. A homeowner had been posting a political sign on his property when the driver of a pickup truck carrying signs for the opposing party’s candidate honked the horn while motoring past. Apparently, the homeowner felt an equal and appropriate response to the driver’s horn abuse was to grab a shotgun and blast it the truck’s direction. Neither truck nor occupants were injured, thankfully. Truck driver pulled off a safe distance up the road and called the police. Short Sighted Shotty McGee was arrested without incident.
Did Joe Biden’s advice to fire a shotgun in the air as a way to warn people off take root good and tight in Kuhn’s sh*t simple lil heart? He ought not feel badly if inspiration to chase a truck down the street and shoot a round over its head came from the Phantom of the Election’s poor advice. Kuhn wouldn’t be the first witless wonder outside of Joe’s immediate family victimised by Biden Misdirection.
It didn’t take much effort to determine the address where this occurred and the shooters identity – Douglas Edward Kuhn, the new kid on the block. It did seem as though I’d have to visit Kingsville if I wished to learn what political party messaging Kuhn has determined renders a person deserved of a rootin’ tootin’ shootin’. Pondering the conspicuous absence of that data in official reports, the newness of Mr. Kuhn to the neighborhood and his irrational behaviour, I indulged myself with a comfy presumption that the truck was probably heavy with Trump signage – and the shooter inflicted with a bad case of TDS. Gosh, turned out that was a good guess.
Kuhn’s victims have been identified as Neal Houk, driver of the horny truck, and Neal’s son Bradley Lang, former Vice President of the Towson College Republicans.
“It’s Kingsville, it’s a friendly area. Everyone honks at each other. We think we were hoping there could be some civility between people who support different candidates,” Lang told WBALTV.
“He picked up a shotgun from near his feet and ran towards us aiming it and we got 100, 200 feet down the road, he began to fire,” Lang continues. “We were scared, although we were happy that he missed, the truck was missed and we were alright.”
Houk shared an accounting of the bizarre event with Channel 2.
“I came down Cedar and turned down here and blew the horn. There was a gentleman in the field putting up a banner and I blew the horn and he had a shotgun right there and he reached down, picked it up, pointed it,“said Houk. “My son was in the passenger seat. We looked straight down the barrel and we looked in disbelief and then right then he fired the shotgun.”
“I would never think — especially in Kingsville — that anyone would be violent about this situation. We all play nice here. It is America,” Houk told WBALTV.
Douglas Kuhn allegedly told police he had a shovel, not a shotgun. Witness testimony cleanly refuted that claim. Police charged Kuhn with two counts each of first-degree and second-degree assault, felony use of a firearm, reckless endangerment and other charges. He was denied a bail hearing until Monday morning. At the hearing, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Schellenberger gave the nod to Kuhn’s being released on bail after home detention had been arranged, Kuhn was released from custody Monday night. He’ll be staying at home until his next court date. The presiding judge, Baltimore County District Court Judge Philip Tirabassi, was reportedly, “furious over the current political climate, saying he was aghast that life has gotten to this stage.”
“How did it get to the point where he pulls out a shotgun? What has the world come to? This is beyond belief. Free speech. Why resort to weaponry. This could have been horrible,” Judge Tirabassi fumed from the bench.
Saturday’s shotgun discharge moment is not the first instance of trouble with Kuhn’s political displays. FOX45 News interviewed some neighbors of the trigger happy Biden devotee, including a gentleman named David Franz who has lived in Kingsville for 35 years. Franz said Kuhn’s signs and flags for Biden-Harris and BLM tend to disappear a few days after they appear.
“The ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign was down and one of the Biden signs was down — they’re flags that were torn down,” said Franz.
Well now. It becomes a bit more clear why Kuhn was so irked. Where my headspace exists, (which is outside of what is legal in the state of Maryland,) a man catching trespassers destroying his personal property has the right to shoot a trespassing vandal. There is no justification in shooting at a passing motorist who has done no harm, however. Why the hell did Kuhn even have a shotgun with him? Does he really take his property and/or politics so seriously? Something is missing. More than just the man’s sense.
A quick look through publicly available records produces the Deed to the property on Cedar Lane. Douglas Kuhn co-owns the home with another gentleman, William E. Narrow. Kuhn and Narrow appear on the Deed as ‘tenants by the entireties’, Owner/Occupants. Both are also equally responsible to pay the $573,750.00 debt recorded on a Deed of Trust secured by the property. That’s a helluva mortgage for land zoned Agricultural, useless to home developers. Perhaps Maryland’s recent laws on cannabis use sparked the idea of starting a farm. Just musing. Also, in the Lutheran Volunteer Corp (LVC) Annual Report, FY 2010-2011, “William Narrow and Doug Kuhn” appears, like that, in a list of people recognised as generous donors of $5000 or more. Perhaps theirs is a simple business arrangement. Perhaps, more.
Douglas Kuhn’s choices to festoon his property with markers of politics and social policy not embraced by the people he has opted to live amongst, and actually firing a shotgun at his fellow citizens, suggest he is an intolerant control freak who is regularly inconsiderate of others. His would not be a novel impetus if the decision to move to a traditionally conservative neighborhood was impelled by a desire to “influence” people he considers some kind of backwards hick. He has the right to his opinion and free speech, just like all U.S. citizens. So long as his efforts do not impede another’s path to their pursuit of happiness. Overkill is an impediment, a distraction, an unnecessary whap upside the head. As of Monday evening there are three, full size Biden flags (two, pictured above) on Kuhn’s property. At least. That’s at least two too many if ya want to be neighborly.
OK – fair and balanced criticism moment. It’s not just people to the Left who seem unable to curb their yen to vomit bodacious amounts of political messaging. Some Trump supporters have brought tacky campaigning overkill to the party, as well. See, Neal Houk’s truck, long may it roll and wave:
Yes and again, depending on any housing codes relevant to his home on Cedar Lane, Douglas Kuhn is free to fly fifty Biden flags if it makes him feel happy. Such overkill, however, will invite a negative response. One wonders if a single flag would ever have been removed from it’s assigned place if only a single flag had ever been displayed.
The insistent abundance factor makes this homeowners political messaging smell like a disrespectful, purposeful tweaking of nerves. Let me qualify such a castigating personal values assumption. Doug Kuhn lives on a local traffic kind of thoroughfare. The only people who see his banners are community members going back and forth to work, school, church, shopping, etc. He’s doing this for them. Rather, for himself and to them.
red star marks Kuhn/Narrow property in Kingsville MD
It would be nice if we could be more respectful of the old when we decide to make it our new. Moving into established communities means moving into established mindsets and preferences. A certain level of assimilation is expected when one plants new roots. Attempting to push a personal agenda down the throats of the uninterested will not yield positive results. These are human nature truisms most of us figure out by the time we reach the age of majority – Kuhn somehow missed those life lessons back when they don’t hurt so much to learn.
Conversely, hands off the property of disrespectful people who do not participate in the niceties that keep society peaceful. It is not acceptable for Trump supporters to trespass on private property or destroy other peoples political messaging devices. Period. Besides being unlawful and not nice, it is easy enough to drive ’em nuts with your own signs and a truck horn, apparently.
It seems relevant to note that while Kuhn’s flags were tampered with, his house was not set afire. Yet, he seems to have found the decision to risk human life and property a quick and easy choice to make. There are clear patterns of personal conduct regularly displayed by US of Americans versus the citizen seeking to turn an exceptional nation into a typical failure. Even if it should turn out that Kuhn has been the target of much hate and feels as though he is in danger, chasing a vehicle as it drives away so you can blast at it with a shotgun is considered wildly inappropriate – by sane people.
This ‘Merican wonders if liberal legislators writing Red Flag laws haven’t been motivated to do so by the Douglas Kuhns in their own family trees.
Airhead Author Note I thought I’d posted this last night, Tuesday. Think I took it down to edit because it’s long, and yet, did not do any editing. Sorry for the ramble. If I did already post this, please accept my apologies for the overkill. 😉
Today’s featured image is of Beaver Lake. The lake, and it’s surrounding county owned nature center, is located near Baldwinsville in Onondaga county NY.
Do you remember Karl Manke? He’s the 77 year old Michigan barber who continually defied Gauleiter Frau Whitmer’s covid diktats. Well, after racking up a bunch of criminal charges and having his barbers license revoked, Manke is now officially in the clear. The prosecutor has dropped all the charges after the Michigan Supreme Court voided all of Whitmer’s executive orders.
Democrats in Pennsylvania have won a temporary victory. SCOTUS refused to issue a stay preventing the state from accepting mail-in ballots until November 6. It looks like the vote was 4-4 with squish Roberts voting with the libs. I say this is a temporary victory only because the possibility of the case being taken up after ACB gets confirmed.
Jeffrey Epstein’s reputed procurer got some bad news in court. No, Ghislaine Maxwell didn’t not kill herself. The judge overseeing the suit brought by one of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims ordered Maxwell’s depositions to be made public.
“I hold Donald Trump responsible for every death in New York from COVID,”
“Because Trump lied. He lied. And in combination with his lies, he was incompetent. It was his lie that said this was nothing to worry about. Trump was patient zero in the United States.”
” (Trump) was the super spreader that brought the virus to America.”
NY Governor Andy Cuomo
You know who normal people blame for the deaths in NY Andy? You. You and Howard Zucker and that God forsaken executive order you issued cramming covid positive patients into nursing homes. You know Gov, we STILL don’t have an accurate accounting of nursing home deaths.
I’m really getting sick of this douchebag.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has restarted within the last 24 hours. There had been a tenuous ceasefire in place for several days, however a new push by Azeri forces seems to have shattered that ceasefire. There is pretty strong evidence of Turkish involvement on the Azeri side, beyond the movement of Syrian mercenaries. The Armenians have posted images of Turkish drones that they’ve shot down over the separatist region.
It seems as if the Russians are at least making the appearance of supporting the Armenian side. Images have popped up online showing Russian troops manning Armenian border crossings with Azerbaijan.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has set a date for the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Thursday, after the committee’s approval, the full chamber will vote on Judge Barrett on Monday, October 26, following a procedural vote on Sunday.
“With regard to the Supreme Court justice, we’ll be voting to confirm justice-to-be Barrett next Monday,” Leader McConnell said. “I think that will be another signature accomplishment in our effort to put on the courts, the federal courts, men and women that believe in the quaint notion that maybe the job of a judge is to actually follow the law.”
“Judge Amy Coney Barrett demonstrated that she has the deep legal expertise, dispassionate judicial temperament, and sheer intellectual horsepower that the American people deserve to have on the Supreme Court.” -@senatemajldr pic.twitter.com/l3tnPl0s7v
A recent poll from Gallup indicates 51% of Americans support the confirmation of Any Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
In a poll conducted between Sep 30-Oct 15, 51% approved, 46% disapproved and 3% had no opinion. The no opinion response was the lowest ts ever been by a wide margin. The previous low was 19% shared among three justices and the long term average is 25%.
Of note, independent voters break out at a 52%/43%/5% rate. While Dems break out at 15%/84%/1%.
The Gallup poll tracks with the results of a Siena/NYT poll.
Today’s featured image is of Mirror Lake. The lake is located in the Adirondacks in Essex county NY.
FYI, there’s an asteroid that may hit the earth the day before election day. 2018VP1 is hurtling towards Earth at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour and may clip the planet on Nov. 2. Not to worry though, the rock, about the size of a large refrigerator, isn’t big enough to cause any real damage if it does hit.
The Department of Justice announced they have Indicted 6 Russian hackers. All 6 are reported to be members of the GRU. The hacks are reported to have caused upwards of $6 billion in damages. Too bad nothing will ever come of the indictments.
Georgetown university has hired Peter Stzrok as an instructor. He is currently listed as an adjunct professor at the Walsh school of international studies. Higher education ain’t what it used to be. . . .
Drew Holden put together a pretty good thread on the Russia disinformation talking point that got destroyed earlier today.
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NOTICE: The content of this video is part of an official whistleblower complaint. On the day Shadow Gate had an early release, a well planned targeted smear campaign by media outlets and social media influencers was launched to distract away from the subtle panic the military industrial complex was going through in the background. What was so dangerous about Shadow Gate and our whistleblowers that the documentary created such a knee-jerk reaction? That is the subject of this documentary.
Millie Weaver, an independent journalist set the Shadow Government and Military Industrial Complex in to what might be described as panic, when her original investigations aired with the premiering of the documentary Shadow Gate: https://www.bitchute.com/video/DS7CN67XL1lb/ Weaver interviews two experts; Tore, a Linguist Navy Intelligence Contractor and Patrick Bergey, a Cyber Security, Army PYSOP Program Director, during her investigation of who & how a small group of government contractors were hired to set up President Trump for the Russian collusion hoax. Including witnesses and players and the far reaching effects of the technology sourced without the apparent knowledge of the Department of Defense.
Weaver is currently working on Shadow Gate 3.0 and this is going to feature General Michael Flynn. Millie Weaver has not failed to deliver on some of the most explosive information currently available anywhere.
The Biden campaign is trying to spin the email scandal the NY Post uncovered. What you’re not hearing are any kind of denials from the Biden camp. The kind of denials you’d expect when false information gets pushed.
Instead you’re seeing weak deflections like the one above.
The leader of the Boilermakers union blasted Joe Biden after Biden claimed the Boilermakers union had endorsed him.
“The other day I’m watching the debate and I see Joe Biden tell everybody that the Boilermakers endorsed him and that is not true,” John Hughes, leader of the Boilermakers local 154 said on a Saturday press call, “And I would like somebody to tell me who — he said he talked to somebody — I’d like to know who he talked to in the Boilermakers because anybody I talk to did not endorse him.”
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It’s been a little while since I last wrote about the unrest happening in Portland. While it’s technically 127 days of protests and rioting there, the last few weeks have been less violent than before.
Last night the ICE detention facility was the target. It didn’t go well for the rioters. ICE, DHS and the Border Patrol’s BORTAC unit responded. It seems like they had some new toys to play with. The first video shows a new type of pepper spray dispenser, it shoots a thumb thick stream of capsaicin goodness and the second is a tear gas dispersal unit/leaf blower.
And here's when DHS brought their gas gun/leaf blower/insecticide sprayer out to disperse protesters. Wait for it, it's worth it. pic.twitter.com/1UcWtjDQIq
