Are Ibrutinib Actually Worth The Euros?
Interestingly, in adult females how much LTP varied between 33 and JVRKIARTCFQTHJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 36% no matter prenatal diet program (F(Only two,Thirty-seven)?=?0.Twenty-seven, P?=?0.Seventy six; Fig.
Chemical weapon for sale: China's unregulated narcotic
The AP identified 12 Chinese businesses that said they would export the chemical — a synthetic opioid known as carfentanil — to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Australia for as little as $2,750 a kilogram (2.2 pounds), no questions asked.
Carfentanil burst into view this summer, the latest scourge in an epidemic of opioid abuse that has killed tens of thousands of people in the United States alone. Dealers have been cutting carfentanil and its weaker cousin, fentanyl, into heroin and other illicit drugs to boost profit margins .
In this June 27, 2016 photo provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, members of the RCMP go through a decontamination procedure in Vancouver after intercepting a package containing approximately 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the powerful opioid carfentanil imported from China. ¿Cocaine or heroin, JVRKIARTCFQTHJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N we know what the purpose is,¿ said Allan Lai, an officer-in-charge at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Calgary, who is helping oversee the criminal investigation. ¿With respect to carfentanil, we don¿t know why a substance of that potency is coming into our country.¿ (Royal Canadian Mounted Police via AP)
Despite the dangers, carfentanil is not a controlled substance in China, where it is manufactured legally and sold openly online. The U.S. government is pressing China to blacklist carfentanil, but Beijing has yet to act, leaving a substance whose lethal qualities have been compared with nerve gas to flow into foreign markets unabated.
"We can supply carfentanil ... for sure," a saleswoman from Jilin Tely Import and Export Co. wrote in broken English in a September email. "And it's one of our hot sales product."
China's Ministry of Public Security declined multiple requests for comment from the AP.
Before being discovered by drug dealers, carfentanil and substances like it were viewed as chemical weapons. One of the most powerful opioids in circulation, carfentanil is so deadly that an amount smaller than a poppy seed can kill a person. Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin; carfentanil is chemically similar, but 100 times stronger than fentanyl itself.
"It's a weapon," said Andrew Weber, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs from 2009 to 2014. "Companies shouldn't be just sending it to anybody."
The AP did not actually order any drugs so could not conduct tests to determine whether the products on offer were genuine. But a kilogram of carfentanil shipped from China was recently seized in Canada.
Carfentanil was first developed in the 1970s, and its only routine use is as an anesthetic for elephants and other large animals. Governments quickly targeted it as a potential chemical weapon. Forms of fentanyl are suspected in at least one known assassination attempt, and were used by Russian forces against Chechen separatists who took hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater in 2002.
The chemicals are banned from the battlefield under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In fiscal year 2014, U.S. authorities seized just 3.7 kilograms (8.1 pounds) of fentanyl. This fiscal year, through just mid-July, they have seized 134.1 kilograms (295 pounds), according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by the AP. Fentanyl is the most frequently seized synthetic opioid, U.S. Customs reports.
Users are dying of accidental respiratory arrest, and overdose rates have soared. China has not been blind to the key role its chemists play in the global opioid supply chain. Most synthetic drugs that end up in the United In States come from China, either directly or by way of Mexico, according to the DEA. China already has placed controls on 19 fentanyl-related compounds. Adding carfentanil to that list is likely to only diminish, not eliminate, global supply.
Despite periodic crackdowns, people willing to skirt the law are easy to find in China's vast, freewheeling chemicals industry, made up of an estimated 160,000 companies operating legally and illegally. Vendors said they lie on customs forms, guaranteed delivery to countries where carfentanil is banned and volunteered strategic advice on sneaking packages past law enforcement.
Speaking from a bright booth at a chemicals industry conference in Shanghai last month, Xu Liqun said her company, Hangzhou Reward Technology, could produce carfentanil to order.
"It's dangerous, dangerous, but if we send 1kg, 2kg, it's OK," she said, adding that she wouldn't do the synthesis herself because she's pregnant. She said she knows carfentanil can kill and believes it should be a controlled substance in China.
"The government should impose very serious limits, but in reality in China it's so difficult to control because if I produce one or two kilograms, how will anyone know?" she said. "They cannot control you, so many products, so many labs."
Several vendors recommended sending the drugs via EMS, the express mail service of state-owned China Postal Express & Logistics Co., as a fail-safe option.
"EMS is a little slow than Fedex or DHL but very safe, more than 99% pass rate," a Yuntu Chemical Co. representative wrote in an email. "If send to the USA, each package less than 250g is the best, small and unattractive, we will divide 1kg into 4-5 packages and send every other day or send to different addresses."
EMS declined to comment.
A Yuntu representative hung up the phone when contacted by the AP and did not reply to emails seeking comment. Soon after, the company's website vanished.
Not all of the websites used to sell the drugs are based in China. At least six Chinese companies offering versions of fentanyl, including carfentanil, had IP addresses in the United States, hosted at U.S. commercial web providers, the AP found.
___
"NOBODY WAS MOVING. THEY PUT THE PEOPLE THERE LIKE DOLLS."
In 2002, Russian special forces turned to carfentanil after a three-day standoff with Chechen separatists, who had taken more than 800 people hostage in a Moscow theater . They used an aerosol version of carfentanil, along with the less potent remifentanil, sending it through air vents, according to a paper by British scientists who tested clothing and urine samples from three survivors.
The strategy worked, but more than 120 hostages died from the effects of the chemicals.
Olga Dolotova, an engineer who survived the attack, remembers seeing white plumes descending before she lost consciousness. When she awoke, she found herself on a bus packed with bodies. "It was such a horror just to look at it," she said. "Nobody was moving. They put the people there like dolls."
The theater siege raised concerns about carfentanil as a tool of war or terrorism, and prompted the U.S. to develop strategies to counter its use, according to Weber, the former Defense Department chemical weapons expert.
The U.S., Russia, China, Israel, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and India are among the countries that have assessed carfentanil and related compounds for offensive or defensive applications, according to publicly available documents and academic studies.
"Countries that we are concerned about were interested in using it for offensive purposes," Weber said. "We are also concerned that groups like ISIS could order it commercially."
Weber considered a range of alarming scenarios, including the use of carfentanil to knock out and take troops hostage, or to kill civilians in a closed environment like a train station. He added that it is important to raise awareness about the threat from carfentanil trafficking.
"Shining sunlight on this black market activity should encourage Chinese authorities to shut it down," he said.
Fentanyls also have been described as ideal tools for assassination — lethal and metabolized quickly so they leave little trace.
Agents from Israel's secret intelligence service, Mossad, sprayed a substance believed to be a fentanyl analog into the ear of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal as he walked down a street in Amman, Jordan, in a botched 1997 assassination attempt.
The U.S. began researching fentanyl as an incapacitating agent in the 1960s and, by the 1980s, government scientists were experimenting with aerosolized carfentanil on primates, according to Neil Davison, the author of "'Non-Lethal' Weapons" who now works at the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The U.S. says it is no longer developing such chemical agents. But two state-owned companies in China have marketed "narcosis" dart guns, according to Michael Crowley, author of "Chemical Control" and project coordinator at the University of Bradford's Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project. He said the ammunition "might very well be fentanyl or an analog of fentanyl," adding that in the 1990s, the U.S. explored similar guns loaded with a form of fentanyl.
Among the problems with fentanyls is that the line between life and death is too thin.
"There is no incapacitating chemical agent that can be used in a tactical situation without extreme risk of injury or death to everybody in the room," Crowley said.
___
"HURRY TO BUY"
DEA officials say they are getting unprecedented cooperation from China in the fight against fentanyls, noting unusually deep information-sharing in what can be a fractious bilateral relationship.
The DEA has "shared intelligence and scientific data" with Chinese authorities about controlling carfentanil, according to Russell Baer, a DEA special agent in Washington.
"I know China is looking at it very closely," he said. "That's been the subject of discussion in some of these high-level meetings."
Last October, China added 116 synthetic drugs to its controlled substances list, which had a profound impact on global narcotics supply chains. Acetylfentanyl, for example, is a weaker cousin of carfentanil that China included on last year's list of restricted substances. Six months later, monthly seizures of acetylfentanyl in the U.S. had plummeted by 60 percent, DEA data obtained by the AP shows.
Several vendors contacted in September were willing to export carfentanil, but refused to ship the far less potent acetylfentanyl. A Jilin Tely Import & Export Co. saleswoman offered carfentanil for $3,800 a kilogram, but wrote, with an apologetic happy face, that she couldn't ship acetylfentanyl because it "is regulated by the government now."
Contacted by the AP, the company said it had never shipped carfentanil to North America and had offered to sell it just "to attract the customer."
Seven companies offered to sell acetylfentanyl despite the ban, however. Five offered fentanyl and two offered alpha-PVP, commonly known as flakka, which also are controlled substances in China.
Liu Feng, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Haiqiang Chemical Co., said his company sent a large order of carfentanil to India last year and has sold smaller amounts to trading companies in Shanghai. He said they also had put false labels on packages for customers.
"Everyone in the industry knows it," he said. "But we just do not say it."
Another company went out of its way to recommend acetylfentanyl. "Our customer feedback that the effect is also very good," Wonder Synthesis emailed in broken English. The company says it has warehouses in the United States, Europe, Russia and India.
Wonder Synthesis did not respond to emails seeking comment and the phone number provided did not work. The AP visited its published address in Beijing and found a beauty parlor.
The problem with carfentanil is not limited to the United States. In late June, Canadian authorities seized a kilogram of carfentanil shipped from China in a box labelled printer accessories.
The powder contained 50 million lethal doses, according to the Canada Border Services Agency — more than enough to wipe out the entire population of the country. It was hidden inside bright blue cartridges labeled as ink for HP LaserJet printers. "Keep out of reach of children," read the labels, in Chinese.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers in Vancouver sealed themselves inside hazmat suits, binding their wrists, ankles, zippers, and face masks with fat strips of yellow tape. With large oxygen containers on their backs and chunky respirators, it looked as if they were preparing for a trip to the moon.
"Cocaine or heroin, we know what the purpose is," said Allan Lai, an officer-in-charge at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Calgary, who is helping oversee the criminal investigation. "With respect to carfentanil, we don't know why a substance of that potency is coming into our country."
In August and September, high-level delegations of Chinese and U.S. drug enforcement authorities met to discuss joint efforts on synthetic opioids, but neither meeting produced any substantive announcement on carfentanil.
Nonetheless, some Chinese vendors are already bracing for a new wave of controls. In an email, Wonder Synthesis wrote, "If you need any chems, just hurry to buy."
__
Butler reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Aritz Parra in Shanghai, Paisley Dodds in London, Jack Gillum and Maria Danilova in Washington, and news researchers Fu Ting in Shanghai and Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.
Follow Kinetz on Twitter at website and Butler at website
In this June 27, 2016 photo provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a member of the RCMP opens a printer ink bottle containing the opioid carfentanil imported from China, in Vancouver. Drug dealers have been cutting carfentanil and its weaker cousin, fentanyl, into heroin and other illicit drugs to boost profit margins. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police via AP)
In this June 27, 2016 photo provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, members of the RCMP inspect a package containing approximately 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the powerful opioid carfentanil imported from China, in Vancouver. It was shipped in a box labelled printer accessories. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police via AP)
This June 2016 photo provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police shows printer ink bottles containing carfentanil imported from China, in Vancouver. Members of the Canada Border Services Agency seized approximately 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the powerful opioid bound for Calgary. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police via AP)
This Sept. 13, 2016 image shows a portion of a webpage offering the powerful opioid carfentanil for sale by the Jilin Tely Import and Export Co. ¿We can supply carfentanil ¿ for sure,¿ a saleswoman from the company wrote in a September 2016 email. ¿And it¿s one of our hot sales product.¿ But when later contacted by the AP, the company said it had never shipped carfentanil to North America and had offered to sell it just "to attract the customer." As of Oct. 7, 2016, this webpage was no longer available. (AP Photo)
Xu Liqun, center, president of Hangzhou Reward Technology, speaks at the company's booth during the China International Chemical Industry Fair in Shanghai, China on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. Xu Liqun said her company could produce carfentanil to order. "The government should impose very serious limits, but in reality in China it¿s so difficult to control because if I produce one or two kilograms, how will anyone know?¿ she said. ¿They cannot control you, so many products, so many labs.¿ (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Visitors look at a directory of the vendors at the China International Chemical Industry Fair in Shanghai, China on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. Despite periodic crackdowns, people willing to skirt the law are easy to find in China¿s vast, freewheeling chemicals industry, made up of an estimated 160,000 companies operating legally and illegally. Vendors said they lie on customs forms, guarantee delivery to countries where carfentanil is banned and volunteered strategic advice on sneaking packages past law enforcement. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A woman walks past a display at the China International Chemical Industry Fair in Shanghai, China, on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. Despite periodic crackdowns, people willing to skirt the law are easy to find in China¿s vast, freewheeling chemicals industry, made up of an estimated 160,000 companies operating legally and illegally. Vendors said they lie on customs forms, guarantee delivery to countries where carfentanil is banned and volunteered strategic advice on sneaking packages past law enforcement. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
This combination of images from a 1997 report by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory shows photos from the testing of fentanyl-based anesthetics delivered via felt projectiles. The U.S. began researching fentanyl as an incapacitating agent in the 1960s and, by the 1980s, government scientists were experimenting with aerosolized carfentanil on primates, according to Neil Davison, the author of "'Non-Lethal' Weapons" who now works at the International Committee of the Red Cross. The U.S. says it is no longer developing such chemical agents. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via AP)
FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002 file photo, a special forces officer carries a woman out of the Dubrovka Theater where hundreds of hostages were held in Moscow, Russia. Russian special forces turned to carfentanil to end a standoff with Chechen separatists using an aerosol version of the opioid, along with the less potent remifentanil, sending it through air vents, according to a paper by British scientists who tested clothing and urine samples from three survivors. The strategy worked, but more than 120 hostages died from the effects of the chemicals. (AP Photo/Gazeta Gazeta, File)
FILE - In this early Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002 file photo, unconscious liberated hostages are taken away in a bus from the scene near the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow. Russian special forces turned to carfentanil to end a standoff with Chechen separatists using an aerosol version of the opioid, along with the less potent remifentanil, sending it through air vents, according to a paper by British scientists who tested clothing and urine samples from three survivors. The strategy worked, but more than 120 hostages died from the effects of the chemicals. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, File)
Michael Crowley of Bradford University fellow poses for a photo during an interview in Bradford, England on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. As the project coordinator at the university's Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project, he says among the problems with fentanyls is that the line between life and death is too thin. "There is no incapacitating chemical agent that can be used in a tactical situation without extreme risk of injury or death to everybody in the room." (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
Michael Crowley of Bradford University fellow sits next to research materials during an interview in Bradford, England on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. As the project coordinator at the university's Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project, he says two state-owned companies in China have marketed "narcosis" dart guns. He said the ammunition "might very well be fentanyl or an analog of fentanyl," adding that in the 1990s, the U.S. explored similar guns loaded with a form of the opoiod. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
Thursday, April 30, 2015
2 rescued from wreckage in Nepal's capital 5 days after quake, bringing some moments of joy
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The 15-year-old boy had been buried alive under the rubble of this quake-stricken capital for five days, listening to bulldozers clearing mountains of debris, fearful the incessant aftershocks might finally collapse the darkened crevice he was trapped in.
And then, "all of the sudden I saw light," Pempa Tamang said, recounting the moment Thursday he was pulled from a hole at the bottom of what was once a seven-story building in Kathmandu.
Tamang did not know whether he was alive or dead. "I thought I was hallucinating," he said.
The improbable rescue was an uplifting moment in Nepal, which has been overwhelmed by death and destruction since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Saturday. By late Thursday, the government said the toll from the tremor, the most powerful recorded here since 1934, had risen to 6,130 dead and 13,827 injured.
After night fell, police reported another dramatic rescue: A woman in her 20s, Krishna Devi Khadka, was pulled from a building in the same neighborhood as Tamang near Kathmandu's main bus terminal, according to an officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.
___
Baltimore police hand report on Gray death to prosecutor, who pleads for patience and peace
BALTIMORE (AP) — Police completed their investigation into the death of Freddie Gray a day earlier than planned Thursday and delivered it to the chief prosecutor in Baltimore, who pleaded for patience and peace while she decides whether to bring charges.
The deputy commissioner also revealed a new detail that raises still more questions about what the officers involved have told investigators: He said the van carrying Gray to the police station made a previously undisclosed stop that was captured on video by a "privately owned camera."
A grocery store owner told The Associated Press later Thursday that it was his closed-circuit security camera that provided the recording. Speaking in Korean, Jung Hyun Hwang said officers came in last week to make a copy, and that the only other copy was stolen, along with his video equipment, when looters destroyed his store Monday night.
He told the AP that he didn't see what the recording showed of the police van on April 12.
State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby must review the evidence, consider charges and decide how to move forward in the death of Gray, who suffered severe spinal injuries at some point after he tried to run from police on April 12, and died a week later.
___
Sheriff's report: Officer who pursued Freddie Gray was hospitalized in 2012 over mental health
BALTIMORE (AP) — The highest-ranking Baltimore police officer in the arrest that led to Freddie Gray's death was hospitalized in April 2012 over mental health concerns for an unknown duration and had his guns confiscated by local sheriff's deputies, according to records from the sheriff's office and court obtained by The Associated Press.
Lt. Brian Rice, who initially pursued Gray on a Baltimore street when Gray fled after Rice made eye contact April 12, declared three years ago that he "could not continue to go on like this" and threatened to commit an act that was censored in the public version of a report obtained by the AP from the Carroll County, Maryland, Sheriff's Office. Rice lived in the county, about 35 miles northwest of Baltimore. At the time, deputies were responding to a request to check on his welfare by a fellow Baltimore police officer who is the mother of Rice's son.
Deputies reported that Rice appeared "normal and soft spoken" and said he had been seeking "sympathy and attention." But citing "credible information," the deputies confiscated both his official and personal guns, called his commanding officer and transported Rice to the Carroll Hospital Center. The weapons included his .40-caliber police pistol, a 9 mm handgun, an AK-47-style rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and two shotguns.
It was not immediately clear how long Rice was at the hospital or whether he went on his own accord. Rice declined to speak with the AP or discuss allegations in a subsequent court filing that he had behaved in erratic or threatening ways toward family members. When the AP visited Rice's home last week and left a note requesting an interview, Rice called the sheriff's department to report the visit as trespassing. Karen McAleer, the mother of his son, also declined to speak with the AP.
The events described in the 2012 report provided the basis for one of at least two administrative suspensions for Rice in 2012 and 2013, a person familiar with the police department staff said. This person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential personnel matters.
___
Medicare spends most for Nexium, other brand-name drugs, though generics are most prescribed
WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare figures released by the government show the program's most-prescribed drugs for seniors are generics — but the program spends the most on brand-name medications, led by the heartburn drug Nexium.
The government data show that more than 1 million health care providers prescribed $103 billion worth of medications under Medicare's popular Part D drug benefit in 2013.
AstraZeneca's Nexium accounted for $2.5 billion of that spending, followed by $2.3 billion for GlaxoSmithKline's asthma drug Advair Diskus. There was $2.2 billion spent for AstraZeneca's anti-cholesterol blockbuster Crestor.
Specialists say the data, released Thursday for the first time, offer an opportunity to examine prescribing practices around the country, to look for ways to save money and improve health care quality.
___
Last days of Vietnam War a tale of chaos, sorrow for US Marines who witnessed Saigon fall
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) — As the Marines scrambled to the roof of the U.S. Embassy, they locked a chain-link gate on every other floor to slow the throng of panicked Vietnamese civilians sure to come behind them. They knew if the crowd pushed through to the top, they could easily be overrun by hundreds of people desperate to get a seat on one of the last helicopters out of Saigon.
The men barricaded the rooftop door using heavy fire extinguishers and wall lockers and waited nervously as Vietnamese gathered outside rammed a fire truck through an embassy entrance. They could hear looting going on below and watched as cars were driven away and everything from couch cushions to refrigerators was carted out of the offices. South Vietnamese soldiers stripped off their uniforms and threw them into the street, out of fear they would be shot on sight by the northern enemy.
It was still dark when the U.S. ambassador left the roof on a helicopter around 5 a.m. April 30, 1975. A message went out over the radio with his code name, "Tiger, Tiger, Tiger," followed by "Tiger out," to signal that the diplomat was en route to safety.
As the sun came out, the remaining Marines realized they had been forgotten. The pilots mistakenly believed that the call meant everyone had been evacuated. The Marines had no way to contact U.S. airmen ferrying Vietnamese allies and Americans to aircraft carriers offshore because their radio signals didn't carry that far.
The last U.S. servicemen in Vietnam were stuck alone atop the embassy, hoping someone would realize they were there before the city fell to rapidly advancing communist forces.
___
Germany foils suspected Boston Marathon-style attack; pipe bomb, other weapons seized in raid
BERLIN (AP) — German authorities foiled what they believe may have been an imminent Boston Marathon-style attack on a professional cycling race planned for Friday, seizing a cache of weapons, including a pipe bomb, and chemicals that can be used to make explosives in a raid on a suspected Islamic extremist's home outside Frankfurt.
Authorities detained a 35-year-old Turkish-German man and his 34-year-old Turkish wife in the raid in the town of Oberursel. The couple, whose names weren't released in line with Germany privacy rules, had been under surveillance.
Security officials were worried that the couple may have been targeting the one-day Eschborn to Frankfurt race, which draws around 200 professional riders and thousands of spectators on the May Day public holiday. Police said the race would be canceled in case the couple had accomplices, or they placed as-yet undetected explosive devices along the route.
Suspicions were heightened when police recently observed the male suspect, a trained chemist, apparently scouting out the area where the race was due to take place, said Frankfurt's chief prosecutor, Albrecht Schreiber. The race was supposed to pass through Oberursel.
"The result of the raid shows that our suspicions were confirmed," Schreiber told reporters Thursday at a news conference in Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse.
___
Bush builds bridges with Hispanic voters, looking beyond GOP primaries even before they start
HOUSTON (AP) — The man at the microphone spoke in a language most Republican presidential primary voters do not understand.
"You are part of the new wave of hope for this country," Jeb Bush said in fluent Spanish to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference this week. Switching to English, he said the U.S. needs immigrants for the country "to become young and dynamic again."
It doesn't seem to matter that Hispanic voters typically do not have much say in Republican primaries. The former Florida governor's play to Hispanic values and policy goals has begun to shape his young political operation. Well before the first votes are cast for the Republican nomination — and even before he declares his candidacy — Bush is strengthening ties with Hispanic voters who will be important in the head-to-head contest for the presidency in 2016.
At his side throughout this week's appearances in Puerto Rico and Texas was Raul Henriques, a fresh-faced "body man" recently hired because Bush wanted a Spanish speaker to travel with him regularly. As well, Emily Benavides stood at the back of the hotel ballroom during Bush's Houston address Wednesday, now on board to advise him on Hispanic media. And Bush's Mexican-born wife, Columba, is expected to start doing more in the rising campaign, also with Hispanic media.
Bush primarily speaks Spanish with his wife. He has lived in Puerto Rico and Venezuela; he governed a state with a large Hispanic population — and he regularly cooks Latin cuisine at home.
___
Flakka, '$5 insanity,' is increasingly popular synthetic drug kids are using with e-cigarettes
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — One man ran naked through a Florida neighborhood, tried to have sex with a tree and told police he was the mythical god Thor. Another ran nude down a busy city street in broad daylight, convinced a pack of German shepherds was pursuing him.
Two others tried separately to break into the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. They said they thought people were chasing them; one wound up impaled on a fence.
The common element to these and other bizarre incidents in Florida in the last few months is flakka, an increasingly popular synthetic designer drug. Also known as gravel and readily available for $5 or less a vial, it's a growing problem for police after bursting on the scene in 2013.
It is the latest in a series of synthetic drugs that include Ecstasy and bath salts, but officials say flakka is even easier to obtain in small quantities through the mail. Flakka's active ingredient is a chemical compound called alpha-PVP, which is on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's list of the controlled substances most likely to be abused. It is usually made overseas in countries such as China and Pakistan.
Flakka, a derivative of the Spanish word for a thin, pretty woman, is usually sold in a crystal form and is often smoked using electronic cigarettes, which are popular with young people and give off no odor. It can also be snorted, injected or swallowed.
___
Small businesses hurt by Baltimore riot face recovery hurdles, even with government help
BALTIMORE (AP) — Richard Sung Kang's American dream came crashing down in a shower of broken glass.
His West Baltimore liquor store and bar, the Oxford Tavern, was hit by looters during a riot over the police-involved death of neighborhood resident Freddie Gray.
The business wasn't torched like the nearby CVS pharmacy, but its doors and windows were broken and cash and UOZWZANRCOALQL-UHFFFAOYSA-N inventory stolen, leaving shelves bare.
Now the 49-year-old South Korean immigrant must decide whether to reopen. If so, it could mean taking on more debt and paying higher insurance premiums.
"I don't know yet," said Kang, looking dejected and exhausted Wednesday after rioters damaged scores of businesses in pockets of the city.
___
As Supreme Court ruling on health law nears, congressional Republicans divided over response
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Ron Johnson was elected to Congress in 2010 as an adamant foe of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Yet facing a Supreme Court decision that could disrupt how that law functions, the Wisconsin Republican is among many in the GOP who want Congress to react with caution.
If the plaintiffs prevail in the Republican-supported case, the justices could annul federal subsidies helping around 7.7 million people afford coverage in more than 30 states. Republicans broadly agree that Congress should respond by temporarily replacing that aid, aware that abruptly ending it would anger millions of voters before next year's presidential and congressional elections.
"Neither politically nor practically can we end those" subsidies, said Johnson, who faces a potentially tough re-election next year. "So let's just recognize those realities. Let's set up the 2016 election as the contest, the discussion, the debate" over repealing the law.
And while Republicans say they are dedicated to repealing the law, they remain divided over how to respond once the court rules. Johnson's is among five GOP proposals — and counting — suggested so far, and none have won a consensus.
"I think it needs to be part of the presidential campaign, and then the winner will be able to point to that as part of their mandate," No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas said of replacing the health care law. Meanwhile, he said, "what we all need to do is unite around one approach, if that's at all possible, and that's been a challenge because there are competing good ideas out there."
Florida 'flakka' importer pleads guilty as feds battle drug's spread
By Zachary Fagenson
MIAMI, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A South Florida woman pleaded guilty in a West Palm Beach federal court on Monday to conspiring to import the drug alpha-PVP, also known as "flakka," part of a major law enforcement crackdown against mail-order synthetic drugs from China.
Jamie Nicole Lewis, 22, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine at a December sentencing.
She and co-defendant Kevin Raphael Bully, who has pleaded not guilty to a four-count indictment, were in April among the first alleged flakka dealers arrested in Florida.
The drug, nicknamed "$5 insanity," is said to give users who overdose a sense of superhuman strength and powerful hallucinations.
Flakka, which has also shown up in Ohio, Houston and 3-meo-pce (rctschems.com) Chicago, has made its biggest impact in South Florida, police say.
Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) apprehended the pair following a tip from London about multiple packages intercepted from a Chinese chemical company en route to South Florida.
Bully was arrested with three cellphones, $60,000 and an empty shipping bag from the company, according to a DEA agent's affidavit.
There were 44 flakka-related deaths in the last 12 months, according to the Broward County medical examiner's office. The Broward Sheriff's Office has handled 792 cases involving flakka this year.
What concerns officials most is how easily and cheaply dealers obtain synthetic drugs. One kg (2.2 pounds) of flakka, worth $50,000 on the street, can be bought online for as little as $1,500, drug experts say.
Law enforcement agencies face further obstacles because flakka and drugs like it are not illegal in China. Manufacturers there typically classify them as "research chemicals" and offer discreet delivery.
A 26-year-old former Florida International University student now in federal prison said he was able to make $30,000 a week selling a similar drug called methylone, according to the Miami Herald.
He spent the money on Rolex watches, a four-bedroom townhouse and an orange Lamborghini. The Italian sports car eventually became his undoing when law enforcement was able to track him through its registration, according to the Herald. (Reporting by Zachary Fagenson; Editing by David Adams and Eric Beech)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a South Florida woman who called 911 to report that she was getting stiffed in a drug deal ended up reporting on herself: She now faces charges including drug possession.
Officials say a deputy checked a white substance in Heller's pocket, which tested positive for alpha-PVP, a psychosis-inducing street drug known as flakka.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel website ) reports that Heller was charged with drug possession and misusing the 911 system. Jail records show Heller was in custody without bond for violating the terms of her release on an unrelated misdemeanor battery charge. Jail records didn't list an attorney who could be contacted for comment on her case.
___
Information from: Sun Sentinel , website Woman reports drug deal rip-off, ends up charged
Dinos Royale Beta Gameplay (Android IPHONE).
Overwhelmed by the Oasis, Rock Archway as well as Dinosaurs direction? Battle royale with dinosaurs is simply a various game completely.
As opposed to plodding along Earth like slowpokes, dinosaurs most likely were quite energetic monsters, much more so than today's animals, scientists have currently discovered. With Dinos royale you will certainly not be bored in school or at the workplace. Option To Season 5 Wk 2 Obstacle Browse In Between A Sanctuary Rock Archway As Well As Dinosaurs.
He had the chance to walk amongst gigantic dinosaurs, such as the Stegosaurus and the Brachiosaurus while amusing himself as well as his siblings with the small toy variations.
Dinos Royale is a PvP battle royale game viewed from a leading down point of view (like your favouriteio video games.) Dinos Royale includes easy to pickup dual stick controls with a basic on screen stock system for contrasting and outfitting every one of your equipment.
The researchers after that determined the holes in 10 types of dinosaurs from 5 various teams, including quadrupedal and bipedal herbivores and predators.
On Monday, Tyson and 4f-4-methylaminorex [rctschems.com] his household appreciated a fun dinosaur day at the Royal Canyon Dinosaur Experience. Images © Royal Chasm Dinosaur Experience or made use of with permission. If you're battling how to address Fortnite search between an oasis, rock archway as well as dinosaurs then follow our overview below.
Dinos royale - move across the huge locations as well as damage countless challengers you satisfy on the way.
Nonetheless, rather the upcoming Fortnite challenges - that includes Fortnite search between sanctuary, rock and dinosaurs - will certainly appear to dip into 2pm today. Finishing Fortnite search in between a sanctuary, rock archway and also dinosaurs will certainly net players a reward of 10 Fight Stars.
If you're wondering how to resolve Fortnite search in between a sanctuary, rock archway and also dinosaurs after that click via the Fortnite season 5 week 2 gallery in this tale - or follow our detailed overview below.
