Federal Drug Agents Launch Surprise Inspections of NFL Teams Following Games

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Photo Credit: danxoneil

Photo Credit: danxoneil

Federal drug agents conducted surprise inspections of National Football League team medical staffs on Sunday as part of an ongoing investigation into prescription drug abuse in the league. The inspections, which entailed bag searches and questioning of team doctors by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, were based on the suspicion that NFL teams dispense drugs illegally to keep players on the field in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, according to a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation.

The medical staffs were part of travel parties whose teams were playing at stadiums across the country. The law enforcement official said DEA agents, working in cooperation with the Transportation Security Administration, inspected multiple teams but would not specify which ones were inspected or where.

The San Francisco 49ers confirmed they were inspected by federal agents following their game against the New York Giants in New Jersey but did not provide any details. “The San Francisco 49ers organization was asked to participate in a random inspection with representatives from the DEA Sunday night at MetLife Stadium,” team spokesman Bob Lange said in an e-mailed statement. “The 49ers medical staff complied and the team departed the stadium as scheduled.”

The Seattle Seahawks were subject to an inspection following their game in Kansas City, and the DEA met with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Baltimore-Washington International airport following their win over the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field. It didn’t appear a full inspection took place, however.

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Obama Accused of Creating 'Constitutional Crisis'

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

If President Obama goes ahead with his plan to unilaterally implement immigration reform, it will violate one of the foundations of the U.S. Constitution, according to an immigration-policy expert.

“In effect, he is making law, which is a fundamental violation of the separation of powers. He’s supposed to enforce the law; Congress is supposed to make the law,” said Steven Camarota. “He is, by design, creating a constitutional crisis.”

Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, believes the constitutional conflict is the most troublesome aspect of Obama’s planned executive amnesty. However, a unilateral amnesty would damage the United States in other ways as well, he said.

Take, for example, the plight of America’s less-educated, low-skilled population. The labor market is unkind to them as it is. According to Camarota, only about half of all young people with a high-school diploma or less have a job. And for those who do, their real wages have been declining for decades.

Now the president is planning to grant work permits to millions of illegal aliens, many of whom are unskilled.

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Liberals are Already Trying to Re-write the History of the Obama Presidency

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

The Obama presidency is a failed presidency. He has presided over one of the slowest economic recoveries in history. His foreign policy has been a disaster. ObamaCare is a mess. And it’s hard to lay the blame off on anyone else. The president didn’t make Republicans part of any of his decisions and most of the time he ignored congressional Democrats as well.

To make matters worse, Barack Obama is the most polarizing president we have had in the past 60 years. What makes that so strange is that we were all promised something completely different.

Charles Blow, writing in The New York Times said it best:

“The president came to Washington thinking he could change Washington, make it better, unite it and the nation.”

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Keystone XL Pipeline: Obama Says He 'Won't Budge'

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Photo Credit: Danny Johnston / AP

Photo Credit: Danny Johnston / AP

The Obama administration has been calling 2014 a “year of action,” a phrase designed to emphasize how the president is using executive power on various fronts at a time of congressional inactivity.

With the looming prospect of executive action on immigration policy, a very big counter-example is also front and center in the news: President Obama’s long delay in taking a yes-or-no decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

It’s an oil conduit from Canada that a majority of Americans support, a construction project that many unionized workers would love to build, and an energy opportunity that could end up bypassing the US entirely without White House action.

It’s also something the president could approve without congressional action. Instead, it’s been mired in some six years of review – a delay that critics say is about environmental politics rather than due process.

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On the Plus Side, it’s Not the Ebola Cruise Ship…

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Photo Credit: Yoshikazu TAKADA / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Yoshikazu TAKADA / Creative Commons

More than 170 passengers and crew on a nearly month-long cruise that docked in California on Sunday fell ill with norovirus while on the ship, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Symptoms of norovirus include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever and body aches, which 158 passengers and 14 crew members have reported suffering from during the 28 days of aboard the Crown Princess, operated by Princess Cruises, according a statement from the CDC.

The Crown Princess was supposed to return to port in Los Angeles on Saturday, but the boat had to make a diversion to Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas Islands, last Monday when a crew member was stricken with an ailment that required emergency surgery due to an “entirely separate and individual medical issue,” according to a statement from Princess Cruises.

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Alaska Volcanic Eruption Intensifies; Lava Advances in Hawaii

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Photo Credit: LA Times

Photo Credit: LA Times

A volcano in the Alaska Peninsula launched an ash plume 30,000 feet into the air on Saturday morning, while officials in Hawaii say lava continues to advance on a town that has been sitting in the path of a slow-moving molten slide since June.

Mt. Pavlof, which has been erupting since Wednesday, continues to see intense seismic activity, and pilots in the area were reporting ash clouds as high as 30,000 feet above sea level, according to the state’s volcano observatory.

The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to impose flight restrictions in the area, according to spokesman Ian Gregor, but the agency did issue several notices to pilots regarding the eruption.

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25% Of Connecticut Households Above Federal Poverty Level But Struggle To Meet Basic Needs

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Photo Credit: Johnathon Henninger / Special to the Courant

Photo Credit: Johnathon Henninger / Special to the Courant

About a quarter of Connecticut households are above the federal poverty level but have earnings or retirement income that is barely enough to meet basic necessities, the Connecticut United Ways say in a new report.

The income threshold varies by family size. A single mother with three children would need to have a combined $64,689 in wages and child support to get past what the agency characterizes as a “survival budget.” For a single person, the figure is $21,944.

When families are in this fix, the report says, the stress of juggling bills and trying to pick up extra hours means they may not have time to cook healthy food or exercise to stay healthy. Children may go unsupervised after school. The families might put off doctor or dentist visits, worsening health problems.

United Way calls families like these ALICE, for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. Seventy percent of the ALICE households are individuals or families where everyone is younger than 65.

“They’re our friends, the Little League coach, a family member,” said Richard Poth, head of the United Way of Connecticut.

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A Doctor’s Mistaken Ebola Test: ‘We Were Celebrating. . . . Then Everything Fell Apart’

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When Martin Salia’s Ebola test came back negative, his friends and colleagues threw their arms around him. They shook his hand. They patted him on the back. They removed their protective gear and cried.

But when his symptoms remained nearly a week later, Salia took another test, on Nov. 10. This one came back positive, sending the Sierra Leonean doctor with ties to Maryland on a desperate, belated quest for treatment and forcing the colleagues who had embraced him into quarantine.

“We were celebrating. If the test says you are Ebola-free, we assume you are Ebola-free,” said Komba Songu M’Briwa, who cared for Salia at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center in Freetown. “Then everything fell apart.”
Salia is now in critical condition at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, his family left to wonder what would have happened if he had received earlier treatment.

His wife, Isatu, lives in New Carrollton, and they have two children, 12 and 20, also living in the United States. He has been a visitor to their Maryland home but has devoted most of his time to his medical work in Freetown.

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In Ferguson, Tactics Set for Grand Jury Decision in Michael Brown Case

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Photo Credit: Whitney Curtis for The New York Times

Photo Credit: Whitney Curtis for The New York Times

Several dozen people gathered in a dim church basement here on Thursday night to share plans for what to do if a grand jury chooses not to indict the white police officer who shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black youth, three months ago. Among their ideas was to descend in large numbers on the nearby county seat of Clayton at 7 a.m. on the day after the grand jury’s announcement to snarl business.

A day earlier, a different group, chanting “no justice, no profit,” met in St. Louis to announce it will boycott the region’s retailers during the Thanksgiving shopping period as a response to Mr. Brown’s death.

Since August, a disparate array of demonstrators — some from longstanding organizations, others from new groups with names like Hands Up Unitedand Lost Voices — has been drawn here to protest not just the shooting of Mr. Brown, but also the broader issues of racial profiling and police conduct.

Now, with the grand jury’s decision expected in the coming days, the groups are preparing with intricate precision to protest the no-indictment vote most consider inevitable. Organizers are outlining “rules of engagement” for dealing with the police, circulating long lists of equipment, including bandages and shatterproof goggles, and establishing “safe spaces” where protesters can escape the cold — or the tear gas.

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Police Hunt Suspect Who Pushed Man Onto NYC Subway Tracks

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A man standing with his wife on a Bronx subway platform was pushed onto the tracks Sunday morning by another man and was struck and killed by an oncoming train, police said. The assailant fled.

Police said an unidentified man pushed 61-year-old Wai Kuen Kwok of the Bronx off the platform at the Grand Concourse and East 167th Street station in the Highbridge neighborhood, an act that appeared to be unprovoked. Kwok was struck by a southbound D train at around 8:40 a.m. and pronounced dead at the scene; his death was classified a homicide. His wife was not injured.

There was no indication that Kwok knew the man or had had an altercation with him before he was pushed, police said. Witnesses told police they believed the man fled the subway station after shoving Kwok and jumped on a city bus.

Police later released video surveillance showing a man wearing a dark jacket getting off a city bus and walking into a store. The man emerges moments later smoking a cigarette and strolls away. Police said the man was wanted for questioning in connection with Kowk’s death.

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