Robbery ???

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In a period of low inflation and sluggish economic growth, Drug makers’ power to raise prices still exceeds most other industries. The magnitude and frequency of the increases have grown in recent years.

Prices received by manufacturers of U.S.-made pharmaceuticals rose 9.8% from May 2015 through May 2016, the second-highest increase among the 20 largest products and services tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index. 

Biogen Inc.  reported that U.S. sales of its multiple sclerosis pill Tecfidera rose 15% to $744.3 million in the first quarter, the company explained it “was primarily due to price increases.” U.S. revenue for Biogen’s other biggest-selling products, Avonex and Tysabri, also benefited from higher prices, Biogen said.

Gilead Sciences Inc. said higher U.S. prices positively affected revenue for four HIV medications that had combined global sales of $2.43 billion in the first quarter. For example, sales of Truvada rose 16% to $898 million in the quarter on the back of higher prices and increased use as a preventive treatment for HIV.

Amgen raised Enbrel’s U.S. list price by 28% last year, and an additional 9.9% in July, according to Leerink.  A Pfizer spokesman declined to specifically address the company’s price increases. 

Some reports projected that per-beneficiary Part D spending will grow by 75% from 2015 to 2025, compared with a 37% rise in hospital spending and 57% increase in doctors’ cost.

Make the pills' market Fair for senior citizen.    Just a thought.              

Bull..

An American was gored and five other runners were injured in the next-to-last running of the bulls at Pamplona's San Fermin festival, officials said.  One of the six bulls crashed into a group of runners close to a fence.

More than a thousand people took part in the 8 a.m.  dash with six fighting bulls and their accompanying steer along a 930-yard  street course to the city's bull ring. The bulls then face matadors. The nationally televised run lasted 2½ minutes.

The nine-day fiesta, known also for its 24-hour street partying, became world famous with Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises." It attracts thousands of foreign tourists.

Six were arrested for suspected sexual assault, including rape, and 10 for suspected sexual harassment, officials said. Nine foreigners were arrested, including six Frenchmen, a Bolivian, a Pakistani and a Romanian.

The city government, political parties feminist and social groups cooperated to hold two major rallies to protest against sexual aggression since the festival began.

Don't mess with the bull.      Just a thought.

Again...*!

Former Valeant CEO Michael Pearson unloaded more of his personal holdings nearly 5 million shares and options for a total of $96.8 million. The news comes the same day that the Sequoia Fund revealed it is completely out of the stock. Sequoia was at one time the largest Valeant shareholder.

Wednesday also saw short seller Andrew Left say the company's stockcould be headed to zero [ $23/Share and was $264 at its high]. That news took more than 7 percent out of its shares.

The company came under fire when The New York Times reported that Valeant and other pharmaceutical companies were using a network of specialty pharmacies to sustain sales of their high-priced drugs and prevent patients and insurers from switching to cheaper generic drugs. Citron Research subsequently published a note calling Valeant the "pharmaceutical Enron."  

 Social Security annual increase for inflation was zero, yet medications' prices doubles every three years......   Just a thought.

Noah's Ark

The Noah's ark mosaic included pairs of animals, such as lions, leopards, bears, and donkeys.

Mosaics depicting prominent Bible scenes were uncovered during annual excavations of an ancient synagogue in Israel's Lower Galilee.

During the excavation in June, archaeologists found two new panels of a mosaic floor in a Late Roman (fifth-century) synagogue at Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village. One panel showed Noah's ark with pairs of animals, such as lions, leopards and bears.

The other panel depicted soldiers being swallowed by large fish, surrounded by overturned chariots in the parting of the Red Sea.

Such images are extremely rare for the time period, according to excavation director Jodi Magness, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"I know of only two other scenes of the parting of the Red Sea in ancient synagogues," Magness told National Geographic.

"One is in the wall paintings at Dura Europos [in Syria], which is a complete scene but different from ours -- no fish devouring the Egyptian soldiers," Magness said. "The other is at Wadi Hamam [in Israel], but that's very fragmentary and poorly preserved."

Worth take a look. Just  thought.

Down side..

In the late 1920s, Benjamin Graham, of Columbia University,  was considered the father of value investment. He taught his disciples to buy undervalued assets with a significant "margin of safety." Graham's risk-averse approach helped many to survive and prosper through the Great Depression.

Considering the downside is an important aspect investors must do before any consideration for gains. People think they're pretty smart because they can do something quite rapidly. 

Investors should focus first on preserving their capital, instead of aiming to shoot the lights out. "If you achieve only reasonable returns and suffer minimal losses, you will become a wealthy and will surpass any gambler friends you have . This is also a good way to cure your sleeping problems.

As the manager of Legg Mason Value Trust, Bill Miller achieved the historic feat of beating the market for 15 consecutive years. Then, in one catastrophic year, 2008, everything came tumbling down.  Legg Mason Value Trust fell 55 %.

So don't be a hot shot these coming months.... think risk averse.   Just a thought.

Hands On...*!

Gretchen Carlson, 50, an anchor at Fox News Channel for more than a decade claims that her hands-on boss, chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, 76, fired her because she refused to sleep with him but lavished lucrative attention on other women in the newsroom "who did not complain about harassment or rebuff his sexual advances."

Ailes said "This is a retaliatory suit for the network’s decision not to renew her contract, which was due to the fact that her disappointingly low ratings were dragging down the afternoon lineup".
When Fox News did not commence any negotiations to renew her contract, Ms. Carlson conveniently began to pursue a lawsuit.

Six women who crossed paths with Roger Ailes during the Fox News CEO’s rise to the top of conservative media have shared vile tales of the honcho demanding sex in exchange for career success.

Sexual favors doesn't build careers in the media, rating does. High or low rating will clearly flush any sexual harassment in the work place as it did.
....  Just a thought.

Judgment..?!!!!.

Mr. Comey’s 15-minute announcement, delivered with no advance warning three days after his investigators interviewed Mrs. Clinton in the case, riveted official Washington and is likely to reverberate for the rest of the campaign.

Mr. Comey rebuked Mrs. Clinton as being “extremely careless” in using a private email address and server.  He raised questions about her judgment, contradicted statements she has made about her email practices, said it was possible that hostile foreign governments had gained access to her account, and declared that a person still employed by the government  [Mrs. Clinton left the State Department in 2013]  could have faced disciplinary action for doing what she did.

 Of 30,000 emails handed over, 110 contained information that was classified. Of those, Mr. Comey said, “a very small number” bore markings that identified them as classified. This finding is at odds with Mrs. Clinton’s repeated assertions that none of the emails were classified at the time she sent or received them. 

The F.B.I. discovered “several thousand” work-related emails that were not in the original trove of 30,000 turned over to the State Department. 

In saying that it was “possible” that hostile foreign governments had gained access to Mrs. Clinton’s personal account, Mr. Comey noted that she used her mobile device extensively while traveling outside the United States, including trips “in the territory of sophisticated adversaries.”
Just a thought.

The lost...

        


The heavily armed sniper who gunned down police officers in downtown Dallas specifically set out to kill as many white officers as he could, officials said. He was a military veteran who had served in Afghanistan, and kept an arsenal in his home that included bomb-making materials.

The ambush started with gunshots that killed five officers and sent screaming crowds scrambling for cover. Investigators determined Johnson was "the lone shooter in this incident," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said.

"This was a mobile shooter who had written manifestos on how to shoot and move, shoot and move, and that's what he did," Rawlings said at a news conference.

After the shooting subsided, Mr. Johnson, wielding an assault rifle and a handgun, held the police off for hours in a parking garage, claiming  to have planted explosives in the area, and threatening to kill more officers. In the end, the suspect was killed with an explosive delivered by a remote-controlled robot.

     

Elite ...?

United Kingdom Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage has a message for Donald Trump: The United Kingdom's problems are factors worse than those in the United States. But if his comments  are any indication, he is not too fond of Hillary Clinton.

We literally have lost our sovereignty, lost our borders, lost our ability," Farage told CNN's Richard Quest in an interview from Brussels, Belgium.

"Well, the problem that you've got in the U.S. is illegal immigration. Our problem is legal immigration to half a billion people."

"I think Trump will be better for us than Barack Obama's been."

Asked whether he would like Hillary Clinton or prefer to sit out this early in the general election, Farage was unequivocal.
"There is nothing on Earth that could persuade me ever to vote for Hillary Clinton," Farage said.
Quest followed up, "You sure you don't want to think about that for a second?"
"No, absolutely not," Farage said, laughing. "I mean she represents the pinnacle elite. It’s almost as if she feels she has this sort of divine right to have that job."

Just a thought.

Defend...*!

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An Oregon woman fatally shot a home intruder after she found him in a bedroom. 
The woman, 33, said she had returned home with her two children when she found a stranger in one of her child's bedrooms. She was armed with a handgun and fired at least one shot at the man.  Officers found the man, 59, dead at the scene.

Local defense attorney Edward Kroll says a homeowner has the right to defend themselves in most cases.   He says, if the homeowner reasonably believes an intruder is in their house to commit a crime, they can use deadly force to protect themselves.   

Exceptions come into play when the intruder is a known to the homeowner and, perhaps, has been invited over before.  On a twist, neighbors said squatters have been coming to this house in the past.

Police can response very quickly, that is what they do, so step out of the house and call the police.          Just a thought.