...and Alcohol

A man and a woman in Massachusetts have been convicted of charges they sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl and recorded the attack using Snapchat.

The victim told the court she remembered waking up nude and confused. "I remember saying, like, 'stop taking pictures of me'....I was naked and I was getting flashes,".

Among those watching the assault on Snapchat was teenager Syndee Enos, who took the witness stand. She said she knew the teens in the video, and that she saw the victim being restrained.  She recognized Kayilyn's blue hair.

"She was holding her down...almost in a headlock," said Enos. "She was kind of wiggling around trying to get out of it."

Screenshots from the Snapchat video were shown to jurors during the trial. The victim recalled drinking vodka with Deihim and Bonia on a couch in the woods near an elementary school in Saugus.

   Just a thought.

Needle....?

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The popular, needle-free FluMist influenza vaccine has not protected kids or adults against flu for years and should not be used this coming flu season, experts said.  FluMist was only 3% effective last flu season, CDC said.

The surprise decision could also leave pediatricians short of vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
                     

"In comparison, inactivated influenza vaccine (flu shots) had a vaccine effectiveness estimate of 63% against any flu virus among children 2 years through 17 years."
AstraZeneca said other research contradicts ACIP's and the CDC's findings.

The CDC recommends that just about everyone should be vaccinated against influenza every year. Even when the vaccines on the market do not work perfectly, vaccinated people are less likely to get severely ill and die from flu.

"How well the flu vaccine works can range widely from season to season and can be affected by a number of factors, including the person being vaccinated, the similarity between vaccine viruses and circulating viruses, and even which vaccine is used," the CDC said.  Just a thought.

Doing his job...

An officer with the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department died Tuesday after being shot while investigating a report of gunfire, reports CBS affiliate KCTV.

Police say three or four people were inside a vehicle when police approached the scene where gunfire had been reported, at about 1:33 p.m. An officer took a suspect into custody minutes later, but other suspects fled, according to police.

Capt. Robert Melton, 46, was searching for one of the suspects when he drove up to someone who matched that person's description just before 2 p.m., police spokesman Tom Tomasic said. Before Melton could get out of his vehicle, the suspect opened fire and hit the officer multiple times, Tomasic said. The alleged shooter was caught five minutes later about a block away, he said.
Sad story.

Trouble...

Migrants who landed in Greece.

The coup attempt took Turkey out of Europe and placed it squarely in the Middle East. It tore away the country's stability. This added to ISIS suicide attacks; fighting with the Kurdish  (PKK); wholesale destruction of Kurdish towns by Turkey's security forces [given immunity]; and the ongoing Low-level violence targeting women.

 A government witch hunt for "putschists" and massive violent reprisals means more anger, more polarization and a destabilized population that is more likely to seek protection from outside. Groups like ISIS will likely capitalize on this disenchantment to seek more recruits.

The ruling party has systematically throttled the independence of state institutions, the media, education, civil society, and the highest courts in the land. It has tried to muzzle the army through a series of court cases that jailed hundreds of officers. 

Friday's tragedy is largely self-inflicted by a government who trade in a functioning democracy for dictatorial power. .  More Migrants to Europe ahead. Just a thought.

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.