Next year, Illinois will become the first U.S. state to put locking devices on some prescription painkillers to discourage abuse of the drugs. The pilot program—proposed in a bill signed into law earlier this week by Gov. Bruce Rauner—will use numerical locks on painkillers that contain hydrocodone (aka Vicodin or Norco). “Too many Illinoisans become addicted to these powerful medications,” state Sen. Iris Martinez, a sponsor of the bill. “This legislation will help prevent individuals who haven’t obtained a written prescription from using hydrocodone, a dangers drug when used without a doctor’s supervision.”
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Conversations with more than 75 Democratic lawmakers, candidates and governors conducted by The New York Times reveal discontent with how Hillary Clinton has dealt with her email scandal. The Democrats allege that her jokes and dismissive attitude about the use of a private email server show that she is not taking it seriously enough. Clinton's advisers have allegedly begun to discuss whether a formal apology should be issued. Yesterday, Clinton said at a press conference, "I should have used two emails."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day down 204 points today, after the Dow plunged 1000-points before partially rebounding on Monday. Wall Street’s recovery was in stark contrast to China, where the Shanghai Composite index plummeted 7.6 percent, just a day after its biggest loss in eight years triggered worldwide market turmoil. But by the end of the day, the recovery was all but erased with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq falling about 1 percent. Beijing’s central bank slashed interest rates and banks’ reserve requirements in hopes of ending the mayhem that erased a combined $5 trillion from global equity markets on Monday. Inside China, government censors appeared to crack down on editors at the state-run People’s Daily: A day after it referred to the rout as “China’s Black Monday,” the newspaper had no mention of the financial upheaval.
Three Americans said they relied on "gut instinct" to overpower a gunman aboard a train traveling through Belgium. U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, 23, on Sunday recalled how he and his two friends, 22-year-old National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and 23-year-old Anthony Sadler, heroically took down the 26-year-old Moroccan gunman Ayoub El-Khazzani while traveling on an Amsterdam-to-Paris fast train. Stone recounted waking up to Skarlatos hitting him on the shoulder and saying, "Let's go," before the two moved to tackle the gunman. El-Khazzani's lawyer claims her client is homeless and found the weapons in a park near the Brussels train station where he boarded. She said he planned to rob train passengers to feed himself. French and Spanish authorities contend El-Khazzani is an Islamic extremist who may have traveled to Syria.
One of two Boston brothers accused of brutally beating a 58-year-old homeless man in Boston early yesterday morning, said he was inspired in part by Donald Trump. Scott and Steve Leader pleaded not guilty to beating and urinating on the man, and are being held without bail. “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,” Scott Leader allegedly told police after his arrest. He had already served a year for a hate crime against a Moroccan man after the 9/11 attacks, and he allegedly punched a Muslim man after the Boston Marathon bombings. After he was told of the assault, Trump said “it would be a shame... I will say that people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate.”
A scathing Los Angeles Times report shows that for-profit colleges have gotten more than $8 billion in government funds over the last six years by enrolling veterans on the GI bill. “Those colleges enroll only 8 percent of all U.S. students but 30 percent of the 1.4 million veterans who have used the most recent version of the GI Bill,” the paper found. Because the GI funds did not count as federal money in reports, they helped the for-profit schools, including the now-shuttered Corinthian Colleges, meet various standards about school funding. As a result, the schools aggressively targeted veterans, enrolling them in programs that cost as much as four times more than a regular community college associate’s degree.
While the U.S. back-channeled negotiations to restore relations with Cuba, a covert plan that allowed a Cuban prisoner held in California to artificially inseminate his wife in Havana almost derailed talks during a critical period, The New York Times reported last week. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) won approval to have the wife of Gerardo Hernández, a Cuban intelligence officer convicted in the late 1990s for infiltrating Cuban-American dissident groups, artificially inseminated by her husband in exchange for medical care for the American government contractor Alan Gross, who was jailed in Havana. The administration made painstaking efforts to conceal the talks, including asking the Cuban government to hide Hernández’s pregnancy, in fear that it would raise suspicions. The two Obama aides reportedly spent more than a year meeting with Cuban counterparts in Canada, lying to their own families about travel, before negotiations were taken to the Vatican.
Republic presidential candidate Jeb Bush met with Black Lives Matter advocates yesterday before a town hall event in Las Vegas, according to a statement from his campaign. The Republican presidential candidate discussed his commitment to criminal-justice reform. Bush “listened to the group and they discussed barriers to upward mobility in this country, and ways to overcome them as a community by starting to get a few things right in government,” the statement said. Bush was reportedly asked about racial inequality at a North Las Vegas event Wednesday evening, before audience members broke out into a “Black Lives Matter” chant at the end of the gathering.
Seattle’s City Council unanimously approved a proposal last evening that would tax gun and ammunition sales inside city limits. Council President Tim Burgess introduced the measure, which would tag on a $25 tax for every gun sold and a 5-cent-per-bullet tax on most types of ammunition. The proposal coincides with a bill that also passed on a unanimous vote to require gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to Seattle police within 24 hours. The taxing proposal has sparked backlash from gun-rights activists, who have said they’ll take the city to court should it pass into law.
California Governor Jerry Brown signed a measure into law earlier this week that prohibits grand juries from involvement in cases in which law-enforcement officers use deadly force. Another measure he approved affirms the right of citizens to record police officers. The laws are only two among numerous measures that have been introduced this year to improve police accountability. The grand jury legislation was introduced in response to failures to indict accused officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York earlier this year.
Planned Parenthood is keeping its funding—for now—after the Senate blocked a Republican-backed bill to defund the organization. The move to halt federal funds came after a series of undercover videos that shows Planned Parenthood leaders discussing fetal-tissue research. The GOP needed 60 votes to stop Democrats from derailing the bill, but received only 53. The issue could come into play again on Oct. 1, when federal agencies will run out of money and Congress must agree on legislation to halt another government shutdown.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton surrendered to authorities early this morning after a grand jury indictment last week charged him with fraud. Paxton faces two counts of first-degree securities fraud and one count of third-degree failure to register with the state securities board. The alleged incidents happened before he became attorney general in January. The arraignment is set to take place later this week.