Oprah Winfrey has staged many a family reunion on her talk show. But on Monday's episode, she promises, the drama will be about her.
Winfrey told viewers Thursday that she will have a reunion of her own on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." She wouldn't say with whom — only that it involves something she's learned about recently and is known to only a few people close to her.
"I thought I'd seen it all. But this, my friends, is the miracle of all miracles," Winfrey says in a promotional spot for the show. The word "miracle" appears on screen, reinforcing her pronouncement.
"I was given some news that literally shook me to my core. This time, I'm the one being reunited," she said. "I was keeping a family secret for months, and on Monday you're going to hear it straight from me."
Her production company, Harpo, declined to provide further details Friday.
Given Winfrey's tangled family history, the possibilities for her reunion are many.
She was born to unmarried teenagers, Vernon Winfrey and Vernita Lee, and raised at various times by a grandmother, her mother, and her father and stepmother in Mississippi, Wisconsin and Tennessee, according to Winfrey and various biographies.
However, Kitty Kelley's unauthorized 2010 biography of Winfrey alleges that Vernon Winfrey isn't Oprah's biological father. Kelley also claims that she discovered the actual father's identity but was keeping it secret until Winfrey learns the truth herself.
As a teenager, Oprah Winfrey gave birth to a son who died shortly afterward. That chapter of her life was revealed after a family member sold the story to a tabloid in 1990, and Winfrey was said to have felt betrayed.
Using her Chicago-based show to disclose a new wrinkle in her personal history allows her to keep other media from getting hold of it first.
Winfrey has proved herself a master at milking family reunion drama, celebrity and otherwise, on her syndicated talk show that's in its 25th and final season. This month, she launched a cable channel, OWN.
She reunited more than 100 members of the Osmonds. She brought together both the screen family from "The Sound of Music" and descendants of the real-life members of the musical Von Trapp family portrayed in the film. After decades apart, singer Seal and his foster sister were reunited on Winfrey's show.
There was also the memorable reunion involving Clemantine and Claire Wamariya, sisters who escaped the Rwandan genocide and later immigrated to America without knowing if their parents had survived. They learned they had, but it wasn't until they were onstage with Winfrey that the sisters saw their mother and father again.
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Sunday, January 23, 2011
Women: Pa. abortions left us sterile, near death!
When Davida Johnson walked into Dr. Kermit Gosnell's clinic to get an abortion in 2001, she saw what she described as dazed women sitting in dirty, bloodstained recliners. As the abortion got under way, she had a change of heart — but claims she was forced by the doctor to continue.
"I said, 'I don't want to do this,' and he smacked me. They tied my hands and arms down and gave me more medication," Johnson told The Associated Press.
Johnson, then 21, had a 3-year-old daughter when she became pregnant again. She said she first went to Planned Parenthood in downtown Philadelphia but was frightened away by protesters.
"The picketers out there, they just scared me half to death," Johnson, now 30, recalled this week.
Someone sent her to Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic, at the Women's Medical Society, saying anti-abortion protesters wouldn't be a problem there. She said she paid him $400 cash.
A few months after the abortion, she began to have gynecological problems. An examination revealed venereal disease. She blames Gosnell, 69, for the lifelong illness, which she declined to identify, and for the four miscarriages she has subsequently suffered.
Johnson learned last week that Philadelphia prosecutors believe Gosnell frequently delivered late-term babies alive at his clinic, then severed their spines with scissors, and often stored the fetal bodies — along with staff lunches — in refrigerators at the squalid facility. Tiny baby feet, prosecutors said, were discovered in specimen jars, lined up in a macabre collection.
"Did he do that to mine? Did he stab him in the neck?" Johnson asked at her North Philadelphia home. "Because I was out of it. I don't know what he did to my baby."
Gosnell was charged last week with killing seven babies born alive and with the 2009 death of a 41-year-old refugee after a botched abortion at the clinic, which prosecutors have called a drug mill by day and abortion mill by night. The medical practice alone netted him at least $1.8 million a year, much of it in cash, they say.
Prosecutors said uncounted hundreds more babies died there.
"(He) regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors," said a report of the grand jury that investigated
Gosnell and his clinic for a year.
The grand jury said while it believes Gosnell killed most of the babies he aborted after 24 weeks, it could not recommend murder charges for all of the cases.
"In order to constitute murder, the act must involve a baby who was born alive," the grand jury said, adding that it was stymied by files that were falsified or removed and possibly destroyed.
"His entire practice showed nothing but a callous disdain for the lives of his patients," said the nearly 300-page grand jury report, released Wednesday.
The panel also had scathing criticism for Pennsylvania state health and medical regulators, saying they had numerous opportunities to shut Gosnell down over the years but ignored complaint after complaint about filthy conditions and illegal operations.
In all, prosecutors said, state officials failed to inspect the clinic despite repeated complaints from 1993 until January 2010, when a federal drug raid investigating heavy painkiller distribution at the clinic shut it down.
"His contempt for laws designed to protect patients' safety resulted in the death of Karnamaya Mongar," the refugee from Bhutan, the grand jury report said.
Unlicensed staff members gave Mongar far too much anesthesia for her 4-foot-11-inch, 110-pound body, hours before Gosnell arrived for his evening slate of abortions, the grand jury charged.
Gosnell, at his arraignment Thursday, said he did not understand why he was being charged with eight counts of murder.
"I understand the one count, because a patient died, but I didn't understand the seven counts," he told a magistrate.
The magistrate explained the other counts involved babies who prosecutors say were born alive, and she denied him bail.
Four other clinic employees are charged with murder for roles prosecutors say they had in the deaths of Mongar or the viable babies. Gosnell's wife was charged with performing illegal abortions and other crimes and is being held on $1 million bail.
Gosnell, in an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News after the clinic raid last year, described himself as someone who wanted to serve the poor and minorities in the neighborhood where he grew up and raised his six children, who include a doctor, a college professor and two children who are still at home.
Defense lawyer William J. Brennan, who represented Gosnell during the investigation, said Gosnell "feels he has provided a general care medical facility in a fairly impoverished area for four decades."
"That's his belief," Brennan said, "and he's entitled to it."
Gosnell told the magistrate he's looking to retain another lawyer, and Brennan confirmed he's not representing Gosnell anymore.
"I wish him well, but I am not taking this case," Brennan said. "The doctor and I have had our run."
In one 1999 case, prosecutors said, 20-year-old Marie Smith was sent home after a Gosnell abortion unaware that he had been unable to remove the entire fetus from her uterus. Days later, vomiting and with a swollen abdomen and severe infection, Smith was taken to a hospital, where she was rushed into surgery.
Her mother, Johnnie Mae Smith, said she was shocked at the "nasty and dirty, filthy" conditions in the clinic. When her daughter took ill days later, she called Gosnell.
"I said, 'What did you do to my daughter? ... My daughter's about to die,' Smith said. "He said, 'Take her to the hospital.'"
Gosnell turned up at the hospital with his checkbook, she said, aiming to settle immediately. Instead, she chased him away, vowing to sue. Later, her daughter got $3,000, after lawyer fees, from a $5,000 settlement.
Johnson never sued over the abortion or ensuing venereal disease, but 46 other parties have, including the family of 22-year-old Semika Shaw, who prosecutors said died of sepsis at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in March 2002 two days after Gosnell perforated her uterus and cervix during an abortion.
Gosnell's insurer later settled the family's lawsuit over her death for $900,000 and referred a complaint and the settlement to state health officials who oversee the clinic and Gosnell's medical license. The insurer's complaint brought no action, prosecutors said, because a Board of Medicine attorney said "the risk was inherent with the procedure."
Gosnell typically worked from about 8 p.m. until after midnight, arriving only after his pregnant patients were dilated, sedated and ready for the abortion procedure.
During the day, his untrained or undertrained staff ran the clinic and practiced medicine there, authorities said. They ranged from two supposed "doctors" who had finished medical school but had no licenses to Ashley
Baldwin, the 15-year-old daughter of office manager Tina Baldwin, prosecutors said. The teenager came after school to administer anesthesia and assist with abortions, even past midnight, the grand jury charged.
"As Ashley's involvement in Gosnell's illegal practices became deeper — at one point she was working 50-hour weeks and well past midnight, while trying to complete high school — Tina did nothing to curtail her minor daughter's exploitation by Gosnell," prosecutors wrote in the report.
Tina Baldwin, 45, is charged with corruption of minors and helping to run a corrupt enterprise. Eight of her co-workers were charged with Gosnell.
Baldwin's husband, Michael Baldwin, told the AP this week that his wife got the Gosnell clinic job eight years ago after a business school she attended referred her there for an internship. She worked up front, taking cash from patients as they walked in.
Baldwin denied that his wife performed any medical tasks or witnessed anything untoward at Gosnell's clinic.
Ashley worked in recovery, making sure the patients had clothes and a ride home, he said.
"How's she going to give anesthesia? My daughter's scared of needles," he said of Ashley, who is now 20 and pregnant and still works in the medical field.
The younger woman, who prosecutors said was present the night Mongar died, was not charged.
Both women cooperated throughout the yearlong grand jury probe, and the family was therefore stunned — and angered — by Tina Baldwin's pre-dawn arrest on Wednesday, Michael Baldwin said.
Mongar had fled Bhutan and had survived nearly 20 years in refugee camps in Nepal, even after cholera took the life of a 4-year-old daughter. She and her family had made it to the United States just four months earlier to pursue "all that America has to offer," according to lawyer Bernard W. Smalley, who filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Gosnell this week.
"She was the matriarch of their family, and now she's no longer there. Her children will all have to be raised without her," Smalley told the AP.
Mongar was referred to Gosnell's clinic in the city's impoverished Mantua section by a clinic in Virginia that did not do second-trimester abortions. Abortions are legal in Pennsylvania until 24 weeks; prosecutors said
Gosnell routinely performed illegal third-trimester abortions — when babies are viable and the procedure is far more dangerous.
Gosnell was certified in family practice but had never finished an obstetrics/gynecology residency. In the words of Joanne Pescatore, a lead prosecutor on the case, "He does not know how to do an abortion."
Gosnell perforated the uteruses, bowels and cervixes of countless patients, the grand jury report charged. He left fetal parts inside, ignored postoperative pain and bleeding and passed venereal diseases from one patient to the next through bloody and dirty instruments, the report said.
Besides his abortion practice, authorities said, he ranked third in the state for the number of prescriptions he wrote for OxyContin, the highly addictive narcotic painkiller. Authorities allege that he left blank prescriptions for such drugs at his office and allowed staff to make them out to the cash-paying patients who streamed in during the day, when he wasn't there.
Johnson's husband, Bobby, was one of Gosnell's pain patients. He said he went to Gosnell last year, paying $250 cash, to see the doctor about a debilitating pinched nerve. At the time, he said, he did not know his wife had gone to Gosnell years earlier, before they were married, for an abortion.
*This is a societal hot mess! All that were involved need to be locked up for life.*
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"I said, 'I don't want to do this,' and he smacked me. They tied my hands and arms down and gave me more medication," Johnson told The Associated Press.
Johnson, then 21, had a 3-year-old daughter when she became pregnant again. She said she first went to Planned Parenthood in downtown Philadelphia but was frightened away by protesters.
"The picketers out there, they just scared me half to death," Johnson, now 30, recalled this week.
Someone sent her to Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic, at the Women's Medical Society, saying anti-abortion protesters wouldn't be a problem there. She said she paid him $400 cash.
A few months after the abortion, she began to have gynecological problems. An examination revealed venereal disease. She blames Gosnell, 69, for the lifelong illness, which she declined to identify, and for the four miscarriages she has subsequently suffered.
Johnson learned last week that Philadelphia prosecutors believe Gosnell frequently delivered late-term babies alive at his clinic, then severed their spines with scissors, and often stored the fetal bodies — along with staff lunches — in refrigerators at the squalid facility. Tiny baby feet, prosecutors said, were discovered in specimen jars, lined up in a macabre collection.
"Did he do that to mine? Did he stab him in the neck?" Johnson asked at her North Philadelphia home. "Because I was out of it. I don't know what he did to my baby."
Gosnell was charged last week with killing seven babies born alive and with the 2009 death of a 41-year-old refugee after a botched abortion at the clinic, which prosecutors have called a drug mill by day and abortion mill by night. The medical practice alone netted him at least $1.8 million a year, much of it in cash, they say.
Prosecutors said uncounted hundreds more babies died there.
"(He) regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors," said a report of the grand jury that investigated
Gosnell and his clinic for a year.
The grand jury said while it believes Gosnell killed most of the babies he aborted after 24 weeks, it could not recommend murder charges for all of the cases.
"In order to constitute murder, the act must involve a baby who was born alive," the grand jury said, adding that it was stymied by files that were falsified or removed and possibly destroyed.
"His entire practice showed nothing but a callous disdain for the lives of his patients," said the nearly 300-page grand jury report, released Wednesday.
The panel also had scathing criticism for Pennsylvania state health and medical regulators, saying they had numerous opportunities to shut Gosnell down over the years but ignored complaint after complaint about filthy conditions and illegal operations.
In all, prosecutors said, state officials failed to inspect the clinic despite repeated complaints from 1993 until January 2010, when a federal drug raid investigating heavy painkiller distribution at the clinic shut it down.
"His contempt for laws designed to protect patients' safety resulted in the death of Karnamaya Mongar," the refugee from Bhutan, the grand jury report said.
Unlicensed staff members gave Mongar far too much anesthesia for her 4-foot-11-inch, 110-pound body, hours before Gosnell arrived for his evening slate of abortions, the grand jury charged.
Gosnell, at his arraignment Thursday, said he did not understand why he was being charged with eight counts of murder.
"I understand the one count, because a patient died, but I didn't understand the seven counts," he told a magistrate.
The magistrate explained the other counts involved babies who prosecutors say were born alive, and she denied him bail.
Four other clinic employees are charged with murder for roles prosecutors say they had in the deaths of Mongar or the viable babies. Gosnell's wife was charged with performing illegal abortions and other crimes and is being held on $1 million bail.
Gosnell, in an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News after the clinic raid last year, described himself as someone who wanted to serve the poor and minorities in the neighborhood where he grew up and raised his six children, who include a doctor, a college professor and two children who are still at home.
Defense lawyer William J. Brennan, who represented Gosnell during the investigation, said Gosnell "feels he has provided a general care medical facility in a fairly impoverished area for four decades."
"That's his belief," Brennan said, "and he's entitled to it."
Gosnell told the magistrate he's looking to retain another lawyer, and Brennan confirmed he's not representing Gosnell anymore.
"I wish him well, but I am not taking this case," Brennan said. "The doctor and I have had our run."
In one 1999 case, prosecutors said, 20-year-old Marie Smith was sent home after a Gosnell abortion unaware that he had been unable to remove the entire fetus from her uterus. Days later, vomiting and with a swollen abdomen and severe infection, Smith was taken to a hospital, where she was rushed into surgery.
Her mother, Johnnie Mae Smith, said she was shocked at the "nasty and dirty, filthy" conditions in the clinic. When her daughter took ill days later, she called Gosnell.
"I said, 'What did you do to my daughter? ... My daughter's about to die,' Smith said. "He said, 'Take her to the hospital.'"
Gosnell turned up at the hospital with his checkbook, she said, aiming to settle immediately. Instead, she chased him away, vowing to sue. Later, her daughter got $3,000, after lawyer fees, from a $5,000 settlement.
Johnson never sued over the abortion or ensuing venereal disease, but 46 other parties have, including the family of 22-year-old Semika Shaw, who prosecutors said died of sepsis at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in March 2002 two days after Gosnell perforated her uterus and cervix during an abortion.
Gosnell's insurer later settled the family's lawsuit over her death for $900,000 and referred a complaint and the settlement to state health officials who oversee the clinic and Gosnell's medical license. The insurer's complaint brought no action, prosecutors said, because a Board of Medicine attorney said "the risk was inherent with the procedure."
Gosnell typically worked from about 8 p.m. until after midnight, arriving only after his pregnant patients were dilated, sedated and ready for the abortion procedure.
During the day, his untrained or undertrained staff ran the clinic and practiced medicine there, authorities said. They ranged from two supposed "doctors" who had finished medical school but had no licenses to Ashley
Baldwin, the 15-year-old daughter of office manager Tina Baldwin, prosecutors said. The teenager came after school to administer anesthesia and assist with abortions, even past midnight, the grand jury charged.
"As Ashley's involvement in Gosnell's illegal practices became deeper — at one point she was working 50-hour weeks and well past midnight, while trying to complete high school — Tina did nothing to curtail her minor daughter's exploitation by Gosnell," prosecutors wrote in the report.
Tina Baldwin, 45, is charged with corruption of minors and helping to run a corrupt enterprise. Eight of her co-workers were charged with Gosnell.
Baldwin's husband, Michael Baldwin, told the AP this week that his wife got the Gosnell clinic job eight years ago after a business school she attended referred her there for an internship. She worked up front, taking cash from patients as they walked in.
Baldwin denied that his wife performed any medical tasks or witnessed anything untoward at Gosnell's clinic.
Ashley worked in recovery, making sure the patients had clothes and a ride home, he said.
"How's she going to give anesthesia? My daughter's scared of needles," he said of Ashley, who is now 20 and pregnant and still works in the medical field.
The younger woman, who prosecutors said was present the night Mongar died, was not charged.
Both women cooperated throughout the yearlong grand jury probe, and the family was therefore stunned — and angered — by Tina Baldwin's pre-dawn arrest on Wednesday, Michael Baldwin said.
Mongar had fled Bhutan and had survived nearly 20 years in refugee camps in Nepal, even after cholera took the life of a 4-year-old daughter. She and her family had made it to the United States just four months earlier to pursue "all that America has to offer," according to lawyer Bernard W. Smalley, who filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Gosnell this week.
"She was the matriarch of their family, and now she's no longer there. Her children will all have to be raised without her," Smalley told the AP.
Mongar was referred to Gosnell's clinic in the city's impoverished Mantua section by a clinic in Virginia that did not do second-trimester abortions. Abortions are legal in Pennsylvania until 24 weeks; prosecutors said
Gosnell routinely performed illegal third-trimester abortions — when babies are viable and the procedure is far more dangerous.
Gosnell was certified in family practice but had never finished an obstetrics/gynecology residency. In the words of Joanne Pescatore, a lead prosecutor on the case, "He does not know how to do an abortion."
Gosnell perforated the uteruses, bowels and cervixes of countless patients, the grand jury report charged. He left fetal parts inside, ignored postoperative pain and bleeding and passed venereal diseases from one patient to the next through bloody and dirty instruments, the report said.
Besides his abortion practice, authorities said, he ranked third in the state for the number of prescriptions he wrote for OxyContin, the highly addictive narcotic painkiller. Authorities allege that he left blank prescriptions for such drugs at his office and allowed staff to make them out to the cash-paying patients who streamed in during the day, when he wasn't there.
Johnson's husband, Bobby, was one of Gosnell's pain patients. He said he went to Gosnell last year, paying $250 cash, to see the doctor about a debilitating pinched nerve. At the time, he said, he did not know his wife had gone to Gosnell years earlier, before they were married, for an abortion.
*This is a societal hot mess! All that were involved need to be locked up for life.*
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AA Political Slugfest: NACCP PIMPING THE SCOTT SISTERS!
Listen to the African American Political Pundit and his guest commentary on how the the NAACP is pimping the newly released "Scott Sisters" from prison.
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Listen to internet radio with AAPolitical Slugfest on Blog Talk Radio
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Saturday, January 22, 2011
Officials fear bath salts are growing drug problem!
When Neil Brown got high on bath salts, he took his skinning knife and slit his face and stomach repeatedly. Brown survived, but authorities say others haven't been so lucky after snorting, injecting or smoking powders with such innocuous-sounding names as Ivory Snow, Red Dove and Vanilla Sky.
Some say the effects of the powders are as powerful as abusing methamphetamine. Increasingly, law enforcement agents and poison control centers say the bath salts with complex chemical names are an emerging menace in several U.S. states where authorities talk of banning their sale.
From the Deep South to California, emergency calls are being reported over exposure to the stimulants the powders often contain: mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV.
Sold under such names as Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning and Hurricane Charlie, the chemicals can cause hallucinations, paranoia, rapid heart rates and suicidal thoughts, authorities say. The chemicals are in bath salts and even plant foods that are sold legally at convenience stores and on the Internet. However, they aren't necessarily being used for the purposes on the label.
Mississippi lawmakers this week began considering a proposal to ban the sale of the powders, and a similar step is being sought in Kentucky. In Louisiana, the bath salts were outlawed by an emergency order after the state's poison center received more than 125 calls in the last three months of 2010 involving exposure to the chemicals.
In Brown's case, he said he had tried every drug from heroin to crack and was so shaken by terrifying hallucinations that he wrote one Mississippi paper urging people to stay away from the bath salts.
"I couldn't tell you why I did it," Brown said, pointing to his scars. "The psychological effects are still there."
While Brown survived, sheriff's authorities in one Mississippi county say they believe one woman overdosed on bath salts there. In southern Louisiana, the family of a 21-year-old man says he cut his throat and ended his life with a gunshot. Authorities are investigating whether a man charged with capital murder in the
December death of a Tippah County, Miss., sheriff's deputy was under the influence of the bath salts.
The stimulants aren't regulated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, but are facing federal scrutiny. Law officers say some of the substances are being shipped from Europe, but origins are still unclear.
Gary Boggs, an executive assistant at the DEA, said there's a lengthy process to restrict these types of designer chemicals, including reviewing the abuse data. But it's a process that can take years.
Dr. Mark Ryan, director of Louisiana's poison control center, said he thinks state bans on the chemicals can be effective. He said calls about the salts have dropped sharply since Louisiana banned their sale in January.
Ryan said cathinone, the parent substance of the drugs, comes from a plant grown in Africa and is regulated. He said MDPV and mephedrone are made in a lab, and they aren't regulated because they're not marketed for human consumption. The stimulants affect neurotransmitters in the brain, he said.
"It causes intense cravings for it. They'll binge on it three or four days before they show up in an ER. Even though it's a horrible trip, they want to do it again and again," Ryan said.
Ryan said at least 25 states have received calls about exposure, including Nevada and California. He said Louisiana leads with the greatest number of cases at 165, or 48 percent of the U.S. total, followed by Florida with at least 38 calls to its poison center.
Dr. Rick Gellar, medical director for the California Poison Control System, said the first call about the substances came in Oct. 5, and a handful of calls have followed since. But he warned: "The only way this won't become a problem in California is if federal regulatory agencies get ahead of the curve. This is a brand new thing."
In the Midwest, the Missouri Poison Center at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center received at least 12 calls in the first two weeks of January about teenagers and young adults abusing such chemicals, said Julie Weber, the center's director. The center received eight calls about the powders all of last year.
Dr. Richard Sanders, a general practitioner working in Covington, La., said his son, Dickie, snorted some of the bath salts and endured three days of intermittent delirium. Dickie Sanders missed major arteries when he cut his throat. As he continued to have visions, his physician father tried to calm him. But the elder Sanders said that as he slept, his son went into another room and shot himself.
"If you could see the contortions on his face. It just made him crazy," said Sanders. He added that the coroner's office confirmed the chemicals were detected in his son's blood and urine.
Sanders warns the bath salts are far more dangerous than some of their names imply.
"I think everybody is taking this extremely lightly. As much as we outlawed it in Louisiana, all these kids cross over to Mississippi and buy whatever they want," he said.
A small packet of the chemicals typically costs as little as $20.
In northern Mississippi's Itawamba County, Sheriff Chris Dickinson said his office has handled about 30 encounters with bath salt users in the past two months alone. He said the problem grew last year in his rural area after a Mississippi law began restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in making methamphetamine.
Dickinson said most of the bath salt users there have been meth addicts and can be dangerous when using them.
"We had a deputy injured a week ago. They were fighting with a guy who thought they were two devils. That's what makes this drug so dangerous," he said.
But Dickinson said the chemicals are legal for now, leaving him no choice but to slap users with a charge of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
Kentucky state lawmaker John Tilley said he's moving to block the drug's sale there, preparing a bill for consideration when his legislature convenes shortly. Angry that the powders can be bought legally, he said: "If my 12-year-old can go in a store and buy it, that concerns me."
*It's truly sad that people are doing anything to get a high. The most saddest of it all, is that kids are doing it and dying from it.*
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Some say the effects of the powders are as powerful as abusing methamphetamine. Increasingly, law enforcement agents and poison control centers say the bath salts with complex chemical names are an emerging menace in several U.S. states where authorities talk of banning their sale.
From the Deep South to California, emergency calls are being reported over exposure to the stimulants the powders often contain: mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV.
Sold under such names as Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning and Hurricane Charlie, the chemicals can cause hallucinations, paranoia, rapid heart rates and suicidal thoughts, authorities say. The chemicals are in bath salts and even plant foods that are sold legally at convenience stores and on the Internet. However, they aren't necessarily being used for the purposes on the label.
Mississippi lawmakers this week began considering a proposal to ban the sale of the powders, and a similar step is being sought in Kentucky. In Louisiana, the bath salts were outlawed by an emergency order after the state's poison center received more than 125 calls in the last three months of 2010 involving exposure to the chemicals.
In Brown's case, he said he had tried every drug from heroin to crack and was so shaken by terrifying hallucinations that he wrote one Mississippi paper urging people to stay away from the bath salts.
"I couldn't tell you why I did it," Brown said, pointing to his scars. "The psychological effects are still there."
While Brown survived, sheriff's authorities in one Mississippi county say they believe one woman overdosed on bath salts there. In southern Louisiana, the family of a 21-year-old man says he cut his throat and ended his life with a gunshot. Authorities are investigating whether a man charged with capital murder in the
December death of a Tippah County, Miss., sheriff's deputy was under the influence of the bath salts.
The stimulants aren't regulated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, but are facing federal scrutiny. Law officers say some of the substances are being shipped from Europe, but origins are still unclear.
Gary Boggs, an executive assistant at the DEA, said there's a lengthy process to restrict these types of designer chemicals, including reviewing the abuse data. But it's a process that can take years.
Dr. Mark Ryan, director of Louisiana's poison control center, said he thinks state bans on the chemicals can be effective. He said calls about the salts have dropped sharply since Louisiana banned their sale in January.
Ryan said cathinone, the parent substance of the drugs, comes from a plant grown in Africa and is regulated. He said MDPV and mephedrone are made in a lab, and they aren't regulated because they're not marketed for human consumption. The stimulants affect neurotransmitters in the brain, he said.
"It causes intense cravings for it. They'll binge on it three or four days before they show up in an ER. Even though it's a horrible trip, they want to do it again and again," Ryan said.
Ryan said at least 25 states have received calls about exposure, including Nevada and California. He said Louisiana leads with the greatest number of cases at 165, or 48 percent of the U.S. total, followed by Florida with at least 38 calls to its poison center.
Dr. Rick Gellar, medical director for the California Poison Control System, said the first call about the substances came in Oct. 5, and a handful of calls have followed since. But he warned: "The only way this won't become a problem in California is if federal regulatory agencies get ahead of the curve. This is a brand new thing."
In the Midwest, the Missouri Poison Center at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center received at least 12 calls in the first two weeks of January about teenagers and young adults abusing such chemicals, said Julie Weber, the center's director. The center received eight calls about the powders all of last year.
Dr. Richard Sanders, a general practitioner working in Covington, La., said his son, Dickie, snorted some of the bath salts and endured three days of intermittent delirium. Dickie Sanders missed major arteries when he cut his throat. As he continued to have visions, his physician father tried to calm him. But the elder Sanders said that as he slept, his son went into another room and shot himself.
"If you could see the contortions on his face. It just made him crazy," said Sanders. He added that the coroner's office confirmed the chemicals were detected in his son's blood and urine.
Sanders warns the bath salts are far more dangerous than some of their names imply.
"I think everybody is taking this extremely lightly. As much as we outlawed it in Louisiana, all these kids cross over to Mississippi and buy whatever they want," he said.
A small packet of the chemicals typically costs as little as $20.
In northern Mississippi's Itawamba County, Sheriff Chris Dickinson said his office has handled about 30 encounters with bath salt users in the past two months alone. He said the problem grew last year in his rural area after a Mississippi law began restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in making methamphetamine.
Dickinson said most of the bath salt users there have been meth addicts and can be dangerous when using them.
"We had a deputy injured a week ago. They were fighting with a guy who thought they were two devils. That's what makes this drug so dangerous," he said.
But Dickinson said the chemicals are legal for now, leaving him no choice but to slap users with a charge of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
Kentucky state lawmaker John Tilley said he's moving to block the drug's sale there, preparing a bill for consideration when his legislature convenes shortly. Angry that the powders can be bought legally, he said: "If my 12-year-old can go in a store and buy it, that concerns me."
*It's truly sad that people are doing anything to get a high. The most saddest of it all, is that kids are doing it and dying from it.*
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Top 10 Money Management Tips for Women!
Give yourself a money makeover by facing the facts rather than burying your head in the sand. Put these financial makeover tips to good use and watch your money worries vanish.
Financial Makeover Tip #1
Begin your transformation by getter better organized. You have heard the old adage, "A place for everything and everything in its place?" Centralize your important papers and store them in one place. Take important financial documents like your life insurance certificates to the bank and place them in a safe deposit box. At the very least, purchase a fireproof box to store the documents in case of disaster.
Financial Makeover Tip #2
Know your net worth. Measure what you own against what you owe. Do this by comparing your assets with your liabilities. The results will give you a good read on how well you are living within your means. (Prepare for the truth, it may hurt.) Subtract your total expenses from the total income. If there is a plus sign in front of the total your doing good, if not, you should reduce your spending.
Financial Makeover Tip #3
Know where you are going. Set short-term and long-term money goals and think about how you will get there. For example, a short-term goal may be saving for a down payment on a car or new home. Long-term goals may be paying off large medical bills or general debt.
Financial Makeover Tips #4
A budget will keep you from going "hog wild" on the QVC channel every week. Adhering to your budget will assure your financial future and provide you with more options as you age. Review your income against your bills and allocate, on paper, where your money should go. A budget needs to include utility bills, mortgage payments, insurance, groceries, and gasoline costs. Assign a portion of your income to savings and your emergency fund.
Financial Makeover Tip #5
Credit companies like to gossip. If you miss a payment, everyone in the financial world will know about it. Get familiar with your credit report and credit score. The higher your credit score the better your credit, which means the larger the credit line that is open to you. Limited credit or poor credit will affect your ability to make major purchases so stay vigilant. You can sign up for a free annual credit report but honestly, you need to look at it more frequently than that. Financial advisors strongly encourage their clients to review their credit reports once a month or the very least every two months. Stay vigilant and question flaws on your report. Keep your credit report clean.
Financial Makeover Tip #6
Be proactive! If you know you will be late on a payment or are having a difficult time managing your credit accounts, make a call. Talk to your debtors and assure them that you will catch up. A failure to communicate may cause you to get some needless harassment. Vigilance will keep you from slipping behind on several accounts but sometimes the unforeseen occurs. Review your budget and make the necessary adjustments you need to catch up. Take action as quickly as possible to get back on top.
*Ladies these are tips that can help you get it together. Take it for what it's worth and you are worth it!*
Diva's Nation
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Financial Makeover Tip #1
Begin your transformation by getter better organized. You have heard the old adage, "A place for everything and everything in its place?" Centralize your important papers and store them in one place. Take important financial documents like your life insurance certificates to the bank and place them in a safe deposit box. At the very least, purchase a fireproof box to store the documents in case of disaster.
Financial Makeover Tip #2
Know your net worth. Measure what you own against what you owe. Do this by comparing your assets with your liabilities. The results will give you a good read on how well you are living within your means. (Prepare for the truth, it may hurt.) Subtract your total expenses from the total income. If there is a plus sign in front of the total your doing good, if not, you should reduce your spending.
Financial Makeover Tip #3
Know where you are going. Set short-term and long-term money goals and think about how you will get there. For example, a short-term goal may be saving for a down payment on a car or new home. Long-term goals may be paying off large medical bills or general debt.
Financial Makeover Tips #4
A budget will keep you from going "hog wild" on the QVC channel every week. Adhering to your budget will assure your financial future and provide you with more options as you age. Review your income against your bills and allocate, on paper, where your money should go. A budget needs to include utility bills, mortgage payments, insurance, groceries, and gasoline costs. Assign a portion of your income to savings and your emergency fund.
Financial Makeover Tip #5
Credit companies like to gossip. If you miss a payment, everyone in the financial world will know about it. Get familiar with your credit report and credit score. The higher your credit score the better your credit, which means the larger the credit line that is open to you. Limited credit or poor credit will affect your ability to make major purchases so stay vigilant. You can sign up for a free annual credit report but honestly, you need to look at it more frequently than that. Financial advisors strongly encourage their clients to review their credit reports once a month or the very least every two months. Stay vigilant and question flaws on your report. Keep your credit report clean.
Financial Makeover Tip #6
Be proactive! If you know you will be late on a payment or are having a difficult time managing your credit accounts, make a call. Talk to your debtors and assure them that you will catch up. A failure to communicate may cause you to get some needless harassment. Vigilance will keep you from slipping behind on several accounts but sometimes the unforeseen occurs. Review your budget and make the necessary adjustments you need to catch up. Take action as quickly as possible to get back on top.
*Ladies these are tips that can help you get it together. Take it for what it's worth and you are worth it!*
Diva's Nation
*Join The Conversation*
Top 10 Money Management Tips for Women!
Today, more women than ever are the sole breadwinners in their households. Don't just bring home the bacon; save and spend it smarter with these money management tips for women.
Stay in Tune
Not that you would ever do this but...don't come home and blindly hand over your paycheck to your husband or significant other. Living in a combined financial household is okay but stay on top of where your money is going. Ultimately, you are responsible for your credit score and financial situation.
Cut Spending
Get excited about cutting your spending. Saving a few dollars here and there by catching a sale is nice but to really cut spending, be deliberate. Make cost-cutting goals for yourself today. Plan to cut spending by ¼ in just six months. Deliver on your personal promise by creating a realistic plan of action.
No More Highs
Don't treat money as a "high." When you have a down day (and we all do) resist the urge to shop to feel better. Getting high on shopping won't fix the core problem. Find new, less expensive ways to empower yourself.
Rainy Day Fund
Set a portion of your earnings aside and place it in a savings account. Save 5% to 20% of every paycheck to prepare for emergencies like job loss, natural disasters or sickness.
Listen to Yourself
Don't agree to get someone out of debt, even your sweetheart. In cases where loved ones want to "borrow" money, listen to the practical inner voice, not your nurturing one. Everyone needs a hand occasionally but when something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Avoid co-signing too. A default payment could put your credit in the tank, quickly.
Marry Up or Even
Encourage your partner to take personal responsibility for his or her bills. If you plan to marry, insist that your fiancée get out of debt first. It is not unreasonable to insist on fiscal healthiness. If this isn't feasible, or even if it is, ask your partner to sign a prenuptial agreement.
Know Your Worth
Don't under value your skill set. There's no shame in asking for pay equal to your worth. Ask for the raise. Set your fees and prices at a competitive level. Don't sell yourself short.
Shake Off Unworthiness
Dealing with money may seem uncomfortable at first. A significant percentage of women say they experience feelings of fear, shame and unworthiness when handling their own money. Own your money decisions, the good ones and the bad ones. Practice makes confident so get involved.
Invest!
Don't mute those investment commercials—pay attention. Look for worthy ways to invest your hard-earned cash. Put your money to work and give it the care that you do other areas of your life. Fuss over the extra pound and your extra dollars.
Life Insurance Savvy
It is admirable to want to care for your little ones if the unthinkable happens to you. However, you should know that if you die before your child reaches 18 years of age, he won't get the money; even if you list him as your sole beneficiary. The rules are that children under 18 are not legal recipients of life insurance policies. If there is no one you care to bestow guardianship to then setup a trust for your child.
*Top Ten Money Tips-Fall in love with fiscal happiness!*
Diva's Nation
*Join The Conversation*
Stay in Tune
Not that you would ever do this but...don't come home and blindly hand over your paycheck to your husband or significant other. Living in a combined financial household is okay but stay on top of where your money is going. Ultimately, you are responsible for your credit score and financial situation.
Cut Spending
Get excited about cutting your spending. Saving a few dollars here and there by catching a sale is nice but to really cut spending, be deliberate. Make cost-cutting goals for yourself today. Plan to cut spending by ¼ in just six months. Deliver on your personal promise by creating a realistic plan of action.
No More Highs
Don't treat money as a "high." When you have a down day (and we all do) resist the urge to shop to feel better. Getting high on shopping won't fix the core problem. Find new, less expensive ways to empower yourself.
Rainy Day Fund
Set a portion of your earnings aside and place it in a savings account. Save 5% to 20% of every paycheck to prepare for emergencies like job loss, natural disasters or sickness.
Listen to Yourself
Don't agree to get someone out of debt, even your sweetheart. In cases where loved ones want to "borrow" money, listen to the practical inner voice, not your nurturing one. Everyone needs a hand occasionally but when something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Avoid co-signing too. A default payment could put your credit in the tank, quickly.
Marry Up or Even
Encourage your partner to take personal responsibility for his or her bills. If you plan to marry, insist that your fiancée get out of debt first. It is not unreasonable to insist on fiscal healthiness. If this isn't feasible, or even if it is, ask your partner to sign a prenuptial agreement.
Know Your Worth
Don't under value your skill set. There's no shame in asking for pay equal to your worth. Ask for the raise. Set your fees and prices at a competitive level. Don't sell yourself short.
Shake Off Unworthiness
Dealing with money may seem uncomfortable at first. A significant percentage of women say they experience feelings of fear, shame and unworthiness when handling their own money. Own your money decisions, the good ones and the bad ones. Practice makes confident so get involved.
Invest!
Don't mute those investment commercials—pay attention. Look for worthy ways to invest your hard-earned cash. Put your money to work and give it the care that you do other areas of your life. Fuss over the extra pound and your extra dollars.
Life Insurance Savvy
It is admirable to want to care for your little ones if the unthinkable happens to you. However, you should know that if you die before your child reaches 18 years of age, he won't get the money; even if you list him as your sole beneficiary. The rules are that children under 18 are not legal recipients of life insurance policies. If there is no one you care to bestow guardianship to then setup a trust for your child.
*Top Ten Money Tips-Fall in love with fiscal happiness!*
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*Join The Conversation*
WikiLeaks founder's story optioned as feature film!
An upcoming biography of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange isn't even in stores yet, and it's already been optioned into a feature film.
Plans are under way for Andrew Fowler's book, "The Most Dangerous Man in the World," to be turned into a movie. The Australian reporter first interviewed Assange last May, and his investigative biography is due out later this year.
Josephson Entertainment and Michelle Krumm Productions jointly optioned the movie rights.
Assange, 39, is the founder of WikiLeaks, a whistle-blowing website that revealed classified information. He's in London, where he's battling extradition to Sweden over sex-crime allegations.
*This is so gross that they would put money into Assange's hands. Throw his bum in jail!*
Diva's Nation
*Join The Conversation*
Plans are under way for Andrew Fowler's book, "The Most Dangerous Man in the World," to be turned into a movie. The Australian reporter first interviewed Assange last May, and his investigative biography is due out later this year.
Josephson Entertainment and Michelle Krumm Productions jointly optioned the movie rights.
Assange, 39, is the founder of WikiLeaks, a whistle-blowing website that revealed classified information. He's in London, where he's battling extradition to Sweden over sex-crime allegations.
*This is so gross that they would put money into Assange's hands. Throw his bum in jail!*
Diva's Nation
*Join The Conversation*
Michelle Obama going on Oprah Winfrey show Thursday!
Michelle Obama is going on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
The White House says the first lady is returning to her Chicago hometown Friday to tape one of the last original episodes of Winfrey's nationally syndicated talk show.
Mrs. Obama will discuss plans to launch a nationwide campaign to support families with someone in the military.
The first lady has become an advocate for military families. She has traveled to military installations to talk with service members about their needs and concerns and has urged Americans to volunteer time to help them.
The program is scheduled to air Thursday.
Winfrey is ending her successful talk show at the end of the season after 25 years.
Diva's Nation
*Join The Conversation*
The White House says the first lady is returning to her Chicago hometown Friday to tape one of the last original episodes of Winfrey's nationally syndicated talk show.
Mrs. Obama will discuss plans to launch a nationwide campaign to support families with someone in the military.
The first lady has become an advocate for military families. She has traveled to military installations to talk with service members about their needs and concerns and has urged Americans to volunteer time to help them.
The program is scheduled to air Thursday.
Winfrey is ending her successful talk show at the end of the season after 25 years.
Diva's Nation
*Join The Conversation*
Higher pump prices coming your way this spring!
Gas pump prices that are around $3 a gallon now may seem like a bargain by the time your kids are on Easter egg hunts.
Pump prices have risen nearly 9 percent since Dec. 1 and topped $3.10 a gallon this week. That's the highest level since October 2008. The price may rise or fall a little over the next few months, but analysts expect it to range between $3.20 and $3.75 gallon by March and April ahead of the summer driving season.
The national average for regular gasoline about $3.12 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's nearly 12 cents more than a month ago and 38 cents above a year ago.
Average pump prices range from $2.81 to $3.70 in major cities. For example, the average in Salt Lake City is $2.74 a gallon and in New Orleans it's $2.97 a gallon. Drivers in San Francisco pay $3.44 a gallon, and in Honolulu gas is $3.58 a gallon.
Americans typically drive less in the winter. Demand is about 1 percentage point higher than a year ago but remains weaker than the historical average, said energy analyst Jim Ritterbusch. The nation's gasoline supplies remain above the five-year average.
Over the next couple of months, refineries will conduct regular maintenance to prepare for the changeover to summer driving mixes. That could affect supplies, but gas prices should remain steady to a few cents more, according to oil analyst Tom Kloza of Oil Price Information Service.
By spring he expects the average price to rise to between $3.50 and $3.75 a gallon. Ritterbusch expects $3.20 to $3.25 a gallon by Memorial Day.
For every penny the price at the pump increases, it costs consumers overall an additional $4 million, according to Cameron Hanover analyst Peter Beutel. If the price goes up a dime a gallon, consumers pay $40 million more each day for that increase.
Crude oil prices fell again on Friday as traders speculated about whether China may impose more restrictions to control the growth of its economy, and looked for more signs that the U.S. economy is headed for better days.
Benchmark oil for March delivery fell 48 cents to settle at $89.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil rose 2.76 cents to settle at $2.6508 a gallon, and gasoline added 3.64 cents to settle at $2.4589 a gallon. Natural gas for March delivery gained 5.1 cents to settle at $4.743 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude rose $1.02 to settle at $97.60 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.
*Lookout America as history may repeat itself.*
Diva's Nation
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Pump prices have risen nearly 9 percent since Dec. 1 and topped $3.10 a gallon this week. That's the highest level since October 2008. The price may rise or fall a little over the next few months, but analysts expect it to range between $3.20 and $3.75 gallon by March and April ahead of the summer driving season.
The national average for regular gasoline about $3.12 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's nearly 12 cents more than a month ago and 38 cents above a year ago.
Average pump prices range from $2.81 to $3.70 in major cities. For example, the average in Salt Lake City is $2.74 a gallon and in New Orleans it's $2.97 a gallon. Drivers in San Francisco pay $3.44 a gallon, and in Honolulu gas is $3.58 a gallon.
Americans typically drive less in the winter. Demand is about 1 percentage point higher than a year ago but remains weaker than the historical average, said energy analyst Jim Ritterbusch. The nation's gasoline supplies remain above the five-year average.
Over the next couple of months, refineries will conduct regular maintenance to prepare for the changeover to summer driving mixes. That could affect supplies, but gas prices should remain steady to a few cents more, according to oil analyst Tom Kloza of Oil Price Information Service.
By spring he expects the average price to rise to between $3.50 and $3.75 a gallon. Ritterbusch expects $3.20 to $3.25 a gallon by Memorial Day.
For every penny the price at the pump increases, it costs consumers overall an additional $4 million, according to Cameron Hanover analyst Peter Beutel. If the price goes up a dime a gallon, consumers pay $40 million more each day for that increase.
Crude oil prices fell again on Friday as traders speculated about whether China may impose more restrictions to control the growth of its economy, and looked for more signs that the U.S. economy is headed for better days.
Benchmark oil for March delivery fell 48 cents to settle at $89.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil rose 2.76 cents to settle at $2.6508 a gallon, and gasoline added 3.64 cents to settle at $2.4589 a gallon. Natural gas for March delivery gained 5.1 cents to settle at $4.743 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude rose $1.02 to settle at $97.60 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.
*Lookout America as history may repeat itself.*
Diva's Nation
"Join The Conversation"
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