GNC Sued for Selling Drug-Laced Supplements Seating Chair

By Hilda Schwartz

Oct 26, 2015 Seating Chair – Independent NEWS Agency – SeatingChair.com

The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, accuses GNC of violating Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act because it misrepresented products sold in Oregon as “lawful dietary supplements, when in fact these products were adulterated and unlawful”.

The dietary supplements allegedly contain the illegal ingredient picamilon and BMPEA. It alleges GNC knowingly sold products containing an amphetamine-like substance that isn’t approved for diet pills in the USA – and left it off the label. Products containing BMPEA or picamilon were produced by third parties and accounted for less than 1 percent of total sales, GNC said.

The Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to five companies in April telling them that eight of their products listed BMPEA and telling them to stop selling them. In a brief statement, GNC responded to the lawsuit, saying that the allegations are “without merit” and that they will “vigorously defend against these allegations”.

This is just the latest in a fight that has been going on for years between state and federal officials and supplements retailers like GNC.

Full Article –  http://seatingchair.com/2015/10/26/gnc-sued-for-selling-drug-laced-supplements-13459.html

Inmate facing charges for alleged assault of Aurora theater shooter James Holmes

Updated 11:23 AM ET, Sat October 24, 2015

(CNN)James Holmes, condemned to spend the rest of his life in a Colorado prison, was allegedly assaulted there by a fellow inmate, a state corrections spokeswoman said Saturday.

The incident occurred earlier this month at the Colorado State Penitentiary, which Holmes’ calls home given his multiple life terms for carrying out the Aurora movie theater massacre that killed 12 and wounded 70.

“It was not an attack, it was a very minor incident in passing in a hallway,” Adrienne Jacobson, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, told CNN.

While the 27-year-old Holmes wasn’t injured, the incident was serious enough to warrant charges against the other inmate.

Jacobson told the Denver Post that inmate, 27-year-old Mark Daniels, will be charged with assault on Holmes and assault on a correctional officer.

The Colorado newspaper said that it first learned of the encounter in a letter received Friday, purportedly from Daniels, saying the incident occurred October 8. But corrections officials hadn’t seen the letter and couldn’t confirm that Daniels wrote it.

Who were the victims?

Prior to this, Daniels had been eligible for parole on February 25, 2017, according to a Department of Corrections online database. He stands 6 feet, 4 inches and weighs 195 pounds.

The Post reports that Daniels, who has gone by many aliases, is serving time on menacing, auto theft, assault and smuggling contraband into prison charges out of Jefferson and Adams counties.

Holmes, wearing a helmet, gas mask and ballistic gear, tossed tear gas into Theater 9 of the Century 16 megaplex in Aurora during the first minutes of a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in July 2012. Armed with a shotgun, a rifle and a pistol, he opened fire; he had more than 700 rounds of ammunition with him. After his gun jammed, Holmes walked out of the theater and surrendered.

Psychiatrist: Holmes thought 3-4 times a day about killing

This month’s alleged assault on him comes less than two months after he was sentenced to one life term for each of the 12 people he killed, plus 3,318 years for the attempted murders of those he wounded and for rigging his apartment with explosives. Prosecutor George Brauchler said he believed the sentence was the fourth-longest in U.S. history.

Full Article – http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/24/us/james-holmes-alleged-assault/

Gunman shot shopper for looking at his girlfriend, charges state

By Ben Lockhart   |  Posted Oct 23rd, 2015 @ 9:25pm

WEST VALLEY CITY — A fight that led to a shooting in a West Valley City Wal-Mart parking lot started when the shooter confronted another man inside the store about looking at his girlfriend, according to charging documents.

Cole Ronald Shields, 31, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with two counts of illegal discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, one a first-degree felony and the other a second-degree felony. He was also charged with obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony, and three counts of felony discharge of a firearm, a third-degree felony.

Shields, of Cottonwood Heights, allegedly confronted the man while leaving his checkout lane at the Wal-Mart, 3180 W. 5600 South, on Oct. 14 and asked him why the man was looking at his girlfriend.

“(The victim) told the defendant he wasn’t, and began walking to his car. The defendant followed (him) and continued to verbally harass him,” the charges state.

Shields then allegedly pulled out a gun and kicked the man in the leg. The man responded by punching Shields in the face and hitting him again after Shields fell to the ground, according to the charges. The man made his way toward his car again, this time walking backwards, when police say Shields opened fire, shooting at the man either five or six times and striking him once each in both feet.

“(The victim) required emergency medical treatment for his injuries and will be unable to walk for approximately six weeks,” the charges state. “(He) will require a bone graft to repair the damage to one of his feet.”

Shields admitted to opening fire in the parking lot, but claimed he did so in self-defense, according to the charging documents.

Utah court records show Shields entered a plea in abeyance to misdemeanor assault in June. He is currently in the Salt Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

Read Full Story – https://www.ksl.com/?sid=37075070&nid=148&fm=most_popular&s_cid=article_popular-1

Family law: Re-focusing on the needs of the child

By Carolyn Laine

Something unique happened in Minnesota this year.

It had to do with how parents figure out child custody and parenting time after they separate. In about 5 percent of these cases, the courts need to resolve it for the parents. The law the courts use to make decisions becomes the backdrop for how parents are encouraged to work it out. Seldom is it easy for parents, but it is made more difficult if the law is unclear.

As times change, bringing changes in families and in parenting roles, the Legislature needs to make adjustments in family law. But that, too, is seldom easy.

Too often, the legislative fight over how to provide solutions to child custody, parenting time and child support is often a macrocosm of the difficulty parents encounter, with distrust, anger, fear and power plays interfering.

Such was the case in Minnesota — until recently. After more than a dozen years of battling, something different has happened.

In 2012, the usual legislative fight over how to make these changes resulted in a gubernatorial veto. But the governor also encouraged a collaborative approach between the warring sides.

A family court judge heeded the call to collaboration and brought in a mediator skilled in major public policy issues. The Child Custody Dialogue Group that formed agreed to side-step our entrenched positions and developed 26 principles we all shared. We then examined where the current family law and procedures did not match our shared principles.

More than a year later, in 2014, we passed through the Minnesota Legislature a few changes, including giving the judge permission to reserve a later re-determination of parenting time to correspond with the child’s changing developmental needs. The group continued working on deeper issues, and this work culminated in the 2015 legislative changes that are considered to be the most significant change in Minnesota’s family law in two decades.

The “Best Interests of the Child” factors lie at the core of family law, but we found them to be out of date. By re-focusing them more clearly on the needs of the child, instead of comparing parents, we hope this assists parents and courts in focusing on what arrangement going forth best meets the child’s needs in each unique family situation.

An important new factor to be considered in the 12 interrelated factors is the benefit to the child in maximizing time with both parents and the detriment to limiting time with one parent. This factor emphasizes the appropriately substantial participation of both parents in a way that benefits the child on a case-by-case basis. It reflects a shared principle instead of a contentious position.

We found a number of other places in family law that needed clarification. For example, there now are better remedies when a parent is not following court orders in such areas as parenting time, tax filing or income disclosures. As a reminder of the importance of involving both parents, the law now says the 25 percent presumption of parenting time is a minimum level. And the right of both parents to access school, medical and legal information is clearly identified right in the custody order.

Read full article – http://www.twincities.com/columnists/ci_28975783/carolyn-laine-family-law-re-focusing-needs-child

Meet the Oldfathers: How 30 years after Goodfellas heist, veteran Mafia men

By ROB CRILLY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Meet the Oldfathers: How 30 years after Goodfellas heist, veteran Mafia men struggled to use modern cell phones and got bartered down to $3,000 in a shakedown

 

  • Testimony in trial of Vincent Asaro, 80, who is accused of receiving money from notorious heist, revealed reality of modern Mafia life
  • His cousin Gaspare ‘Handsome’ Valenti, 68, who is a turncoat, revealed how Asaro hated ‘tiny keys’ of his mobile phone
  • Valenti told of meeting in Starbucks where he couldn’t drink the coffee because it would make him ‘wired’ 
  • They demanded payment of $5,000 debt from family member but he talked it down to $3,000 
  • Prosecution say Asaro was ‘made member of Bonnano family’ and involved in raid at New York‘s JFK airport which inspired Goodfellas

Three decades after allegedly pulling off one of the cash biggest robberies in American history, the men accused of stealing more than $6m in the Lufthansa heist were reduced to shaking down relatives for a few thousand dollars, according to secret recordings.

Vincent Asaro, 80, denies multiples charges of extortion, murder and violence that prosecutors believe spanned four decades as a key figure in Bonanno crime family.

The case against him is built on recordings made by his alleged associate Gaspare ‘Handsome’ Valenti, who wore an FBI wire for five years.

While the early evidence was a reminder of the power once wielded by New York’s five crime families, the later recordings show how the world of the mafia hood has changed.

Aging associates struggle to deal with mobile phones and meetings are held at Starbucks, rather than the social clubs favored during the 1970s and 1980s – and one could not even drink the coffee, saying it would leave him ‘wired’.

On the second day of the trial in Brooklyn, Valenti, 68, testified in minute detail how he had taken part in the Lufthansa raid – a robbery later dramatised in the Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas – with Asaro.

But on Wednesday, he described a modest endeavor 32 years later: helping Asaro obtain money from a cousin, Carmine ‘Skippy’ Muscarello, who had inherited a house.

The episode began with Valenti, now 68, telephoning Asaro on his mobile phone in October 2010, to discover he was shopping in a local market for the ingredients for soup.

Ansaro answered: ‘I’m in Waldbaum’s. I’m shopping, I’m going to make lentil soup. I just bought lentils and some orzo and s***.’

They discussed the deal in a series of phonecalls, some apparently ending abruptly with dropped signals. Asaro said Skippy had promised him an ‘end’ – or a share – amounting to $5000 when he sold the house in Brooklyn.

fat

Valenti agreed to visit Asaro at his office in Long Island City where he was a manager for an electrical contractor. Perhaps he would wear a suit, he said.

‘Just be a gentleman,’ he added, ‘but do you want me to… you don’t want to get… uh?

‘No, no, no,’ answered Ansaro. ‘But let him understand that we want our money. I mean it Gar, I mean really he promised it to us. If you have to, then do it, that’s all.’

Valenti wore a wire to the meeting.

After waiting as Skippy orders parts on the telephone, he said: ‘Vinny wants this money. He felt he had the money coming to him.

‘Look, we did a lot of things for you… your brother, when Johnny was in trouble… ‘That’s not my debt,’ said Skippy. ‘That’s the only one that…

‘May your brother rest… ‘That’s my brother’s debt.’ ‘Wait. May your brother rest in peace…’

Valenti persuaded Skippy to speak with Asaro on his new mobile phone, but struggles to get through.

‘They made these numbers any smaller… it’s for Braille,’ Asaro can be heard saying.

Later he added: ‘I just got this phone the other day. It’s driving me crazy.’

drawmafia

Eventually Skippy spoke to Asaro and then said he was ready to write a check for $3000.

‘I’m gonna settle up with him but I don’t wanna here from you ever again, you understand? All right? All right?

They arranged to meet the following day, at a Starbucks on Cross Bay Boulevard, Queens.

‘You ever have any problems, you know exactly what you gotta do. You call me, Vinny or Jerry, and they’ll be there for you.’

They meet the next day at Starbucks, where Skippy produced the check.

Valenti has to apologise for leaving his coffee, which he explained would make him ‘wired’.

For Full Article – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3283389/Meet-Oldfathers-30-years-Goodfellas-heist-Mafia-men-struggled-use-modern-cell-phones-moaned-Starbucks-coffee-got-bartered-3-000-shakedown.html