Nebraska Paid Outside Lawyer To Register Overseas Execution Drug Supplier With FDA

States attempting to illegally import execution drugs, an outside lawyer helping them do so, and an overseas drug supplier have coordinated their efforts more than previously known, documents obtained by BuzzFeed News show.

BuzzFeed News previously reported that three states — Arizona, Ohio, and Texas — hired outside lawyers to help them on drug importation issues. Several states have paid Ben England or his companies — Benjamin L. England & Associates, LLC and FDAImports.com, LLC — to represent the states in their attempts to import the drugs.

New public records provided by Nebraska to BuzzFeed News show that it, too, has hired England to not only import sodium thiopental but register an overseas supplier with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The documents, however, also show much more about the work going on behind the scenes to bring execution drugs into the country that the FDA says cannot legally be imported.

The records, some of which are marked confidential and “attorney-client privileged,” show Nebraska’s Department of Corrections paid attorney Ben England $399 to register sodium thiopental with the FDA that a man named Chris Harris and his company, Harris Pharma, claims to be able to manufacture. But prior reports from BuzzFeed News call into question information listed on the registration.

The registration, sent to Nebraska officials in early September, lists an address in Kolkata, India, as the location where Harris Pharma manufactures its drugs. A BuzzFeed News investigation, published in October, revealed that the location is a small rented office space, and an employee at the building confirmed that no drugs were being manufactured there.

Record provided by Nebraska Department of Corrections

The records also show that England's company, FDAImports.com, LLC, listed itself as the U.S. Agent on the FDA form.

Record provided by Nebraska Department of Corrections

England did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday and has not returned numerous requests for comment in a span of several months.

Harris, for his part, does not have a pharmaceutical background and has sold execution drugs to states at least six times over the past six years. Each time, after questions are raised about the legality of the sale, his drugs have gone unused. Harris, in response to multiple requests for comment, has told BuzzFeed News repeatedly that he does not speak to reporters.

As state efforts to import sodium thiopental ramped up in 2015, the Food and Drug Administration has been clear — in repeated written communications, including to England — that sodium thiopental cannot be imported, under the law and a related federal court order. States ignored the FDA and bought the drugs anyway.

The agency followed through on its promise and is detaining hundreds of vials of the drug that were on their way to Arizona and Texas. Additionally, Harris attempted to ship sodium thiopental to Nebraska in late August, but Fed Ex returned the drugs to the sender after receiving information that it was not approved by the FDA.

Although Harris sold the drugs and claims to be a manufacturer, BuzzFeed News previously reported that he did not make the drugs intended for Texas and Arizona. Instead, a company in India called Health Biotech Limited is listed as the manufacturer of the drugs on FDA paperwork regarding the shipments. An employee of Health Biotech told BuzzFeed News that the company made the drug for Harris, who then marketed it on his own. “We don’t know what he does with the product,” the employee said.

Ohio, which responded in October to an FDA letter about the legality of importing sodium thiopental, has paid England more than $30,000 over the past two years. Texas paid one of England’s firms more than $15,000 in April, although the payment was rescinded days later.

England also recommended that Nebraska provide $2,500 as a legal retainer “as it is needed.”

In the registration documents for Harris Pharma, England’s firm puts that the drug is “[f]or law enforcement purposes only.” The proposed label includes Harris Pharma’s logo.

Records provided by Nebraska Department of Corrections

England also listed an email address for FDAImports.com in the space where the form asks for contact information for the drug registrant.

Record provided by Nebraska Department of Corrections

This isn’t England’s first time dealing with the legal questions involved in importing this drug. Although he now is doing extensive work for numerous states seeking to import sodium thiopental, as well as the seller of the drug, in the past he was worked as an expert on behalf of Arizona death row inmates to keep the drug out of the country.

In that case, he said shipments of sodium thiopental destined for Arizona were illegal. In 2012, a federal judge ruled in a separate case that the FDA could no longer let sodium thiopental into the U.S.

But now, England is on the other side. In Ohio’s letter to the FDA, which came after the state had been working with England for two years, the state corrections official argued that there should be a legal way for states to import sodium thiopental.

Texas has not confirmed that England is working for the state, and it’s still unclear who Arizona is paying for legal advice on importing sodium thiopental. Both states have redacted that information from records mentioning their outside counsel. In his engagement letter with Nebraska, England says that secrecy would be wise.

“As you may know, it is in your best interest to preserve the confidentiality of all communications between us,” England wrote.

Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1Mb8s8G

Read More

Tech giants plan to beam Internet everywhere

Source CNN.com - Technology http://ift.tt/1iwF4gV

Read More

The Man Who Changed Internet Porn Forever Predicts A Bleak Future

Nicolas Dehghani, for BuzzFeed News / Via colagene.com

Online porn is at something of a crossroads. High-quality, high-def streaming adult videos are everywhere, but the margins for those who produce and perform are slim, and getting slimmer by the day. Earlier this month, Playboy announced its decision to get rid of naked photos, thanks, in part, to the saturation of tawdry free photos online. In a sprawling feature on the state of the industry, Wired declared that porn's "very identity is being stolen as the world evolves both technologically and culturally."

Basically: It’s getting a lot harder to make easy money selling pixelated sex online. And while porn’s tectonic cultural shifts are complex, they were largely set in motion by one man.

From 2010 to late 2013, Fabian Thylmann presided over the meteoric rise of a company called MindGeek, a collection of online adult streaming video (or “tube”) sites that became one of the largest and most powerful adult entertainment conglomerates ever assembled — and in turn, irrevocably influenced the course of countless business ventures and careers.

At various points, MindGeek (formerly called Manwin) has owned eight of the top ten tube sites, some of which are the most trafficked in the world. Outside observers have called MindGeek a monopoly and a vampiric hydra; industry producers have described it as a scourge, attributing it to the downfall of the adult industry’s famed profit margins. Among the changes Mindgeek has wrought: a glut of stolen content, now available for free on tube sites across the internet, and a 70% drop in revenue on standard pay sites, according to industry veteran Colin Rowntree. And while tube sites and producers dispute the business tactics behind porn’s shrinking margins, few debate that the landscape has been dramatically altered.

Thylmann

Twitter: @ftyl

Thylmann himself is as controversial as his former company. Through one lens, he’s a prolific entrepreneur, working his way from an engineer to the architect of an adult empire. He secured major bank funding and bought up larger tube sites (YouPorn, another example) as well as major mainstream adult production studios (Babes.com, Digital Playground, Reality Kings, Twistys, Playboy’s online and TV studio arms). CNBC called Thylmann the “King of Porn” in 2012, but in some adult industry circles he’s reviled as “Porn Enemy Number One" (link is NSFW) for building out the tubes. He’s discussed sex worker issues at black-tie debates at Oxford, but he's also been extradited to Germany from Belgium for tax evasion, for which he was formally indicted in 2015.

He’s out of the adult game now, working as an angel investor for more mainstream tech companies like FrontBack and Giant Swarm. But Thylmann keeps a watchful eye on his former industry. After BuzzFeed News published a feature on a group of entrepreneurs trying to take back the porn industry from the vise-grip of the tubes, Thylmann expressed his deep skepticism toward a new class of adult entrepreneurs, suggesting that the ideas were “old and tried before. You are not innovating!” he tweeted.

When reached by email from his home in Belgium, Thylmann expanded on his doubt about the industry’s ability to harness technology to move out of its current situation. “Innovation will not get you very far. There is only so much you can innovate in porn,” he told BuzzFeed News. “It is a content business — you can simply make it easier to get the content. And how much easier than free can you make it? The type or style of content matters little here. And there is little that a company like MindGeek is not involved in already.”

It gets bleaker. Thylmann doesn’t fully buy into the idea that porn has long been a driving force in tech and internet innovation — “when it comes to internet things, the only thing [porn] can claim is that it helped increase bandwidth by some factor,” he said — and believes that porn has irreparably damaged its standing in the tech landscape. “Innovation in the porn industry has stopped a long time ago in my opinion. Advanced technologies are not used heavily. Very little new tech comes out of the industry (compared to non-porn, where plenty of big tech companies have contributed tools to the internet industry heavily used everywhere),” he claimed.

Thylmann’s opinions place him in an awkward position. His grim view of the industry is the result of a situation he largely helped to build. But when Thylmann considers his legacy and its lasting impact on the porn world, he views his success as part of an inevitable transformation — one that was in motion before he became a major player.

“It was bound to happen ... The porn industry caused this to itself. It started giving away free content long before I came along...YouTube came about and was immediately copied in porn a few days later. I saw all these things and simply started to build a strategy around it, aggregating as much of the free content related websites and matching it with paying ones to optimally make money in the field. Add cold, hard business logic to this, and you have a winner,” he wrote.

Jeff Mullen, known in the business as Will Ryder, has worked in the industry in various capacities since 1983, when he started composing music for adult films. He won the 2010 AVN Award for Director of the Year, and his IMDb page lists 93 directorial credits, most of them for his screwball parodies. He told BuzzFeed News earlier this year that he’s watched his films appear again and again on the tubes just hours after releasing them at full length and in high definition.

After years of observing helplessly, Mullen said last year he's considering getting out of the industry. With little prompting, he excoriated the tubes, calling Mindgeek “the single biggest enemy of the porn industry. They are the company responsible for the complete downfall of the porn industry.

“They stole everyone's stuff, mine included, and expect us to send a lawyer asking them to take it down. Once they take it down, three days later they put it back up. It’s a never-ending game of bullshit and I’m out,” he said. “They're liars and the scum of the earth,” he said. “They're complete fucking thieves and it’s too late to fuck them. If the adult industry was still controlled like the mob like in '70s, this would never have happened.”

Thylmann stressed that despite the harsh accusations of misconduct from others, his intervention created more stability. “If I would not have done this, all these free sites would still be there, but they would be there controlled by many different people. And likely, people with much worse intentions than I ever had,” he wrote to BuzzFeed News. He argued that he spent considerable efforts to rein in copyright violations, noting that one of his first business decisions with Manwin was bringing in a law firm to handle copyright and DMCA issues. “I wanted to fully understand the law, logic and reasons behind everything that was to be done and could not be done."

“Any DMCA notice sent into the sites was dealt with as fast as possible. In my opinion, we did everything possible to make it as easy as possible," he wrote. And when confronted with testimonies from producers and performers that argue stolen content wasn’t taken down efficiently or even at all, Thylmann was defensive. “[DMCA law] is needed for many reasons, and you can argue that Manwin profited from the law, but as I said, others did too and we did not break any rules.”

Ultimately, Thylmann is unapologetic about Manwin’s successes and what his former empire has wrought in the years since his departure. He concedes that porn’s shrinking margins were, at least in part, a result of his company’s dominance. “Manwin simply is one of the causes for the industry maturing,” he wrote. “We merged so many businesses under one roof, that we made it very hard for the old-timers to make any real money in their old business logics anymore.”

It’s a rather blunt acknowledgment from Thylmann that Manwin created a monster and that there’s no going back.

“I do not see this changing anytime soon,” he told BuzzFeed News. “These handful of companies simply have too much power for any meaningful competition to emerge.”

via IFTTT

Read More

Fred Thompson, Former Senator And "Law And Order" Star, Dies

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Fred Thompson — the former U.S. Senator, Republican presidential candidate, and actor — died Sunday in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 73.

According to a statement from his family released to the Tennessean and the New York Times, Thompson died from a recurrence of lymphoma.

"It is with a heavy heart and a deep sense of grief that we share the passing of our brother, husband, father, and grandfather who died peacefully in Nashville surrounded by his family," the statement read.

"Fred was the same man on the floor of the Senate, the movie studio, or the town square of Lawrenceburg, his home," his family said.

After representing Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1994 to 2003, Thompson went on to play the role of a district attorney in NBC's Law and Order between 2002 and 2007.

In 2007, he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. His campaign was short-lived, however, and dropped out of the race in early 2008.

Tall and with a booming voice, the character actor made a name playing roles that demanded a sense of gravitas, such as judges, attorneys, police officers, and military figures.

In addition to Law And Order, his television credits included appearances in The Good Wife, Matlock, and NBC's short-lived 2015 drama Allegiance.

His film roles included turns in Days of Thunder, Cape Fear, Die Hard 2, and The Hunt For Red October.

But it was in political and legal circles that Thompson first made his name, serving as an assistant U.S. attorney before rising all the way to Congress.

Thompson in 2014.

Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images

After he earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University in 1967, he started working as an assistant U.S. attorney, where he met current U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.

“Very few people can light up the room the way Fred Thompson did," Alexander said in a statement Sunday. "He used his magic as a lawyer, actor, Watergate counsel, and United States senator to become one of our country’s most principled and effective public servants. He was my friend for nearly fifty years. I will miss him greatly. Honey and I and our entire family send our love and sympathy to Jeri and the Thompson family.”

In the early 1970s, he served as committee counsel on the Watergate investigation into President Richard Nixon.

Thompson was 30 at the time, and Nixon was none-too-pleased with the appointment, who considered the young lawyer not "very smart," according to a review of his White House tapes by the Associated Press.

Thompson's knowledge of the watergate tapes eventually helped determine the president's resignation, as he was the first to bring up the tapes in a public hearing nearly one year before, the Tennessean reported.

Thompson's first acting role came in 1985 and was actually to play himself, a whistleblower in a major Tennessee political scandal, in the movie "Marie."

The movie was based on Thompson's 1977 case, when he had represented Marie Rigghianti, a parole administrator, who refused to release inmates who had paid for pardons from then-Gov. Ray Blanton. He won the case for Rigghianti, which allowed her to return to work in 1978.

He was first elected to the Senate in 1994 to replace Al Gore, who had been elected vice-president. Thompson was re-elected in 1996.

"Fred believed that the greatness of our nation was defined by the hard work, faith, and honesty of its people," his family said. "He had an enduring belief in the exceptionalism of our country, and that America could provide the opportunity for any boy or girl, in any corner of our country, to succeed in life. "

According to the Tennessean, he is survived by his wife, Jeri, and their two young children, as well as his two surviving adult children from a previous marriage.

This is a developing news story. Check back for updates or follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.

Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1Q0psky

Read More

Obama And Democrats To Fundraise At A Performance Of "Hamilton"

Lin-Manuel Miranda appears at the curtain call following the opening night performance of Hamilton at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in New York.

Charles Sykes / AP Photo

WASHINGTON — On Monday afternoon, President Obama will be sharing his love of Broadway's hottest show — the new musical, Hamilton, about Alexander Hamilton — with up to 1,300 of his closest donors.

The Democratic National Committee has bought out the whole house of the 1,319-seat Richard Rodgers Theatre for a special performance of the show, a DNC spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News. The fundraiser was first reported by the New York Times.

Monday's ticket sales, according to an invitation obtained by BuzzFeed News, benefits the Democratic Hope Fund, which is a joint fundraising committee between the DNC and Obama for America. According to the invitation, the first $2,500 of any ticket purchase will go to Obama for America to retire its debt from the 2012 general election campaign. As of the end of June, the campaign still had more than $2.4 million in outstanding debt.

"We just bought all the seats at face value of what the show normally sells them and then marked them up at various rates of giving to raise money for the DNC on top of that," DNC spokesperson Miryam Lipper said. "Tickets are between $500 and $10,000 depending on where your seat is. $10,000 includes a photo with the president and two seats, which is something offered at various DNC fundraisers at that price."

Although the website for the event still shows seats available for purchase, the $10,000 tickets that include a photo with the president were no longer available as of Sunday afternoon.

For his part, Obama has already seen the show, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the country's Founding Fathers, attending a performance with his daughters, Sasha and Malia, in July.

Back in May 2009, in fact, Obama helped give Miranda one of his first audiences for what became the opening number in the show at a White House night celebrating art and poetry.

youtube.com

The invitation for Monday's event:

Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1Nj43kV

Read More

This Kid Was The Real Rugby Winner When An All Blacks Player Gave Him His World Cup Medal

New Zealand rugby player Sonny Bill Williams felt sorry for a boy who was tackled by security.

New Zealand All Blacks player Sonny Bill Williams made Charlie Lines the happiest boy alive when he gave him his winner's medal at the Rugby World Cup final.

Paul Gilham / Getty Images

The eight-year-old was roughly tackled by security at Twickenham stadium in London on Saturday after he leapt over the barrier to join the New Zealand team in a victory lap of the pitch after they beat Australia to win the Rugby World Cup.

Following the incident, Williams gave Lines his medal because he wanted to make sure that the boy's memory of the game was a positive one, Sky news said.

"If it was my little brother or a cousin, I would have given that security guard a hiding. This will be a night he remembers, hopefully," Williams said.

Mike Hewitt / Getty Images

Williams expressed concern for the safety of the young boy when up against a large security guard.

"He was only eight and the other fella was a full-on man, so it looked like he would break his ribs or something," the player told ITV News.

---

View Entire List ›

via IFTTT

Read More

Here Is "Hey Arnold" As An Actual "Football Head"

“Move it football head!”

"Look I'm a football head!"

Jim Rogash / Getty Images / Nickelodeon / Loryn Brantz

"Who's laughing now?'

Darren Mccollester / Getty Images / Nickelodeon / Loryn Brantz

"Ack got me."

Norm Hall / Getty Images / Nickelodeon / Loryn Brantz

"Move it football...player!"

Jim Rogash / Getty Images / Nickelodeon / Loryn Brantz

---

View Entire List ›

via IFTTT

Read More

NBA Superstar Stephen Curry Opens Up About His Life As A Dad

Riley’s dad — and, oh yeah, NBA champion and league MVP — dishes on his dadding life.

2015 has been quite the year for Stephen Curry.

Michael Buckner / Getty Images

On the court, he led the Golden State Warriors to their first NBA championship in 40 years and won the league’s Most Valuable Player award.

Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

Off the court, he became nearly as well known as the dad of 3-year-old Riley Curry, who took the internet by storm with her off-the-charts adorableness.

That's Riley doing the “Whip/Nae Nae” dance on her 3rd birthday.

instagram.com

And to top it all off, he had the joy of welcoming a new daughter, Ryan Carson, to the world.

Stephen Curry / Via instagram.com

---

View Entire List ›

via IFTTT

Read More

Jarryd Hayne Has Been Cut From The San Francisco 49ers Squad

The former NRL star is reportedly “shocked and upset” by the news.

Former Australian NRL star Jarryd Hayne's fledgling NFL career has hit a speed bump, with the San Francisco 49ers announcing Saturday that Hayne has been cut from their squad.

Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

After an impressive start to the pre-season that got tongues wagging across the globe, Hayne has received criticism over his more recent appearances.

Channel 7 reported that Hayne was "shocked" and "upset" over the decision, which saw him dropped from the 49ers 53-large active squad.

On Weekend Sunrise, L.A. correspondent Angela Cox said Hayne had found out the news on the team bus.

"The team is due to play tomorrow. He thought he was going to be playing," she said. "He's really shocked, very upset about this."

However, Hayne tweeted positively about the news, saying he was "blessed for another test".

Hayne has technically been "waived", meaning any other NFL team can now pick him up and add him to their squad. However, if no other teams choose to pick up Hayne, he can return to the 49ers practice squad.

Hayne's agent, Jack Bechta, said on Twitter he believes the Saturday announcement is a sign the 49ers would prefer Hayne to remain with them.

---

View Entire List ›

via IFTTT

Read More

7 Weeknight Fall Dinners That You Can Make Ahead Of Time

This is what you should do with your extra hour this weekend.

Slow Cooker Beef Roast

The slow cooker is the OG of make-ahead dinner. BTW, you can sub in an equal amount of carrots for the baby carrots, if you want.

MAKE-AHEAD TIP: Make the whole thing before work, duh! You can also chop the onion and celery up to 2 days in advance. Get the recipe here.

lecremedelacrumb.com

Mushroom Quesadillas with Chipotle Crema

MAKE-AHEAD TIP: You can cook the mushrooms up to a day in advance. Get the recipe here.

closetcooking.com

Turkey Meatball and Spinach Soup

MAKE-AHEAD TIP: Chop all the vegetables up to 2 days in advance. You can also assemble the meatballs all the way until you are about to cook them up to 12 hours in advance. Get the recipe here.

damndelicious.net

Spicy Chicken Chili with Pumpkin Beer Biscuits

Make this your post-work Friday meal, when you can pop open a beer and cook more leisurely.

MAKE-AHEAD TIP: The biscuits can be made all the way through until just before baking. Freeze them up to 1 week in advance, then proceed with the recipe as written. (You might need to bake them a bit longer.) Get the recipe here.

howsweeteats.com

---

View Entire List ›

via IFTTT

Read More