TV News LIES

A Michigan doctor was sentenced to over a decade in federal prison for unlawfully distributing hundreds of thousands of opioid pills that had a street value of more than $6 million, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Judith Levy sentenced Lawrence Mark Sherman, 75, to 12 years in federal prison Thursday after a jury found him guilty of 20 charges in December, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Michigan and federal court records. Prosecutors said Sherman illegally distributed more than 270,000 opioid pills worth more than $6.3 million.

In the release, the pills included three of the most addictive prescription opioids, including Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, and Percocet, which also have a high street value. The charges stemmed from Sherman's involvement in the operation of Tranquility Wellness Center Inc., from the spring of 2020 through June 2021, where he worked part-time.

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Isabella Rosario Blum was wrapping up medical school and considering residency programs to become a family practice physician when she got some frank advice: If she wanted to be trained to provide abortions, she shouldn't stay in Arizona.

Blum turned to programs mostly in states where abortion access — and, by extension, abortion training — is likely to remain protected, like California, Colorado and New Mexico. Arizona has enacted a law banning most abortions after 15 weeks.

When a wild orangutan in Indonesia suffered a painful wound to his cheek, he did something that stunned researchers: He chewed plant leaves known to have pain-relieving and healing properties, rubbed the juice on the open wound — and then used the leaves as a poultice to cover his injury.

"This case represents the first known case of active wound treatment in a wild animal with a medical plant," biologist Isabelle Laumer, the first author of a paper about the revelation, told NPR.

She says she was "very excited" about the orangutan's seeming innovation, which was documented at the Suaq Balimbing research site in the Gunung Leuser National Park in northwest Sumatra, where some 150 orangutans live in a protected rainforest.

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In recent weeks, COVID-19 forecasters have reported on a new set of variants picked up in wastewater surveillance. Nicknamed FLiRT, they’re threatening to cause a new wave of COVID infections, which recently bottomed out after spiking in December.

Models released last week from Jay Weiland, a data scientist who has accurately predicted COVID waves since the beginning of the pandemic, warns that a surge is on the horizon. “He’s someone who many experts like myself follow because he’s been pretty accurate so far,” said Megan L. Ranney, MD, dean of the Yale School of Public Health.

Host vulnerability is another troubling factor, given that only 22% of American adults have gotten the latest COVID vaccine. And since many people may not have had the virus in a while, they’re ripe for reinfection.

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The Biden administration is poised to make a landmark change to the federal government's position on marijuana with a proposed plan that would no longer consider marijuana among the most dangerous and addictive substances.

In what would be the biggest change in marijuana policy the federal government has taken since pot was first outlawed, the Drug Enforcement Administration will take public comments on a plan to recategorize marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act, according to a source familiar with the process. The news was first reported by The Associated Press.

The Department of Justice will send its recommendation to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug to the White House Office of Management and Budget, according to the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly. The Justice Department is expected to transmit the recommendation today, the source said.

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