Agents take over treatment center
OKLAHOMA CITY - Federal agents have raided the Lase Med cancer treatment center in Owasso after allegations it defrauded patients with promises to cure cancer and misbranded drugs.
Lase Med owner Antonella Carpenter told The Associated Press on Friday that the allegations are “a lie.”
A search warrant by U.S.
Food and Drug Administration special agent Jeremy Bain said the raid was conducted July 11. It said agents seized computers, lasers, patient records, $7,800 cash and other items.
An affidavit said Lase Med mixes saline with an herbal product, then applies it topically or injects it into a cancerous tumor before using a laser to heat the area and allegedly kill the cancer.
Carpenter denies the product is a drug and said she uses a holistic approach to treat the disease.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two people die on Arkansas roads
Two people have been killed in separate crashes on Arkansas roadways, according to preliminary Arkansas State Police fatality reports.
About 2:33 p.m. Wednesday, Joyce Adams, 83, of Highland was driving east on U.S. 62/412 in Highland when her vehicle crossed the center turn lane and traveled into oncoming traffic.
Adams’ vehicle then struck a Ford Taurus traveling west on the highway.
Adams was killed in the crash.
The driver of the Taurus, Richard Martin, 71, of Hardy and his passenger, Madeleine Melton, 70, of Branson, were taken to local hospitals with unspecified injuries.
About 6:26 p.m., Billy Wayne Boyd, 54, of Dover was driving south on Old Arkansas 7 in Pope County when he failed to negotiate a curve and drove off the right side of the roadway. Boyd overcorrected, and his Ford pickup overturned.
He was taken to Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Russellville where he was pronounced dead.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Obscene gesture leads to jail time
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A 31-year-old Springfield man has been sentenced to a month in jail for an obscene gesture aimed at a judge.
The Springfield News-Leader reported that David Hernandez was arrested Wednesday after he was in a municipal courtroom watching a proceeding. According to the judge’s docket sheet, the man disrupted the court three times.
The docket sheet also said that as he was leaving the courtroom in direct view of Judge Todd Thornhill, the man lifted both arms in the air and extended the middle finger of each hand.
The court then found him in contempt and ordered him to jail until Aug. 23.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Company official gets prison time
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The president of two southwest Missouri engineering firms has been sentenced to slightly more than five years in prison for a $6.7 million bank fraud scheme.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said James Ledbetter must also pay $4.7 million to Bancorp South and $1.5 million to the Internal Revenue Service under the sentence he received Friday.
The 67-year-old Ozark, Mo., resident pleaded guilty in March to bank fraud, money laundering and failure to pay taxes.
Prosecutors said Ledbetter signed an agreement in 2001 to sell the bank his companies’ accounts receivable in exchange for operating cash. The bank collected money owed to Ledbetter’s firms on various contracts and kept part of the payments.
Ledbetter admitted inflating the amounts due on dozens of contracts and in some cases fabricating invoices for work never done.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Union claims Tulsa ad misleading
TULSA - Union workers in Tulsa say a “ghost” ad campaign urging mechanics and stores groups to reject a labor agreement from American Airlines is misleading and doesn’t reflect the sentiment of many workers here.
The campaign featured a half-page ad in Friday’s local paper urging workers to “Vote No Save Our Profession.”
The ad was unsigned and included a website which appears to contain no identification of who is behind it.
An e-mail seeking comment sent to the site’s address was not immediately returned.
Mechanics and other groups began voting Monday on American’s proposed labor agreement. Voting ends Aug. 7.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Price-gouging probe is launched
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The Missouri attorney general’s office is investigating reports that water well drillers possibly have been taking advantage of landowners hit hard by drought.
Attorney General Chris Koster said in a release Friday that he’s looking into reports that water well drillers may have been raising prices for their services in northwest Missouri. Koster said Missouri is under a state of emergency because of the prolonged drought and price-gouging in a declared disaster is illegal under state law.
Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency July 23 and also made $7 million in state funds available to help farmers with drilling, deepening water wells or expanding their irrigation systems.
Koster said he urges anyone who suspects price gouging related to the drought to contact his office.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 07/28/2012