QUOTE OF THE DAY
“There’s millions and millions and millions of dollars missing here.This reservation is upside down.”
Kenneth Blatt St. Marks, former chairman of the Chippewa Cree tribe at Montanta’s Rocky Boy reservation, where federal officials have stopped funding a $361 million water pipeline project over corruption allegations Article, this page
Guantanamo hunger-strike numbers rise
MIAMI - The U.S. military said just over half of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are on hunger strike.
A military spokesman said 84 prisoners have been classified as hunger strikers at the U.S. military base in Cuba. The prison’s population is 166.
Army Lt. Col. Samuel House said 16 of the 84 prisoners are being force-fed and five have been hospitalized. He said none of the hospitalized men has life-threatening conditions.
About a week after a clash between guards and prisoners, the hunger strike is steadily growing. On Tuesday, the number of hunger strikers was 45. By Friday, 63 prisoners had joined.
Prisoners have been on a hunger strike since early February to protest conditions and their indefinite confinement.
D.C. budget-autonomy passage likely
WASHINGTON - Voters in the nation’s capital are all but certain to approve a charter amendment Tuesday that would grant the city more control over its municipal budget.
In theory, the amendment would take effect unless Congress passes a disapproval resolution and President Barack Obama signs it. But both the White House and Senate Democrats have shown strong support for greater independence for the district, so that is highly unlikely.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents the District of Columbia in Congress says it’s unclear what will happen if the referendum passes.
Florida pharmacy issues mass recall
LAKE MARY, Fla. - A Florida-based compounding pharmacy is voluntarily recalling all lots of its sterile nonexpired drug products sold nationwide over concerns the products are not sterile and may contain bacteria, Food and Drug Administration officials said Sunday.
The FDA encouraged health-care facilities and providers who have received sterile products, including all injectables, from Balanced Solutions Compounding Pharmacy to immediately check their medical supplies, quarantine the products and follow the company’s recall instructions. Patients who were administered any sterile drug products produced and distributed by Balanced Solutions should contact their health-care providers.
The recall includes a few dozen sterile products furnished nationwide, according to a statement from the company. The majority of the products were injectable drugs.
An FDA inspection of the company revealed “poor practices and conditions which may have exposed the company’s sterile products to microbial contamination,” officials said in a statement.
The FDA sampled chromium chloride injections from Balanced Solutions and identified gram-negative bacteria, which can cause disease and many types of infection but do not usually cause infection in humans.
Balanced Solutions is a division of Axium Healthcare Pharmacy Inc., which is based in Lake Mary.
Ex of ricin suspect sure he’s innocent
TUPELO, Miss. - The ex-wife of a man accused of mailing a poison-laced letter to President Barack Obama said she and all of his family and friends are sure he is innocent. Laura Curtis of Booneville said she gave the FBI the names of people she thinks might have tried to frame him.
Curtis contacted The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on Saturday to speak out for 45-year-old Paul Kevin Curtis, who is accused of sending letters containing powdered ricin to the president and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Tupelo.
She said the FBI has been easy to work with and she said she believes investigators will find whoever sent the letters.
A hearing for Curtis will continue Monday. He was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of intentionally mailing threats to the officials.
So far, Paul Kevin Curtis is the primary focus for investigators and the only person arrested in connection with the letters.
Family and acquaintances have described Curtis as a caring father and enthusiastic musician who struggled for years with mental illness and who was consumed by trying to publicize his claims of a conspiracy to sell body parts on the black market.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 04/22/2013