New York, New Jersey, Connecticut News: release

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Thursday, 24 May 2012

Suffolk County to release shocking drug report

Eyewitness NewsSUFFOLK COUNTY (WABC) -- Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota will unveil a 98-page Grand Jury report Thursday detailing astonishing statistics of an epic drug crisis on Long Island.

Eyewitness News has exclusively obtained a copy of the report.

Months ago, in response to the Father's Day 2011 massacre at Medford's Haven Drugs, Spota empanelled a special grand jury to look into the problems of opiate abuse and doctor shopping. The investigation has yielded indictments against 26 people, for the following:

Sale and possession of controlled substances Vehicular assault Vehicular manslaughter Driving while ability impaired Criminal possession of forged instrument

Perhaps more important than the indictments are the startling numbers detailed in the report, including the following:

Between 2006 and 2010, Suffolk heroin arrests rose 170 percent, from 486 to 1,315. Suffolk County has seen 70 percent more prescriptions for oxycodone than the average for any other state. Between 2004 and 2011, the number of overdose victims with oxycodone in their blood jumped 266 percent. In the same time period, the number of overdose deaths attributed to opioids increased 69 percent. Between 1996 and 2011, the Suffolk County Drug Court treatment program saw a 425 percent increase in heroin abuse, and a 1,136 percent increase in opioid pill abuse.

The report goes on to make a series of recommendations for how to reverse the trend, including statutory and regulatory changes at the federal, state and local levels; modifying the FDA process of authorizing prescription opioids for manufacturing, marketing, and labeling; and at the state level enacting E-Prescribing rather than written prescriptions.

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Friday, 23 December 2011

Lindsay Lohan's Playboy issue gets early release following leak

Lindsay Lohan's January/February Playboy issue will be released early after her nude spread surfaced online, Hugh Hefner announced on Twitter.

"Because of the interest & the Internet leak, we're releasing the Lindsay Lohan issue early," Hefner wrote on Friday.

The cover, which features the actress straddling a red Playboy bunny logo chair wearing nothing but black heels, was posted on several websites on Thursday. On Friday, eleven photos from Lohan's nude cover shoot were leaked and posted on sites like HolyMoly.com (NSFW).

"Lindsay Lohan was the top search name on the Internet yesterday," Hefner continued. "Her issue goes on sale late next week. Hot. Hot. Hot."

The issue was previously set to hit newsstands later in the month and the magazine had thousands of extra copies printed in anticipation of the high demand. Lohan was set to debut the cover and a photo from the nude shoot during an episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" which was set to air on December 15th.

Several quotes from the accompanying interview were also leaked, according to Just Jared, Lohan told the magazine, "Sex and sexuality are a part of nature and I go along with nature. I think Marilyn Monroe said that, and I agree with her."

"Knowing your body and being in touch with your body is important because it gives you confidence, and in life, women need confidence," the 25-year-old actress continued. "It's a very male-dominated world, so knowing yourself and being comfortable with your body is an important thing for me as a woman. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that's mine."

Lohan has not addressed the leaked photos herself and will not do any interviews to promote her Playboy appearance, aside from her scheduled appearance on "Ellen."

"Lindsay has agreed to do one media interview during the on-sale period of her issue, and has chosen 'Ellen,'" a Playboy spokesperson told OnTheRedCarpet.com on December 7. "The interview will air on Thursday, December 15. Lindsay will not be doing any additional interviews to promote her pictorial."

It was announced in October that Lohan would pose for the magazine, which TMZ reported would earn the troubled star almost $1 million.

"Lindsay has completed a successful photo shoot for Playboy magazine and will be on the cover of the January/February issue, which hits newsstands in late December," the actress' spokesperson told OnTheRedCarpet.com in November. "The pictorial is absolutely fantastic and very tasteful, and will be accompanied by an interview that will let readers see another side of Lindsay."

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner confirmed that the shoot was nude, but insisted that the pictorial was "very classy."

"It's a classic tribute inspired by the original Tom Kelley nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe, a portion of which was the original playmate in the very first issue of Playboy," Hefner told The Insider in November.

Earlier this year, Lohan was ordered to complete 480 hours of community service ata woman's shelter and morgue after a judge ruled the actress violated her 2007 probation with a misdemeanor theft charge.

According to TMZ, Lohan is well ahead of schedule with her morgue obligation and has already completed 10 of her 12 court-ordered shifts. She also has a good reputation at the morgue, a source told the website she is, "polite, hard-working and never complains about the work."

The actress, a former child star known for films such as "The Parent Trap," "Freaky Friday" and "Mean Girls," is next scheduled to appear in court on December 14.

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Police release identity of Va. Tech gunman

By ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON and ERIC TUCKERRICHMOND, Va. -- Police are identifying the Virginia Tech gunman as a 22-year-old college student at nearby Radford University.

Ross Truett Ashley, 22, first drew authorities' attention when he robbed his landlord's office at gunpoint Wednesday. He took the keys to a Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle later found in Blacksburg, home to Virginia Tech, about 10 miles away.

Ashley, a part-time business student at Radford University, was described by those who knew him as a typical college student, though he could be quiet and standoffish. He liked to run down the hallways and recently shaved his head, a neighbor said.

Police said he walked up to officer Deriek W. Crouse on Thursday and shot him to death as the patrolman sat in his unmarked cruiser in the midst of a traffic stop. Ashley was not involved in the stop and did not know the driver, police said.

Ashley then took off for the campus greenhouses, ditching his pullover, wool cap and backpack as police sent out a campus-wide alert that a gunman was on the loose, terrorizing students on a campus still coping with the nation's worst mass slaying in recent memory.

A deputy sheriff on patrol noticed a man acting suspicious in a parking lot about a half-mile from the shooting. The deputy drove up and down the rows of the sprawling Cage parking lot and lost sight of the man for a moment, then found Ashley shot to death on the pavement.

Ashley lived in an apartment on top floor of a gray, three-story brick building that looked a little beaten up on the outside.

On Friday night, students popped in and out of the building visiting friends. Mandy Adams, a Radford grad student, said had Ashley had recently shaved his head. Other than running down the hallways, he was quiet, she said.

"He would just run down the hallway, never walk, always run," said Adams, who was out on a rear fire escape with a glass of white wine and a cigarette to calm her nerves. "It's going to be really creepy when they come to take his stuff out of here."

Ashley's apartment was above a yogurt shop, consignment store, barber shop and a tattoo parlor. It overlooked the business section of Radford's main drag.

Neighbor Nan Forbes, a Radford senior, said he was rarely seen or heard from. She said she knew he was in trouble when she saw two police officers guarding the door to Ashley's apartment "It does freak us out because we live in this building, but there was not one peep of trouble, nothing unusual," she said.

Ashley made the dean's list in 2008 at the University of Virginia-Wise, which is located in southwest Virginia. Officials at Radford or UVA-Wise were not immediately able to talk in detail about Ashley.

At the Virginia Tech campus, thousands of people silently filled the Drillfield for a candlelight vigil Friday night to remember Crouse, a firearms and defense instructor with a specialty in crisis intervention. He had been on the force for four years, joining about six months after a student gunman killed 32 and himself on April 16, 2007.

The vigil included a moment of silence and later closed with two trumpeters stationed across the field from each other playing "Echo Taps" as students raised their candles.

"Let's go!" one student then shouted. "Hokies!" everyone else responded.

Kathleen O'Dwyer, a fifth-year engineering majors, said it was important to come for Crouse's family.

"Also it's for the community, to see the violence that happens isn't what we're about," said O'Dwyer, who will be graduating next week.

Her plans when she leaves school?

"First, go home and hug my mom," O'Dwyer said.

Nobody answered the door at Ashley's parents' home in Spotsylvania County in the northern part of the state. The house was dark and no vehicles were in the driveway. The two-story, log cabin-style home in a semi-rural area sits about 200 yards off the road up a narrow gravel drive.

Billie Jo Phillippe, who lives three houses down, said she didn't really associate with the family.

"They stay off to themselves a lot," she said. "He was a clean-cut young guy but standoffish."

--- Lewis reported from Radford. Associated Press writers Michael Felberbaum, Larry O'Dell, Steve Szkotak and Dena Potter in Richmond, Va., Brock Vergakis in Norfolk and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

shooting, u.s. & world news

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