Success, as they say, has many fathers. In the killing of Osama bin Laden, proud papas from President Obama to SEAL Team 6 earned kudos aplenty – and justifiably so, given the monstrosity of bin Laden's crimes. But with all due respect to all those dads, it's time to meet Mom.
Few people know the identity of the real-life female CIA agent who hunted bin Laden, but Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow calls her Maya in Zero Dark Thirty, which stars Jessica Chastain in the role, as well as Kyle Chandler and Jennifer Ehle. You'll recognize Maya before we've even been properly introduced, because she's the only pretty redhead in Pakistan assisting in the waterboarding of a detainee.
It's a warning of sorts: Zero Dark Thirty lives in gray areas, brilliantly juxtaposing the perverse intimacy of torture with the moral imperative to stop terrorism.
This masterful, merciless film (out Dec. 19) also gives Chastain her best shot yet at an Oscar, as she constructs Maya out of vibrating steel, buzzing with determination to catch her quarry.
When May 1, 2011, comes, and the SEAL team heads out to fulfill the mission in the film's terrifically tense final scenes, there's a weird but palpable sense of regret that Maya can't join them. After all, it's her baby.
SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.
Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they cheered and sparked up in unison.
A few dozen people gathered on a sidewalk outside the north Seattle headquarters of the annual Hempfest celebration and did the same, offering joints to reporters and blowing smoke into television news cameras.
"I feel like a kid in a candy store!" shouted Hempfest volunteer Darby Hageman. "It's all becoming real now!"
Washington and Colorado became the first states to vote to decriminalize and regulate the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by adults over 21. Both measures call for setting up state licensing schemes for pot growers, processors and retail stores. Colorado's law is set to take effect by Jan. 5.
Technically, Washington's new marijuana law still forbids smoking pot in public, which remains punishable by a fine, like drinking in public. But pot fans wanted a party, and Seattle police weren't about to write them any tickets.
In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.
The mood was festive in Seattle as dozens of gay and lesbian couples got in line to pick up marriage licenses at the King County auditor's office early Thursday.
King County and Thurston County announced they would open their auditors' offices shortly after midnight Wednesday to accommodate those who wanted to be among the first to get their licenses.
Kelly Middleton and her partner Amanda Dollente got in line at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Hours later, as the line grew, volunteers distributed roses and a group of men and women serenaded the waiting line to the tune of "Chapel of Love."
Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.
In dealing with marijuana, the Seattle Police Department told its 1,300 officers on Wednesday, just before legalization took hold, that until further notice they shall not issue citations for public marijuana use.
Officers will be advising people not to smoke in public, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."
He offered a catchy new directive referring to the film "The Big Lebowski," popular with many marijuana fans: "The Dude abides, and says 'take it inside!'"
"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."
Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.
But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.
The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.
"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress."
The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.
That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.
Alison Holcomb is the drug policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and served as the campaign manager for New Approach Washington, which led the legalization drive. She said the voters clearly showed they're done with marijuana prohibition.
"New Approach Washington sponsors and the ACLU look forward to working with state and federal officials and to ensure the law is fully and fairly implemented," she said.
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Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle
Matthew Stavron, 24 speaking, mother Kelle Stavron
Chaz La Bry, 26 speaking, mother Robin La Bry
William "Skip" Halpin, 51 speaking, brother Jerry Halpin
Doneno "Rick" Polizo, 58 speaking, wife Margaret Polizo
Karl Finnila, 43 speaking, sister Sally Finnila-Sloane
Jennifer Thurber, 22 speaking, father Charles Thurber
Alex Clyburn, 23 speaking, father Ron Clyburn
Larry Carmichael, 51 speaking, son Dan Carmichael
Clifford Dwight Oshier, 60 speaking, brother Ron Oshier
He prescribed powerful painkillers to addicts who had no medical need for them, conducted sham examinations and appeared to be a key supplier for drug dealers, according to court records.
He wrote more prescriptions than the entire staffs of some hospitals and took in more than $1 million a year.
Worse, one of Estiandan's patients had fatally overdosed on drugs he prescribed, a board investigator learned. The investigator said in her report that she confronted the doctor and told him the death was "the inevitable result" of giving narcotics to an addict.
Unknown to the investigator, two other Estiandan patients had suffered fatal overdoses. More deaths would follow.
By the time the medical board stopped Estiandan from prescribing, more than four years after it began investigating, eight of his patients had died of overdoses or related causes, according to coroners' records.
It was not an isolated case of futility by California's medical regulators. The board has repeatedly failed to protect patients from reckless prescribing by doctors, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.
It is board policy to give such cases a high priority. But The Times' examination of board records and county coroners' files from 2005 through 2011 found that:
"Material things are nothing now," said Dr. Carlos Estiandan, who was released from prison in September, after serving roughly half of a five-year sentence. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
At least 30 patients in Southern California have died of drug overdoses or related causes while their doctors were under investigation for reckless prescribing. The board ultimately sanctioned all but one of those 12 doctors, and some were criminally charged — too late to prevent the deaths.
The board seldom tries to suspend the prescribing privileges of doctors under investigation. The agency can petition a judge for an interim suspension order. It has obtained orders only rarely: 12 times in the last five years in cases of excessive prescribing, in a state with more than 100,000 practicing physicians.
Even when the board sanctions doctors for abusing their prescribing powers, in most cases it allows them to continue practicing and prescribing. In 80% of the 190 cases of improper prescribing filed by the board since 2005, the offending physician was given a reprimand or placed on probation. In most of those cases, the doctor was allowed to continue writing prescriptions with few or no restrictions.
Eight doctors disciplined for excessive prescribing later had patients die of overdoses or related causes. Prescriptions those doctors wrote caused or contributed to 19 deaths.
At the heart of these shortcomings is the board's approach to oversight. It investigates when it receives a complaint of abuse or poor treatment of a specific patient or patients. It generally does not look for evidence of wider problems in a physician's practice.
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For example, in looking into cases of improper prescribing, investigators usually do not search county coroners' files to determine whether — as in Estiandan's case — a doctor's patients are dying of drug overdoses.
Dr. Rick Chavez, a pain management physician in Redondo Beach, serves as an expert for the board in cases of reckless prescribing. He said overprescribing is a pervasive problem, and oversight is inadequate.
"We have doctors out there doing things that no one is monitoring," he said. "It's scary."
The medical board's president, Sharon Levine, a pediatrician who is an executive at Kaiser Permanente, declined to be interviewed, saying it would be "inappropriate" because disciplinary cases are ultimately decided by the board. Executive Director Linda Whitney declined to comment, and staff members said they are barred by policy from speaking with reporters.
Responding by email to written questions, board officials asserted that their "highest priority and primary mission is consumer protection."
In response to The Times' findings, they have asked the Legislature to require county coroners to report all prescription drug deaths to the board.
"If only one physician was found to be overprescribing," the board said in its request to legislators, "this could save numerous lives."
Estiandan, a diminutive man with a cheerful demeanor, had a thriving general practice. He sang tenor in his church choir, played golf once a week with his sons and took his wife ballroom dancing. He was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and led medical relief missions to the Philippines, where he grew up and attended medical school.
In October 2004, one of his employees reached out anonymously to authorities.
The man told Robin Hollis, a medical board investigator, that Estiandan, then 62, was taking in $3,000 in cash a day selling prescriptions. Drug-addicted patients, the employee said, crowded the lobby of the doctor's clinic west of downtown Los Angeles, one of three he owned.
"Estiandan will give the patients anything they want," he told Hollis, according to her report.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were also investigating Estiandan, and the agencies shared information.
Evidence accumulated quickly. Alleged drug dealers were arrested in Los Angeles carrying bottles of medications prescribed by Estiandan, court records show.
A Costco pharmacist reported that groups of men in their 20s and 30s were showing up at his counter with prescriptions from Estiandan for painkillers, tranquilizers and muscle relaxants — the makings of a drug cocktail that is popular with addicts.
The pharmacist, Edward Wong, told authorities he would call Estiandan to make sure the prescriptions were legitimate, and the doctor would instruct him to fill them. Eventually, Wong stopped calling and simply refused to fill the prescriptions.
In Albuquerque, DEA agents stopped a man who was carrying more than 1,800 pills and several bottles of narcotic cough syrup with a street value of up to $500 each. According to court records, the medication labels identified Estiandan as the prescriber.
In the summer of 2005, about 10 months into the investigation, Leo Martinez checked in at Estiandan's clinic in Reseda. He paid a $120 fee for the office visit and waited a half-hour to see the doctor.
What happened next is detailed in court records.
Estiandan asked Martinez what was wrong.
"Nothing," Martinez said. He explained that he wanted a refill for painkillers he had been prescribed by another doctor whose clinic had since closed.
Estiandan asked him why he was in pain: Had he fallen or been in an accident?
He asked Martinez again if he had hurt his back or been in an accident. This time, Estiandan nodded and raised his eyebrows.
No, Martinez replied.
Estiandan said the other doctor must have had a reason to prescribe painkillers.
Martinez said it was a long time ago and he couldn't remember.
Estiandan told Martinez he couldn't prescribe the drugs unless there was an indication Martinez was in pain.
Then he asked Martinez again if he had hurt his back or been in an accident. This time, Estiandan nodded and raised his eyebrows.
Reading the cue, Martinez said he hurt his back lifting weights.
Estiandan pulled out his prescription pad.
Martinez was an undercover sheriff's narcotics investigator who had been secretly recording the conversation. He left Estiandan's office with prescriptions for the painkiller Vicodin, the muscle relaxant Soma, the anti-anxiety drug Valium and a 16-ounce bottle of narcotic cough syrup.
The medical board and law enforcement agencies were not the only ones interested in Estiandan.
Medi-Cal agents suspected him of fraudulent billing and put him under surveillance. They followed him as he drove home to Northridge in a Lincoln Navigator or Lexus sedan, sometimes stopping at a hospital or to pick up takeout at a Filipino restaurant.
But amid this intense scrutiny of Estiandan's life and medical practice, one thing appears to have escaped attention: what was happening to his patients.
One of them, Pamela Stone, suffered chronic pain from herniated disks. She also struggled with anxiety and had trouble sleeping.
Stone's mother grew concerned when she didn't hear from her daughter for a couple of days and asked the manager of the Reseda apartment building where Stone lived to check on her.
On Nov. 20, 2006, the manager opened the door to the apartment and found Stone's lifeless body on her bed. There was a trace of dried white foam around her nose and mouth.
The coroner determined that Stone died of an accidental overdose of multiple drugs, including an anti-anxiety medication prescribed by Estiandan. She was 54.
Hollis continued with her investigation, unaware of the death.
Hollis is one of about 130 medical board investigators on the front lines of patient protection in California. They look into allegations of physician misconduct ranging from botched surgeries to sexual abuse of patients.
Their ranks have dwindled, even as the number of licensed physicians in the state has risen over the last decade, to 102,000.
There are about 30 fewer investigators today than in 2001. The board opened 1,577 investigations last year, a 40% decline from a decade ago, and investigations now take longer to complete: an average of 347 days, compared with 256 in 2001.
Members of the Medical Board of California meet in Torrance in May. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
The agency is overseen by a 15-member board appointed by the governor and legislative leaders. By law, eight members must be doctors. The board is funded by physician licensing fees, a revenue stream that was supposed to be immune to California's boom-and-bust budget cycles.
But Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown used the board as a piggy bank, taking $15 million in licensing fees — the equivalent of a quarter of one year's budget — to help fill holes in the state general fund.
Schwarzenegger ordered state employees to take three unpaid furlough days per month, hobbling the board's enforcement efforts. Brown imposed hiring freezes. At one point, 1 in 4 investigator positions were vacant.
The board's staff has warned for years that the cuts were crippling its ability to protect the public. Julianne D'Angelo Fellmeth, a public interest lawyer who has monitored the board for the state Legislature, said the situation is urgent.
"The medical board is regulating the most important profession in terms of irreparable harm," Fellmeth said. "It should not be neutered."
The board's challenges go beyond the financial. Unlike medical regulators in other states, it cannot suspend a doctor's license or prescribing privileges on its own, even to prevent imminent harm.
Instead, the board must petition a state administrative law judge for an interim suspension order. If it obtains an order, the board must file a complaint against the doctor within 15 days — a legal provision for which physician groups lobbied, Fellmeth said.
The 15-day rule means that "an investigation must be nearly complete" before the agency can seek a suspension, board spokeswoman Jennifer Simoes wrote in an email.
If a doctor has been criminally charged, the board can ask a Superior Court judge for a suspension. It has done so a handful of times in recent years in cases of excessive prescribing.
Board officials said they sometimes hold off on seeking suspensions until that point to avoid jeopardizing a criminal investigation.
Steve Opferman, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who runs a task force on healthcare fraud and took part in the Estiandan investigation, questioned that rationale. He said the board should move swiftly to shut down a doctor's prescribing whenever lives are at stake — even if it could affect a criminal prosecution.
The danger in waiting, he said, is that "people are going to die."
Andrew Corless began abusing drugs at the age of 15 and spent at least eight stints in drug treatment. On Aug. 11, 2006, he had a moment of resolve.
He called Estiandan's office at 11:45 a.m. that day and left a message.
He was about to undergo drug detoxification, according to a handwritten note by a receptionist, and he asked that the doctor "please not see him anymore."
Three hours later, Corless called back with a message "to disregard" the earlier call.
Leslie Greenberg lies in the grass at a park after leaving flowers at the nearby grave of her boyfriend Andrew Corless, who died in 2006 of prescription drug and alcohol intoxication. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
Corless was in Estiandan's office 10 days later, pleading for drugs, court records show. He was back again in December, this time after leaving rehab early.
On Dec. 13, 2006, Corless, 46, was found on the street in front of his house in Northridge, dead of an overdose. Two of the drugs found in his system — hydrocodone and alprazolam — had been prescribed for him by Estiandan.
A month later, authorities searched Estiandan's offices and home. They found hundreds of partially completed prescription forms, some of them already signed, along with $12,300 in cash, court records show.
Looking at patients' records, investigators saw that groups of people from as far as Bakersfield, the Antelope Valley, Victorville and San Bernardino would show up at Estiandan's clinic near downtown Los Angeles on the same day, describe the same symptoms and leave with prescriptions for the same drugs.
Shortly after the raid, Estiandan was back at work — and writing prescriptions at a furious pace.
DEA agents consulted a database on prescriptions for controlled substances, written for patients paying in cash, to see where Estiandan stood. For March 2007, he ranked first in Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii, and fifth in the United States, according to court records.
For Joyce Saldivar, 55, he prescribed hydrocodone.
Saldivar had chronic back pain and was known to abuse her medications, according to coroner's records. She died June 29, 2007. The cause was an overdose of multiple drugs, including hydrocodone.
Estiandan acknowledged that Corless was an alcoholic and an addict and had “begged” him for drugs, according to Hollis' report.
By then, Hollis had learned about Corless' death from his girlfriend, who complained to the medical board about Estiandan, court records show.
Hollis got Corless' medical records and the autopsy report, and summoned Estiandan to an interview at a board office in Glendale on Sept. 12, 2007.
Estiandan acknowledged that Corless was an alcoholic and an addict and had "begged" him for drugs, according to Hollis' report.
Hollis told Estiandan that she couldn't understand how he could "continue to give pain medication to a person who is addicted," according to her report. "I explained that now there was a patient death.... This was the inevitable result. It was just a matter of time."
Hollis later obtained a report from an expert physician stating that Estiandan's treatment of Corless included "extreme departures" from accepted standards and contributed to his death.
Another patient, Wilma Jones, 47, was found dead in an unfurnished one-room apartment in South Los Angeles on Feb. 14, 2008. She had contracted pneumonia, and various drugs had suppressed her breathing to the point of death, coroner's records show.
One of the drugs was hydrocodone, which Estiandan had prescribed for her, records show.
Within a six-week span that summer, three more people died after taking medications prescribed by Estiandan. In all, seven of his patients had died since the medical board began investigating nearly four years earlier.
Estiandan, an early riser, was on the computer, tending to his stock portfolio on the morning of July 23, 2008, when a throng of DEA agents and sheriff's deputies appeared at his doorstep.
The doctor was polite and cooperative as an officer handcuffed him and led him to a police car. He was charged with 13 felony counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances. He was not charged with any of his patients' deaths.
Clint McKinney, center, hugs his mother and wife after scattering the ashes of his father, Bill, who died of cancer, and brother, Byron, who died of prescription drug-related causes. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
Three weeks later, the medical board asked a Superior Court judge to suspend Estiandan's license, saying it was "the surest way to protect the public" from a doctor who "supplied patients with drugs, not medical care."
While the board waited for a ruling, Estiandan was free on bail and seeing patients.
Byron McKinney, a former pro wrestler, had been seeing Estiandan for eight years and had gotten hooked on the muscle relaxant carisoprodol, the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and a narcotic cough syrup, according to his brother, Clint.
McKinney, 33, died Nov. 18, 2008, of heart disease. The coroner said carisoprodol and hydrocodone were contributing factors. An empty bottle of hydrocodone cough syrup prescribed by Estiandan was found on a coffee table near McKinney's body.
About this story
This is the second in a series of occasional stories on the epidemic of prescription drug deaths. For this article, reporters Lisa Girion and Scott Glover, with help from reporter Hailey Branson-Potts, examined medical board records, coroners' files and court documents, and interviewed doctors, law enforcement officials and relatives of those who died from overdoses.
Times photojournalist Liz O. Baylen created still images and videos, contributed reporting and helped conduct interviews.
Stephanie Ferrell designed the web presentation and Armand Emamdjomeh created the interactivity.
Clint McKinney told a coroner's investigator that he and his brother "were able to regularly obtain prescription painkillers at free will via an unethical doctor who would write them five prescriptions for $120," records show.
In February 2009, six months after the board went to court, a judge barred Estiandan from prescribing painkillers and other addictive drugs. He surrendered his medical license that September. The next year, he was tried and convicted on the criminal charges and sentenced to five years in prison.
He was released in September after serving about half his term. A few days later, he spoke with Times reporters in the spacious home where he now lives on a ridge of the Verdugo Mountains in Burbank.
He referred to his time in state prison as "my vacation" and described how he practiced guitar, tutored inmates, volunteered in the chapel and read the Bible.
By turns defensive and contrite, Estiandan complained of being unfairly targeted by prosecutors for simply doing his job.
He said he warned patients of the dangers of becoming addicted to prescription drugs, telling them: "Eventually you will lose control of yourself."
He recalled that his wife, Gloria, a nurse, had warned that he was headed for trouble. She saw the disheveled people in his waiting room, Estiandan said, and told him: "Just let them go."
Estiandan, now 70, said he was not motivated by greed and never intentionally harmed patients. But he said he realizes he used poor judgment in prescribing drugs.
"Instead of helping them, I might have harmed them," he said of his patients. "I made a mistake."
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Egyptian protesters stood next to a destroyed barricade near the presidential palace in Cairo on Saturday. More Photos »
CAIRO — Struggling to subdue continuing street protests, the government of President Mohamed Morsi has approved legislation reimposing martial law by calling on the armed forces to keep order and authorizing soldiers to arrest civilians, Egypt’s state media reported on Saturday.
Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times
Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood carried the bodies of three people killed during clashes on Wednesday at their funeral in Cairo on Friday. More Photos »
Mr. Morsi has not yet issued the order, the flagship state newspaper Al Ahram reported. But even if merely a threat, the preparation of the measure suggested an escalation in the political battle between Egypt’s new Islamist leaders and their secular opponents over an Islamist-backed draft constitution. The standoff has already threatened to derail the culmination of Egypt’s promised transition to a constitutional democracy nearly two years after the revolt against the former leader Hosni Mubarak.
“President Morsi will soon issue a decision for the participation of the armed forces in the duties of maintaining security and protection of vital state institutions until the constitution is approved and legislative elections are finished,” Al Ahram reported, suggesting that martial law would last until at least February. Parliamentary elections are expected to be held two months after the constitutional referendum, which is scheduled for next Saturday.
A short time later, a military spokesman read a statement over state television echoing the report of the president’s order and calling for a dialogue to resolve the crisis. The military “realizes its national responsibility for maintaining the supreme interests of the nation and securing and protecting the vital targets, public institutions, and the interests of the innocent citizens,” the spokesman said.
Expressing “sorrow and concern” over recent developments, the military spokesman warned of “divisions that threaten the state of Egypt.”
“Dialogue is the best and sole way to reach consensus that achieves the interests of the nation and the citizens,” the spokesman said. “Anything other than that puts us in a dark tunnel with drastic consequences, which is something that we will not allow.”
Al Ahram reported that the defense minister would determine the scope of the military’s role. Military officers would be authorized to act as police and “to use force to the extent necessary to perform their duty,” the newspaper said.
A need to rely on the military to secure a referendum to approve the new charter could undermine Mr. Morsi’s efforts to present the documents as an expression of national consensus that might resolve the crisis.
Even the possibility presents an extraordinary role reversal: an elected president who spent decades opposing Mr. Mubarak’s use of martial law to detain Islamists — a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who himself spent months in jail under the “emergency law” — is poised to resort to similar tactics to control unrest and violence from secular groups. After six decades during which military-backed secular autocrats used the threat of an Islamist takeover to justify authoritarian rule, the order would bring the military into the streets to protect an elected Islamist, dashing the whispered hopes of some more secular Egyptians that the military might step in to remove Mr. Morsi.
The move would also reflect an equally extraordinary breakdown in Egyptian civic life that in the last two weeks has destroyed most of the remaining trust between the rival Islamist and secular factions, beginning with Mr. Morsi’s decree on Nov. 22 granting himself powers above any judicial review until the ratification of a new constitution.
At the time, Mr. Morsi said he needed such unchecked power to protect against the threat that Mubarak-appointed judges might dissolve the constitutional assembly. He also tried to give the assembly a two-month extension on its year-end deadline to forge consensus between the Islamist majority and the secular faction — something liberals have sought. But his claim to such power for even a limited period struck those suspicious of the Islamists as a return to autocracy, and his authoritarian decree triggered an immediate backlash.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters accusing Mr. Morsi and his Islamist allies of monopolizing power have poured into the streets. Demonstrators have attacked more than two dozen Brotherhood offices around the country, including its headquarters. And judges declared a national strike.
No, it doesn’t make any sense that you have to turn off your iPad or Kindle during airplane landings, and now the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission wants to see that change. In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski urged the agency to “enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable devices” on flights, The Hill reports. Genachowski went on to say that letting passengers use their devices more during flights is important because “mobile devices are increasingly interwoven in our daily lives” and that they “enable both large and small businesses to be more productive and efficient, helping drive economic growth and boost U.S. competitiveness.”
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Even duchesses can get the monster of all morning sicknesses.
Known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), the condition – for which Kate was hospitalized for four days – is characterized by debilitating nausea and vomiting that severely inhibits a woman's ability to eat or drink and results in significant weight loss. Affecting up to 2 percent of all pregnant women, it can start as early as five weeks into pregnancy and endure for weeks or even months.
The condition typically comes on suddenly. During a visit to her prep school, St. Andrew's, on Nov. 30, a seemingly upbeat Kate dined on Scottish beef and played field hockey in 3-inch heels. Just two days later, she was rushed to the hospital and her pregnancy announced.
"It's the body reaction to the pregnancy hormone," Dr. Dagni Rajasingam, spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians, tells PEOPLE. "Some women who are very sensitive to it can start feeling nauseated early on in pregnancy and it will provoke them to take the test."
Treatment options include IVs for fluids and, in at least 20 percent of cases, feeding tubes for nutrition. Anti-nausea medications commonly used for chemotherapy patients are often prescribed off-label for women suffering with HG, but "it's certainly not a cure," says Dr. Marlena Fejzo, a UCLA professor of research and leading expert on HG. Nor is there extensive research examining the potential effects of such medications on women and their babies.
Although the cause is unknown, a family history of HG raises a woman's risk. Women carrying multiples are also more likely to develop HG, as are women carrying girls. "The leading theory is that the cause is hormonal," says Dr. Fejzo. "Obviously when you're carrying twins those hormones are higher, so if you have a problem processing those hormones then you're more likely to feel worse."
Among the complications of HG for the mother: post-traumatic stress resulting "from the severe, prolonged nausea at a time when you know you're supposed to give your baby nutrients and you just can't," says Dr. Fejzo, who lost a baby to HG in 1999. "It's hell for these women – like going through a war." For the baby, complications can include fetal death, an increase in pre-term birth and low-birth weight.
Dr. Fejzo and others hope that the princess's struggle will a light on the disease to help boost research and funding for better treatment options. "It's a horrible condition," says Sarah Rosen, a Chicago-area mom who suffered from HG during her first pregnancy, "but at least maybe this will draw some attention to it."
SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.
Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they cheered and sparked up in unison.
A few dozen people gathered on a sidewalk outside the north Seattle headquarters of the annual Hempfest celebration and did the same, offering joints to reporters and blowing smoke into television news cameras.
"I feel like a kid in a candy store!" shouted Hempfest volunteer Darby Hageman. "It's all becoming real now!"
Washington and Colorado became the first states to vote to decriminalize and regulate the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by adults over 21. Both measures call for setting up state licensing schemes for pot growers, processors and retail stores. Colorado's law is set to take effect by Jan. 5.
Technically, Washington's new marijuana law still forbids smoking pot in public, which remains punishable by a fine, like drinking in public. But pot fans wanted a party, and Seattle police weren't about to write them any tickets.
In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.
The mood was festive in Seattle as dozens of gay and lesbian couples got in line to pick up marriage licenses at the King County auditor's office early Thursday.
King County and Thurston County announced they would open their auditors' offices shortly after midnight Wednesday to accommodate those who wanted to be among the first to get their licenses.
Kelly Middleton and her partner Amanda Dollente got in line at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Hours later, as the line grew, volunteers distributed roses and a group of men and women serenaded the waiting line to the tune of "Chapel of Love."
Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.
In dealing with marijuana, the Seattle Police Department told its 1,300 officers on Wednesday, just before legalization took hold, that until further notice they shall not issue citations for public marijuana use.
Officers will be advising people not to smoke in public, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."
He offered a catchy new directive referring to the film "The Big Lebowski," popular with many marijuana fans: "The Dude abides, and says 'take it inside!'"
"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."
Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.
But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.
The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.
"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress."
The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.
That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.
Alison Holcomb is the drug policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and served as the campaign manager for New Approach Washington, which led the legalization drive. She said the voters clearly showed they're done with marijuana prohibition.
"New Approach Washington sponsors and the ACLU look forward to working with state and federal officials and to ensure the law is fully and fairly implemented," she said.
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Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle
The night rapper Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in one of L.A.'s most famous unsolved homicides he had no drugs or alcohol in his system, according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report unsealed Friday.
A coroner's medical examiner ran toxicology screens for alcohol, cocaine, codeine, morphine and methamphetamine with negative results for all.
The autopsy report has been on a security hold and sealed for more than 15 years, ever since the rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting in March 1997.
DOCUMENT: Read Notorious B.I.G.’s full autopsy
The report shows that although he was shot four times, it was a single bullet that ended his life. One of the bullets entered the rapper's right hip, and fatally pierced several organs.
Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher George Latore Wallace, was killed by an unknown assailant on Wilshire Boulevard as the music star sat in the front passenger seat of a Chevrolet Suburban. The killing of the rapper, also known as Biggie Smalls, remains unsolved despite an LAPD task force that examined the death.
According to the autopsy, one bullet struck Wallace's left forearm and traveled down to his wrist while a another bullet hit him in the back and exited his body through his left shoulder. Another shot hit his left thigh and traveled through to his inner thigh before glancing off his scrotum. None of those rounds were fatal.
Notorious B.I.G.: FBI investigation files
The fatal shot, according to Dr. Lisa Scheinin, entered his right hip before slicing through his colon, liver, heart and part of his lung before wedging in his left shoulder area.
Two medium-caliber bullets were recovered from the hospital gurney, according to the report.
At the time of his death, Wallace was one of the biggest stars in rap music. His slaying shocked the hip-hop community, coming just months after the Las Vegas slaying of another marquee rapper, Los Angeles-based Tupac Shakur.
Once friends, the rappers became rivals whose respective camps regularly traded violent barbs in song lyrics and in interviews. Shakur's slaying also remains unsolved.
Various theories have linked the two homicides. Some believe the two men were killed as part of a rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers, or between their two music labels at the time, Los Angeles-based Death Row and New York-based Bad Boy Entertainment.
Amid questions about the killing, the FBI investigated various theories, including one from a former LAPD detective, who later publicly suggested that Wallace may have been killed by a hit man hired by a corrupt ex-LAPD officer on behalf of Marion "Suge" Knight, the founder of Death Row Records.
The FBI opened its probe after Wallace's family accused the city of covering up LAPD involvement in the rapper's slaying. Los Angeles police officials last year said they exhaustively searched for answers in the case without an arrest.
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-- Richard Winton
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Photo: Notorious B.I.G. accepts his award for rap artist and rap single of the year at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards in New York. Credit: Mark Lennihan / Associated Press
CAIRO — Supporters and opponents of the government of President Mohamed Morsi staged competing demonstrations on Friday after noon prayers, throwing Egypt deeper into political crisis.
Thousands of pro-government Islamists attended the funeral of two men killed in clashes on Wednesday outside the presidential palace, the site of continuing demonstrations by the opposition. “With blood and soul, we redeem Islam,” they chanted, while calling opposition leaders “murderers” the Associated Press reported.
Simultaneously, thousands of opposition protesters streamed in separate marches toward the presidential palace, gathering there to shout “Leave!, Leave,” even though Mr. Morsi does not make his residence in the building. Speakers accused the Muslim Brotherhood, which Mr. Morsi once helped lead, of sparking the violence by sending “hired thugs” to destroy a tent camp set up by the president’s opponents, the news agency reported.
Rival protests were reported throughout the country, including in Alexandria in the Nile delta, the tourist center of Luxor and Assiut, in the south, where marchers chanted “No Brotherhood, no Salafis, Egypt is a civic state,” the A.P. said.
News reports quoted several leaders of the opposition coalition as saying they would not join the dialogue proposed by Mr. Morsi in a speech on Thursday in which he blamed the outbreak of violence on a “fifth column.” He also vowed to proceed with a referendum on an Islamist-backed constitution that has prompted deadly street battles between his supporters and their opponents.
Mr. Morsi spoke a day after the growing antagonism between his supporters and the secular opposition triggered the worst outbreak of violence between political factions here since Gamal Abdel Nasser’s coup six decades ago. By the time the fighting ended, six people were dead and hundreds were wounded.
The violence also led to resignations that rocked the government, as advisers, party members and the head of the commission overseeing the planned vote on a new constitution stepped down, citing the bloodshed.
“The National Salvation Front is not taking part in the dialogue, that is the official stance,” Ahmed Said, a member of the coalition and head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, told Reuters.
Several other prominent opposition figures, including Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said they would not participate.
In a message on Twitter, Mr. ElBaradei said the president’s offer “lacks the basics of real dialogue.”
“We are for dialogue that is not based on arm-twisting and imposing a fait accompli,” he said.
The sight of protesters on Cairo’s streets has been common since the beginnings of Egypt’s transition toward democracy that began with the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak last year.
In the latest protests, the target of the demonstrations has been the presidential palace in the wealthy suburb of Heliopolis, where protesters converged on Friday.
Since clashes there earlier this week, the elite presidential guard has ringed the palace with barbed wire, tanks and armored vehicles. After Mr. Morsi’s speech on Thursday, his opponents mocked his words and called for new demonstrations on Friday.
Some observers said the president speech echoed his predecessor, Mr. Mubarak, who always saw “hidden hands” behind public unrest. Mr. Morsi said that corrupt beneficiaries of Mr. Mubarak’s autocracy had been “hiring thugs and giving out firearms, and the time has come for them to be punished and penalized by the law.” He added, “It is my duty to defend the homeland.”
Mr. Morsi received a phone call on Thursday from President Obama, who expressed his “deep concern” about the deaths and injuries, the White House said in a statement.
“The president emphasized that all political leaders in Egypt should make clear to their supporters that violence is unacceptable,” the statement said, chastising Mr. Morsi and the opposition leaders as failing to urge their supporters to pull back during the fight.
Prospects for a political solution also seemed a casualty, as both sides effectively refused to back down on core demands.
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo, and Alan Cowell from London. Two employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Cairo.
Eddie Redmayne, breakout star of Les Miserables, is receiving awards buzz as the student French revolutionary Marius, who falls in love with Cosette, played by Amanda Seyfried. Redmayne, who also played Michelle Williams's love interest in My Week with Marilyn, is enjoying a booming career. But you'd never know that the 30-year-old Brit has Kim Cattrall to thank for his success, or that he was destined for a role in Les Mis as a child. P.S.: Redmayne's also won a Tony and an Olivier Award for the play Red.
Here are five things you should know about Redmayne:
• Kim Cattrall's approval was pivotal: "I did a play in London called The Goat," he recalls. "I won a prize, and I couldn't go be there, but my parents went, and Kim Cattrall gave the prize. When my dad saw that Samantha from Sex and the City was giving me a prize, then it affirmed in my parents' mind that they were allowed to let their son continue to be an actor."
In fact, the two stars didn't meet til years later, but Cattrall is anxious to see his latest turn: "In 2005 I had the honor of presenting him the Ian Charlston Award as 'the most promising new comer' at the Evening Standard Awards in the U.K.," she told PEOPLE Thursday. "Unfortunately he was away working, but I did meet him a few years later and he told me his father was impressed he won the award but over the moon I was presenting. I have followed his career ever since and cannot wait to see him in Les Miserables."
• His first Les Mis experience: "I saw it when I was 7 and wanted to be Gavroche, [the young street urchin who helps the rebels]."
• His 'oh s--t' moment on set: "We were lying in the sewers half dead, swimming in s--t, and you're actually lying there for 12 hours. We're doing a close-up, and [director Tom Hooper] is saying, ‘Hugh, Eddie, you need to be still. Or it doesn't look like you're dead.' We're like, ‘Dude! We can't control our bodily functions.'"
•Be careful going to karaoke with him: "My karaoke song of choice is "Bat Out of Hell". About three minutes in to the 12-minute song, I keep getting ‘shut up!'"
•He's pals with Spider-Man: "Andrew Garfield is is one of my best friends," he says. "I get great inspiration from he and Tom Sturridge, friends of mine who are my age who are doing great work."
