I found this fascinating and simple. DRAM. From where else but those who gave us Scotch.

A couple of days ago, I was complaining about macho babies and their road tank 4X4 pickups.

Lubbock police are investigating an early morning hit-and-run accident in the Overton neighborhood as an aggravated assault.

The accident, which occurred about 2:30 a.m. Monday, April 8, resulted in an accident investigation callout. According to witnesses, a white pickup truck struck a woman near Mac Davis Lane and Avenue V and drove away.

Sgt. Robert Hook of the LPD traffic division said the case was referred to the crimes against persons division after officers determined the woman was struck deliberately.

The victim, who was taken to University Medical Center, has not been identified.

Eric Finley, a UMC spokesman, said the woman is in critical condition.

I was leaving a social engagement and happened to witness the immediate aftermath of this incident, including the pickup fleeing the scene. It is a white long cab 4wd pickup, probably a Ford, with loud exhausts and a black brush guard. The girl has very serious head injuries. She was part of a crowd that witnesses said had been blocking the street. I will not speculate about causes but one witness said there was an exchange of words between the crowd and the driver. One jackass from the crowd tried to fight with an EMT and was arrested. It was as senseless and stupid an occurrence as I have ever seen even in Lubbock.

More: Police Invesigate Early-Morning Assault

Smoking often gets the attention, but new research shows alcohol is one of leading causes of preventable cancer deaths in the U.S.

A new study published in the April 2013 issue of the American Journal of Public Health shows that about 20,000 cancer deaths in the U.S. a year — about 3.5 percent of all cancer-related deaths — are caused by alcohol consumption.

“The relationship between alcohol and cancer is strong, but is not widely appreciated by the public and remains underemphasized even by physicians,” senior author Dr. Timothy Naimi, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, said in a press release. “Alcohol is a big preventable cancer risk factor that has been hiding in plain sight.”

The World Health Organization has labeled alcohol as the world’s third largest risk factor for disease burden, saying it can cause neuropsychiatric disorders and other chronic diseases such as heart diseases, cirrhosis of the liver and various cancers. It added that 30 percent of cancer deaths are caused by five behavioral and dietary factors, including high body mass index, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of physical activity, tobacco use and alcohol use.

More: Alcohol Causes 20,000 Cancer Deaths in the U.S. Annually

“A passenger who became unruly after allegedly drinking too much alcohol had to be taped to his seat on a trans-Atlantic flight, witnesses and authorities said.” Say what? Now we know what to do!
Admit it. You wanted to do this at least once.
Perfect.

Police: Intoxicated Pilot Removed From Airliner Preparing to Depart MSP

An American Eagle captain preparing his jet for takeoff Friday morning from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was removed from the aircraft and arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol, an airport spokesman said.

Airport police boarded the Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft at about 5:57 a.m. as the 48-year-old pilot from Raleigh, N.C., was seated in the cockpit and making his pre-flight checks for the 6:10 a.m. flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, said Twin Cities airport spokesman Patrick Hogan.

The pilot of the 65-seat airliner came under suspicion when officers and a TSA agent at a checkpoint “detected the odor of a consumed alcohol beverage as they passed by [the pilot] waiting to enter the elevator,” police said in a release of public arrest data.

The pilot for the regional airline, which is owned by American Airlines, was given and failed a preliminary alcohol breath test, and he was taken into custody and brought to Fairview Southdale Hospital for a blood-alcohol test, Hogan added. Passengers had yet to board, he added.

Hogan said he has yet to receive any specific measurement for the pilot’s blood alcohol level. The legal limit for flying in Minnesota is 0.04 percent, which is also what federal regulations require. That is half the legal limit in Minnesota for driving a motor vehicle.

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usnews.nbcnews.com

His Dec. 23 arrest stunned colleagues and constituents alike, not only because of his squeaky-clean image but also because he’s Mormon and had said he didn’t drink, in accordance with his church’s practices.
Crapo said the night of his arrest was the first time he had ever driven under the influence, but that he has, in the last year or so, imbibed alcohol on occasion. He apologized for that.
“As a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I have endeavored all my life to be an outstanding member,’ Crapo said. “I will carry through on appropriate measures for forgiveness and repentance in my church.”

Interesting that he never asked forgiveness from the Public whose lives he endangered by driving drunk.

Last Call: Industry Giants Are Threatening to Swallow Up America’s Carefully Regulated Alcohol Industry, and Remake America in the Image of Booze-Soaked Britain. « Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

England has a drinking problem. Since 1990, teenage alcohol consumption has doubled. Since World War II, alcohol intake for the population as a whole has doubled, with a third of that increase occurring since just 1995. The United Kingdom has very high rates of binge and heavy drinking, with the average Brit consuming the equivalent of nearly ten liters of pure ethanol per year.

It’s apparent in their hospitals, where since the 1970s rates of cirrhosis and other liver diseases among the middle-aged have increased by eightfold for men and sevenfold for women. And it’s apparent in their streets, where the carousing, violent “lager lout” is as much a symbol of modern Britain as Adele, Andy Murray, and the London Eye. Busting a bottle across someone’s face in a bar is a bona fide cultural phenomenon—so notorious that it has its own slang term, “glassing,” and so common that at one point the Manchester police called for bottles and beer mugs to be replaced with more shatter-resistant material. In every detail but the style of dress, the alleys of London on a typical Saturday night look like the scenes in William Hogarth’s famous pro-temperance print Gin Lane. It was released in 1751.

The United States, although no stranger to alcohol abuse problems, is in comparatively better shape. A third of the country does not drink, and teenage drinking is at a historic low. The rate of alcohol use among seniors in high school has fallen 25 percentage points since 1980. Glassing is something that happens in movies, not at the corner bar.

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You Got a License for Those Kools? -

Governments routinely restrict the sale of dangerous drugs. The same goes for firearms. But another deadly consumer product—cigarettes—can be purchased by virtually any adult, pretty much anywhere, in any quantity.

“There would seem to be a case for redressing this bizarre but historically based inconsistency,” Simon Chapman, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, argues in an opinion piece just posted on the online journal PLOS Medicine. He goes on to offer a creative answer: One should need a license to buy tobacco products.

His detailed proposal, and a thoughtful response from Jeff Collin of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Public Health Unit, make for intriguing reading.

Chapman has thought this idea through quite thoroughly. “All smokers would be required to obtain a smart swipecard license to transact any purchase form a licensed tobacco retailer,” he proposes. “There could be three grades of license: one to 10 cigarettes per day, 11-20 and 21-50. The more cigarettes a licensee opted for, the higher the fee.”

He proposes “for the sake of illustration” that the fee be set at $100 to $200 per year (in U.S. dollars), which would be fully refundable if one kicks the habit. This sort of financial reward could “stimulate cessation,” he argues, adding that the upper level of 50 cigarettes per day could “act as a barrier to unplanned ‘binge’ smoking that occurs now, particularly when alcohol is involved.”

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St. Paul Priest Is Charged With Abusing Two Boys

During the summer of 2010, the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer would bring two young brothers to his camper trailer, parked in the lot of the St. Paul church where he presided.

Inside, he showed the boys, then 12 and 14, pornographic movies and provided alcohol and marijuana as he allegedly molested one and exposed himself to the other, authorities said this week. After he was arrested in June in the rectory at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, Wehmeyer saw the boys’ mother and said, “[your son] doesn’t lie. I intend to plead guilty and spare your family the embarrassment,” according to charges filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

Wehmeyer, 47, who was removed as the Roman Catholic church’s pastor in June, faces three counts of criminal sexual conduct.

On Friday, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi was asked whether his office was reviewing other possible cases involving Wehmeyer. Choi replied, “Stay tuned.” Also Friday, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement saying it “deeply regrets the pain caused by clergy misconduct or by others within the Church, and is offering its support and assistance to all concerned.”

vancouversun.com

The group got seriously drunk over the next three hours, according to an agreed statement of facts.

Anderson and his friends then began to loudly sing a racist song from American History X, a fictional film about a white supremacist movement. The men gave Nazi salutes to each other and said “Heil Hitler.”

“They harassed anyone in the bar who was a visible minority,” Finlayson said. “It got worse as the evening progressed.”

Several patrons left the bar, including one “terrified” black woman who was harassed by the group for 10 minutes outside. Eventually, Anderson and his friends were kicked out of the bar and began to roam the Whyte Avenue area.

The group beat up a black man outside a bar on 103rd Street, though Anderson only encouraged that assault and did not directly take part. The group reached another bar, where a victim from the Strathcona Hotel recognized them and told friends about the previous racism.

“A melee ensued,” Finlayson said, and police were called. Anderson was identified and later arrested.

The entire evening was motivated by “racial hatred,” Finlayson said.

Anderson, a welder born and raised in the Edmonton area, apologized to the court as he was sentenced: “We regret everything that happened and I’m truly ashamed of my behaviour that night.”

“I would hope so,” Johnson told him.

During the two years he will serve in the community, Anderson must obey a curfew, abstain from alcohol, avoid bars and pubs, stay away from Whyte Avenue and have no association with the Blood and Honour group or any other white supremacist organization. He must also perform 120 hours of community service.