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LINCOLN, Neb. – An American Indian tribe sued some of the world's largest beer makers Thursday, claiming they knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota said it is demanding $500 million in damages for the cost of health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused by chronic alcoholism on the reservation, which encompasses some of the nation's most impoverished counties. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Nebraska also targets four beer stores in Whiteclay, a Nebraska town near the reservation's border that, despite having only...

A British coroner says singer Amy Winehouse died as the unintended consequence of drinking too much alcohol. Coroner Suzanne Greenaway gave a verdict of death by misadventure, saying Winehouse died of accidental alcohol poisoning. The singer, who fought drug and alcohol problems for years, was found dead at her London home in July. An autopsy was inconclusive, but found no trace of illegal drugs in her system. Winehouse was reportedly more than five times over the legal drunk-driving limit, which is the same in the United Kingdom is as it is in the United States, when she died.

Opinion L.A. 2012 Campaign: Rick Perry And A Uniquely Anti-Gay GOP Field? August 24, 2011 You might think as much following the revelation by reporter Mark Benjamin that Republican front-runner and Texas Gov. Rick Perry once compared, in writing, homosexuality to alcoholism. Benjamin writes at Time magazine's Swampland blog: Since leaping into the GOP presidential race, Texas Gov. Rick Perry hasn't been asked if he thinks gays are born or made. But in a little-noticed passage in his first book, "On My Honor," a encomium on the Boy Scouts published in 2008, Perry also drew a parallel between homosexuality and...

Betty Fordhas died at the age of 93.

The Alcoholic Who Became a Saint Venerable Matt Talbot By: Ann Bottenhorn Nothing ever happened to Matt Talbot, an ordinary Irish laborer of no great learning, no riches, no remarkable accomplishments. He lived in poverty and died, alone and unrecognized on a cold cobblestone lane, in Dublin. He left no family, no followers, no written discourses.Scarcely anyone knew a thing about him. Yet within six months of his death, a brief biography sold 120,000 copies. Within a year, it had been published in twelve languages. Five years after that, the Catholic Church began investigating Matt Talbot’s life to determine...

TAU researchers develop a vaccine that staves off stroke as wellOne in eight Americans will fall prey to Alzheimer's disease at some point in their life, current statistics say. Because Alzheimer's is associated with vascular damage in the brain, many of them will succumb through a painful and potentially fatal stroke. But researchers led by Dr. Dan Frenkel of Tel Aviv University's Department of Neurobiology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences are working on a nasally-delivered 2-in-1 vaccine that promises to protect against both Alzheimer's and stroke. The new vaccine repairs vascular damage in the brain by...

Hard-partying Charlie Sheen admitted yesterday that sobriety "bores" him and that he may revert to his old booze- and drug-fueled lifestyle at any moment. In a surreal call to a sports talks radio show, the troubled "Two and a Half Men" star declared himself fit enough to work after less than 10 days in rehab. "I was sober for five years a long time ago and was just bored out of my tree," he said during the rambling 28-minute phone interview with DirecTV/Fox Sports Radio's "The Dan Patrick Show." "It's inauthentic -- it's not who I am. I didn't drink...

Former television personality Laurie Dhue says she no longer knew who she was and was tired of suffering in silence from alcoholism when she decided to quit drinking and get help four years ago. Dhue, who turns 42 tomorrow and was an anchor for the Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN, battled her addiction to alcohol for "at least" a decade and a half, she told the "Today" show Wednesday. "I hid my alcoholism for many, many years," she said. "I was probably a high-functioning alcoholic, as so many people are. But there were cracks, certainly, and there were definitely...

Jack Cafferty's Palin Derangement Syndrome reached a new level on Thursday's Situation Room on CNN, as he attacked the Republican for her reply to those who tried to tie her to the Arizona shootings: "It was just awful, defiant, [and] inflammatory." Cafferty also ripped Palin for using the "blood libel" phrase and stated that the reply would "effectively end her chance of ever being elected president." The commentator devoted his 5 pm Eastern hour Cafferty File segment to his rant against his perennial nemesis: "Sarah Palin may have done herself in this time. The tragedy in Tucson presented an opportunity...

Fast forward into troubleFour years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report from a country crash-landing in the 21st century Saturday June 14, 2003The GuardianApril 2002 was a turbulent month for the people of Bhutan. One of the remotest nations in the world, perched high in the snowlines of the Himalayas, suffered a crime wave. The 700,000 inhabitants of...

Television has a drinking problem. And not only because David Hasselhoff’s new reality series on A&E, “The Hasselhoffs,” breezes over his alcoholism as if it were just another quirky passage in a colorful Hollywood career. On the premiere episode on Sunday Mr. Hasselhoff, the former star of “Knight Rider” and “Baywatch,” says that the infamous 2007 YouTube video that showed him lying blind drunk, trying to eat a Wendy’s meal off the floor, was a wake-up call that “led me to quit drinking.” He adds waggishly, “But I’m still addicted to cheeseburgers.” This reality show isn’t about a reformed alcoholic...

Deep beneath Vegas’s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron bar. But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to 1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip’s dark underbelly. Some, like Steven and his girlfriend Kathryn, have furnished their home with considerable care - their 400sq ft 'bungalow' boasts a double bed, a wardrobe and even a bookshelf. They have been there for five years, fashioning a shower out of a water cooler, hanging paintings on the walls and collating a...

The sun is setting over South Africa's oldest vineyard and the last of the wine-tasting tourists are climbing onto their buses. But one large family group has no intention of leaving – and there is little the management can do about it. Groot Constantia, in the heart of Cape Town's wine country, can deal with inebriated holidaymakers – but it is invading baboons which have developed a taste for its grapes that the wine makers are struggling with. Each day, dozens of Cape Baboons gather to strip the ancient vines – the sauvignon blanc grapes are a particular favourite –...

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A St. Johns County man was arrested after police said he called 911 to ask for a ride to the liquor store.Police said 57-year-old George McMurrain had already called 911 twice Saturday night when he called to ask for a ride to buy alcohol.That's when an officer went to the Budget Inn on Anastasia Boulevard to arrest McMurrain.Dispatcher: This is 911. Suspect: I need a, I need a -- a ride. Dispatcher: You need a ride? Suspect: Yes, to the liquor store. Dispatcher: Um. Suspect: Sheriff said she'd give me a ride.

OXFORD, Ohio – Sorority spring formals call up visions of young women in colorful dresses dancing the night away — not vomiting on tables, urinating in sinks or having sex in closets. The drunken shenanigans of three sororities at Miami University in southwest Ohio sound like something out of "Animal House" and were especially startling for a school that frequently makes the top 50 in a U.S News & World Report academic ranking but never makes lists of big-time party schools. The school suspended two of the sororities and put the third on probation. A task force is reviewing discipline...

How "strong" does Obama "feel" about [Islam] as his Muslim hard-drinker father left him at the age of 2? Rhetorical question. I always thought that alcohol is prohibited to Muslims, oh well, hypocrisy in that religion? not rare! --- The importance of fathers Atlanta Journal Constitution And I say all this as someone who grew up without a father in my own life, Obama went on. He left my family when I was two years old.http://blogs.ajc.com/cynthia-tucker/2010/06/21/obama-talks-about-the-importance-of-fathers/ Obama: 'I have been an imperfect father' - Father's Day Guide "As fathers," Obama writes, "we need to be involved in our children's lives...

Ever see an individual who is so drunk on beer that they cannot even stand up? Maybe you have a close friend or relative who drinks way too much beer, and they don't seem to realize how ridiculous they really look when they are stumbling over their own feet. Or maybe you yourself have been there a time or two and you think it's no big deal. I mean everyone has heard the various jokes about drinking beer; "I don't have a drinking problem. I drink. I get drunk. I fall down. No problem." "Beer is living proof that God loves...

The son of legendary TV newsman Ted Koppel had the unconditional love of his parents and a second child on the way -- but the twin demons of drugs and booze were a deadly lure he couldn't duck, friends said yesterday. Andrew "Drew" Koppel, 40, had "many substance-abuse issues," said a longtime family friend. Still, that friend found it "shocking" that Koppel died in a stranger's seedy Manhattan apartment Monday after nearly 12 hours of drinking whiskey with a man he had just met in a Hell's Kitchen bar. "What's really puzzling the family is why he ended up...

<p>The son of legendary TV newsman Ted Koppel was found dead in a Washington Heights apartment under mysterious circumstances yesterday morning after a daylong drinking binge with a man he had just met in a Midtown bar, law-enforcement sources said.</p>

The son of legendary TV newsman Ted Koppel died early Monday after a night of drinking that ended in the seedy Manhattan apartment of a pub crawl acquaintance. Andrew Koppel, a 40-year-old attorney with the New York City Housing Authority with a history of alcohol problems, was declared dead around 1:30 a.m., according to the New York Post. Police sources told the newspaper Koppel had stumbled two and a half hours earlier into the Washington Heights apartment of Russell Wimberly, a waiter he had met 12 hours earlier in a Hell's Kitchen bar. A roommate of Wimberly, Belinda Caban, told...

The new research suggests potential target for drugs to combat alcohol addictionLA JOLLA, CA – May 12, 2010 – In findings that should finally put to rest a decade of controversy in the field of neurobiology, a team at The Scripps Research Institute has found decisive evidence that a specific neurotransmitter system—the endocannabinoid system—is active in a brain region known to play a key role in the processing of memory, emotional reactions, and addiction formation. The new study also shows that this system can dampen the effects of alcohol, suggesting an avenue for the development of drugs to combat alcohol...

LONG BEACH -- Police in Long Beach shot and killed a pit bull that attacked a man and his dog, and then a woman and her dog, before going after officers. Police responded to a report of a dog fight in the 100 block of Ximeno Avenue about 11 p.m. Tuesday. They found a man on the ground who had been bitten several times. He was holding his small dog that had also been attacked. Officers determined a neighborhood pit bull was responsible. They contacted the pit bull's owner and told him to put his dog on a leash and...

For the first time since 1995, the Russian population has increased. It went up about 20,000, to 141.9 million. The growth was caused by a 4 percent decline in death rates, and more immigration (mostly ethnic Russians coming from countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union.) This migration caused a spurt of growth after the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, and population peaked in 1995 at 148.5 million. But low birth rates, and rising death rates, caused continual decline since then, until 2009. The government has improved public health, and made it easier to have children...

Different Look at the Wee-Wee We Are In I’m a conservative and have a lens that I look through which breaks things down in terms of left and right, because it clearly fits the times we are living in. Yet this morning as I was sipping my coffee looking at the story in which the Department of Labor is reporting inflation but it is not being reported. This started a process of thinking that also fits the times we are living in. I have an uncle Ed who was a very successful attorney, retired very wealthy yet in his later...

Research has shown that there are different degrees of drinking disorders, and many people can change habits on their own. Seventy years ago, Bill Wilson -- the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous -- declared his powerlessness over alcohol in a book by the same name. The failed businessman contended that, as an alcoholic, he had to "hit bottom" before changing his life and that sobriety could only be achieved through complete abstention. For generations, Americans took these tenets to be true for everyone. Top addiction experts are no longer sure. They now say that many drinkers can evaluate their habits and...

“DREAMS OF MY VIOLENT DRUNKARD FATHER” thelastcrusade.org Our alcoholic father beat me, says Barack Obama's half brother, Mark As the US President arrives in China, Barack Obama's half brother reveals that when he was a child their father was a violent drunk Telegraph & News Sources On the eve of his older sibling's first-ever visit to China, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo has emerged from the shadows to reveal the disturbing truth about the late Barack Obama Sr, his and President Obama's father.Last week, Mr Ndesandjo published an autobiographical novel, Nairobi to Shenzhen: A Tale of Love In The East....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVZUypdHEkQ Once was a man who had lost all his direction. And soon his friends put it all up for inspection. "Think it's because of the alcohol. You drink alone -- well beyond last call. Donate your corpse or your liver for dissection." He took offense, swore he wasn't such a boozer. "Pile on me, now, since you're all a bunch of losers. Might take a drink, but I keep my job. Out of my sight. You're a hateful mob. Once called you friends, but I'll be a better chooser." "Who thought this up? Who's the saint of spotless virtue?...

Senator Ted Kennedy has died.

San Francisco has paid at least $150,000 for Kenny Walters in the past year. He isn't employed, has an arrest record as long as his hair, and can often be found passed out in a doorway on Haight Street. Kenny Walters' job is to get drunk. He's certainly not alone. "Chronic inebriants" are a grim and disturbing fact of life in San Francisco. They also cost the city millions. The frustration is that the public service network - police, fire and medical professionals - doesn't seem to make a dent when it comes to people like Walters. There are suggestions,...

Published on More Intelligent Life (http://moreintelligentlife.com) WHEN NOVELISTS SOBER UP By Tom Shone Created 20/07/2009 - 10:57 Writers who drink are old hat. But what about writers who quit drinking? Tom Shone has been studying them for his new novel ...From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Summer 2009John Cheever was most unhappy to be picked up for vagrancy by the cops. “My name is John Cheever [1]!” he bellowed. “Are you out of your mind?” Found sharing some hooch with the down-and-outs in downtown Boston, he was promptly admitted to Smithers Alcoholism Treatment Centre on Manhattan’s East 93rd Street, where he...

MOSCOW, June 26 (Reuters) - Cheap and illicit alcohol kills more than half Russian men and women in their most productive years and the government must act urgently to reverse the trend, a study to be published in The Lancet at the weekend said. "Excessive alcohol consumption in Russia, particularly by men, has in several recent years caused more than half of all the deaths at ages of 15-54 years," the Lancet article said. The research conducted in three industrial cities -- Tomsk, Barnaul and Biysk -- said "excess mortality from liver cancer, throat cancer, liver disease, and pancreatic disease...

TULSA, OK -- Tulsa Congressman John Sullivan has checked himself into the Betty Ford Center in California to treat an alcohol addiction. "To ensure my success in this fight, I've decided to take a temporary leave of absence from Congress," he said in a statement. "I value my relationship with the citizens of Oklahoma's First Congressional District, whom I am privileged and honored to have served for the past eight years. So, I wanted to be open and honest on this tough situation. "I ask for your continued support and prayers as I face the challenges that lay ahead. I...

Chinese hookers have a drinking problem. Obama has the answer: U.S. Tax money. So it appears that the President of “change” seems to be The One that drunken Chinese prostitutes “have been waiting for.” Our informative friends at CNSNews.com discovered that the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse (NIAA) has been awarded $2.6 million U.S. tax dollars to help train Chinese prostitutes to “drink responsibly on the job.” Yes, I said Chinese prostitutes… in China. One wonders if the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse missed the salient fact that they have the word National in their moniker? Or perhaps the NIAA...

(CNSNews.com) -- The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job. Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as "female sex workers"--or FSW--and their handlers as "gatekeepers." "Previous studies in Asia and Africa and our own data from FSWs [female sex workers] in China suggest that the social...

“Let’s go boatin’!” is the call that echoes off the walls of the Grand Canyon during my guided tours. It gets people moving and ready to head down river. In my years as a guide, I’ve had the privilege of taking thousands of people through the Grand Canyon, through what I now believe to be one of God’s true, created wonders. My love for the Grand Canyon started in 1980 when I went on my first river trip. The following year, I started working as a part-time guide, and in 1983, I left my corporate life to work in the...

‘NK Leader’s Younger Sister in Critical Condition’ MARCH 24, 2009 09:40 Kim Kyong Hui, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and wife of powerful Workers` Party member Chang Sung Taek, is said to be in critical condition or almost in a coma due to complications associated with alcohol use disorders. French neurosurgeon Francois-Xavier Roux, 65, who was recruited by the North Korean leader’s eldest son Kim Jong Nam, is said to have treated Kim Kyong Hui, 63. A Korean-Japanese businessman who can freely enter Pyongyang via Beijing said yesterday that her long addiction to alcohol caused...

A man who became trapped beneath his sofa for two days said he survived by sipping from a bottle of whisky. Joe Galliott, 65, lost his bearings during a power cut at his home in Yeovil, Somerset, and fell against the three-seater which toppled onto him. Because of back problems, he was unable to free his 19-stone frame and remained stuck for 60 hours until a neighbour spotted him through the curtains. He said a bottle of whisky, which had rolled within reach, kept him going. "The whole settee tipped over catching me like a rat in a trap," he...

Emily Miller made a beeline for a rack of gowns, grabbing a fuschia dress and a stole for an inaugural ball Tuesday. Combing through the display tables, she added silver pumps, a beaded choker and earrings. Then, she enjoyed a manicure as live jazz played in the background. Many inaugural celebrants shelled out hundreds - if not thousands - of dollars to attend one of the dozens of balls across the nation's capital. But Miller, who until four months ago had been homeless, will pay nothing. The opportunity comes courtesy of Virginia businessman Earl W. Stafford and his nonprofit foundation,...

"Today, Russia doesn't look better or worse than the rest of the world," Evgeny Bryun, Moscow's chief physician, said this week. Despite statistics that prove otherwise, Bryun said the image of the average Russian man as a vodka-swilling beer lover was simply a myth. Russians only seriously began drinking after the end of the Second World War – and the party just lasted too long, he said. "Soldiers got used to drinking at the front, they celebrated the victory, and this celebration lasted for a very long time," Bryun said. Bryun's flippant comments stand in stark contrast to a state...

As we pass into a new year, always a time for contemplation, I'm reminded of the circumstances that brought me where I am today. As always, a new year brings hope and promise for better character, more patience, and not a little tolerance. At least for this struggling addict. Struggling? Yes, just because one is abstaining from the vices that shape character and warp morality, doesn't mean those influences are not lurking just outside peripheral vision. Drug and alcohol abuse is merely symptom of addiction. In order to rid one of a need for a crutch, one must acknowledge the...

An eminent French cardiologist has triggered an impassioned debate in the medical world over his claim to have discovered a cure for alcoholism. Dr Olivier Ameisen, 55, one of France's top heart specialists,says he overcame his own addiction to alcohol by self-administering doses of a muscle-relaxant called baclofen. He has now written a book about his experience - Le Dernier Verre (The Last Glass) - in which he calls for clinical trials to test his theory that baclofen suppresses the craving for drink. Widespread media coverage of his book in France has led to a rush of demands from alcoholics...

Today I celebrate my 5th Year of sobriety (although there have been a few days recently that I almost wished I could drink, but not really). October 7, 2003 was my last drop of alcohol... I said "almost wished" above, I didn't really consider it...but we do live in "interesting times". Too interesting I think... Here was my first thread on the subject, way back in Dec 2004 when I was just a 14 month old sober guy: If You Suspect You Might Have A Drinking Problem (An Open Letter)Since then we have our Addiction Recovery Ping list which is...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People recovering from alcoholism seem to drink more coffee and have a higher rate of smoking than the average American, a new study shows. The researchers found that among 289 members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), 88.5 percent regularly drank coffee, often in large amounts. One third of coffee drinkers said they downed more than four cups per day. In addition, 57 percent of the group said that they smoked -- much higher than the general rate of 27 percent in Nashville, Tennessee, where the study was conducted. The findings, published online by the journal Alcoholism:...

One of the most insidious things about the disease of alcoholism–and it is a disease, despite the best efforts of thundering moralists to deny the science and the plain medical and biochemical facts–is that it plays on your character defects (which all people have) and, worse, it progresses slowly. Biochemically, it’s known to generally progress faster in women, for a variety of reasons that are understood (women are generally smaller, with consequent lower blood volume on average, and may also be able to conceal drinking better if they’re stay-at-home moms) and some of which undoubtedly are not currently understood. But...

Like most patients assigned to my substance abuse clinic these days, John, a stylish 22-year-old cosmetology student, did not arrive voluntarily. After two drunken driving violations, one in which another motorist was injured, a judge ordered John to attend a weekly recovery group I conduct for young adults facing similar legal troubles. But that was hardly the biggest stick the judge had at his disposal. “This Scram keeps me from even thinking about drinking,” John immediately told me as he raised a pant leg and pointed to a boxy plastic ankle bracelet that looked neither cool nor comfortable. Scram, for...

DEAR ONES, IF any of you have suffered at all at the hands of Alcoholism in any form via any connection, then you may well know something of the traumas involved between and behind the hubby's words below. I believe that only The Grace of God AND great persistent dogged efforts on the part of all concerned can bring victory in such matters. PLEASE pray with me in behalf of this whole family . . . --that the wife will decide deeply and comprehensively to be done with such an addiction, affliction, oppression . . . --that her family members...

One in three employees admits they have been to work with a hangover and more than one in 10 has been drunk at their desk, a study suggests. Staff said they made mistakes, struggled to concentrate and had to go home early as a result of drinking. Four out of five employers say alcohol is the biggest threat to the well-being of their staff, according to a survey for Norwich Union Healthcare. Alcohol Concern said bosses needed to be aware of symptoms of alcohol abuse. One thousand people and 250 businesses were interviewed about drinking habits for the survey. Of...

Natural Selection Protected Some East Asian Populations From Alcoholism, Study Suggests ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2008) — Some change in the environment in many East Asian communities during the past few thousand years may have protected residents from becoming alcoholics, a new genetic analysis conducted by Yale School of Medicine researchers suggests. Scientists have long known that many Asians carry variants of genes that help regulate alcohol metabolism. Some of those genetic variants can make people feel uncomfortable, sometimes even ill, when drinking small amounts of alcohol. As a result of the prevalence of this gene, many, but not all, communities...

Previous observational studies have reported that heavy alcohol intake is a risk factor for hypertension but such studies may be confounded by factors such as diet, smoking, exercise levels and socio-economic position. Clinical trials exploring the link are difficult to implement and have limited follow-up time. The Bristol study, led by Dr Sarah Lewis of the University's Department of Social Medicine, took a different approach focused on people who have a mutation on a gene which affects their body's ability to eliminate alcohol. Alcohol is initially metabolised to an intermediate compound, acetaldehyde, which is further metabolised and then eliminated from...

BALTIMORE, Md. (AP) - President Bush on Tuesday referred to his former struggles with alcohol as an "addiction," a blunt characterization of his less disciplined adult days before a reliance on faith help him turn his life around. "Addiction is hard to overcome," Bush said in speaking at a faith- based center that helps former prisoners get job training and other help. "As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life," Bush said. "I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem."...