Free Republic

On December 20, 2023, US District Judge Cormac J. Carney issued an order granting a preliminary injunction against the defendants (the State of California government). The injunction stopped the state from enforcing the blatantly unconstitutional SB-2 law declaring most of California as “sensitive places” where even licensed concealed carriers were forbidden to carry arms in public. The state asked for an order to stop the injunction from going into effect on December 22, 2023. The stay was granted on December 30, 2023, by an administrative three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit. The stay was appealed to the Ninth Circuit three-judge...

(ACN Staff) Eight Republicans-in-Name-Only (RINOs) joined Democrats on Monday and paved the way for Andrew David Hurwitz, the man who has been called the "Architect of Roe v. Wade" in leftists circles, to take a seat on the federal court.

President Barack Obama has appointed a far left labor unionist to a security sensitive U.S. trade post. Bob King On February 16, 2011,  Obama  announced the appointment of United Auto Workers president Bob King to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. As U.S. trade positions and data are always  key targets of foreign intelligence services, one would think that appointments to such a body would be subject to thorough scrutiny. Either this was not done in King's case, or affiliation with far left organizations, is no longer considered any sort of danger to national security in today's Washington....

ALEXANDRIA, Va. —William E. Hurwitz, the prominent doctor on trial here for drug trafficking, spent more than two days on the witness stand last week telling a jury why he had prescribed painkillers to patients who turned out to be drug dealers and addicts. But the clearest explanation of his actions — and of the problem facing patients who are in pain — came earlier in the trial. It occurred, oddly enough, during the appearance of a hostile witness, Dr. Robin Hamill-Ruth, one of the experts who was paid by the federal prosecutors to analyze Dr. Hurwitz’s prescriptions for OxyContin...

Conviction Of McLean Pain Doctor Overturned Appeals Court Says Judge Erred in Jury Instructions A federal appeals court threw out the conviction of William E. Hurwitz yesterday, granting the prominent former Northern Virginia pain-management doctor a new trial because jurors were not allowed to consider whether he prescribed drugs in good faith. The decision again galvanized the national debate that the Hurwitz case had come to symbolize: whether fully licensed doctors prescribing legal medication to patients in chronic pain should be subject to prosecution if their patients abuse or sell the drugs. Patient advocate groups strongly supported Hurwitz and expressed...

WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT sued Houston financier Charles Hurwitz in 1995 for more than a billion dollars, it seemed to many people that one of America’s most corrupt and notorious businessmen had finally been run to ground. He was accused of looting one of the biggest savings and loans in the state, United Savings Association of Texas, whose 1988 failure had cost taxpayers $1.6 billion. It was the usual, dreary story of eighties-era chicanery, said the government’s lawyers... Subscription required

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo said Monday he and other congressmen weren't attempting to block a federal investigation of a prominent Texas political contributor, but were trying instead to keep a government agency from wrongly seizing the man's property. At issue were attempts by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to recover $300 million from Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz for his role in the 1988 collapse of United Savings Association of Texas, which cost taxpayers $1.6 billion. A report in Sunday's Los Angeles Times said Pombo, R-Calif.; Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.; and Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, sought...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two Republican congressman from Northern California used their positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a Texas businessman who had given them political contributions, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Reps. John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo, along with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, fought an investigation by federal banking regulators of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz, according to government documents and copies of letters between the congressmen and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. officials obtained by The Times. The FDIC was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his alleged role in...

WASHINGTON — In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, two Northern California Republican congressmen used their official positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a wealthy Texas businessman who provided them with political contributions. Reps. John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz, documents recently obtained by The Times show. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his role in the collapse of a...

EDITORIAL OBSERVER Federal prosecutors in Virginia want Dr. William Hurwitz, recently convicted on 50 counts of distributing narcotics, to go to prison for life without parole when he is sentenced in mid-April. For the 50 million or so Americans who suffer from chronic pain, the fate of Dr. Hurwitz should be of some interest. He is a prominent doctor committed to aggressive treatment of pain. His behavior in some cases was inexcusable. Patients for whom he freely provided large prescriptions should, at the very minimum, have been given more close supervision. But malpractice should be cause for loss of license....

The most expensive conservation acquisition in California history could soon prove to have been a bad deal for taxpayers, illustrating a potential weakness of public preservation efforts that rely on the good faith of private companies. Resurrection of one of the nation's most bitter, drawn-out and violent disputes over forest management also finds Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a distinctly awkward position. He campaigned as a staunch supporter of the business community, but has also pledged to fight hard to defend California's environmental interests. And now, with those interests on a collision course in the state's forests, he's being pressed to...

Prosecuting doctors for their patients' misuse of narcotics hurts people in pain Prosecutors say McLean, Virginia, physician William Hurwitz, who is on trial at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, knowingly supplied OxyContin and other narcotic painkillers to patients who sold them on the black market. "A self-proclaimed healer, he crossed the line to dealer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lytle declared in his opening statement. "He thought he could hide behind the pain he treated." When Hurwitz was indicted last fall, U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty called him a "major and deadly drug dealer." Charged with 62 counts related to what prosecutors...

OAKLAND -- After working 30 years for Kaiser Aluminum, Oakland resident Karen Wessenberg retired in 2000, ready to reap the rewards of a pension and low-cost lifetime medical benefits, just like her mom, who worked 27 years for Kaiser. But the 53-year-old Wessenberg took a new job last month to help pay for her health insurance, which has skyrocketed since Kaiser Aluminum filed for bankruptcy in February 2002. It's only getting worse. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., a company once synonymous with Oakland that is now based in Houston and trying to emerge from bankruptcy, has reached an agreement to...