Inquest into Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son

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An inquest into the death of Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son continued on Wednesday with South Carolina developer G. Ben Thompson testifying.
Thompson, one of her ex-boyfriends, was involved in an ownership dispute over the house in the Bahamas where the reality TV star lived with attorney-turned-boyfriend Howard K. Stern before she died last year from an overdose of prescription drugs.
So far, about 32 witnesses have testified before a seven-member jury, which will formally determine what killed Daniel Smith. The jury can recommend criminal charges if it finds evidence of wrongdoing.
Police have said there is no evidence of homicide in Daniel Smith's death, and an autopsy found the likely cause was a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants.
Hearings resumed this week after a postponement last month to gain the participation of more witnesses, including Birkhead.
While on the stand, Thompson said Wednesday that Smith’s attorney-turned-boyfriend Howard K. Stern took several photographs of the collapsed body of her late 20-year-old son for profit.
Thompson testified that Stern took about four pictures of Daniel Smith's body after he died Sept. 10, 2006, while visiting his celebrity mother three days after she gave birth to her daughter in a Bahamian hospital.
Stern said the photographs "might be worth some money one day," according to Thompson.
"I was totally shocked he was taking pictures of a dead child laying in that bed," Thompson testified at the inquest while being questioned by an attorney for Anna Nicole's long-estranged mother, Virgie Arthur.
Stern's attorney Shaka Serville said Thompson first made the allegations in October 2007 while appearing on a TV show hosted by Geraldo Rivera. Serville accused him of fabricating the statement about Stern as retaliation over the dispute for the $900,000 estate.



Thompson, who briefly dated Anna Nicole, says he advanced her money for the Nassau mansion but she did not honor an agreement to repay the debt. Anna Nicole, who lived there with Stern in the months before her death, claimed the house was a gift.
Serville said that Stern, who is the executor of Anna Nicole's estate, took the photographs of the young man's body to prove to her that Daniel was indeed dead. Witnesses have said she was highly distraught after his collapse.
The developer's son, Gayther Thompson, also testified Wednesday. He alleged that Stern appeared to dispose of two white pills that he had found in Daniel's clothes after his collapse in the hospital room.
Testimony in the inquest is adjourned until March 17, while court officials seek testimony from witnesses including Anna Nicole's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead, the father of the late Playboy Playmate's 1-year-old daughter.
Birkhead may appear at court sessions in March, said Neil Braithwaite, senior counsel in the attorney general's office.
Illness has kept Birkhead from traveling to the Bahamas, a government lawyer said Wednesday.

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Jeremy Edwards was arrested in Barbados after being caught with cocaine.

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Former 'Holby City' star Jeremy Edwards was arrested in Barbados after being caught with cocaine.
The actor - who was previously engaged to S Club star Rachel Stevens - was held in a dingy police cell after being caught in possession of cocaine while on holiday on Saturday (26.01.08).
A police spokesman said: "Edwards was arrested after acting suspiciously on the street and was found with an amount of cocaine, but officers believed it was for personal use."
After being taken to court in Barbados' capital Bridgetown on Monday (28.01.08), the 36-year-old former 'Celebrity Big Brother' contestant was fined £250 and immediately released. The judge warned him if he was found with drugs again he would return to jail.
The spokesman added: "Edwards has been allowed to continue with his holiday."
Jeremy is now flying back to the UK, where he is expected to go ahead with a party celebrating his engagement to 23-year-old Lydia Metz in London's West End at the weekend.
A friend of the actor told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "Lydia it totally devoted to Jeremy. She won't be too annoyed as she is very laid back, so there is no risk of her dumping him. She is used to his partying.
"It's Jeremy's mum he needs to worry about. She's not going to be impressed at all."
Jeremy currently presents 'Cooking the Books' on Five.

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nasal spray is a drug called naloxone, or Narcan

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Elissa has been on methadone for six years, but she confesses that she used heroin a couple of days in the previous month because she was under a lot of stress.
Like most long-term heroin users, Elissa has had scary experiences with overdoses - her own and others'. Once, her partner became unresponsive after taking a mixture of heroin, benzodiazepine pills and alcohol, she says.
Many times, drug users and their friends don't call 911, which is why overdoses are so often fatal. They're afraid the police might come, and they could get arrested -- or lose their housing or custody of their children.
The nasal spray is a drug called naloxone, or Narcan. It blocks the brain receptors that heroin activates, instantly reversing an overdose.
Doctors and emergency medical technicians have used Narcan for years in hospitals and ambulances. But it doesn't require much training because it's impossible to overdose on Narcan.
The Cambridge program began putting Narcan kits into drug users' hands in August. Since then, the kits have been used to reverse seven overdoses.
New data compiled for NPR by researcher Alex Kral of the consulting firm RTI International show that more than 2,600 overdoses have been reversed in 16 programs operating across the nation.
Dr. Bertha Madras, deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, opposes the use of Narcan in overdose-rescue programs.
"First of all, I don't agree with giving an opioid antidote to non-medical professionals. That's No. 1," she says. "I just don't think that's good public health policy."
Madras says drug users aren't likely to be competent to deal with an overdose emergency. More importantly, she says, Narcan kits may actually encourage drug abusers to keep using heroin because they know overdosing isn't as likely.
Madras says the rescue programs might take away the drug user's motivation to get into detoxification and drug treatment.
"Sometimes having an overdose, being in an emergency room, having that contact with a health care professional is enough to make a person snap into the reality of the situation and snap into having someone give them services," Madras says
These are at least nominally empirical claims. They can and should be tested. But as far as we can tell, Madras pulls these statements out of her gut (I'm trying to be polite here). To the extent that there is any real data, NPR's story also reports that "one small study suggests that overdose-rescue programs reduce heroin use and get some people into treatment.
There really isn't much to say on this one. This was a spectacularly unnecessary thing for the ONDCP to come out on. Really. This is one of thousands of pilot projects going on around the world, trying to get some traction on the host of medical problems that are associated with drug abuse and dependence. They didn't need to stick the stupid neck out. The thing that bothers me the most about this is that Dr. Madras knows better. This is not some political hack or think-tank reject. This is a long time drug abuse researcher. If you read what she had to say closely you will note that she was trying to find the path that did the least insult to the available science. It was all about trying to justify on the basis of an opinion that had the least possible chance of getting attacked on scientific grounds. Very deft, Dr. Madras!

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Laura John

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A Young Swansea woman worked as a prostitute, earning £1,000 a week to fund her heroin habit.Last Friday she pleaded with the courts for help in addressing her ongoing drug problem.
Laura John was arrested at the scene of a drugs raid on January 17.
She tried to swallow a small bag of heroin but police officers forced her mouth open and retrieved the drugs.
The 22-year-old, of Ozanam Court, Portmead, appeared before city magistrates to admit possessing heroin at a house in Ffordd y Brain.
Police broke down the door of the house which had been reinforced with a scaffolding plank, prosecutor Julie Sullivan told the court.
Two men were there and John entered a little later.
Her handbag was searched and a small weighing scales recovered.
She dropped something behind her onto a chair.
That was later found to be a small bag containing heroin.
While being searched, another bag of heroin fell from beneath her jumper. She lunged past the officer, grabbed it and tried to swallow it.
She was gagging on it but would not spit it out, the court heard.
Officers struggled with her to retrieve the drugs from her mouth.
The two bags of drugs amounted to 3.5 grams with a street value of between £140 and £210.
She said she had paid £60 for the heroin and said she used the scales found in her bag to verify that deals she bought were the exact weight.
She told police she funded her heroin habit through prostitution, earning £1,000 a week.
Her solicitor, Stuart John, said: "She says she has a significant heroin addiction and is deeply concerned about it and feels it needs to be addressed."
The magistrates adjourned the matter to February 18 for the preparation of a full pre-sentence report on her.

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Michelle Rodriguez

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Michelle Rodriguez has found her way out of jail. The Latina actress was recently released from a Los Angeles County women’s jail after serving 18 days of a 180-day sentence for violating probation in a drunken driving case.
The troubled actress was released early under a program that deals with jail overcrowding by allowing nonviolent female inmates to serve as little as 10 percent of their sentence. The same thing happened two years ago when Rodriguez served just one day of a 60-day jail sentence for probation violation.
Rodriguez was sentenced in October for failing to prove she had done community service and for drinking while wearing an alcohol monitoring device.
Rodriguez was on probation after pleading no contest to drunken driving, hit-and-run and driving on a suspended license in connection with two Hollywood incidents in 2003. While still on probation, she spent five days in a Hawaii jail in 2005 after pleading guilty to drunken driving there, which led to her one-day jail term in Los Angeles for probation viola

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Kimora Lee Simmons

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Kimora Lee Simmons, the wife of music power Russell Simmons, was arrested in July 2004 and charged with marijuana possession and a variety of vehicular infractions following a traffic stop near her New Jersey estate. Saddle River police said Simmons, driving a Mercedes-Benz coupe, repeatedly ignored their directions to pull her car over as they followed in a cruiser with its lights flashing.

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Trey Anastasio

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Trey Anastasio, 43, pleaded guilty in April to felony possession of painkillers without a prescription and agreed to enter a court-sponsored treatment program, thereby avoiding a much more serious dent in his touring schedule.
The former jam band frontman spent two days in an upstate New York jail last week after skipping a drug-counseling session, a violation of the terms of his plea agreement with Washington County's Drug Treatment Court.
The musician was originally facing seven counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, driving while intoxicated, misdemeanor heroin possession, possessing a painkiller belonging to someone else, and driving without a license.
A conviction on all charges could have netted him up to 14 years in prison. Instead, Anastasio's deal required him to make weekly court appearances for 12 months, perform community service and submit to random alcohol and drug testing.
His recent violation did not involve a drug test, only a missed counseling session, Assistant District Attorney Tony Jordan told the Glens Falls Post-Star.
Authorities characterized Anastasio's Jan. 16-18 stint behind bars in Washington County Jail as "uneventful." He remained part of the generation population.
The Junta purveyor was arrested Dec. 15, 2006, after police in Whitehall, New York, pulled him over for a traffic violation and, upon searching his car, found the painkillers hydrocodone and Percocet along with the anti-anxiety medication Xanax and a white powdery substance that turned out to be heroin.
At the time, Anastasio, who completed a 28-day stay at Eric Clapton's famed Crossroads Center in Antigua soon after his arrest, apologized for "any embarrassment I have caused my friends, family and fans."

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In the wake of Ledger’s death others have come forward pointing the finger at the actor’s partying , drug taking, reports that he checked into rehab

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When told of the actor's death, Jack Nicholson revealed he had even warned the star about his spiralling addictions.
He said: “Heath's death is tragic news. I warned him about Ambien. I took it once and somebody called me in the middle of the night and I woke up in my car 50 yards from my house. I almost drove off a cliff. I didn't know where I was.
"Ambien can get you. Not through excessive use, it's just some people react more strongly than others. To use the prophetic words Ledger eerily uttered just months before his death: “When I die, my money's not going come with me. My movies will live on for people to judge what I was like as a person.''Kapur said: "I last spoke to him the night before he died. He said he could not see me that night but really wanted to meet me the next day. He made me promise that I would call him in the morning and wake him up. I tried. Little did I know that his soul had already left his body.”
Ledger’s soulless body was discovered by his masseuse at around 2.45pm on Tuesday. Diana Wolozin had come to the actor’s Soho apartment for a scheduled appointment and was let into the building by the housekeeper. When the actor did not answer her knock on his bedroom door, or answer his phone, Wolozin went into the room and discovered the tragic scene.
However, rather than calling emergency service, Wolozin used Ledger’s mobile phone to call his close friend Mary-Kate Olsen.
28-year-old Australian-born actor was discovered naked on his bed in his New York apartment with various prescription pills strewn around the room.
At 3.35pm he was pronounced dead of a suspected accidental drugs overdose, and Ledger's legacy was confined to the catalogue of tragic stars who died too young.
Even as the black body bag was being taken out of the building three hours' after the actor's death, speculation was already rife about the cause of death, with talk of depression, substance abuse and even pneumonia, featuring highly among showbiz gossip.
The autopsy has, however, left questions unanswered, returning an "inconclusive" verdict. Nevertheless Ledger's death has sent ripples of shock through the showbiz world.
What makes the news even more difficult to fathom, is that unlike many of today's stars, the actor was not plagued by rampant tales of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.
If Wednesday’s headlines had been about Britney Spears or Amy Winehouse the tragedy would not have been lessened, but in a sad way would have almost been expected.
Ledger was not like Winehouse or Spears, he did not appear to be unhinged or unstable, at worst he came across as aloof.
And while his indifference to the media was well known, his dedication to his craft was never questioned, and he was branded the next Marlon Brando. But delve deeper into his closely guarded world and an altogether darker picture of depression and drug dependency emerges.
From a wide-eyed teenager from Perth, to a critically acclaimed actor on the cusp of international superstardom, Ledger's Hollywood story started in the manner it would continue, with determination, passion and a true dedication to his craft.
As a student he excelled at sport - he was selected for the State of Western Australia under-17 hockey squad - and acting, with his debut film role coming when he was just 11-years-old in a small part in ‘Clowning Around’ followed by a role in TV series ‘Ship to Shore’
At 16 Ledger abandoned his education and embarked on a cross-country road trip to Sydney in search of his big break.
His first regular TV role came as a gay cyclist in the Australian show 'Sweat', followed by a stint on the hugely popular soap ‘Home and Away, but his ‘big break’ came in the form of a starring role as a Celtic warrior in the much-hyped but short-lived FOX drama 'Roar'.
In Ledger’s words he then tried his luck in Hollywood “with no expectations and all the confidence of youth” and his gamble paid off.
In 1999, he was cast alongside Julia Stiles as the rebellious chauvinistic student who gets the uptight feminist girl in '10 Thing I Hate About You'.
As a ruggedly handsome 20-something Ledger could have easily slipped into the realm of the romantic lead, but being typecast as a ‘blonde himbo’ was a notion Ledger deplored and the next five years saw him explore his abilities as a versatile actor.
His acting CV swelled playing roles such as Mel Gibson’s head-strong soldier son in American Revolution movie 'The Patriot', a lovelorn squire in romantic comedy 'The Knight's Tale', a suicidal prison guard in thriller 'Monster's Ball', and Australia’s most famous outlaw in ‘Ned Kelly’.
However, it was his portrayal as a confused gay cowboy in director Ang Lee's 2005 movie 'Brokeback Mountain' that really made moviegoers stand up and take notice.
The film was both a commercial and critical success - claiming three Oscars, four Golden Globes and four BAFTAs - and while Ledger's co-star Jake Gyllenhaal may have fared better with the awards count, the critics were in agreement that the brooding Aussie had stolen the screen as Ennis Del Mar.
His "magnificent" and "magical performance" garnered him the honour of being compared to a young Marlon Brando or Sean Penn and his true talent was finally being recognised.
'Brokeback Mountain' was also an important turning point in terms of Ledger's personal life.
It is on the set of the movie that he met and fell in love with his onscreen wife Michelle Williams.
Cast and crew described their romance as "love at first" sight and by the time the movie was causing a stir at the Venice Film Festival in September 2005, Williams was pregnant with the couple’s first child and the pair were rumoured to be engaged.
Speaking about his love for Michelle, the actor said: "She's my soul mate and we couldn't love each other any more than we do already. We're like two peas in a pod."
Their daughter Matilda Rose Ledger was born on October 28, 2005, a month before ‘Brokeback Mountain’ premiered in Los Angeles, and for a short time at least, the happy family seemed picture-book perfect.
The only shortcoming of the relationship seemed to be the increased media interest in their lives, something Ledger never felt comfortable with and was, seemingly very sensitive to.
The actor was reportedly reduced to tears at the Sydney premiere of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ after two reporters attacked him and Williams with water pistols, following claims the star had spat at two journalists.
Williams later said: “They've been really tough on Heath, and he takes it personally. They've been tossing out this stuff about him being a spitter, and it's just so mean, and it really hurts his feelings. He's not that way at all. It's not true. The only spitter in our house is Matilda.
By September 2007, the couple's relationship would become the source of even greater media speculation as they announced they were separating.
Sources were quoted as saying the pair had grown apart since the birth of Matilda, while in the wake of Ledger’s death others have come forward pointing the finger at the actor’s partying and drug taking, with reports that he checked into rehab for heroin addiction around the time of the split. However, all official reports seemed to point to work pressures.
The autopsy has, however, left questions unanswered, returning an "inconclusive" verdict.
Certainly at the time of their split Ledger was stacking up film after film. He had wrapped the Bob Dylan biopic 'I'm Not There' – in which he starred along with Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale as one of seven Dylan personas and ironically played a character whose marriage was falling apart – and he was in the middle of shooting the new Batman movie 'The Dark Knight'. In fact, it has been speculated his dedication to his career was instrumental in his untimely death.
As a consummate perfectionist, Ledger was an ardent follower of the method-acting school of thought.
After being cast as a heroin addict in 2006 movie 'Candy' he entered an Australian rehab facility and learned how to inject heroin from a junkie, and following that he threw himself into what would be his last complete role as The Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’ with equal vigour.
The star locked himself away in a hotel room for a month to become the "murderous psychopath".
But the strain of living up to his screen idol Jack Nicholson, who originally played the crazed villain, may have proved too much for Ledger and his efforts left him "sleepless and exhausted".
To combat his insomnia the actor resorted to taking the sleeping pill Ambien, which was tellingly discovered at the scene of his death along with five other prescription drugs
Speaking last November, he said: "Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going."
At the time of his death Ledger had begun shooting Terry Gilliam's new fantasy movie 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'.
And the weekend before his body was discover, he was pictured dressed in a clown’s costume on the London set.
Looking dishevelled and drained, the sad image now ironically invokes the classic phrase 'tears of a clown'.
Ledger returned to New York just over a day before his death, and on Monday (21.01.08) he called his director friend director Shekhar Kapur from his New York apartment to arrange meeting up the next day.
Olsen and Ledger had previously been romantically linked, although both denied the reports. The 21-year-old actress told Wolozin she would call her security people and the masseuse notified the emergency services. When paramedics arrived Ledger was in full cardiac arrest, and despite their efforts to revive him with CPR he was declared dead at the scene
Police have now revealed six prescription drugs were found surrounding Ledger’s naked body, including Ambien, anxiety medication Valium, anti-depressant Zoloft, anxiety drug Xanax, highly addictive sleeping pill Zoplicone and antihistamine Donormyl.
A rolled up $20 bill was also found but police have revealed it tested negative for drug residue.
As Hollywood tries to understand this senseless loss, the true extent of Ledger’s private hell is only beginning to be pieced together.
It seems the star never fully got over his split from Williams, and he sunk further and further into depression as he struggled to come to terms with losing his soul mate and being parted from his beloved daughter.
One source said: "He really wanted it to work but Michelle ended it and Heath was devastated. He blamed himself for Matilda not having her dad around all the time and he never seemed himself after that.”
The actor was so besotted with Matilda he once chillingly remarked he was no longer afraid of death, because his legacy would live on in Matilda.
He said: “I feel good about dying now, you look at death differently.
“It’s a Catch-22 because I feel like I’m alive in her but at the same time you don’t want to die because you want to be around for the rest of her life.”
In the months leading up to his passing, close acquaintances, including his 'Brokeback Mountain' co-star Jake Gyllenhaal, pleaded with him to seek help as became more reclusive and reliant on prescription drugs to mask his growing unhappiness.
What has emerged about Heath’s final months is a picture of an emotionally drained and physically exhausted man who was holding on by a delicate thread.
And although we knew him in various guises on screen, it seems only a select few ever got close to the tortured actor and they have nothing but love in their heart for him.
As his father Kim explained in a tearful tribute: "Heath was down to earth, generous, kind hearted, life-loving, unselfish individual.
"He has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life but few had the pleasure of truly knowing him."
Like River Phoenix and James Dean before him, Ledger had so much more to give to the world of film when his career was tragically cut short.
And like 23-year-old Phoenix and 24-year-old Dean he will live forever as a young and passionate man on celluloid.

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Bobby Brown,

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superstar Bobby Brown, famed more for his drug crazed behavior with ex-wife Whitney Houston than singing these days, is facing new charges of posession of Cocaine. He has been troubled for years by Crack and Cocaine.

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Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse has entered rehab! Amy Winehouse left her home in London this afternoon to enter the Edward House private rehabilitation clinic. She was accompanied by her father

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Heath Ledger warning Jack Nicholson

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Jack Nicholson told reporters outside the Wolseley restaurant in London last night that he had tried to warn Heath Ledger of the dangers of his lifestyle, and hinted that he had seen it coming. When Nicholson was informed that Heath Ledger had died, possibly of an overdose, he said, “That’s awful,” and added “I warned him.”

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Lil Wayne won a viewers' choice arrested

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Lil Wayne was booked Wednesday in Yuma on three felony drug charges.
The 25-year-old rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., was being held at the Yuma County Sheriff's jail, said Capt. Eben Bratcher.

Carter was taken for a video arraignment late Wednesday morning in a justice court in Wellton, 35 miles east of Yuma.
He faces charges of possession of dangerous drugs, narcotics and drug paraphernalia, authorities said.
Bratcher said Carter was arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration agents at a Border Patrol checkpoint 78 miles from Yuma. Two other men were arrested with him, Bratcher said.
Sheriff's Major Leon Wilmot said he didn't know if Wayne had an attorney.
Birdman and Lil Wayne won a viewers' choice award for their song "Stuntin' Like My Daddy" at Black Entertainment Television's 2007 Hip-Hop Awards.

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Heath Ledger recently said he felt good about dying

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Heath Ledger recently said he felt good about dying, now that he was a parent, because he was alive in his daughter, Matilda.
But at the same time, the Australian actor, who died in New York today, said he wanted to be around for the rest of the two-year-old's life.
Asked about being a parent he said: "I guess you're forced into kind of respecting yourself more, you learn more about yourself through your child, I guess," he told WJW FOX in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. Ledger was found naked on the floor near the bed in an apartment in SoHo that he had been renting. Police officials said that a bottle of prescription sleeping pills was found on a nearby night table, but it was not known whether the pills had anything to do with Mr. Ledger’s death. Officers who checked the apartment found other prescription medications in the bathroom. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office said an autopsy would be conducted on Wednesday. The police said they did not suspect foul play. There were no signs that Mr. Ledger had been drinking, nor were any illegal drugs found in the loft, which takes up the entire fourth floor. No obvious indications of suicide, like a note, were found in the bedroom. Neighbors said Mr. Ledger had occupied it for several months.
A related article by Bruce Lambert describes the crowds that gathered outside the building in SoHo as news of Mr. Ledger’s death quickly made its way across New York. (More than 1,110 comments have been published so far on The Times’s initial blog post about Mr. Ledger’s death.)
Mr. Ledger broke up last year with the actress Michelle Williams; the couple have a 2-year-old daughter, Matilda. Citing unnamed sources, The Daily News reports that Ms. Williams had ejected Mr. Ledger from their home in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, “because of a drug problem that only got worse after he left.” The News also reports that in addition to the sleeping pills, the police found bottles of the anti-anxiety drug Valium and the antidepressant Zoloft in the SoHo apartment. A related article in The News examines the stunned reactions of Mr. Ledger’s neighbors in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The New York Post reports that Mr. Ledger “apparently overdosed on anti-anxiety pills.” Citing unnamed sources, The Post reports that bottles of the generic forms of Xanax and Valium, both anti-anxiety drugs prescribed for Mr. Ledger, were found in the apartment; that the prescription sleeping medication Ambien was found near Mr. Ledger’s body; and that a bottle of Donormyl, an antihistamine used as a sleep aid, and a packet of the drug Zopiclone, used for insomnia, were found on the nightstand. The Post also provides an overview of Mr. Ledger’s acting career and a portrait of the life Mr. Ledger and Ms. Williams had shared with their daughter in Brooklyn

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John Phillips Beall,Lisa Leigh Fischer

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John Phillips Beall, 61, and Lisa Leigh Fischer, 41, both of Okolona, remain in custody in St. Francis County, pending the filing of charges by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The arrest was made in the early morning hours of Jan. 9, when a 1994 Ford Bronco was pulled over for a suspended vehicle license, near the 247 mile marker.
After receiving permission to search the vehicle, troopers found five pounds of ice meth, along with drug paraphernalia, $16,000 in cash, two firearms and a silencer.
The “ice” is valued at about $224,000.
Because Beall and Fischer were living in Okolona, the Clark County Sheriff’s Department was notified. ASP officers and the Clark County Sheriff’s office executed a search warrant at a motor home in Okolona where Beall and Fisher were reported to be living. They found another pound of meth and 10 glass smoking pipes, according to the press release.
Clark County Sheriff David Turner said he did not think Beall and Fisher were manufacturing methamphetamine. “They were just selling it,” he said. Turner said Beall and Fisher were expected to be charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, and may face charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms. Fischer could also be charged with furnishing a prohibited weapon to a felon.
Beall is originally from Arizona, according to Turner, and at the time of his arrest was already on parole for a previous conviction in federal court for drug trafficking.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, ice methamphetamine is a clear form of meth. The NIDA also reports that methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant, more potent, longer lasting and more harmful than amphetamines. It can be smoked, inhaled or injected. Ice meth is more commonly smoked.

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Heath Ledger, Authorities say the death may be drug-related

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Australian actor Heath Ledger has been found dead at an apartment in New York. He was 28. Heath Ledger, 28, the co-star of the Oscar-winning movie "Brokeback Mountain," was found dead in a New York residence on Tuesday, police said.
"Heath Ledger was found dead at 3:26 pm this afternoon," a police spokesperson said, saying he was found in an apartment in the posh district of Soho. "We don't know the cause of the death."
Authorities say the death may be drug-related.
"We are investigating the possibility of an overdose,'' NY Police spokesman Paul Browne said.
"There were pills within the vicinity of the bed,'' he said.
Ledger's body has now been removed from his New York apartment and wheeled into the back of a medical examiner's van.
A huge crowd of news photographers gathered outside the apartment in the Soho building lit up the scene with flashes as authorities wheeled his body on a trolley from the complex into the van.
The actor has a two-year-old daughter with former fiancee Michelle Williams. He was set to play the Joker in the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight.
A spokesperson for actress Mary-Kate Olsen denied earlier reports that the apartment in which Ledger was found belonged to her.
According to The New York Times Ledger was found naked and unconscious, with sleeping pills - both prescription medication and nonprescription - on a night table
New York police officer Martin Brown said investigators will likely not know the cause of death until an autopsy is held on the 28-year-old's body.
Asked if foul play had been ruled out, Officer Brown said it had not.
"That's what needs to be investigated,'' Brown told AAP.
"It takes a while.
"The medical examiner will do an autopsy and they will determine the cause of death.''
Ledger's body was discovered by his housekeeper, who came to tell him his masseuse had arrived for an appointment.
They entered his room and found him unconscious

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The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act

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The new proposed legislation known as, “The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2007,”

Bill Summary

The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2007 amends the Controlled Substances Act. It would:

* Bar the sale or distribution of a controlled substance via the Internet without a valid prescription. A practitioner must conduct an in-person examination of a patient in order for a prescription to be considered valid.
* Require Online Pharmacies to display information identifying the business, the pharmacist, and any physician associated with the website. Pharmacies must also clearly display a statement of compliance on their homepage. This will allow consumers to clearly identify which pharmacies are safe—and which are not.
* Create tough penalties for pharmacies that continue to operate outside the law, by clarifying that such activities are subject to the current federal laws against illegal distributions of controlled substances, and the same penalties applicable to hand-to-hand sales. Internet distributors, like other drug dealers, could be prosecuted in our federal courts, and if convicted would face sentences of up to life imprisonment, as well as forfeiture of their criminally-derived proceeds.
* Increase the penalties for illegal distributions of controlled substances categorized by the Drug Enforcement Administration as Schedule III, IV and V substances. For Schedule III substances, existing maximum penalties would be doubled, up to 10 years for a first conviction, and to 20 years for a second conviction, with new penalties of up to 30 years would be added if death or serious bodily injury results. The bill adopts similar increases for Schedule IV and V substances, with longer periods of supervised release also available to follow prison terms ordered on these drug distribution convictions.
* Allow a state attorney general, after giving the U.S. Department of Justice notice and an opportunity to intervene, to shut down a rogue site across the country, rather than limiting their relief to stopping sales only to consumers of his or her state.

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Brad Renfro

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Brad Renfro, was found dead Tuesday in his home. He was 25.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at 9 a.m., said Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the Los Angeles County coroner's office. The cause of death was not immediately determined, Harvey said, but an autopsy could be conducted as early as Wednesday.
Renfro had reportedly been drinking with friends the evening before his death,
Renfro's lawyer, Richard Kaplan, said he did not know whether the death was connected to any problems with addiction.
"He was working hard on his sobriety," Kaplan said. "He was doing well. He was a nice person."
Renfro recently completed a role in "The Informers," a film adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel that stars Winona Ryder, Brandon Routh and Billy Bob Thornton.
"Brad was an exceptionally talented young actor and our time spent with him was thoroughly enjoyable," Marco Weber, president of the film's production house, Senator Entertainment, said in a statement.
The actor served 10 days in jail in May 2006 after pleading no contest to driving while intoxicated and guilty to attempted possession of heroin.
The latter charge stemmed from his arrest in Los Angeles' Skid Row area, when he attempted to buy heroin from an undercover officer in 2005.
For several years he was better known for that drug bust and the resulting criminal case than for acting.
After one court appearance, he talked to reporters about drug rehabilitation, saying he was "tired of paying the consequences" for drinking and drug use and eager to get clean.

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