Google settles pharmacy ad probe for $500 million

Peter Neronha, U.S. attorney for the district of Rhode Island, announces a $500 million settlement with Internet giant Google over Canadian drug advertisements Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011, in Providence, R.I. The agreement settles a federal investigation into Google's distribution of online ads from Canadian pharmacies that were illegally selling prescription and non-prescription drugs to American consumers. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin)

Peter Neronha, U.S. attorney for the district of Rhode Island, announces a $500 million settlement with Internet giant Google over Canadian drug advertisements Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011, in Providence, R.I. The agreement settles a federal investigation into Google's distribution of online ads from Canadian pharmacies that were illegally selling prescription and non-prescription drugs to American consumers. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin)

Peter Neronha, U.S. attorney for the district of Rhode Island, announces a $500 million settlement with Internet giant Google over Canadian drug advertisements Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011, in Providence, R.I. The agreement settles a federal investigation into Google's distribution of online ads from Canadian pharmacies that were illegally selling prescription and non-prescription drugs to American consumers. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin)

Kathleen Martin-Weis, acting director of the FDA office of criminal investigations, and Peter Neronha, U.S. attorney for the district of Rhode Island, announce a $500 million settlement with Internet giant Google over Canadian drug advertisements Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011, in Providence, R.I. The agreement settles a federal investigation into Google's distribution of online ads from Canadian pharmacies that were illegally selling prescription and non-prescription drugs to American consumers. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) ? Google Inc. has agreed to pay $500 million to settle a U.S. government investigation into the Internet search leader's distribution of online ads from Canadian pharmacies illegally selling prescription drugs to American consumers.

The settlement means Google will not face criminal prosecution for accusations that it improperly profited from ads promoting Canadian pharmacies that illegally imported drugs into the United States, Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha said. It is the first time an Internet search engine is being held responsible for the illegal distribution of drugs.

"It sends a clear message to both Google and to others that contribute to America's pill problem that they will be held to account for endangering the health and safety of the residents of this district and to persons all across the United States," said Neronha, who described the forfeiture as one of the largest in U.S. history.

The settlement delivered a stinging rebuke for Google, whose motto is "don't be evil." In announcing the settlement, authorities left little doubt that Google had misbehaved. From its vantage point, Google crossed into a shady area of prescription-drug advertising in pursuit of higher profits, which have boosted its stock price and enriched its employees since the company's initial public offering in 2004.

In that sense, the potential damage to Google's reputation may be more troubling to the company than the amount of money it's paying to sweep the problem under the rug. The $500 million is a sum Google can easily afford; it had $39 billion in cash at the end of June.

The figure represents the gross revenues Google collected in ad buys from hundreds of Canadian pharmacies, plus the earnings generated from the illegal drug sales to American consumers from 2003 to 2009, federal investigators said.

Google said in a statement that it should not have allowed Canadian pharmacies to market prescription drugs to American consumers.

"We banned the advertising of prescription drugs in the U.S. by Canadian pharmacies some time ago," the statement said. "However, it's obvious with hindsight that we shouldn't have allowed these ads on Google in the first place." The company declined further comment. Google shares were up slightly Wednesday, finishing the day trading at $523.

Federal officials said Google knew as early as 2003 that its ad system was allowing Canadian pharmacies to make illegal sales. The transactions included selling prescription drugs without valid prescriptions from a licensed medical practitioner at a premium, prosecutors said.

Shipping prescription drugs into the U.S. from abroad violates drug and other laws, investigators said. Prescription drugs shipped into the U.S. from Canada are not subject to oversight by Canadian regulatory authorities and many sell drugs from countries with inadequate pharmacy regulations, prosecutors said.

A separate U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation into drugs that claimed to be manufactured in Canada found that 85 percent of the drugs examined came from 27 different countries, including some that were found to be counterfeit, said Kathleen Martin-Weis, acting director of the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations.

Investigators noted that Google did not allow online pharmacies from any other country aside from Canada to advertise to American consumers.

The probe did not touch the overseas online pharmacies, Neronha said, because American officials did not have the authority to bring charges. He said the case raised some "novel legal theories," given that if it had gone to trial, prosecutors would have to prove an Internet search engine helped pharmacies violate federal law.

Investigators snared Google's ad system by creating seven undercover websites offering prescription drugs to be sold without a prescription or the completion of an online medical questionnaire, Martin-Weis said. An undercover investigator informed Google employees creating the advertising for the products that they were manufactured overseas and did not require customers to have a valid prescription, she said.

"In each instance, despite this knowledge, Google employees created a full advertising campaign for each of the undercover websites," Martin-Weis said.

Investigators said they quickly spent the money they had set aside for the ad buys and then pored over 4 million pages of e-mails and financial records to make their case. The undercover websites were live for four months, investigators said.

Google is no longer letting Canadian online pharmacies advertise to U.S. consumers.

Officials started investigating Google after a suspect involved in an unrelated multimillion-dollar financial fraud was caught by authorities in 2008 after fleeing to Mexico, officials said.

The suspect, David Whitaker, told investigators that while on the lam he began to advertise drugs illegally on Google, Neronha said. He later helped investigators construct the undercover websites used in the investigation.

Whitaker's case was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Providence on Tuesday. Under a plea agreement signed in 2008, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a lesser punishment in exchange for Whitaker's cooperation. He is awaiting sentencing on wire fraud, commercial bribery and other charges.

The investigation laid bare how vulnerable Google's automated ad system known as AdWords is to the machinations of shady operators. The ad network is a major moneymaker for Google and is expected to generate more than $30 billion in revenue this year.

Google acknowledged holes in its ad system in a federal lawsuit filed last fall against dozens of "rogue" online pharmacies that were finding ways to place ads for drugs despite the company's efforts to prevent abuses.

In one of the more common practices, the illicit drug dealers would plug subtle misspellings of drug names frequently entered into Google's search engine to generate ads alongside the results. For instance, one illegal drug advertiser spelled the anabolic steroid Dianabol as "Diano bol" in Google's automated system to produce an ad, according to the lawsuit in San Jose federal court.

Google has obtained court orders banning some of the rogue pharmacies named in the lawsuit and is still seeking injunctions against the others.

Rhode Island has aggressively investigated doping activities recently. Last year, the Chinese company GeneScience Pharmaceutical Co. and its CEO pleaded guilty to selling human growth hormone and agreed to pay $7.5 million.

The Google lawsuit came seven months after the Internet search leader imposed new restrictions on the kinds of pharmaceutical ads it would accept in the U.S. and Canada. Investigators say the changes came once Google became aware of the federal inquiry in 2009.

The new rules were supposed to allows ads only from U.S. pharmacies that had been accredited by a special program run by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy. In Canada, the accreditation had to come from the Canadian International Pharmacy Association.

Google's critics have complained in the past that the company and other websites haven't been vigilant about policing pharmaceutical ads because they are so lucrative. Drug and health care advertising generated about $1.3 billion in Internet spending last year and is expected to grow to $2.6 billion by 2015, according to the research firm eMarketer Inc.

The agreement also ends speculation that began in May when the company made a reference in its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to a Justice Department investigation into the usage of Google's automated system for placing ads alongside search results and other content at hundreds of thousands of websites. Google had raised even more intrigue by subtracting $500 million from its first-quarter earnings to cover a potential settlement.

A portion of the proceeds from the forfeiture will go to law enforcement agencies who worked on the investigation, including Rhode Island police departments.

___

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-08-24-Google-Advertising%20Investigation/id-63fcb526b66e44daa69f7f421cb21e1e

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Songwriter Nickolas Ashford dies at age 70 (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Songwriter Nickolas Ashford, who penned such rhythm and blues hits as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "I'm Every Woman" with his wife Valerie Simpson, died on Monday at age 70.

Ashford, who had been treated for cancer, died at a New York hospital with his family at his side, publicist Liz Rosenberg told Reuters.

A native of South Carolina, Ashford met Simpson in the early 1960s at White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem, after he moved to New York to pursue a career in entertainment and found himself homeless.

Simpson played the piano and sang in a church choir, which Ashford soon joined. The two began writing songs together and had their breakthrough hit in 1966 when Ray Charles released their composition "Let's Go Get Stoned."

It was the beginning of a partnership that saw the duo marry in 1974 and write a string of hits.

They were signed to Motown Records, where they penned the 1967 classic Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duet "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."

Gaye and Terrell also had hits with the couple's songs "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By."

Ashford and Simpson's other songs include "Send It," "Found a Cure," and "Don't Cost You Nothing."

Their composition "I'm Every Woman" was recorded by Chaka Khan and later by Whitney Houston, and for a time was the opening theme song for Oprah Winfrey's TV talk show.

Ashford and Simpson were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.

Ashford is survived by Simpson and their daughters Nicole and Asia, Rosenberg said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Dan Whitcomb)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110823/music_nm/us_nickolasashford

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It Don't Come Easy: Changing Health Insurance in America, Part Two ...

Cross-posted with permission from Pre-Existing Pundit.

Several days ago, I wrote about the ordeal I have been going through trying to move my health insurance from Kentucky to Maryland.? Because I had a health insurance policy with Anthem Blue Cross in Kentucky, the local Blue Cross was obligated to offer me what is called a guarantee issue conversion policy that does not require underwriting (a good thing since I have several pre-existing conditions that would otherwise make it difficult for me to obtain health insurance).

As I reported earlier, the Maryland conversion policy was almost no insurance at all so one of the options I wanted to explore was what kind of policy CareFirst (the Blue Cross company that serves the Washington, DC metro area, including the Virginia and Maryland suburbs) would offer me if I lived in the District instead of in Maryland. I asked CareFirst to send me the information and when it arrived it was a stunner.? We are talking about maybe a 15-mile difference in location and the same company.? But the policies were radically different, which CareFirst attributes to insurance laws which vary by location.

If you live in Maryland, there is a $250 deductible and? for most things, you pay 25 percent, the plan pays 75 percent up to a very unrealistic lifetime maximum of $250,000 (most plans have a $1,000,000 maximum or no limit).? There is no cap on out-of-pocket expenses.? Premium for a 55 year old woman? $443.22, less than my Kentucky policy but for a lot less coverage and substantial risk.

But hop on the Metro and move into the District and wowswers?the guaranteed conversion plan there has a $750 deductible, pays 80 percent instead of 75 percent and there is a $3500 cap on out of pocket expenses for an individual.? There was nothing that I saw about a lifetime maximum.? Sounds good so far, but there is a catch and it is a big one?the premium.? Are you sitting down? $1448.? Per month.? Aside from CEO?s of health insurance companies, not too many people can afford that.

For comparison?s sake, it is worth comparing these plans to the Federal Pre-existing Condition Pool, which incomprehensibly also varies from state to state.? In Maryland, the premium is as high as $354/month with a $1500 deductible and an out of pocket limit of $1500.

In the District of Columbia, the Federal Pre-existing Condition Pool is a bit more complicated with premiums as high as $436 and,

In addition to your monthly premium, you will pay other costs. In 2011, you will pay a $1,000 to $3,000 deductible, which varies by your plan option, for covered medical benefits (except for preventive services) before the plan starts to pay. A plan option may have a separate drug deductible. After you pay the deductible, you will pay a $25 co-payment for doctor visits, $4 to $40 for most prescription drugs, and 20% of the costs of any other covered benefits you get. Your out-of-pocket costs cannot be more than $5,950 per year. These costs may be higher, if you go outside the plan?s network.

The kicker with the federal plans however is that in order to qualify,

• You must be a citizen or national of the United States or lawfully present in the United States.
• You must have been uninsured for at least the last six months before you apply.
• You must have a pre-existing condition or have been denied coverage because of your health condition.

The first and third points seem reasonable, but requiring that you be without insurance for six months is absurd and causes unnecessary financial hardship and risk to public health.? When you have met the other two conditions, you should be immediately eligible.? There is no other country on earth that would require you to go without health insurance before you could qualify for it and that we, the richest country in the world should do so is beyond belief.

Fortunately for me, there is also a Maryland State pool where six months of state residency is required, but there is no requirement that you be uninsured before qualifying.

I am still trying to determine the best option for myself and will write more about that later. But as I was sorting through the possible scenarios, I wanted to point to the total absurdity that insurance plans should vary so drastically in one metropolitan area.? It is well past time for a federal single payer plan that makes health care expenses equitable, regardless of where you live or work or how healthy you are.

And finally, while Blue Cross guarantees you coverage if you move, that does not mean it will be adequate or affordable or even remotely like the coverage you had before you moved.? The result is that for people like me with pre-existing conditions, Blue Cross is effectively making it so you may have to go without coverage for 6 months because you can?t afford $1448 premiums (or if you live in a state like Maryland, have very minimal and inadequate insurance until you have lived here for six months)and then force you into one of the high risk pools.? Just because you moved.? But somehow I don?t think insurance CEO?s or the elected officials they?ve financed are losing sleep about this.

*********

Addenda:? Health insurance for all of us is under siege, whether you have an individual policy, obtain coverage through your company or have Medicare or are uninsured, etc.? Here is an important piece about what is happening to workers at Kaiser Permanente, which ironically is a health insurance provider.? The author compares what is happening there with what is happening at Verizon. She makes the point that we need to stand together, a point that should be true regardless of how you get coverage.? A lot less attention has been paid to those of us in the individual market than those who get coverage via employment or Medicare.? We need solidarity regardless of how we obtain health care coverage.

. . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . .

Source: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/08/23/part-changing-health-insurance-america-dont-come-easy

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Conference Call Providers ? Eradicating the Barriers of Communication

Written By: meilan - Aug? 24?11

Conference call providers are companies that provide the general public with the this call facility. They are essential in today?s day and age as communication is of prime importance to initiate and carry forward business. The main objective of these providers is to offer a service that is efficient, safe, effective, fast and reliable ? all at the best rate possible. The major providers of conference calling in the world are AT&T Connect, WebEx, Spider phone etc.

Free conference calling is the most widely used form of international conference communication apart from this services chatting. Here, applications like Gtalk, Skype, and Rondee etc. are used to connect two or more users onto one single call. No charges are levied to any of the parties. This form of communication is extremely effective for business organizations that have branches all over the world and even for individuals who have business interests around the world as they can communicate with each other using just a computer and an internet connection.

Internet video conferencing is a service provided by this call providers and is a widely used mode of communication by individuals as well as companies to converse with each other when physical presence becomes difficult. Here, all the parties in the conference can see and hear each other on the screens provided and can have a live meeting and discuss affairs. The providers of this service offer high speed connections which guarantee an uninterrupted live feed without any glitches or stops during the call. Various added options and services are available depending on the package and provider.

Phone conferencing is a method of communication used by 2 or more parties to converse with one another using a telephone or mobile phone. Here, the parties can hear each other but cannot see each other. The person making the call has the option of adding people into the current call. This service is provided by any of the cellular service providers free of charge and can be accessed using most mobile phones.

The most widely offered this services by conference call providers as of today are audio conferencing, web conferencing and video conferencing. The service one gets is totally dependant on the package one has opted for. Audio conferencing is the cheapest and video conferencing is comparatively costlier due to added technology used. this services is internet based and hence is not very costly. These services enable people from around the world to connect and discuss matters at the click of a button.

Conference call providers eradicate the barriers to communication between two or more people who may not be at the same place at the same time and make the communication process easier and more effective with our conference calling services.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.smcconnections.com/conference-call-providers-eradicating-the-barriers-of-communication/

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Earth Ejecta Could Seed Life On Europa

it is my opinion that the theory of comets seeding life on earth, or earth seeding life on europa or mars or elsewhere is completely besides the point:

the seeds of life are simply everywhere, inside and outside the solar system, and life is simply always lying dormant, everywhere in the galaxy, as bits of flotsam and jetsam of space debris, ready to seed something somewhere, at any time, in the distant future, and the distant past

this whole argument of where life came from is moot. the potential is simply a

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/m27qaa-NmM4/Earth-Ejecta-Could-Seed-Life-On-Europa

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Joplin businesses rebounding quickly from tornado (Reuters)

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) ? Businesses destroyed in a deadly tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri, in May are quickly bouncing back, with Walgreens cutting the ribbon on a store rebuilt in a corporate record of 90 days.

The tornado that hit the city of 50,000 residents on May 22 was the deadliest in the United States in more than 60 years, taking 160 lives and destroying about 30 percent of the town, including more than 500 businesses.

So far, 400 of those have reopened or are rebuilding, with Walgreens the first major retailer to finish. Nearby, in the same retail strip, a Home Depot store is operating out of a tent pending its own rebuilding.

"This was truly a Herculean effort by everyone involved," Ryan Kruger, a district manager for Walgreens, said in a prepared statement on Monday. "We couldn't be prouder to be at the forefront of the rebuilding efforts in Joplin."

The federal Small Business Administration has provided $10 million in loans to businesses and $23.7 million to homeowners in the rebuilding effort. All but about 5 percent of remaining business owners say they want to rebuild, said Kirstie Smith, communications director of Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce.

"We have contractors stacked with work and businesses waiting for their spot in line," Smith said.

The new Walgreens store is on the same spot as a store demolished in the tornado. Stores normally take six months to complete, but the new one was built in record time because it used the previous construction plan and received rapid city permitting and review, officials said.

Walgreens also reopened a second Joplin store on Monday that was extensively damaged in the tornado.

"They said they would be in business before the end of August and that sounded pretty bold, said Rob O'Brian, president of the Chamber of Commerce. "It's a great message and a great signal that national and regional businesses remain committed to this market."

Other businesses that are rebuilding include numerous restaurants, two Commerce Banks and St. John's Regional Medical Center, which will move to a new site about a mile from its hospital building, which the tornado severely damaged.

Joplin's public schools, which saw several buildings destroyed or damaged, opened on schedule last week. Many students were attending classes in temporary locations, with 11th and 12th graders holding class in a vacated store in a shopping mall.

Meanwhile, the school district got a boost on Sunday in California when an auction of singer Sheryl Crow's 1959 Mercedes brought $130,000, with proceeds going to Joplin schools.

The sale price was announced on Monday by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, which is overseeing fund-raising for more than 20 different needs in Joplin, including school buildings and supplies.

"It was thrilling," said Louise Whall Knauer, senior vice president of the foundation. "The estimated price was $50,000 to $80,000."

Crow is a Missouri native and former teacher. The identity of the winning bidder was not revealed.

(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110822/us_nm/us_joplin_businesses

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Gone to Splitsville: Celebrity Breakups

The former reality star has separated from former NFL pro Ed Hartwell. See more celeb pairs who are back to going solo

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/gone-splitsville-celebrity-breakups/1-b-16462

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