Older Americans have increasingly turned to using illegal drugs in recent years, according to new figures out of Washington. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that a little more than 9% of Americans aged 12 and older (about 24 million people) were current consumers of illicit substances. But among aging Baby Boomers, the rate of drug use has doubled and even tripled. For individuals 50 to 54 years old, the rate leaped from 3.4% in 2002 to 7.2% last year.   read more

Woodward’s attorneys have argued that the charges should be dismissed because their client was facing an “imminent” threat. They supported their motion for dismissal by citing Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and the “Bush Doctrine,” which the administration of George W. Bush used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq (and preempt Saddam Hussein’s purported plans to use weapons of mass destruction).   read more

Brandi Johnson, who is African-American, filed a lawsuit in New York after she was subjected to a tirade and called a “nigger” multiple times by her boss, Rob Carmona, the founder of the non-profit employment center, STRIVE International. Carmona is black and of Puerto Rican descent. The jury sided with Johnson who claimed she was subjected to a hostile work environment. The defendant was ordered to pay $250,000 in compensatory damages and $30,000 in punitive damages.   read more

It took months to arrange the August 31 meeting between the historic enemies, and while the discussion was civil, no new understandings were reached. But the meeting took place, and in the eyes of some observers, that was enough. Those attending the meeting inside a Parkway Plaza hotel conference room were four members of the NAACP’s Casper branch, which initiated the get together, and John Abarr, an organizer for the United Klans of America.   read more

The games draw significant online audiences, up to 1.7 million unique viewers. By comparison, a typical National Hockey League game on network television last season drew a quarter of that audience. The World Championship final for League of Legends will be held October 4, at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings. The winning team will take home $1 million.   read more

The ruling came in the case of Kubert v. Best. Linda and David Kubert both lost their left legs when their motorcycle was struck in September 2009 by 18-year-old Kyle Best, who got distracted while texting with longtime friend Shannon Colonna, then seventeen. After settling their lawsuit with Best, the Kuberts sought damages from Colonna, claiming that her texting to Best while he was driving was negligent and caused their injuries. The appeals court agreed with the Kuberts—up to a point.   read more

Rao was hooked up to an electroencephalograph (EEG), which measures electrical activity in the brain. The device relayed a thought—moving his finger to press the space bar on a keyboard to play a video game—to a computer that sent the information over the Internet to Rao’s associate, Andrea Stocco, who like Rao wore a blue swimming cap with a magnetic stimulation coil affixed over his left motor cortex. The result: When Rao thought about moving his right hand, Stocco’s moved.   read more

Hazle told WestCare California, Inc., a private company that contracts with the state to provide substance abuse coordination services, that he was an atheist, and requested assignment to a non-religious treatment program. They sent him to Empire Recovery Center, where he found they used a 12-step program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous, including references to “God” and a “higher power.” Hazle refused to attend and was thrown back in prison for 125 days.   read more

Solzhenitsyn’s three-volume narrative about the Soviet-era forced labor camps was written between 1958 and 1968, smuggled out of the U.S.S.R., and first published in the West in 1973. The word “gulag” has been used by critics to describe Guantánamo. Solzhenitsyn’s work isn’t the only book kept from detainees. Last month, all of John Grisham’s books were banned at the prison.   read more

On September 1, the city’s mayor will once again oversee the police. Not since 1861 have city leaders controlled those responsible for maintaining law and order in Missouri’s second largest city. The city lost its authority over the police just before the outbreak of the Civil War, when pro-South politicians wanted to keep Union sympathizers in St. Louis from gaining power.   read more

Bower was later informed of her positive drug result, which was used by a LCCYS caseworker to remove the baby from her mother—even though the child tested negative for opiates. Bower denied using any drugs, and claimed the Supreme Pasta dressing she ate before going into labor contained poppy seeds. Mother and child were kept apart for 75 days, and after being reunited, Bower sued LCCYS.   read more

The common link among the 10 counties is frustration with the Democratic-controlled legislature, which has been accused of ignoring the concerns of northern Coloradoans on issues like gun control, oil and gas drilling and renewable energy. Liberals have made fun of the secession talk, saying the new state could be called “Weldistan” or “Fracktopia.”   read more

An architecture graduate student at Qazvin’s Azad University, where she also studies calligraphy and martial arts, Moradi ran a visually striking campaign with the slogan “Young Ideas for a Young Future,” attracting strong support from younger voters—and disdain from conservative older male candidates who complained that her campaign was “not observing the Islamic norms.”   read more

Paul Fronczak told the Chicago Tribune. “I think that the perfect ending would be to find the real Paul, see that he's doing well and then on the same day find my real family. It would also be nice to have an actual birth date that I could believe in.”   read more

David Johnson, 32, is running as a Republican. He was nominated at the Waterville Republican City Committee caucus, where only six voters showed up. Jennifer Johnson, 36, says she decided only at the last minute to run for the same seat, but as a Democrat, after no one else at the Democratic caucus volunteered to do it. “It’s kind of a pride thing between the two of us, for bragging rights for the rest of our lives,” Jennifer Johnson told the Maine Today.   read more

The San Mateo Union High School District is now suing ETS and the College Board on behalf of 286 students at Mills High School whose exam scores were thrown out. ETS and College Board take the position that because students were facing each other, they had the opportunity to cheat, even if there was no evidence that they had actually done so.   read more