Quick Picks: Pill Mills and Bailout Maneuvers

by Alexandra Andrews
ProPublica, April 6, 2009, 11:09 a.m.

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Broward County, Florida, has become the painkiller capital of the U.S., attracting thousands of out-of-state visitors with its glut of “pill mills,” pain clinics that dole out prescription drugs, reports the Miami Herald. Drug overdoses are skyrocketing, but “regulators and police can’t control the problem—handcuffed, they say, by tepid Florida laws that allow these clinics to open in-house pharmacies and sell drugs directly to clients walking in off the street.”

Also, the Obama administration is trying to skirt restrictions that Congress imposed on bailed-out banks, like caps on executive pay, by using special entities as “middlemen” in new bailout initiatives, reports the Washington Post. Some experts question the legality of the move. Administration officials said over the weekend that they’ll comply with the laws but also want to be sure not to “create disincentives” for those participating in programs like the one to buy banks’ toxic assets.

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