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The Food and Drug Administration is redoubling efforts to crack down on a Texas compounding pharmacy it has repeatedly accused of producing contaminated medicines. The FDA issued a formal request that Downing Labs, which operates the the Dallas-based NuVision Pharmacy, recall all of its sterile products after an inspection performed this summer found numerous problems with the facility reports The Wall Street Journal. Inspection Uncovered ‘At Least 19’ Contaminated Drug Lots According to a letter sent by the FDA to Downing Labs requesting the recall last week, inspections of the Dallas facility this summer found that at least 19 lots of supposedly sterile drugs produced at the facility tested positive for microbial contamination and three more failed tests for bacterial endotoxin....

Gene Hackman allegedly slapped a homeless man in Santa Fe, N.M. Police say the 82-year-old actor was acting in self defense, so it’s unlikely that Hackman will face criminal charges. The Academy Award winning actor reportedly owns a home in the Sante Fe area, and the homeless man had become aggressive towards Hackman and his wife, writes The Associated Press. However, the response must be proportional: The use of self-defense must match the level of the threat in question....

It hasn’t been a great year for General Motors. The auto manufacturer has been plagued with recalls and lawsuits regarding potentially deadly ignition switch defects. In all, GM’s faulty ignition switch has been tied to at least 124 deaths. Now the company is paying $900 million to the criminal charges related to the ignition switch. So where does GM go from here, and what will the settlement mean for existing civil lawsuits?...

New York State Police officers got a two-for-one deal when a man called in to report being side-swiped by a drunken driver – only to find himself arrested as well for driving high. The Daily Freeman reports that Albany resident Malcolm Sidbury called in a hit-and-run accident on the Taconic State Parkway. Officers tracked down the alleged hit-and-run driver, Thomas Robbins, and arrested him for a number of vehicle violations including driving while intoxicated....

Here’s one for your list of things not to do. A Houston woman stole another woman’s purse and eventually her identity, and then went on quite the shopping trip. She even had the gall to go to Sam’s Club and open up a membership using the stolen identification. Of course, in the short term, the Sam’s Club photo made it easy for her to fraudulently purchase items from the store. But in the long term, it gave the police a perfect photo to use to track her down....

The Mega Millions jackpot hit a record-breaking $540 million on Thursday morning, and has been confirmed as the largest jackpot in history. The number is expected to grow even more before Friday, when the multistate lottery will draw the winning numbers. As lottery fever overtakes the nation, you might have noticed a growing number of office lottery pools. If you trust your co-workers, tossing in a few bucks may seem like a great idea....

A model used on the album cover of a Vampire Weekend record is suing the band for $2 million dollars. Kristen Kennis, who is also suing the photographer and the band’s record company, XL Recordings, says she never authorized the indie band to use her photo on the cover of “Contra,” their latest release. The cover features Kennis wearing a yellow Polo shirt which was originally taken when she was modeling in New York in 1983....

The manufacturer of blood-thinning medication heparin is recalling most of its heparin products after an increase in the number of patient deaths potentially linked to the drugs. Baxter International is expanding a recall originally announced on January 17, 2008, and is withdrawing all remaining doses of its multi-dose heparin sodium injection, single-dose vials, and HEP-LOCK heparin flush products. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that the underlying cause of “adverse events” related to Baxter’s heparin sodium is still unknown and is under investigation....

The way that Hollywood recycles movie plots, you would think that all the good stories have already been told. And pirate stories have been around for centuries. So how do you separate new, original works from the many predecessors? Or, more accurately, how do you prove a new movie based on old pirates isn’t lifted from someone else’s work? One way is to show them that you have even older artwork, pre-dating their own and ask them to sign a release, absolving you from future copyright liability....

The Obama administration is looking for drug clemency candidates – meaning some lucky prison inmates may be getting out early. U.S. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole announced at a New York State Bar Association event Thursday that the Justice Department wanted to send more names to the White House for clemency consideration, The New York Times reports. Cole even took the unusual step of asking criminal defense attorneys to help identify good candidates for clemency....

Oklahoma pharmacist Jerome Ersland has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Earlier, Ersland had been convicted of murder for the death of a would-be robber, Antwun Parker, 16. Ersland, 59, had been hailed as a hero by some. Ersland shot Parker when Parker and another teenager attempted to rob the Reliable Discount Pharmacy, where Ersland works. Ersland claims that he was trying to defend himself and his coworkers....

Rush Limbaugh is facing the music after his crude and possibly defamatory remarks about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. First advertisers, and now some famous musicians, are cutting ties to the right-wing radio host. The band Rush and singer Peter Gabriel are taking steps to stop Rush Limbaugh from using their music on his talk show, The Washington Post reports. Peter Gabriel’s 1986 song “Sledgehammer” was played in the background as Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for her Congressional testimony about birth control....

The painkillers Darvon and Darvocet have been pulled from the market, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. According to new data, propoxyphene, the main ingredient can cause serious or even fatal heart rhythm abnormalities. The FDA has asked Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc. to pull both Darvon and Darvocet from the market. The drugs have been banned in Britain for six years. Dr. John Jenkins of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research said using propoxyphene is not worth the risks: “These new heart data significantly alter propoxyphene’s risk-benefit profile....

If you take 50 Shades of Grey and replace the impossibly handsome Christian Grey with a 46-year old Marine staff sergeant, replace an expansive Seattle condo with a rundown home, and replace endless pages of foreplay with actual torture, then you’ll get an idea of how 22-year-old Brittany Killgore allegedly died. Killgore’s nude body was found last April dumped along a rural road. Three defendants are now answering for her murder and it’s being alleged that the defendants imposed their violent sex fantasy on the unwilling Killgore, eventually killing her, reports the North County Times....

It seems that producers of the new Jersey Shore spinoff have found a new home for Snooki and JWoww: Jersey City. The show has reportedly finally gotten the necessary film permits. But it doesn’t come without any strings attached. The dynamic Shore duo will be under the police department’s thumb. There will be at least four police officers outside of the filming location at all times. The police officers will also be following Snooki and JWoww around during filming....

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had a file on Whitney Houston, reports Reuters. Why? Apparently, there were some crazy incidents surrounding her life and her super-stardom. Three specific episodes were covered in the FBI’s files. Two of those incidents involved crazy fans and one involved possible extortion, according to the Los Angeles Times. In one case, a Whitney fan sent more than 70 letters to the late singer and some of her associates over a 17-month period....

Justin Bieber is trying to get street, but is he in too deep? The pop star’s latest marketing campaign to promote his new album called “Purpose” entails spray painting city streets and the the San Francisco City Attorney is not at all happy about the advertising. Bieber is not the first major commercial artist to subvert rebellion for the purposes of making more money. But he is using permanent paints, unlike guerilla marketing campaigns done in chalk or paste-up, and he might end up paying for it....

Don’t post sexually explicit pictures of a minor on a revenge porn website. Even more importantly, don’t ignore the lawsuit when you get sued! Eric Chanson and Kevin Bollaert, owners of the (now-defunct) revenge porn website YouGotPosted.com, must now pay a $900,000 default judgment to a young girl whose pictures were posted on the site. What did they do, and what is a default judgment? What Happened With the Lawsuit? A young girl sued Chanson and Bollaert after they posted sexually explicit photos of her, with the watermark “You Got Posted” on their revenge porn website....

Matthew Cordle, the Ohio man dubbed the “YouTube DUI Confessor,” has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison and a lifetime loss of driving privileges for aggravated vehicular homicide. In his video confession, which has drawn more than 2 million hits on YouTube, Cordle “accept[ed] full responsibility” for his actions and was prepared to face a lengthy prison sentence, reports The Columbus Dispatch. But will he actually have to serve the full sentence?...

On July 7, a California jury awarded a large verdict against Skilled Healthcare Group Inc, for its violations of California’s health and safety code by not providing the minimum 3.2 hours of direct nursing care per day to patients at its 22 facilities. The verdict of $671 million in damages covered only $613 million in statutory damages and $58 million in restitution. The jury has not yet reached the punitive damages portion of the trial....