Prescription Drugs, Used Syringes, Bags of Heroin: Philip Seymour Hoffman's Final Days

By Jenny Depper 20 hours ago Yahoo Celebrity

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Philip Seymour Hoffman attends The Ides of March Premiere during the 68th Venice International Film Festival. …

UPDATE: Authorities investigating the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman told ABC News that they found 5 empty and as many as 65 full glassine-type bags of heroin in his New York City apartment on Sunday.  Investigators also found several bottles of prescription drugs and more than 20 used syringes in a plastic cup, CNN reports.  The bagged substances, which were marked with "Ace of Hearts" and "Ace of Spades," could have been laced with Fentanyl, an opiate that has been blamed for several deaths in the Northeast recently. Police are reportedly investigating whether Hoffman received a laced dose of heroin, which lead to his death.
"Dozens of individuals in the Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit areas have overdosed on a combination of heroin (or cocaine) and fentanyl, a narcotic analgesic that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine — and some have died. A powerful opiate pain reliever typically used after surgery or to treat patients with severe pain, fentanyl, like many prescription medications, can be deadly when abused," says the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

On Monday, NYPD reportedly launched an extensive investigation to track down Hoffman's dealer. An eyewitness allegedly told police investigators that he believed he saw Hoffman withdrawing a large sum of money from a bank ATM on Saturday night in the West Village and meeting with two men. 
Despite the bevy of drug paraphernalia found inside Hoffman's apartment, those who saw the Oscar-winning actor in the final days leading up to his death reported that nothing seemed amiss.  "He lived around the corner from me," one of his former neighbors told Yahoo. "I would see him around the neighborhood all the time, sometimes walking with his kids." At the coffee shop where she'd see him most often, "He was a local, a friend of the shop, no one treated him like a celebrity or like someone they couldn’t approach — it was nice to see."

The day before his passing he stopped by Chocolate Bar, a coffeehouse that he often enjoyed. "He was fine," assistant manager Kate St. Cyr told DNAInfo.com. "He's been in a great mood, really happy."

Philip Seymour Hoffman poses for a tintype portrait at The Collective and Gibson Lounge Powered by CEG.

Later on, he enjoyed another one of his neighborhood haunts, Automatic Slims, with a friend. The pair enjoyed a quiet dinner and Hoffman tucked into a cheeseburger and a cranberry and soda, reports People. A bartender at the locale reported that he "seemed fine."  His assistant also told authorities the same thing when recalling a conversation she had with him at around 1:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
But while fine seems to be the word most are using to describe the star, things are not always what they seem.
In January, he did fulfill work obligations promoting his film "God's Pocket" at the Sundance Film Festival with Christina Hendricks and director John Slattery. The 46-year-old star even posed for a tintype portrait for photographer Victoria Will on Jan. 19.

However, the photograph of Hoffman taken at Sundance shows very different side of the actor, who struggled with drug addiction for more than 20 years. His expression seems downtrodden and vacant, with the eerie image almost foreshadowing his tragic and untimely death.  And though Vanity Fair's Krista Smith told CNN that Hoffman was "completely jovial and warm" and "present and engaged" during her interview with the actor at Sundance, she noted that he had put on quite a bit of weight. Other festival observers also remarked that he looked "ill and pasty."

Aside from his appearance, Hoffman was known to be as intense in real life as he was on screen. A source close to the actor told Fox411, "He was always quite intense, a little bit paranoid, and troubled. Addiction was always going to be a constant struggle for him but this is so unexpected. He was an incredibly knowledgeable person and so concerned with problems and issues around the world. He was one of those people with such an awakened mind he couldn’t switch off."

Mimi O'Donnell, Hoffman's ex and the mother of his three children, told authorities that when she saw him near his apartment at 2 p.m. ET Saturday, she thought he looked high. Speaking to him six hours later, O'Donnell said he still seemed high and never showed up at her home the following morning to pick up their kids.

There's no word yet on funeral or memorial plans for the Oscar winner, but Broadway will be dimming its marquee lights in his honor on Wednesday night at 7:45 p.m. ET. This is a common tradition to celebrate the life and contribution of fallen members of the theater community.

Original Story Found at http://celebrity.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/prescription-drugs-and-used-syringes-present-in-psh-s-final-days-191855531.html

Super Bowl XLVIII Believed to have been Rigged and Currently Under Investigation by NFL

 

EAST RUTHERFORD – After The Seattle Seahawks victory over the Denver Broncos at the NFL’s 48th Super Bowl with a final score of 43-8, NFL officials have just discovered that the game was most likely rigged. NFL officials have just found clues that might prove the game was rigged. Officials believe the Broncos intentionally lost the championship in exchange for a large amount of money.

Super Bowl referee Terry McAulay told reporters he sensed something strange when he overhead Broncos Quarterback Peyton Manning allegedly asking Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll “When are you going to pay up?”. McAulay immediately became suspicious and notified other officials and that’s when it all started. The NFL is currently investigating the situation and looking for evidence to prove the game was rigged. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters “This is like that Chicago White Sox scandal back in 1919, I can’t believe this, they ruined the sport, I just can’t believe it”.
However, NFL officials do not think every player on both teams were in on the deal, but only certain players in both team, If evidence is found that the game was rigged, those players will be heavily fined and suspended for a very long period of time if not banned from playing professional Football for the rest of their lives.

Original story found at http://huzlers.com/superbowl-xlviii-believed-to-have-been-rigged-and-currently-under-investigation-by-nfl/

Obama to sign executive order raising minimum wage for federal contractors

Jan. 23, 2014: President Obama in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.AP

President Obama, in the first of potentially many executive actions tied to his State of the Union address, will unilaterally increase the minimum wage for workers under new federal contracts to $10.10 an hour, from $7.25, in an effort to build momentum for a minimum wage hike for all Americans.
The executive order, which had been pushed by progressive Democratic lawmakers, applies to all contractors performing services for the federal government and would affect more than 2 million employees, according to an administration official.
The president will then use Tuesday night's address to press Congress to pass a Democratic plan to increase the overall federal wage to $10.10 over three years, then indexing it to inflation, while also raising the minimum wage for tipped workers, the official said.
Critics of the minimum wage push claim that raising the rate could have an adverse effect, discouraging businesses from hiring more workers at a time when the government is trying to spur job growth.
"The minimum wage is mostly an entry level wage for young people," Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell told "Fox News Sunday." "We have a crisis in employment among young people right now, and generation 18 to 30, people that got out of college, are finding there are no jobs for them. The last thing we want to do is have even fewer jobs for younger people."
But the president is reviving the issue as he tries to focus again on the economy. Obama, who does not have the power to unilaterally raise the minimum wage for private sector workers, also used last year's State of the Union speech to call for a federal minimum wage hike.
“Let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour,” the president said to applause in his 2013 address.
The new executive order affects only future contracts, not existing ones, and would only apply to contract renewals if other terms of the agreement changed. As a result, the order would benefit far fewer workers than the number foreseen by advocates of federal contract employees.
House Speaker John Boehner downplayed the impact the latest executive order would have. "Let's understand something: this affects not one current contract, it only affects future contracts with the federal government. And so I think the question is, how many people, Mr. President will this executive action actually help? I suspect the answer is somewhere close to zero," he said Tuesday.
In December, Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., co-chairmen of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote the president urging him to take the "bold step" of signing an executive order to increase wages for federal contractors, GovExec.com reported.
At the time, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a lukewarm response when asked about the lawmakers' request, according to the report.
“This has always been done legislatively. And it has been done with support from Republicans and not just Democrats in the past,” Carney said.
Obama, in an effort to avoid the appearance of being a lame duck president, is expected to use Tuesday's State of the Union address to make clear his intentions to use his executive powers to achieve his goals when Congress fails to pass legislation.
Minimum wage is a perennial issue that has taken on a higher profile amid the slowly recovering economy and growing public debate about income inequality. A Quinnipiac University poll this month found 71 percent of Americans in favor of raising the minimum wage — including more than half of Republicans polled.
Five states passed minimum wage measures last year, and advocates hope that number will grow as states from New Hampshire to Washington consider proposals. Many would push families above the federal poverty line, which is $15,730 for a family of two. In Iowa, a bill would hike the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10.
Democrats across the political spectrum have lobbied for a higher minimum wage this year, after Obama got the ball rolling on the issue by calling for an increase in his February budget speech. Since then, union-organized demonstrations in front of profitable mega-chains such as Wal-Mart and McDonald's have kept it in the public eye.

Original Story found here http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/28/obama-to-raise-federal-minimum-wage-in-executive-action-tied-to-state-union/

Once-in-a-generation Winter Storm Descends on Deep South

In Chicago and much of the rest of the Midwest, several days of sub-zero temperatures have taken their toll. And on Tuesday, a number of Southern cities will be feeling the chill, as well. NBC's John Yang reports.

By M. Alex Johnson, Alexander Smith and Erin McClam, NBC News

A brutal winter freeze began to descend on the Deep South early Tuesday with a huge swath of the region in the crosshairs of a storm that forecasters called "potentially paralyzing."  The storm was still in its infancy at 3:30 a.m. ET but meteorologists at The Weather Channel said they already had reports of sleet and freezing rain in parts of Texas and Louisiana.  Schools from the Lone Star State to Florida earlier announced that they would close Tuesday, and the storm is playing havoc with air travel. As of 6:45 a.m. ET, airlines had cancelled 2,665 flights across the country, with Atlanta's Hartsfield–Jackson and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental airports bearing the brunt,


Winter storm alerts have been issued by the National Weather Service all the way from central Texas eastward through the Gulf Coast into Georgia, the Carolinas and far southeast Virginia.

Nearly 60 million people are affected by a cold weather warning or watch Monday night. By Friday, however, temperatures will rise above normal for much of the country. NBC News' Al Roker reports.

Weather Channel meteorologist Nick Wiltgen described it as a "potentially paralyzing winter storm." And the forecaster’s winter weather expert, Tom Niziol, said the South was in for weather "that many parts have not seen in years" — perhaps the biggest winter weather event in a generation.

The nasty weather will reach so far south that Johnson Space Center, in Houston, said it would be closed.
The the biggest snow threat lay in eastern and central Texas, including Houston, and stretched to southeast Virginia. Eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia would have the greatest chance of getting more than six inches of snow, according to The Weather Channel.

The winter storm is traveling south-eastwards and the wintry mix will dip as low as the Florida Panhandle on Tuesday. By Wednesday, it will have started to bend up the East Coast, where it will travel as far north as Providence, Rhode Island, before moving offshore by lunchtime. Several factors will decide whether ice and snow will stick to the roads across the region, said Kevin Roth, lead meteorologist at The Weather Channel. Temperatures may not be as low as in the North, where this type of weather is more common, but Southern states are far less prepared to deal with the conditions.  Two other elements are at play: The South has been experiencing below-average temperatures for much of January, but with it being more than a month after the Winter Solstice the sun angle is higher and therefore between at melting ice and snow.
For merchants in Louisiana, business was booming Monday as residents flocked to hardware and grocery stores.

"I'm almost out of all the electric heaters, the propane heaters, and a lot of propane," Lance Butler, owner of Sullivan's Hardware in the town of Central, told NBC station WVLA of Baton Rouge. "It's just about like it would [be] if it was before a hurricane coming," Butler said.

Jennifer Shephard / The Elkhart Truth via AP

A man waves to thank the driver of a passing car for giving he and a friend room on the road as they walk in Elkhart, Ind., during heavy snow Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Great Lakes shivered again under wind chills that approached 50 degrees below zero. School officials in major cities across the region — Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio; Chicago; Milwaukee and Madison, Wis.; Detroit; Minneapolis and Duluth, Minn.; and Indianapolis — said classes would be canceled Tuesday.
The University of Michigan said it would be closed Tuesday — the first time that's happened because of weather in 35 years.
"We're going to be talking about some seriously cold mornings," with temperatures as much as 35 degrees below normal for what is already historically the coldest time of the year, Weather Channel meteorologist Alex Winter said.
Lows overnight into Tuesday were forecast to plummet to 5 degrees below zero in Detroit and 20 below in Chicago, where school was already called off for Tuesday and whose airports scrapped more than 530 flights Monday.
The frigid weather was arriving just as a nationwide shortage of propane — which about 14 million Americans use to heat their homes — was reaching critical proportions.
With prices more than doubling from $2 a gallon to more than $4 last week, the governors of Minnesota and Illinois declared states of emergency Monday, urging residents to cut back and regulators to lift restrictions on shipping to their states.
The demand from Midwestern states threatened to strain supplies in otherwise well-stocked Southern states, said Greg Rodes of Southern Flame Propane in Lexington, S.C.

Origional story located at http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/27/22466322-once-in-a-generation-winter-storm-descends-on-deep-south?lite