tagged w/ VG-blog-featured
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Last year, the Vanguard team was shaken when two of our colleagues and friends, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were held against their will in North Korea for over four months. On May 19, their story will finally be told.
The Vanguard team has continued to chase important stories, and in the new season we'll take you across the globe, investigating issues and telling stories in ways that no one else is telling them.
We'll have exclusive sneak peeks online in the coming weeks. Then tune in to Current TV on Wednesday, May 19 for "Captive in North Korea."
Read the press release about our new season: http://current.com/s/news.htm
Watch a sneak peek in which correspondent Mariana van Zeller investigates the rising influence of American evangelical groups on anti-gay laws and attitudes in Uganda: http://current.com/1h3ig4cLast year, the Vanguard team was shaken when two of our colleagues and friends, Laura... more
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In an exclusive sneak peek from this coming season of Vanguard, correspondent Adam Yamaguchi investigates one of the world's biggest public health crises: the 2.6 billion people living without toilets. The episode premieres on Current TV on June 9.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
Watch more at http://current.com/vanguard.In an exclusive sneak peek from this coming season of Vanguard, correspondent Adam... more
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In an exclusive sneak peek from this coming season of Vanguard, correspondent Mariana van Zeller investigates the rising influence of American evangelical groups on anti-gay laws and attitudes in Uganda. The episode premieres on Current TV on May 26.
Vanguard, airing weekly on Wednesdays at 10PM/9PM CT, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
Watch more at http://current.com/vanguard.In an exclusive sneak peek from this coming season of Vanguard, correspondent Mariana... more
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This time last year, we were deep into production on "The OxyContin Express," the Vanguard documentary about prescription drug abuse and the pain clinics in South Florida that have become the source of a black market trade in pills.
While reporting, we came across one pain clinic whose reputation surpassed all others. Law enforcement in Kentucky and West Virginia had drawers full of seized pill bottles with its name and address. Prisoners and addicts from Florida to Appalachia spoke of the ease with which this clinic handed out large doses of Oxycodone and Xanax.
It was this reputation that led us to try and film the Palm Beach clinic, American Pain. If you’ve seen the piece, you know that led us to be chased by goons in luxury cars down I-95.
Long story short: Everyone knew about this place. Everyone, it turns out, including the DEA.
Last month, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, along with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, raided three pain clinics in Florida, including the clinic we were chased away from.
The Feds are working on a case against the clinic’s owners, twin brothers who the Miami Herald earlier reported have criminal records and no medical training.
Here are a few highlights from the civil forfeiture complaint that spells out the evidence prosecutors have gathered thus far:
A doctor at American Pain told an undercover agent how that clinic alone saw around 250 people/day from South Carolina, Ohio and Kentucky.
American Pain obtained over 2 million pills of Oxycontin in 2009.This figure does not include Oxycodone prescriptions written by American Pain doctors but filled elsewhere.
The average salary for the five doctors working at American Pain in 2009 was more than $1 million per year. Evidence points to the fact that they get paid according to how many patients they see. The more patients, the more money.
More than $14 million in cash deposits were made into American Pain bank accounts in 2009.
Of the top 20 doctor purchasers of oxy in the country, five worked at American Pain in 2009.
One of the brothers/owners reportedly piled up about $40 million in assets.
Here’s how the Florida daily, The Sun Sentinel, led their story about the investigation:
Chris and Jeff George drove flashy cars, amassed property and made multimillion-dollar deals, radiating wealth and success while clients of their pain clinics got high and, in some cases, died, federal prosecutors allege in documents filed in U.S. District Court.
Supporting the twin brothers' lavish lifestyle was a stream of dirty cash from drug traffickers who routed painkillers to Kentucky, Ohio and South Carolina, prosecutors allege.
While reporting "The OxyContin Express," Sgt. Richard Pisanti of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department compared the situation in South Florida to the Miami Vice days. "In the '80s and '90s cocaine was a big thing," he told us. "Now prescriptions have just exploded."
The difference is that in the '80s it was some Colombian drug lord supplying the goods. Today it’s doctor's offices that exploit loopholes in Florida's laws to maintain a thin veneer of legitimacy. Loopholes, it appears now, that are wide enough for a drug kingpin to amass a $40 million fortune.
As Kentucky Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo told us, "Pablo Escobar couldn't have had it any better."
But as it eventually did for Pablo, time might be running out for Florida's pill mills. The statistics speak for themselves. American Pain’s owners have yet to be charged, and they’ve reportedly hired a high profile defense attorney.
Even a conviction wouldn’t end illegal oxy dealing—but shutting down American Pain will almost certainly put a big dent in the number of pills handed out in Florida.
Watch "The OxyContin Express" after the jump below.
This time last year, we were deep into production on "The OxyContin... more
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This week, most Somalian radio stations abruptly stopped playing music or international news programs.
According to the New York Times:
At least 14 radio stations...stopped broadcasting music on Tuesday, heeding an ultimatum by an Islamist insurgent group to stop playing songs or face "serious consequences." ...
The insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, issued its ultimatum 10 days ago and set Tuesday as the deadline to comply, saying that music was “un-Islamic.” In other parts of the country, insurgents have taken over or shut down some radio stations. Last week, the Shabab, the country’s most powerful insurgent group, said it was banning foreign programs like those broadcast by the BBC and Voice of America, calling them Western propaganda that violated Islam.
I interviewed the leader of Hizbul-Islam, Sheikh Hassan Aweys, back in 2006 when Kaj and I were in Somalia shooting "Mogadishu Madness" for Vanguard.
Back then he was the spiritual leader of the Islamic Court Union. In the piece, we covered his earlier attempts at helping the ICU implement Sharia law and the reaction from the Somali community when he did so.
We captured exclusive footage of the uneasy peace that prevailed, albeit briefly, and interviewed other Islamist leaders who held the city, exposing the stated goals and fears of people the U.S. government branded as terrorists.
Shortly after we returned to the U.S. to show viewers what we had seen, Ethiopian troops, backed by U.S. forces, invaded Somalia and drove the Islamists into hiding. The country returned to a state of war. In retrospect, was the U.S. justified in backing Ethiopia to invade Somalia so they could overthrow the Islamic government that Aweys had helped establish?
Things certainly got a whole lot worse. As a journalist, of course I cringe at the idea of banning a free press. But if 20 years of fighting has taught us anything, its that its time to start thinking outside the box when it comes to bringing stability to Somalia.
I wonder if Aweys would grant us an interview today or if we’d be banned along with the rest of the press. Certainly makes me look at this whole radio ban differently.This week, most Somalian radio stations abruptly stopped playing music or... more
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