Author: Ring of Fire Staff

He had only one job to do, suppress the vote and deliver Florida for Mitt Romney. Despite limiting early voting days and ensuring excruciatingly long lines at polling places, the Gov. failed to deliver. It is days after the election and we still have no “official” results, but the rest of the country, including the national Republican party, has concluded that Obama will win in Florida. Despite the debacle of long lines and delayed vote counts, we should not expect that Gov. Scott will now apologize for signing the bill to shorten early voting. But an apology from Gov....

Florida remains the only state that has yet to declare its presidential winner in the already decided presidential election. Two days have passed since President Barack Obama won re-election, and Florida is still counting votes. Florida has earned a bad reputation since the Bush v. Gore election in 2000. Some blame the delay on an unexpectedly high number of absentee ballots and a complex 10-page ballot which included eleven proposed state constitutional amendments. Others blame Governor Rick Scott’s decision to shorten the early voting period from 14 days to just 8 days, which cut out voting on Sunday, two...

By Cameron Stephenson November 7th, 2012  12:00pm Last week, Pfizer Inc. announced it will plead guilty to criminal charges brought by the Department of Justice for violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act regarding the marketing of the drug Rapamune.  Rapamune, developed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired later by Pfizer, Inc. in 2009, was originally developed as an immunosuppressant to help prevent rejection of donor kidney organs following transplant operations.  However, in direct violation U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, the company engaged in illegal marketing efforts aimed at promoting use of the drug...

By Virginia Buchanan November 7th, 2012  8:00am Pressure to assure the safety of energy drinks for adolescents and teens continues to mount in light of reports of deaths to the FDA.  As concerns about the safety of caffeinated energy drinks grow, at least one major city has demanded proof of the drug maker’s statements about safety. The City of San Francisco notified Monster Beverage this week about its concerns.  Monster, a publicly traded entity, was told via letter that it should provide substantiation of its slogan to Monster Energy consumers that they “can never get too much of a...

By Peter Mougey November 6th, 2012  12:00pm Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Department of Enforcement fined David Lerner and Associates (DLA) more than $14 Million dollars.  After a several month investigation, FINRA concluded that DLA had not performed adequate investigation to fulfill its suitability obligations. DLA targeted elderly and unsophisticated investors to buy the illiquid securities that used leverage to further increase the risk.  FINRA found that DLA made false, exaggerated, and misleading claims regarding investment returns, performance and prospects to over a thousand customers. Furthermore, DLA mischaracterized the risks to its own customers despite the fact that FINRA...