DEA: 1.8M counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl seized in crackdown

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/10/01/counterfiet-pills-fentanyl-seizure/3301633065514/

Oct. 1 (UPI) – Law enforcement agents seized more than 1.8 million counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl and arrested 810 people in a nationwide two-month crackdown on the illicit black market drugs officials said are contributing to the nation's overdose crisis.

Officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department announced the results of the nationwide law enforcement effort launched Aug. 3 during a press conference on Thursday, saying agents also seized 8,842 pounds of methamphetamines, 1,395 pounds of cocaine and 1,570 pounds of fentanyl powder, enough to make 10 million pills, as well as 158 weapons.

Authorities said the amount of fentanyl-laced pills confiscated during the operation could have killed more than 700,000 Americans.

Manny Pacquiao, Just Retired From Boxing, Files Bid for Philippine Presidency

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/manny-pacquiao-newly-retired-files-bid-philippine-presidency/2670864/

Newly retired boxing star Manny Pacquiao filed his certificate of candidacy for the Philippine presidency Friday as registration opened for candidates seeking to lead a Southeast Asian nation that has been hit hard by the pandemic and deep political conflicts.

Pacquiao and Duterte were staunch allies until they had a well-publicized falling out this year as the elections season loomed. The two and their camps fought over control of the ruling party and Duterte threatened to campaign against Pacquiao if the boxing legend could not prove his remarks that corruption has worsened under the current administration.

“Those who take advantage of the nation, stealing, robbing the Filipino nation, your happy days of taking advantage in the government are already numbered because if the Lord places me there, I promise not only to the Filipino people, but also my promise to God, that they all will be put in prison,” Pacquiao told reporters after registering his candidacy.

The 42-year-old senator announced his retirement from boxing Wednesday after winning fans with his rags-to-riches life story and legendary career.

Duterte, 76, has accepted the ruling party’s nomination for him to run as vice president in a move that whipped up a constitutional debate and shocked opponents who have long condemned him as a human rights calamity.

Alito rebuffs criticism of Supreme Court's "shadow docket" and says justices aren't "dangerous cabal"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/samuel-alito-supreme-court-shadow-docket-dangerous-cabal/

Justice Samuel Alito pushed back Thursday against criticism, including some from colleagues, that recent Supreme Court actions in major cases have been done hastily and in the shadows. "A dangerous cabal" improperly deciding important matters? Hardly, he said.

Alito, in remarks at the University of Notre Dame, took aim at critics of three recent decisions in which the court's conservatives prevailed over dissents by liberals.

All three cases came to the court as emergency motions and were decided quickly and without the court's more typical full briefing and oral argument. That process has been called the court's "shadow docket."

"Our decisions in these three emergency matters have been criticized by those who think we should have decided them the other way, and I have no trouble with fair criticism of the substance of those decisions," Alito said.

He added: "My complaint concerns all the media and political talk about our sinister 'shadow docket.' The truth of the matter is that there was nothing new or shadowy about the procedures we followed in those cases - it's hard to see how we could handle most emergency matters any differently."

It was also in that decision that Alito's colleague, Justice Elena Kagan, said the majority's ruling "illustrates just how far the Court's 'shadow-docket' decisions may depart from the usual principles of appellate process."

The majority made a significant ruling without any guidance from an appeals court and then after reviewing "only the most cursory party submissions, and then only hastily," Kagan wrote. She accused her colleagues of barely bothering to explain their conclusion.

Roberts also criticized the case's path to the court, saying the justices were asked to "resolve these novel questions - at least preliminarily - in the first instance, in the course of two days" without oral argument, additional briefs and guidance from lower courts.

Alito went through and rejected 10 different criticisms of the court's emergency practices, from the argument that emergency orders are "secretive" to the fact that they aren't typically signed by the justice who wrote them.

**it seems we have some infighting in SCOTUS happening