Lochte, Arpaio, & EpiPens

More details have come out about the vandalism in Rio that Ryan Lochte and his three swim buds caused. Apparently there wasn’t as much damage as first reported and that Lochte hadn’t done any more than pull down a poster. But why did they all feel it was necessary to exaggerate the other details? Like the gun held by one of the station security guards, by the amount of money that was taken from them, by their accounting of the time involved and their whereabouts before and after the incident. And why did the security guards exaggerate the details of the incident and say that their guns were only for defending themselves? Lots of gray areas here, and Ryan Lochte stands to lose millions in sponsor money over something that may not be as it first seemed. I wonder if his sponsors will rehire him. I hope so. His reputation has been damaged enough and he doesn’t also need to lose his very lucrative sponsor money.

In the Arizona political scene, we Arizonans now are wondering what we’re going to do about Sheriff Joe Arpaio. For the past twenty-three years, he’s been the tough-guy Sheriff of Maricopa County with his “Tent City” jail, voluntary chain gangs, pink underwear for prisoners, and his views on illegal aliens. He was admired by people all over the country for his toughness. But he has also too often felt he was above the laws he was paid to enforce, accused of abuse of power, his failure to investigate cases of child abuse, and his racial profiling. And he’s cost the county millions ($142 million, to be exact) in law suits against him and the county. Now he’s being charged with three counts of contempt-of-court for his continued racial profiling despite a court order to stop. He's running for reelection, but I think it’s time Joe left office. He’s too old and too crooked. The man is 84 and may have a marble or two missing. One such marble is his continued belief that Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii and thus shouldn’t be our president. He and another loose cannon share that belief—Donald Trump.

I went to the drug store to pick up a prescription for my wife, Xarelto, 90 pills for $495.94. The young man at the counter sort of gasped when he saw the cost, and I just looked at him and shrugged, “Hey, what are you going to do?” I guess the word “exorbitant” might apply. This isn’t the first case we’ve run into where the charge for a prescription drug was gaspingly high. I remember when I needed a tube of cream for the psoriasis on my legs. I think I may have blotted the name of it from my memory. I do remember the cost, though, around $300 for a 60 gram tube. Then and now I have to wonder how pharmaceutical companies can justify such price gouging. Now we have the news that Mylan, the company that makes the EpiPen, an injection for children and adults who have an anaphylaxis allergic reaction, have raised their prices from $249 for a two-pack of shots to $615. Either price is exorbitant, but why raise it to an even higher exorbitance? I realize that we are already a nation of too many regulations, but can’t the FDA regulate the prices for pharmaceuticals? Let the companies justify their prices with the FDA.

Books, anyone?