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February 05, 2014 | | POLITICS AS USUAL Association with two Ecuadrian bankers convicted of embezzlement has landed Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, in hot water with the feds. Now, it turns out Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also acted as an advocate for the bankers and their families after receiving $20,000 in campaign donations. Josh Rogin reports. HEALTH NUTS In a move that will cost the company $2 billion in sales a year, CVS/Caremark will no longer sell cigarettes and other tobacco products beginning in October. The country's largest drugstore chain has overall sales of $123 billion, and has been transitioning towards becoming more of a health care provider, rather than a general retail outlet. "We have about 26,000 pharmacists and nurse practitioners helping patients manage chronic problems like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and heart disease, all of which are linked to smoking. We came to the decision that cigarettes and providing health care just don't go together in the same setting," said CEO Larry J. Merlo. NEW DETAILS In addition to envelopes of heroin, detectives have found a rambling journal in the apartment of Philip Seymour Hoffman, reports Michael Daly. While investigators are going through the journals in hopes they will shed some light on Hoffman's death, regulars of his local AA chapter say they wish he had been more involved in rehab. almost law It's only taken two years. President Obama is expected to sign the new farm bill into law on Friday at Michigan State University. The bill, which the Senate passed on Tuesday 68 to 32, is a $956 billion piece of legislation to reauthorize hundreds of agriculture, conservation, nutritional, and dairy programs. It is set to reduce spending on farm subsidies and nutrition over the next 10 years by $16.6 billion. Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps, are the most controversial, and will reduce benefits for 1.7 million people. CONFESSION TIME The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report on child abuse in the Catholic Church, criticizing the Vatican for creating a system that allowed priests to sexually abuse thousands of children. The report argues that by refusing to release data on abuse, the Vatican is concealing the crimes of the clergy and failing to fully acknowledge the offences. The UN also called for an immediate removal of all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers. The report singled out in particular the Church's policy of "offenders' mobility" that transfers abusive priests from parish to parish, and put "children in many countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children." | | 
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