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“Sopranos” star James Gandolfini, who struggled with booze addiction in his final weeks, scarfed down a decadent final meal that included at least eight alcoholic drinks, The Post has learned. Gandolfini guzzled four shots of rum, two pina coladas, and two beers at dinner with his son — while he chowed down on two orders of fried king prawns and a “large portion” of foie gras, a hotel source in Rome said. The Emmy Award winner had attended several Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Perry Street in the West Village, but people who saw him there “didn’t think that he was...

Just when the controversy over the banned FourLoko has died down, a beverage company has come out with straight Scotch in a can, just like soda pop. Though there’s been no uproar so far, as was the case with the alcohol-caffeine combo FourLoko, Scottish Spirits’ “Scotch in a Can” is being marketed as a “distilled and matured in Scotland for a minimum of 3 years in oak casks.” It has notes of “honey, vanilla, butterscotch, apples and pears,” and a “hint of peat and smoke in the background,” as described on their site. Each can contains about eight shots or...

Excerpt only website: The government is taking over three Tylenol plants following a blizzard of drug recalls and a Food and Drug Administration criminal investigation into safety issues at the factories. The FDA and the Justice Department on Thursday took action against McNeil PPC and two of its executives -- its vice president of quality and its vice president of operations for over-the-counter products -- for failing to comply with federally-mandated manufacturing practice. McNeil, a division of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500), said it had agreed to put its plants -- one in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, one in...

Adult Stem Cells Provide New Life for Livers By Michael Fumento Scripps Howard News Service, October 20, 2005 Copyright 2005 Scripps Howard News Service I have frequently written on the gulf between the "PROMISE" of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and the REALITY of therapy from adult stem cells (ASCs) – those already in our bodies and umbilical cord blood. ESCs get publicity; ASCs get results. The latest example: ASCs are now rebuilding human livers.  This is a healthy liver . . .   Until now, the only hope for persons with irreversible liver failure from such diseases as cirrhosis, which...

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (Jan. 28, 2005) -- A Marine veteran recently returned in September from a successful combat tour in Iraq only to begin a battle for his own life in the United States. Lance Cpl. Christopher R. LeBleu, a native of Lake Charles, La., is currently in very critical condition in Loma Linda University Hospital, Calif., for an unexplained complete liver failure. The Marine came back Sept. 9, 2004, from Iraq where he conducted support and stabilization operations as a rifleman with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. The month after his return to...