Addiction and Recovery

Soul Food Junkie Cheo Smith gives dishes a healthy spin [RECIPES]

A few weeks back, we reported on the release of a new film called Soul Food Junkies by director Byron Hurt about the unhealthy effects of the high-fat foods that are part of Southern cuisine, particularly on the African-American community. We had a connection to the movie already since local ph ... More >>

Duluth officer Richard Jouppi brutally beat a drunk man in a wheelchair [VIDEO]

Duluth police officer Richard Jouppi, 34, has been placed on paid administrative leave and is under criminal investigation after brutally beating a drunk man in a wheelchair at the Duluth Detoxification Center on September 21.SEE ALSO:-- MPD officer Blayne Lehner shown choking and pepper-spraying pr ... More >>

Rob Koebel, Wisconsin TV reporter, drunkenly asks cop: "Know who you're messing with?"

SEE ALSO:-- Randy Hopper, former Wisconsin GOP senator, says drunk driving arrest politically motivated-- Dashboard cam shows Wisconsin man getting arrested for driving lawn mower while drunk [VIDEO]-- Wis. woman calls 911 to report herself drunk drivingRob Koebel, a TV reporter for Milwaukee-based ... More >>

Derek Boogaard received more than 100 prescriptions before death

Derek Boogaard, the former Wild player whose death made him a poster boy for anti-enforcer sentiment, received more than 100 prescriptions for various pills from NHL team doctors in the years before his death. That's perhaps the most alarming finding in a New York Times report out today that gives ... More >>

Amy Senser was drinking the night she killed Phanthavong, prosecutor says

Amy Senser admitted to a daughter that she was drinking the night she ran over Anousone Phanthavong, a Hennepin County prosecutor said Monday. Deborah Russell, the assistant county attorney who made the statement during a motions hearing in Senser's case, didn't elaborate. Prosecutors revealed ea ... More >>

Joe Senser called rehab center after Amy's hit-and-run

Amy Senser faces criminal vehicular homicide charges​Joe Senser called a rehab center the morning after his wife Amy allegedly ran over Anousoune Phanthavong.That's one of several revelations contained in an amended complaint Hennepin County prosecutors filed against Amy Senser this afternoon.On A ... More >>

Derek Boogaard had degenerative brain disease linked to head injuries

The results are in from tests on Derek Boogaard's brain.​After former Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard was found dead in his apartment this past spring, many wondered if a season-ending concussion had anything to do with his untimely death. A toxicology report from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner ... More >>

Restraining order claims Bill Pulkrabek is an alcoholic cat abuser who freaks over skin cream

It sounds like Bill Pulkrabek is not doing so great.​A restraining order filed against Washington County Commissioner and former Michele Bachmann campaign manager Bill Pulkrabek claims that he is an abusive alcoholic who refuses to get help. The restraining order was filed by Pulkrabek's girl ... More >>

Mike Starr of Alice in Chains dead at 44

Mike Starr, top center, with the original Alice in Chains lineup in 1990​Mike Starr, original bassist and co-founder of the Seattle-based grunge band Alice in Chains, died today at his home in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was 44 years old.

Mapping the world's drunkest countries

Can American beer drinkers best the Germans? ​Wonder how your beer consumption compares to those of your counterparts in Belgium or Burkina Faso? The World Heath Organization recently released its comprehensive Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (2011), which revealed some interesting ... More >>

Denny Hecker's drug problem won't help his prison problem, says law expert

Hecker fesses up to drug use.​Denny Hecker's sentencing is just around the corner, and the fallen auto king is making an 11th-hour plea for a little mercy. Hecker's lawyers filed a motion yesterday asking a judge to shave two years off the recommended sentence of a decade in prison. Hecker fesses ... More >>

Synthetic marijuana bans spread to Princeton and Hastings

K2 smokers, watch your back in these towns.​As we predicted in July, the days of getting legally high on synthetic marijuana are increasingly numbered.Duluth was the first domino to fall, passing a city-wide ban on several common synthetic cannabinoid compounds.

Ramsey County Detox flooded by pissed off woman with lighter

Photo: crawfish headThe Ramsey County detox pat-down leaves a little to be desired, it seems. flooded​Coming down can be such a bummer. Just ask the 18-year-old woman who used her lighter to set off the fire sprinklers at the Ramsey County Detoxification Center on Monday. The folks there are s ... More >>

Bat-wielding baby killer David Collins sentenced

Collins swung a bat in a church that killed a 14-month-old baby​And so closes another chapter in the turbulent life of Thy Kingdom Come Church in Wheaton: David Collins will spend 20 years in prison for taking a swing at Claude Hankins with a baseball bat in the church, and killing Hankin's 14 ... More >>

Joshua James Walker named the Shakopee killer

Joshua James Walker​Joshua James Walker, a 34-year-old Shakopee man with a rap sheet stretching back a dozen years, has been identified as the guy who stole a car yesterday in Plymouth, stabbed 30-year-old Asia King to death in Shakopee, and then was shot dead by cops in a ditch on Highway 169 ... More >>

Cowboy Junkies

Star Tribune asks guv candidates for mental health records

Amid layoffs and a new publisher, the paper finally hits bottom

Star Tribune launches modern-day Inquisition

The email ominously promises, "The response - or the absence of a response - will likely be used in a future news story."

Too many drunks in St. Cloud, or not enough beds?

There are no empty detox beds at the Central Minnesota Mental Health Center for most days each month.

GOP Chair Sutton calls DFLer Dayton's alcoholism "not relevant"

Dayton is one of 11 Democrats seeking the governorship. We'll see how this plays out.

Hinderaker accuses Strib of burying Dayton's issues for years

Power Line blogger says "news" about gubernatorial candidate's alcoholism, depression is anything but.

Wis. bill would ban parents from getting their children drunk in public

There's nothing better than listening to boys with cracking adolescent voices while you watch them down a beer at your local pub.

Ex-KFAN host Dubay sentenced to 180 days in workhouse

The ex-KFAN radio host's terrible cocaine habit just sent him straight to the workhouse.

Hannity can't stop asking Pawlenty if he has 2012 ambitions

Fox News show host Sean Hannity spoke to Pawlenty last night and just couldn't let 2012 go.

ASA Action Sports World Tour

Could Ramstad be the U.S. drug czar?

Rep. Jim Ramstad's name is being mentioned as a possible pick for the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Polic ... More >>

David Carr Q & A: To Hell and Back, then Back to Hell, Then to the New York Times

Pat Neshek and his Staedtler pen

Crime and PTSD

Pending legislation would help veterans get treatment instead of prison time

He Don't Know Smack

Down from the mountain, Heath Ledger gets spun on junky 'Candy'

Borene drops out of legislative race

So what if panhandlers drink their profits?

Little Court of Horrors

In Anoka County juvenile court, meth and red tape are playing hell with the fate of children

Randy Moss fighting re-entry into NFL drug program

Meth: Is it really Minnesota's biggest drug problem?

Meth Mouth Madness

The Man in the Middle

With Michael Olowokandi seeming stunned, newcomer Eddie Griffin steps front and center

Addicted To Drug Court

The Good News and the Bad News: Hennepin County’s drug court has cleared court dockets and steered a lot of people toward treatment. It’s also allowed the county to push thousands more casual offenders into the corrections system.

Meth Myths, Meth Realities

What we know--and what we don't--about methamphetamine's history, chemistry, and impact on users

A Junkie's Work is Never Done

Ever since his first jolt of painkillers 17 years ago, Curt has been meaning to get clean. Soon.

From Father to Son

How baseball forms forever memories and unbreakable bonds

Throwing Away the Key

There is no cure and no way out. So why does the state spend more than $20 million a year to treat 179 former sex offenders?

Playing Horse

Ruby Myhre was 14 when she had her first baby, and 17 when she first used heroin. Now, at 23, she wants a chance to mix sobriety and motherhood.

High and Dry

The Salvation Army bails on providing detox services to Hennepin County

The Quick Fix

St. Paul hauls out the zoning code in the hope of end-running a proposed methadone clinic

Ciao, Belle

Donna Ellringer threatens to decamp from Phillips before the hell she's predicting breaks loose

Fresh Meat for Rotting Puppets

With a new lineup and reissued back catalog, the last great punk band of the '80s gets lost on the freeway again

Living Clean

The Minnesota AIDS Project tries to shoot a clean-syringes provision through the Legislature.

Shock Resistant

Beyond Drinking and Driving

A number of Minnesota jurisdictions are experimenting with more aggressive and invasive programs to deal with repeat drunk-driving offenders.