Pain Relief: From cut fingers to bad breath, Johnson & Johnson has a remedy, but in an historic precedent for the opioid crisis, an Oklahoma judge found the health product giant responsible for feeding the opioid addiction crisis and fined the company  $572 million.

  It’s was the  first trial of a drug company accused of purposely and recklessly selling addictive opioid painkillers. The case was heard by a judge — no jury. The fine was far less than the $ 17 billion sought by the state of Oklahoma but it is still a big win. 

  At least 2,000 similar lawsuits are pending across the country and this decision must be troubling for the drug companies. “We’ve shown that J & J was at the root cause of this opioid crisis,” said Brad Beckworth, the lead attorney for Oklahoma. “It made billions of dollars from it over a 20-year period.” 

  In his ruling, the judge wrote that Johnson & Johnson had pushed “false, misleading, and dangerous marketing campaigns” that “caused exponentially increasing rates of addiction, overdose deaths” and babies born exposed to opioids.

  Johnson & Johnson said the company will appeal.

Presidential Business:Donald Trump told reporters in France yesterday that he has lost $3 billion to $5 billion in profits while he’s been president and doesn’t care about money. There’s no proof that his lifetime net worth is that much, let alone 2 ½ years of profits.

  Trump was responding to questions about whether it is a conflict of interest for him to host the next G-7 summit at his Miami golf resort. It is illegal for the President to profit from his office, but Trump said he wouldn’t make any money on the summit, then went on at length extolling the virtues of his resort.

  “With Doral, we have a series of magnificent buildings. They call them bungalows. They each hold from 50 to 70 very luxurious rooms with different … We have incredible conference rooms, incredible restaurants,” he said. 

  We would expect that anything Donald Trump touches would be nothing less than “incredible.” He went on, “And we have many hundreds of acres so that in terms of parking, in terms of all of the things that you need. The ball rooms are among the biggest in Florida and the best. It’s brand new. And they want — my people wanted it.”

  It seems there’s nowhere else in America that’s suitable. 

The Environmental President:Trump was missing yesterday when six of the seven G-7 leaders sat down near the end of the summit to talk about climate change. The White House press office said Trump was delayed by separate meetings with Germany’s Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a great explanation, except that Merkel and Modi were both in the meeting Trump skipped. So let’s call that a lie and an incompetent one at that.

  In a press conference Trump later described himself as an environmentalist who wants the cleanest air and water. “A lot of people don’t understand that,” he said. “I have done more environmental impact statements probably than anybody that — I can say definitely because I’ve done many of them. More than anybody that’s ever been president or vice president or anything even close to president.”

  Probably true, but what is also true is than an environmental impact statement is what you have to file when your building project is going to destroy the environment. It doesn’t make you an environmentalist.

Police Beat:The number of arrests and summonses by New York City police plummeted in the wake of the firing of an officer who infamously choked to death Eric Garner in Staten Island. Arrests dropped 27% between Aug. 19 — the day Off. Daniel Pantaleo was fired — and Aug. 25 compared to the same period in 2018. Basically what they are saying is that if they can’t unjustifiably kill a suspect, they aren’t going to do their job.

The News Roundup:Puerto Rico is under hurricane watch today as tropical storm Dorian bears down on the island. — Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a new indictment yesterday that includes enhanced charges of predatory sexual assault, a development intended to allow an actress to testify against Weinstein in his rape and sexual assault trial. The judge scolded Weinstein for pulling out his cell phone during the proceeding. — Kentucky Fried Chicken says it’s going to conduct a one-day test in Smyrna, Georgia selling plant-based artificial chicken. Kentucky Fried Veggies.

Neck and Neck:Former Vice President Joe Biden has seriously slipped and is now in a three-way tie with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination, according to the latest Monmouth University poll.

 Biden polled at 19 percent, down from 32 percent in Monmouth’s last poll in June. Warren and Sanders came in slightly on top with 20 percent support from registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters across the country.

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