Florida Is ‘Ground Zero’ for Hijacked Google Searches for Drug Treatment Centers

ADDICTION TREATMENT | A new internet scam preys upon people in their most vulnerable moments. Deceptive marketers hijack the phone numbers of drug treatment centers in areas plagued by the opioid crisis—the Philadelphia area, included—by taking advantage of a relatively easy Google feature. Those marketers then cull patients by offering free airline tickets, housing and other perks—eventually funneling those needing treatment to sites in Florida. The goal is a bigger piece of the drug-treatment industry, estimated to be work up to $45 billion. “Just Google Philadelphia rehab and dial a few numbers you find and see where it leads you,” said Al Johnson, Florida’s chief assistant state attorney and head of a task force looking into the scheme. “You’re at the risk of being hijacked. And Florida is ground zero for people in the Northeast being steered by hijacked Google searches.” [The Inquirer / Philly.com]

CYBERSECURITY | A group supportive of the Islamic State hacked a handful of websites affiliated with the Ohio state government this weekend, including ones for Gov. John Kasich, first lady Karen Kasich, the state’s Department of Corrections and Department of Medicaid. The hacked websites displayed a message: “You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries.” The state took quick action in response. "All affected servers have been taken off line and we are investigating how these hackers were able to deface these websites," a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services said in a statement. "We also are working with law enforcement to better understand what happened.” Local governments have also been hacked, including Howard County, Maryland, and the town of Brookhaven, New York, which took down its website as a precaution. [Cincinnati Enquirer; The Baltimore Sun; Newsday]

MINIMUM WAGE | It’s a tale of two minimum wage studies. A report from the University of Washington released Monday on Seattle’s minimum wage law—which would bring the minimum to $15 per hour for everyone by 2021—has found that as the minimum was bumped up in two stages, there has been a drop in hours for some workers. Seattle’s phased-in minimum wage law, approved in 2014, had one jump that raised the minimum from $9.47 to between $10 and $11 and a second jump that raised the minimum from $10.50 to $13. That  boosted pay in low-wage jobs by about 3 percent—but that it also resulted in a 9 percent drop in hours for those that worked those jobs. That translated to a loss of about $125 per month per job for the average low-wage employee in the city. A University of California at Berkeley study, released last week found that wages of restaurant workers increased in 2015 and 2016 without a drop in the number of jobs. Some experts have questioned the methodology of the UW study. Neither study has been peer reviewed yet. [The Seattle Times; The New York Times]

CORRECTIONS | As part of a broader effort to reform solitary confinement in Alaska, the Anchorage jail is set to create something called a “green room.” In that room, inmates in solitary confinement—who spend 23 hours a day alone in a cell—can get a break from sensory deprivation by watching videos of clouds, forests, flamingos, rain and other natural imagery. The hope is that the room would make solitary a less psychologically damaging experience. The room so far includes a chair facing a 42-inch TV screen and the walls will soon be painted a shade of green called “relish.” [Alaska Dispatch News]

HOUSING DISCRIMINATION | Lincoln, Nebraska’s Human Rights Commission is investigating several cases of housing discrimination, one against a single mother and another against a Haitian-born man. In the past 10 years, the commission has seen as few as 55 cases and as many as 113 annually. Employment discrimination based on age, gender or race is most common. [Lincoln Journal-Star]

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT | Around 300 residents were evacuated over the weekend in Tulare County, California, southeast of Fresno, where levee breaches along the swollen Kings River threatened some low-lying areas, including a golf course. “It was like a war zone out here. At one point it [the water] got scary high. I thought the whole house would flood,” one resident said. Higher temperatures in California have accelerated the melting of the Sierra Nevada’s snowpack, raising river levels. [Fresno Bee]

Parts of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula are seeing major flooding after significant rainfall last week, impacting low-lying areas along the Tittabawassee River near Midland and Saginaw. The heavy rains dumped partially treated sewage into the river and area farmers are fearing that their dry bean crops are ruined for the season. [MLive.com]

OPIOID EPIDEMIC | The New Jersey attorney general’s office is joining a multi-state investigation of the pharmaceutical industry for its role in the ongoing opioid abuse epidemic and has issued a subpoena for Johnson & Johnson, which is based in the Garden State. “New Jersey’s involvement in this multi-state effort is as an essential step toward gaining a complete picture of the roots of this epidemic, and in determining whether and to what extent unlawful conduct by drug makers has been a contributor," Attorney General Christopher Porrino said in a statement. [The Record / NorthJersey.com]   

INVASIVE SPECIES | Sea lamprey, which have proliferated throughout the Great Lakes and its tributaries, have been detected in the Knife River in Minnesota, which is being monitored to determine whether there are enough in the local watershed to warrant the use of lampricide. The invasive species, which moved into the upper Great Lakes following the completion of the Welland Canal in Ontario in 1929, has strained trout populations since the 1950s. [Duluth New Tribune]