(MoneyWatch) How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn’t pay a medical bill — one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn’t owe. “She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn’t have to pay it,” The Associated Press reports. “But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs.”

Although the U.S. abolished debtors’ prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don’t pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff’s deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are investigating three shadowy pharmacies in Maryland and North Carolina for diverting critical but scarce drugs from patients to wholesalers, who are then able to resell the medicine at sometimes big markups.

Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform, began a probe in October to discover
why certain companies were selling cancer drugs at more than a hundred
times their normal cost.

Shortages of hundreds of drugs including cisplatin, a highly
effective treatment for testicular cancer, and fluorouracil for colon
and other cancers have helped create a lucrative shadow market.

Adam Bevelacqua graduated from Brooklyn Law School last year with $100,000 in debt but high hopes for his future.

He passed the bar on his first try in New York and had internships to highlight on his resume. And, according to his research, the school’s job placement rate for new graduates was between 90 to 95 percent.

But Bevelacqua, 29, is no longer as optimistic.

“I’ve been looking for work ever since,” Bevelacqua told msnbc.com. “The jobs aren’t really there.”

On Wednesday, Bevelacqua joined 50 other law school graduates from across the country who sued their alma maters, alleging they were misled about job prospects and burdened with huge amounts of student debt.

A man accused of punishing his 12-year-old daughter by binding her hands and feet with duct tape and sticking her in a dog cage, then threatening to electrify the crate, was just engaging in “some horseplay” that “got out of control,” his lawyer says.

Here’s what happened, according to a report from NBC station WLWT of Cincinnati:

The Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Office said James Tapke restrained his 12-year-old daughter’s hands and feet using duct tape before placing her in a dog cage on Jan. 10. Then, while his daughter was in the cage, investigators said, Tapke dropped small amounts of water on her face.

According to court papers, the victim was in the cage for about 20 minutes before her 13-year-old brother let her out. When she got out, authorities said, the victim poured water on her father’s head and in his ear.

President Obama announced Wednesday that he will deny a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, blaming Republicans for imposing a “rushed and arbitrary deadline” which he said did not give officials enough time.

GOP lawmakers immediately excoriated the president for the decision. House Speaker John Boehner said Obama is “selling out American jobs for politics,” and said Republicans in Congress would continue to push for the pipeline

The man suspected of killing a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State is believed to have been found dead, according to police.

Authorities located a body face-down in the snow without any identification, but believe it to be Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, the sole suspect in Sunday’s shooting, according to a Twitter posting from Washington State Patrol spokesman Guy Gill.

Barnes was being tracked by ground and aerial search crews for the shooting death of 34-year-old ranger Margaret Anderson, who tried to block his path when Barnes sped past a checkpoint in the park Sunday morning. Barnes fired shots at Anderson and another ranger before fleeing into the park’s wilderness. The other ranger was not injured.

(CNN) — A police officer was among two people shot dead Thursday on the Virginia Tech campus, prompting a sweeping search and school-wide lockdown that lasted about four hours.

About 4:30 p.m., the school announced on its Twitter feed that “law enforcement agencies have determined there is no longer an active threat or need to secure in place. Resume normal activities.”

The school’s website noted that a weapon had been discovered near the second victim — described as an “unknown male subject who was found deceased in a parking lot near the Duck Pond.”

A police officer observed a suspicious person near that lot, “made contact with him” and after turning around briefly, “the suspect was deceased,” said Virginia Tech Police Department Deputy Chief Gene Deisinger.

Urging a judge not to loosen restrictions on out-of-hospital visits by John Hinckley, who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, Justice Department lawyers on Wednesday said Hinckley browsed through books about Reagan and presidential assassins at a Virginia bookstore in July.

Hinckley visited a Barnes and Noble store in Williamsburg, Virginia, where his mother lives, but later told his doctors that he went to see a movie, “Captain America,” federal prosecutor Sarah Chasson said at the beginning of a court hearing on Hinckley’s request to be allowed longer unsupervised visits to Williamsburg, his mother’s hometown.

“He has a long history of deceptive and secretive behavior,” Chasson said. Secret Service agents watched him browse through the books, she told the court.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s administration sought on Monday to block parts of South Carolina’s new immigration law, arguing that the federal government had preeminent authority over immigration matters.

The Justice Department is asking a federal court to intervene,
bringing to three the number of states the Obama administration is suing
over immigration crackdowns.

The court filing sought an injunction against portions of the state
law, which is set to take effect on Jan. 1 and toughens measures against
undocumented immigrants.

The government earlier challenged Alabama’s new law.

LONDON — The group known as Anonymous said Saturday it has hacked into some 70 law enforcement websites across the southern and central United States in retaliation for arrests of its sympathizers in the U.S. and Britain.

The hacking group also claimed to have stolen 10 gigabytes of data, including emails, credit card details, and other information from local law enforcement bodies.

“We are releasing a massive amount of confidential information that is sure to (embarrass), discredit and incriminate police officers across the US,” the group said in a statement, adding that it hoped the leak would “demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement using their own words” and “disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorize communities.”