Investigative Journalism: Acetaminophen Overdoses Killed 1,500 in U.S. in Past Decade

Excellent investigative series here from ProPublica on the little-known dangers of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol.

The popular pain-reliever has killed about 1,500 Americans in the past decade due to overdoses, the investigation found.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has known about the dangers, but hasn't acted to inform the public or taken other action to reduce overdose risks.

The problem is the drug has such a small margin of safety between recommended doses and dangerous levels, the investigation found.

Story idea: If you're a journalist in another country, ask your own government's officials what they're doing.

Legal Stuff: U.S. Journalist Faces 105 Years Largely For Posting a Public Link

Extraordinary story here of the Obama administration's aggressive approach to whistleblowers and journalists.

A U.S. investigative journalist, Barrett Brown faces an incredible 105 years in jail, in large part for posting in a chat forum an already public url link to internal emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor, which were hacked by a third party.

Brown has written for The Guardian, Vanity Fair and The Huffington Post.

He's been in custody since a heavily armed FBI raid on his home in Sept. 2012, after which he was denied bail.

If all this wasn't amazing enough, Brown and his legal counsel were slapped this month with a gag order preventing them from speaking to the media about the case.

Read more about Brown's chilling case in this Rolling Stone story and on this support site.