In New Orleans, the widow of an attorney who died of lung cancer vowed to avenge his death by suing the tobacco companies. In Clarksdale, Mississippi, an outraged country lawyer discovered the cost of lung cancer care as his secretary's mother lay dying. In Washington, D.C., a young pediatrician became the first FDA administrator in ninety years to decide nicotine should be regulated as a drug. All three were warned: Don't mess with Big Tobacco. Then a $9-an-hour law clerk in Louisville, Kentucky, stole thousands of incriminating tobacco company documents. Suddenly, an untouchable industry was under siege. In the vanguard of the attack were the nation's toughest liability lawyers. Thirty-nine states would ultimately join the battle, seeking billions of Midicaid dollars spent on tobacco-related diseases. The costliest civil litigation in history had begun. The $50 billion tobacco industry had finally met its match. Motivated as much by anger as by greed, liability lawyers with noms de guerre like "the Aspestos Avenger" and "the Master of Disaster" outflanked and outsmarted the once invincible legal armies of Big Tobacco. In 1994, sixty of these lawyers came together, pooling their talents, their time, and their war chests to launch a ferocious nationwide assault. At the same time, they provided the legal muscle behind the state suits. Three years later, they had forced the industry to the negotiating table. The result is a $368 billion deal that will eventually change the way Big Tobacco does business. Cornered is the first full account of this unprecedented legal battle. It uses confidential memos to explain how the companies avoided government regulation and legal redress for so many years. It moves from the early skirmishes in rural Mississippi to strategy sessions in the back rooms of New Orleans restaurants, from a warehouses in England stuffed with 9 million company documents to the corridors of power in the nation's capital. It follows the whistle-blowers who laid bare the evidence that made the litigtion possible, and it winds through the offices of the state attorneys general whose Medicaid lawsuits lent a halo of respectability to the "yunkyard dogs" of liability law. It is a tale at once dramatic, funny, and enraging. In the end, it is proof that the plaintiff's bar can initiate social change, even as it loots the coffers of corporate rascals.

It does not necessarily take a fist to create a punch in the gut. This fourteen-story YA fiction anthology delves into the experience of being bullied -- socially, emotionally, physically, psychologically, and sexually. The school hallways, walks home, and house walls are no longer the boundaries for intimidation and harassment. With the rapid-fire response time of social media and smartphones, bullying has lost all limits, and the lines among truth, lies, and real accountability have become blurred. Featuring some of the hottest voices in YA literature, both bestselling and on the rise, Cornered includes works from Kirsten Miller (New York Times bestseller The Eternal Ones), Jennifer Brown (Hate List), Elizabeth Miles (Fury), Jaime Adoff (The Death of Jayson Porter), Lish McBride (Morris Award finalist Hold Me Closer, Necromancer), Matthue Roth (Losers), Sheba Karim (Skunk Girl), Kate Ellison (Butterfly Clues), Zeta Elliot (A Wish After Midnight), Josh Berk (The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin), and James Lecesne (Absolute Brightness and founder of the Trevor Project).

"A manifesto for our times." —Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal Barry C. Lynn, one of the most original and surprising students of the American economy, paints a genuinely alarming picture: most of our public debates about globalization, competitiveness, creative destruction, and risky finance are nothing more than a cover for the widespread consolidation of power in nearly every imaginable sector of the American economy. Cornered strips the camouflage from the secret world of twenty-first-century monopolies-neofeudalist empires whose sheer size, vast resources, and immense political power enable the people who control to direct virtually every major industry in America in an increasingly authoritarian manner. Lynn reveals how these massive juggernauts, which would have been illegal just thirty years ago, came into being, how they have destroyed or devoured their competition, and how they collude with one another to maintain their power and create the illusion of open, competitive markets. A confluence of small government zealotry and misguided efficient market theories has lead to a complete dismantling of government oversight of industry. Has that brought us the promised economic utopia? Just the opposite. For decades, the dominant elite has used the federal government to all but encourage companies to buy one another up, outsource all their production, and make their profits by leveraging their complete power over the market itself. Lynn makes clear it will take more than a lawsuit or two to overthrow America's corporatist oligarchy and restore a model of capitalism that protects our rights as property holders and citizens, and the independence of our Republic. Details how regular citizens can join together to beat the great powers, and how to do so by relearning the real history and language of our democratic republic. Includes stories of real people and real industries that show how monopolies threaten independent businesses, squelch innovation, degrade the quality and safety of products, destabilize vital industrial and financial systems, and destroy the fabric of democracy Explores monopoly power across a wide array of industries, including appliances, auto parts, beer, eyeglasses, medical supplies, pet food, surfboards, vitamins, and more. Demonstrates how the drive for "always lower prices" makes your job disappear, puts your small business out of business, and turns dreams of entrepreneurial success into impossible fantasies Lynn is that rarest of creatures, a journalist whose theoretical writings are taken very seriously by the top policymakers and economic thinkers in Washington and around the world. His work has been compared already to John Kenneth Galbraith and Peter Drucker. The Washington Post called Lynn's last book-on globalization-"Tom Friedman for grownups." Cornered is essential reading for anyone who cares about America and its future.

It was an assignment he was more than prepared for—until an innocent beauty got caught in the cross fire Undercover agent Cameron Roth's hot on the trail of a drug-running crime cartel. The last thing he needs is to involve an innocent woman in the cross fire. But when he leaps into Julia White's home for safety, she becomes part of the tangled web Cam's trying so deseparately to unravel. Smooth, solid Cam's the consummate professional. But gorgeous, feisty Julia transforms the high-stakes assignment into something far more than business as usual. Now that the villains have her in their sights, Cam's got to not only solve the case—but also protect the only woman who's ever found the way into his heart.

Enjoy this fifth novel in the Holloway Pack series, where loyalties are tested and ghosts from the past come back to haunt the pack ... Daniel Larsen is playing a dangerous game, and he doesn't even know it. A two-wheeled speedster. A little redhead in a bar. Evenings spent away from his pack. Innocent enough for most, but for Danny, the combination leads down a path of destruction and straight to a hell he doesn’t even see coming. Entangled in a nightmare that started with his own brother and the cat he brought into their home, Dan’s driving himself toward a solitary existence—except for the curvaceous Olivia Fanella. Seduced by his new companion, and happy to ignore the divide growing between himself and the pack, Danny is oblivious to the trap being laid out for him. Before long, Danny's integrity gets questioned. His loyalty gets questioned. Hell, he even questions himself. On top of that, just when he believes life might be going a little better, he gets served the roughest shot he could never have imagined—not even in his worst nightmares—and Danny has no idea how to come back from a hit like that. Supernatural worlds collide in this latest battle of the races. ~~~~~ CORNERED is the fifth novel in the Holloway Pack PNR series, although all books in this world can be read as standalones. If you're a fan of K.F. Breene, Elizabeth Briggs, Riley Storm, Bella Forrest, or Suzanne Wright, you will fall in love with this troubled werewolf in search of the light. Enjoy! ~~~~~ **Contains adult scenes of a sensitive nature that some readers might find upsetting.**

Based on a famous Spanish folk tale and set in rural Andalusia, "e;The Three-Cornered Hat"e; recounts the tribulations of a lecherous local magistrate as he attempts to have his way with the miller's beautiful but devoted wife, with unforeseen and hilarious consequences. Alarcon's astute blend of slapstick and comedy of manners provides both timeless entertainment and a sharp satire on the corruption of rural officials and the politics of lust and seduction.