For days, Paula Schultz of Milwaukee struggled with intestinal problems.

Battling worse diarrhea than she had ever experienced, Schultz turned on the tap to counter the extreme loss of fluids.

She asked her husband, Chris, to pick up some Imodium to relieve her symptoms.

"He went several places but the shelves were empty," she recalled. Then she knew "a lot of other people were sick, too."

First hundreds, then thousands and tens of thousands of people in the Milwaukee area struggled with the same relentless, watery diarrhea 20 years ago this month in an epidemic that ultimately prompted dramatic changes in how the city treats its water.

The epidemic caused the deaths of at least 69 people in the Milwaukee area, Davis said. All had weakened immune systems, and 93% of them were AIDS patients. A few were cancer patients. Some were children.

ATF agents running an undercover storefront in Milwaukee used a brain-damaged man with a low IQ to set up gun and drug deals, paying him in cigarettes, merchandise and money, according to federal documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel.

For more than six months, federal agents relied on Chauncey Wright to promote "Fearless Distributing" by handing out fliers as he rode his bike around town recommending the store to friends, family and strangers, according to federal prosecutors and family members.

Wright, unaware that the store was an undercover operation being run by agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, also stocked shelves with shoes, clothing, drug paraphernalia and auto parts, according to his family.

Once authorities shut down the operation, they charged the 28-year-old man with federal gun and drug counts.

A flawed operation

A Journal Sentinel investigation found failures and foul-ups in an undercover operation run by the ATF:

• ATF guns were stolen from an agent's vehicle; a machine gun remains unrecovered.

• The storefront was burglarized of nearly $40,000 in merchandise.

• Agents left behind sensitive documents after they shut down the operation.

• Agents damaged the building, then refused to pay the landlord, warning him against pursuing the matter.

• At least three of the wrong people were arrested and charged, including one who was in prison at the time.

• Authorities failed to capitalize on early leads to find the stolen machine gun.

Vice President Biden spoke at the Export-Import Bank’s 2013 Annual Conference.?Among the topics he addressed were international trade and competition, expanding markets in Asia, domestic job creation, and intellectual property issues

Plans by a team of admirers for a run in 2016 are gathering pace as a top fundraiser lends his support, says Toby Harnden in Washington

A TOP Democratic fundraiser and confidant of Bill and Hillary Clinton for more than two decades is advising a new group laying the foundations for a possible 2016 presidential bid by the former secretary of state.

Harold Ickes, a Clinton loyalist renowned for his ability to solicit tens of millions of dollars from a vast network of Democratic donors, is assisting the “Ready for Hillary” independent political action committee, or super-Pac.

He told The Sunday Times that he had held conversations with wealthy Clinton donors that have been “totally informal and have no direct relationship with Mrs Clinton” or her husband.

“These are people I know who have told me over the years that they and a lot of other people want her to run. They don’t have any idea what she’s going to do, but if she runs they want to be ready to give whatever assistance they can.”

A top White House official says Republicans who adopt a “my way or the highway” approach are going lose in upcoming budget talks.

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer told Sunday morning talk shows that President Barack Obama’s budget will tackle the economy and reduce the nation’s deficit and debt. Pfeiffer, a longtime Obama aide, said Republican lawmakers should remember that their proposals were rejected last year when voters sided with Obama over GOP nominee Mitt Romney. Obama is set to release his plan on Wednesday.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong says he suspects foul play in the disappearance of Nevada’s chief insurance examiner after evidence of a bloody, violent struggle was uncovered in his apartment.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to the apartment Thursday after 62-year-old William McCune failed to board a flight with a co-worker and other employees found no sign of him when they went to his residence.

Furlong says investigators found blood scattered throughout areas of the apartment that indicated an “obvious struggle,” but it’s too early to say whether anyone died.

He says it appears McCune’s disappearance involves a “personal relationship” and isn’t work-related.

Sen Mark Begich declared a “sea change” in the politics of gun control immediately after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., telling his local newspaper that he would not hesitate to buck the powerful National Rifle Association.

But in the months since, the gun rights group has made itself impossible for the Alaska Democrat, and many other lawmakers, to resist.

Begich has signed on as a co-sponsor of a bill, drafted in consultation with the NRA, that would change the way mental illness is reported in the background check system — a measure that critics say could make firearms more easily available to the mentally ill.

Over the past two weeks, while Congress has been in recess, Begich said he was approached repeatedly by constituents who echoed NRA views, telling him not to, in his words, “mess with our gun rights” or “ban anything.”