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Women seeking discount plastic surgery paid with their lives at clinics opened by felons

Linda J. Picard

MIAMI – One man pleaded guilty to bank fraud. One was convicted of grand theft in a real estate scam. Two others admitted to elaborate Medicare schemes that siphoned millions from taxpayers.

In Florida, one of the nation’s top destinations for plastic surgery, a felony conviction can bar someone from operating a massage parlor or a pawn shop.

But not from running a cosmetic surgery clinic.

Nearly a dozen miles from the iconic beaches of South Florida, the four convicted felons ran facilities that became assembly lines for patients from across the country seeking the latest body sculpting procedures at discount prices.

And at those businesses, at least 13 women have died after surgeries. Nearly a dozen others were hospitalized with critical injuries, including punctured internal organs.

The state health department was alerted to the casualties. Government inspectors cited the clinics for serious violations, including dirty operating rooms and sales

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Why this form of skin cancer strikes men harder than women

Linda J. Picard
Whether you’re a man or woman, you can lower your risk of developing skin cancers, including melanoma, simply by having an annual skin check with a dermatologist and by practicing sun safety. (Photo: Getty Creative)
Whether you’re a man or woman, you can lower your risk of developing skin cancers, including melanoma, simply by having an annual skin check with a dermatologist and by practicing sun safety. (Photo: Getty Creative)

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month and May 4 is Melanoma Monday. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, and approximately 9,500 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with skin cancer every day. Yahoo Life is driving awareness with this expert-driven article to educate our audience about melanoma risk factors and prevention.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer, with one in five Americans developing some form of it by the age of 70, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. While early detection ensures a 99 percent five-year survival rate of this usually slow-growing cancer, melanoma remains the most fatal form. Recent studies show that how it

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This L.A. native is bringing beauty and glam to women in need: ‘It’s a confidence booster’

Linda J. Picard

“Good People” profiles everyday individuals who are bettering the lives of those in need and improving their communities.

Shirley Raines founded “Beauty 2 The Streetz” to empower those in need, using her cosmetic skills to bring confidence to struggling people in places like Skid Row, a particularly impoverished area of downtown Los Angeles.

“I didn’t know about homelessness,” Raines told In The Know. “I thought all they wanted was shelter and food.”

Raines, a mother of six who hails from Long Beach, Calif., says she was spurred to found her company following the death of her son in 1990.

“I was broken, I didn’t have any goals, I had nothing. I thought life was just sad,” she explained. “And then a friend suggested one day I go out and feed the homeless with them, and it was just like a missing piece of my life just

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Are facemasks wiping away the simple joy of cosmetics?

Linda J. Picard
YSL lipsticks on display at a Sephora in in Los Angeles in 2018.
YSL lipsticks on display at a Sephora in in Los Angeles in 2018.

“Lipstick is the best cosmetic there is,” Joan Collins once observed, shrewdly. Alas, not so much anymore – not now when face masks are covering the lower half of our faces.

It could mean the end of lipstick as we know it. For millennia, lip cosmetics have been one of the ways for women and men to express themselves, to lift their spirits, to make their face stand out in the crowd.

Now we’re contemplating another unhappy consequence of coronavirus: the possibility that face masks will wipe away the simple joys of lipstick for the foreseeable future. 

Perish the thought, say lipstick lovers and cosmetic makers, nervously eyeing sales figures expected to fall this year, maybe as much as 11% according to one market prediction.

Lipstick fan Maya Allen, 27, the digital beauty editor for

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