Actress Brooke Mueller has completed a three-month stint in rehab and returned to her Los Angeles home yesterday. The 34-year-old ex-wife of "eccentric" Hollywood addict Charlie Sheen entered the facility after being arrested for assault and cocaine possession in December. While vacationing and partying hard in Aspen, Colorado, she got into an altercation with a woman who alerted police and reported that Mueller had attacked her. Police who searched claim they found cocaine. Mueller is charged with a misdemeanor and a felony and faces up to six years in prison if found guilty. However, she's apparently now focusing on maintaining her sobriety; her reps say she's continuing treatment through an "aggressive" outpatient program that includes the services of a sober companion. Mueller reportedly thanked her ex-husband for caring for their twin sons, Max and Bob, while she was away.

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Bob Ryan—the recovering alcoholic mayor of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, whose relapses in 2009, 2010 and 2011brought him national fame—was defeated last night in the second round of a recall election triggered by citizens who objected to his binge-drinking behavior. Unofficial totals show Ryan lost by a few hundred votes to opponent Terry Van Akkeren, who will now serve out the rest of Ryan's term until next spring. But speaking with The Fix today, Ryan says his defeat has "a silver lining," in that "a lot of the stresses in my life have suddenly been lifted away." He thinks three factors ultimately caused the election result: "myself, obviously, and my behavior," plus Van Akkeren's labor union affiliations, and the decision of local newspaper the Sheboygan Press to run front page allegations of improprieties in Ryan's casino negotiations with local tribes on election day.

Ryan has a long-running feud with the Sheboygan Press; he told The Fix that he has "zero respect" for the publication in a pre-election interview, when he also discussed his recovery, dealing with humiliation and why Wisconsin has such a big alcohol problem. And the ousted mayor tells us he threw the paper's representatives out of his post-election party at a bar/restaurant last night (at which he says he felt "absolutely no temptation" to drink.) "I just told them to get out. I know you're not supposed to take revenge in recovery, but that felt pretty good," he recalls. "They said, 'But look, all these camera crews are still here.' And I said, 'I don't care; they're not you!'" He then made a speech to his supporters about the media's treatment of him and others in recovery that he says brought tears to the eyes of some other reporters in attendance.

As for the future, 48-year-old Ryan now plans to write a book about his personal journey, with plenty of space devoted to the surreptitious filming and photography in Wisconsin bars that was ultimately his political undoing. Otherwise, he is "available for employment" and rules out running for office again. "I did everything to gain people's confidence back," he tells us, "but it wasn't enough. I've done what I could for this city. Now I'll have more time to devote to working my program."

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So you’re sober, and that stone fox across the café just happens to be carrying a Big Book? You might want to pause before chatting her up with a casual, “So, you a friend of Bill?” Because she might actually be a friend of Olympia-Le-Tan instead—a Paris-based fashion designer whose “Still ill” collection of pricey “book clutches” includes one made to resemble an old-fashioned "Big Book," the primary AA text. The clutch in question was featured recently in T, the New York Times’ style magazine, in a spread on spring trends for women (tops with plunging v-necks were the headline trend, rather than the book clutches themselves). There are 30 titles in the “Still ill” collection, from Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls and Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice to William Burroughs’ Junkie, as well as two versions of the Big Book. The fake tomes don't come cheap; the one that looks most like the real Big Book retails for $1,550—or it would, if the 16 limited-edition clutches weren't already sold out. And the Big Book was the first clutch in the range to be fully booked up. So the question is, who are the 16 people who bought the Big Book? And are they sober? If not, has AA really become that hip/shocking?

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Adding to the debate on plastic surgery addiction, this week's episode of TLC’s My Strange Addiction featured a women who is apparently addicted to breast implants. Houston native Sheyla Hershey has had 22 surgeries over the last 13 years, and spent around $250,000 to get her breasts to the unfortunately-named size 38KKK. Even after contracting a life-threatening infection following her last surgery, Hershey wants to go under the knife again to make her breasts bigger still. Each of the giant appendages currently contains 86 fluid ounces of saline. "My breasts is like my babies," she explains. "I love them like they are my kids. Having these is just the most good thing in my life." Hershey even claims her implants saved her life, after she crashed into a tree and her airbags failed to deploy. "I am so lucky to be alive right now with the condition the car is in," she told a Houston TV station following the crash. "They definitely saved my life. They are very sore right now." Hershey was cited by a police officer on the scene for driving while intoxicated; she claimed that she doesn't drink, but did have prescription pills for depression and bipolar disorder in her system. Even though her hug breast implants cause her extreme back pain and even keep her from holding and hugging her daughter, Hersey feels it's worth it, saying, "Anything for beauty."

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Yale researchers and other scientists have discovered that the adolescent brain launches a strong defensive reaction when first exposed to cocaine. Two new studies identify the genes responsible for this reaction; the hope is to determine why the risk of drug addiction drastically increases if a person starts using as a teenager. In the first study, researchers found that teens have a much higher vulnerability to cocaine than adults mainly because the adolescent brain is shifting from an explosive, plastic growth phase to more settled and refined neural connections. Past studies at Yale have shown that this change in the brain’s shape is regulate by the gene "intergrin beta 1," which plays an essential role in the development of the nervous system."This suggests that these structural changes observed are probably protective of the neurocircuitry, an effort of the neuron to protect itself when first exposed to cocaine," says Anthony Koleske, senior author of both papers. In the second study, Yale researchers found that when cocaine-using mice had their integrin beta 1 pathway knocked out, they needed three times less coke to bring about behavioral changes. "If you were to become totally desensitized to cocaine, there is no reason to seek the drug," says Koleske. The results suggest that the intergrin beta 1 pathway plays a huge role in why some teen cocaine users become addicted and others don't.

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• Are Recovering Addicts Happier Than Everyone Else? [PsychCentral]
• Is Anyone Surprised Bobbi Kristina Showed Up Drunk To Whitney Houston's Burial? [Crushable]
• Doctors And Teens At Opposite Ends On Marijuana [KUNC]
• Many Americans Support Lower Nicotine Levels in Cigarettes [Health.com]
• Drugs On The Menu For Aussie Tourists In Laos [NineMSN]
• Men Gave Girls Alcohol And Drugs And Forced Them To Have Sex, Court Hears [The Guardian]
• Man Kills Wife Nagging Him To Give Up Drugs [TwoCircles]
• Three Frightening Teen Drug Trends [Lansing Injuryboard]

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