Andrew Selsky | Associated Press

The best bourbons are buttery, smooth and oaky, and a growing cult of aficionados is willing to pay an astonishing sum to score even a shot of these premium spirits. Some are even willing to bend or break laws.

Thousands of towns across the United States that were wracked by the opioid crisis are on the precipice of receiving billions of dollars in the second-biggest legal settlement in U.S. history.