Today’s entries cover everything from social media to troubling tensions in Asia.
We open with a tale of corporatized medicine from the Los Angeles Times:
UC OKs paying surgeon $10 million in whistleblower-retaliation case
The settlement ends a case brought by the ex-head of UCLA’s orthopedic surgery department, who says the medical school allowed doctors to take industry payments that may have compromised patient care.
The settlement reached Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court came just before closing arguments were due to begin in a whistleblower-retaliation case brought by Dr. Robert Pedowitz, 54, a surgeon who was recruited to UCLA in 2009 to run the orthopedic surgery department.
In 2012, the surgeon sued UCLA, the UC regents, fellow surgeons and senior university officials, alleging they failed to act on his complaints about widespread conflicts of interest and later retaliated against him for speaking up.
From Reuters, a tale of not-so-rigorous regulation:
Special Report: For private deals, no one is watching the watchdogs
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the industry’s self-regulating body, requires that broker-dealers conduct “a reasonable investigation” of a private placement before selling it for the issuer. That’s the due diligence. At a minimum, FINRA requires that for each new placement, the broker’s investigation entail a review of the issuer and its management; its business prospects; assets it holds or plans to acquire; the intended use of proceeds from the offering; and claims made in any offering documents.
Some brokers lack the resources to cover all of that, so they rely on reports supplied by third-party due diligence firms. The reports are paid for by the issuer of the private placement. Brokers are meant to use the reports to help them decide whether to market the placements. They don’t typically show the reports to clients.
The set-up constitutes what many see as a fundamental conflict of interest: Companies that raise money through private placements, such as Provident, are paying due diligence firms to review their deals so that broker-dealers will sell them. “They have to write these reports in such a manner that it’s gotta be acceptable” to the issuer, said Michael Miller, a due diligence officer at Sigma Financial, a broker-dealer in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
This isn’t the only instance of regulatees selecting their regulatory overseers. Developers seeking approval for their projects also select the folks who prepare their Environmental Impact Reports [EIRs]. During our coverage of tribal casinos in California we discovered that most of the projects we covered had EIRs prepared by one single company. Their reports always seemed to find that the casinos would have negligible impact. The same was true in communities like Berkeley, where successful developers generally used the same handful of consultants. . .
From BBC News, soaring profits from the intangible:
Facebook earnings surge on mobile advertising
Social networking giant Facebook reported profits of $642m (£383m) during the first quarter of 2014, beating analyst expectations.
The firm said surging mobile advertising helped push first quarter revenue 72% higher, to $2.5bn.
Mobile now makes up 59% of advertising revenue, from 30% a year ago.
BBC News again, this time with profits for a media makers whose products carry those Facebook ads:
Apple announces share buyback as earnings rise
Technology giant Apple reported profits of $10.2bn (£6.1bn) after selling 43.7 million iPhones during the three-month period ending 29 March.
Apple also announced plans to buy an additional $30bn of its stock back from shareholders and to increase its quarterly dividend by 8%.
It also said it would split its stock for the first time in nine years.
The moves are meant to appease investors as the firm reports slowing revenue growth.
From Jiji Press, hands across the Pacific struggle to engage in the neoliberal handshake:
Japan, U.S. to defer broad trade accord
Japan and the United States are now seen deferring a broad trade agreement until after a summit meeting set for Thursday due to differences over key issues, informed sources said Tuesday.
The two countries’ leaders are now expected to welcome progress so far made in bilateral trade talks under the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership framework and reaffirm their nations’ commitment to concluding the TPP negotiations, the sources said.
A stalemate over Japanese tariffs on U.S. pork continued during a working-level session in Tokyo on Tuesday.
On to Europe with this report of realism from From New Europe:
Majority of Germans think eurozone crisis not over
A new opinion poll shows that a majority of Germans believed the eurozone crisis is far from over, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported Wednesday.
According to a survey conducted by polling institute INSA, 81 percent of those asked said the European debt crisis was not yet over, while only 7 percent believed the crisis had ended.
The poll said many German citizens were concerned about developments in Greece. Only 34 percent of respondents saw the country on the right track. A further 39 percent said Greece was not making enough efforts to implement reforms.
The Portugal News covers lingering neoliberalism at work:
Austerity ‘certain’ to continue after troika – Socialist Party
The Portuguese Socialist Party said on Tuesday it was “certain” after a meeting with the troika (International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and the European Commission) that austerity would continue in Portugal despite the financial assistance programme formally coming to an end shortly
And from Reuters, a billionaire and former chief executive gets a mere wrist-slap for profitable corruption:
Italy’s Berlusconi to start community service work next week
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday he would start doing community service with the elderly next week as part of a one-year tax fraud sentence.
A court ruled earlier this month that Berlusconi, one of Italy’s richest men, must spend four hours a week [emphasis added] in a Catholic old people’s home on the outskirts of Milan.
After completing the first six months, Berlusconi’s one-year sentence will automatically be reduced to 10 and a half months.
And from United Press International, Italian blackshirt nostalgia:
Mussolini’s birthplace in Italy to get a fascist museum
A museum dedicated to the history of fascism will be created in Predappio, Italy, the birthplace of dictator Benito Mussolini, Mayor Giorgio Frassineti announced.
A museum dedicated to the history of fascism will be created in Predappio, Italy, the birthplace of dictator Benito Mussolini, Mayor Giorgio Frassineti announced.
The northern Italian city, known for neo-fascist pilgrimages, already maintains the home in which Mussolini was born, as well as the mausoleum where he is buried. The museum will be located in the now-abandoned Casa del Fascio, built in the 1930s as part of an urban renewal program, to accommodate visitors and to glorify Mussolini.
On to Greece, in the first of three stories on the austerian numbers game, first from ANA-MPA:
Greek primary surplus totalled 3.4 billion euros in 2013?
Greece’s primary surplus totalled 3.4 billion euros in 2013 (excluding the financial support offered to banks), Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Wednesday.The primary surplus figure was based using Eurostat’s methodology, while the troika estimates this figure at 1.5 billion euros.
A contrary take from The Guardian:
Greece’s public finances are in a dire state, and cooking the books won’t help
Primary budget facts and details in the small print can no longer be hidden by creative accounting and a sleight of hand
It was dodgy accounting that got Greece into a mess in the first place. Now, more dodgy accounting is being used to dress up the dire state of the nation’s public finances.
When the government in Athens announced last week that it was running a surplus in its primary budget – a measure of financial health that strips out interest payments – it could only do so by recording more than €3bn (£2.5bn) in arrears owed to hospitals and the social security fund as assets. Without this creative accounting, there would have been a primary deficit.
And the third story, with Neos Kosmos covering one of the consequences:
Greece lines up tax cuts
Greece is set to ask its eurozone partners to gradually reduce corporation tax rates as part of a wider plan to generate growth in Greece
Greece is set to ask its eurozone partners when the Eurogroup meets on May 5 for permission to gradually reduce corporation tax rates as part of a wider plan to generate growth in Greece, Kathimerini understands.
Several government officials, including Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis met Tuesday to finalize a three-page proposal that will form the basis for a growth plan that will run from this year until 2020. Both coalition parties, New Democracy and PASOK, were represented at the meeting.
From EnetEnglish.gr, austerity’s fruit ripening:
Uninsured mother unable to afford medication loses her life
How many more patients must die from austerity, asks voluntary health clinic
Woman’s death proves once again that the government’s ‘policy of excluding our uninsured fellow citizens from healthcare means that human life is endangered and often lost’, says the Metropolitan Community Clinic in Elliniko, Athens
40-year-old uninsured single mother of two young children from the island of Mytilini died earlier this month from the effects of a stroke because she didn’t have the money to pay for her medication, the country’s leading voluntary health clinic said on Wednesday.
Raising the woman’s case, the Metropolitan Community Clinic at Elliniko, Athens, said the woman’s death proved once again that the government’s “policy of excluding our uninsured fellow citizens from healthcare means that human life is endangered and often lost”.
And from To Vima, more of that hard times intolerance:
ANTARSYA condemns fascist attack against election campaign offices
Attack took place on Easter Monday, on the anniversary of the military junta’s rise to power in 1967
Leftist party ANTARSYA has condemned a fascist attack against its election campaign offices in Athens, which took place on Monday the 21st of April, anniversary of the 1967 military dictatorship’s rise to power.
ANTARSYA’s municipal candidate Petros Konstantinou claimed to have personally received threatening telephone calls on Thursday evening, with the caller threatening “to show you what Golden Dawn can do”.
The attackers smashed the front door of the offices and ripped down anti-fascism posters that were in the building’s lobby. A trail of blood was discovered outside the offices on the 5th of floor, which the attackers unsuccessfully tried to break into.
On to the Ukraine and journalistic errata from Consortiumnews:
NYT Retracts Russian-Photo Scoop
Exclusive: After starting a propaganda stampede – with a lead story about photos of Russian troops purportedly in Ukraine – the New York Times admits the pictures really don’t prove much, and one photo was labeled as snapped in Russia when it was really taken in Ukraine, writes Robert Parry.
After the jump, more escalation and anxieties in Asia’s game of Thrones [with Uncle Sam jumping in], an almost-admirable death sentence, Asian environmental woes, the lLatest chapter of Fukushimapocalypse Now!, plus new developments in the world of Big Brothering and covert ops, plus the latest from the realm of cannabis and crime. . .
On to Asia, first with the latest escalation on a perplexing peninsula from Want China Times:
N Korea may be prepping nuclear test ahead of Obama’s Seoul visit
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is said to be preparing a nuclear test in the run up to US president Barack Obama’s visit to South Korea on Apr. 25, reports China’s state-run Global Times, citing the South Korean defense ministry.
The ministry said on Apr. 22 that a number of vehicles carrying personnel have been seen entering the North Korean nuclear test site located at Punggye-ri, while the Pyongyang-based Rodong Sinmun and Korean Central News Agency have also released photos of Kim inspecting the Korean People’s Air Force and Air Defense Forces. The heightened activity, according to South Korea, may suggest that Kim will order a fourth underground blast to coincide with Obama’s visit.
Analysts said that Apr. 25 is Military Foundation Day in North Korea, and the photos released via Pyongyang media is a warning to the United States that the Korean People’s Army is ready for Obama’s visit to the Korean peninsula.
And from China, more grim environmental news via The Guardian:
China says more than half of its groundwater is polluted
Number of groundwater sites of poor or extremely poor quality increases to 59.6%, Chinese government says
Nearly 60% of China’s underground water is polluted, state media has reported, underscoring the severity of the country’s environmental woes.
The country’s land and resources ministry found that among 4,778 testing spots in 203 cities, 44% had “relatively poor” underground water quality; the groundwater in another 15.7% tested as “very poor”.
Water quality improved year-on-year at 647 spots, and worsened in 754 spots, the ministry said.
While New Europe covers a financial corruption death sentence that could never happen in the U.S., a fact which death-penalty foe esnl almost regrets:
Death sentence proposed to uphold for former chief of Vietnam’s state-run shipping firm
Supreme People’s Procuracy of Vietnam on Wednesday proposed to uphold the death sentence for former chairman of state-run shipping firm Vinalines.
During the second day of the appeal trial held in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Wednesday following the appeal of Duong Chi Dung, former chairman of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) and other eight defendants, the Supreme People’s Procuracy of Vietnam suggested the court not to accept the appeals of four defendants.
They include Duong Chi Dung, Mai Van Phuc (former CEO of Vinalines), Tran Huu Chieu (former deputy CEO of Vinalines), Tran Hai Son (former CEO of Vinalines Shipyard Co Ltd), and Mai Van Khang (former deputy CEO of Vien Duong Vinashin Co, a member of the Vinalines project management board).
>snip<
The Hanoi People’s Court in late 2013 sentenced Duong Chi Dung to death for embezzlement, together with an 18-year imprisonment for intentionally violating state regulations on economic management causing severe consequences.
And on to Japan, and a troubling increase from Tokyo Times:
More thyroid cancer cases among Fukushima children
Doctors are reporting a growing number of thyroid cancer cases among Fukushima children, three years after the nuclear accident at the Japanese crippled power plant.
However, it is not clear yet if the growing number of thyroid cancer cases was caused by the high radiation level in the area or just by the fact that more rigorous check-ups are done now.
Last month, the number of confirmed and suspected cases of thyroid cancer among people aged 18 or below at the time of the accident rose to 75, compared with 59 at the end of last September, the international press reports.
From NHK WORLD reactor admonition:
Nuclear regulator criticizes utilities’ efforts
The head of Japan’s nuclear regulator says electric power utilities have totally failed to convey what they learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident and what measures they are pursuing to improve safety.
Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka made the remark to Japan Nuclear Safety Institute Chairman Shojiro Matsuura on Tuesday.
The institute was established by electric power companies in November of last year to help improve safety at nuclear power plants. This was the first exchange of views between the 2 organizations.
Another admonition from the Asahi Shimbun:
Niigata governor: State must stop lying about nuclear safety standards
The governor of Niigata Prefecture said the central government must stop spreading the lie that its new safety requirements for nuclear power plants are “the world’s strictest standards.”
Hirohiko Izumida said the government’s new setup for nuclear power facilities is filled with holes, fails to address unexpected developments and puts the onus on local governments to protect residents in the event of a nuclear accident.
“Although (the new requirements) do not measure up to international standards, (the central government) is not working to change the current situation,” Izumida said in a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun. “(The state) is lying by insisting that it has done what it has not done.”
On to the Game of Zones, starting with an almost unBeliebeable aggravation from the Japan Daily Press:
Justin Bieber visits Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine, Chinese ‘beliebers’ left heartbroken
No stranger to controversy and acts that disrespect others, Canadian pop star Justin Bieber did it again when he visited a war shrine in Japan. His visit elicited anger among his Chinese and South Korean fans, who deem the Yasukuni Shrine a reminder of Japan’s World War II atrocities.
Bieber is in Tokyo for a holiday visit with his mother. While in the country, the pop star apparently thought it was a great idea to visit the shrine, which honors wartime dead, including several class-A criminals. Not satisfied with just visiting the area, he documented his visit and posted a couple of photos of himself at the shrine on his Instagram account. While the pictures have now been removed, many were outraged with his photos, with mostly Chinese and South Koreans taking to social media to air their criticisms and attacks on Bieber, many along the lines of, “As a Chinese Beliber, I am so sad that you visit the Yasukuni Shrine.”
And the response from The Guardian:
Justin Bieber apologises for posting Tokyo war shrine photograph
Singer removes photo of himself at Yasukuni shrine, which China and South Korea regard as symbol of Japanese militarism
Justin Bieber has apologised after posting a photograph that showed him standing in front of the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo.
The Canadian pop singer removed the image but only after it had been tweeted to his 51.1 million followers and attracted 660,000 likes on Instagram.
Bieber, who earlier in the week made a trip to the less politically combustible Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, later said he had been unaware of the shrine’s controversial role, and issued an apology.
BBC News announces an alliance against Beijing:
Obama pledges Japan islands support as Asian tour begins
US President Barack Obama has assured Japan that islands at the centre of its territorial dispute with China are covered by a bilateral defence treaty.
In an interview ahead of his Asian tour, Mr Obama said the US would oppose any attempt to undermine Japan’s control over the islands.
US officials have made such comments in the past, but this is the first time Mr Obama has given such explicit support.
More from the Japan News:
Obama: Senkakus ‘within scope’ of U.S.-Japan treaty
President Barack Obama—for the first time as an incumbent U.S. president—clearly stated the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture are subject to Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, in a written reply to questions submitted by The Yomiuri Shimbun.
“The policy of the United States is clear—the Senkaku Islands are administered by Japan and therefore fall within the scope of Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. And we oppose any unilateral attempts to undermine Japan’s administration of these islands,” the U.S leader stated ahead of his visit to Japan starting Wednesday.
Article 5 stipulates U.S. defense obligations to Japan, which apply to territories under the administration of Japan. Obama’s comment therefore means the United States will defend Japan in the event of a Chinese incursion on the islets, over which China also claims sovereignty.
One hopeful sign from the South China Morning Post:
Beijing backs code to prevent conflict at sea along with US and Japan
Ban on radar-locking of weaponry and a clearer system of communication agreed by 21 nations, including Japan and the US, at Qingdao forum
China is among 21 countries to have approved a charter aimed at preventing unintended military conflict at sea.
Japan, the United States and the Philippines also adopted the agreement, which sets out a communications mechanism for when naval vessels meet unexpectedly in busy sea lanes in the Asia Pacific region.
The agreement reportedly includes a ban on the radar locking of weaponry on vessels of other nations in peacetime.
Meanwhile, China battles to control its own natural resources, via People’s Daily:
WTO rare earth ruling won’t stop China from protecting environment
China plans to appeal the World Trade Organization’s ruling that its restriction on rare earth exports violates global rules, said Shen Danyang, spokesman of ministry of Commerce, on April 17. China will spare no efforts in appealing, but whatever the result, China’s policy of protecting its resources and its environment is not going to change.
Many countries have long blocked rare earth mineral exploitation for environmental reasons. According to a 2012 white paper, Situation and Policies of China’s Rare Earth Industry, China meets more than 90% of the rare earth mineral demand in the global market, even though its reserves account for just 23% of the world’s total. China’s contribution is not properly recognized, and it now finds itself accused of protectionism by the WTO.
Rare earth minerals are a precious and non-renewable resource, used in a range of crucial technologies such as missile-defense systems. They have been dubbed “industrial gold”.
On to the world of spooks and covert ops from Forbes via Just An Earth-Bound Misfit, I:
How The U.S. Military Plans To Hijack The Airwaves
If you want to take over a nation, then first take over its airwaves. Broadcast your messages and interdict the enemy’s ability to broadcast theirs. When the U.S. attacked Iraq in 1991, or NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, among the first targets destroyed were TV and radio stations. When there is a military coup in Africa, the first buildings the rebels usually grab are the radio and TV studios.
So it is illuminating that the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the organization that oversees America’s elite special forces, is quietly searching for equipment that will effectively give it control over every FM and AM radio station in an area. The short, innocuous-sounding announcement on the Federal Business Opportunities site states that SOCOM seeks vendors to provide “a radio broadcast system capable of searching for and acquiring every AM and FM radio station in a specific area and then broadcasting a message(s) in the target area on all acquired AM and FM radio station frequencies.” SOCOM wants equipment that is both lightweight and sophisticated enough to detect and broadcast over multiple frequencies simultaneously. And SOCOM wants it fast. The equipment must be at least Technology Readiness Level 8, a Pentagon measure of technological maturity that means that it is fully developed, tested and ready for use.
And from The Guardian, Uncle Sam’s Snitch=or-Be-Grounded program:
No-fly list used by FBI to coerce Muslims into informing, lawsuit claims
Case highlights plight of people wrongfully added to database who face lengthy, secretive process to clear their names
Filed on Tuesday night in the US district court for the southern district of New York, the case accuses the US attorney general, Eric Holder, the FBI director, James Comey, the homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, and two dozen FBI agents of creating an atmosphere in which Muslims who are not accused of wrongdoing are forbidden from flying, apparently as leverage to get them snitching on their communities.
Their lawsuit seeks not only the plaintiffs’ removal from the no-fly list but also the establishment of a more robust legal mechanism to contest placement upon it.
From the Associated Press, like a fart at Thanksgiving dinner:
Report on CIA interrogations shadows Gitmo trials
The planned release of portions of the Senate report on the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques could add to the legal complications facing the long-delayed U.S. military tribunals of terrorist suspects at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Intelligence officials head up the declassification process to remove any sensitive references, but the Pentagon will also have a key role, according to two U.S. officials familiar with planning for the report’s review. The Defense Department has received copies of the still-secret summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report and expects to provide its own assessment of the material to White House and intelligence officials, the officials said.
A Defense official said “compromise of intelligence sources and methods” is one of the key reasons for the Pentagon’s role. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss publicly how the report was being reviewed.
From Deutsche Welle, one response to Snowden’s revelations:
Brazil passes online privacy law as Web governance conference starts in Sao Paulo
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has ratified a bill guaranteeing Internet privacy and access to the Web. It comes as Sao Paulo hosts a global conference on Internet governance.
The legislation, which was passed by parliament late on Tuesday, puts limits on the metadata that can be collated from Internet users in Brazil. It also makes Internet service providers not liable for content published by their users and requires them to comply with court orders to remove offensive material.
Rousseff, who was in Sao Paulo for the opening of the NetMundial global conference on Internet governance, has been at the forefront of efforts to formally recognize Internet freedom and privacy.
Last year, when it was revealed that she had been under surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA), Rousseff cancelled a state visit to the US and started to champion Internet freedom and privacy.
On to Big Ag, starting with GMO misgivings from Mother Jones:
Monsanto GM Soy Is Scarier Than You Think
Americans don’t eat much of these lime-green legumes directly, but that doesn’t mean we’re not exposed to them. After harvest, the great bulk of soybeans are crushed and divided into two parts: meal, which mainly goes into feed for animals that become our meat, and fat, most of which ends up being used as cooking oil or in food products. According to the US Soy Board, soy accounts for 61 percent of American’s vegetable oil consumption.
Given soy’s centrality to our food and agriculture systems, the findings of a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Food Chemistry are worth pondering. The authors found that Monsanto’s ubiquitous Roundup Ready soybeans, engineered to withstand its own blockbuster herbicide, contain more herbicide residues than their non-GMO counterparts. The team also found that the GM beans are nutritionally inferior.
In the study, the researchers looked at samples of three kinds of soybeans grown in Iowa: (1) those grown from GM herbicide-tolerant seeds; (2) those grown from non-GM seeds but in a conventional, agrichemical-based farming regime; and (3) organic soybeans, i.e., non-GM and grown without agrichemicals.
They found residues of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) and aminomethylphosphonic acid, or AMPA, the compound glyphosate breaks down into as it decays, on all 10 of the GM samples—and in none of the non-GM and organic ones.
EurActiv covers African land-grabbin’:
Study: Public-private partnerships threaten smallholders
Collaboration between public and private agriculture investment was thought to be beneficial for development. But a recent study focusing on Zambia argues the opposite: most companies simply seek a quick profit, while local smallholders sink further into poverty. EurActiv Germany reports.
>snip<
The agricultural sector is “undergoing great transformations that are of vital national interest, but are often against the interests of smallholders”, the authors of the FIAN study write, quoting a recent report released by the “Committee on World Food Security” (CFS).
Here, FIAN writes, the blame can be traced back to a small but influential group of agribusiness companies and financial investors, many of which come from Europe. They expose smallholders to rising competition over land and in production.
The result of this “land-grabbing”, FIAN indicates, is land scarcity and hunger, two of the central problems in Zambia.
The Associated Press covers another form of agriculture:
Expanded hemp production passes easily in Colorado Senate
A Colorado bill to expand industrial hemp production has sailed through the state Senate and now heads to the House.
Senators voted 35-0 Wednesday to expand the number and size of farms growing hemp, marijuana’s non-intoxicating cousin.
Related: Getting hemp seeds still challenge for Colorado farmers
The measure would allow year-round hemp cultivation in greenhouses and strike a 10-acre limit on hemp for research and development.
While the NORML Blog covers another consequences of another cultivar of the same species:
Study: Medical Cannabis Laws Not Associated With Increased Use By Adolescents
The enactment of state laws legalizing the physician-recommended use of cannabis therapy is not associated with increased levels of marijuana use by young people, according to data published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University assessed the impact of medical cannabis laws by examining trends in reported drug use by high-schoolers in a cohort of states before and after legalization. Researchers compared these trends to geographically matched states that had not adopted medical marijuana laws.
Authors reported overall “no statistically significant differences in marijuana use before and after policy change for any state pairing,” and acknowledged that some states that had adopted medical cannabis laws experienced a decrease in adolescent’s self-reported use of the plant. “In the regression analysis, we did not find an overall increased probability of marijuana use related to the policy change,” they stated.
From the East Bay Express, responding to another consequence:
Sober DUIs for Pot Are ‘Absurd,’ Arizona Supreme Court Affirms
The Arizona Supreme Court slapped down a dumb law that criminalized driving while sober in the medical marijuana state.
Arizona state law had held that anyone who tested positive for trace marijuana metabolites — which can stay in one’s system for up to six weeks after last use — was automatically guilty of Driving Under the Influence. The problem is: pot’s effects wear off in 60 to 180 minutes. Arizona, as a result, was imprisoning sober drivers. The state’s Supreme Court said that’s “absurd.”
In 2010, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery tried to lock up sober driver Hrach Shilgevorkyan after he was pulled over by police for speeding and making an unsafe lane change and a blood test showed marijuana’s inactive metabolite in his system.
And from the Associated Press, another venue, a different response:
Amsterdam May Ban Pot Shops in Red Light District
Amsterdam has won court permission to ban marijuana cafes in its famous Red Light district, stepping up a crackdown on the city’s freewheeling lifestyle.
Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but possession of small amounts is not prosecuted and it is sold openly in “coffee shops.” Prostitution is legal. But Mayor Eberhard van der Laan argues the district’s brothels and coffee shops generate criminality, and he has sought to have many closed.
Coffee shop owners argued that laws were being selectively enforced against them.
Back home again, and a reconsideration from The Verge:
US will consider shortening sentences for harsh, outdated drug laws
The US Justice Department is beginning a big initiative to commute the sentences of some inmates serving drug convictions with overly long sentences. Announced this morning, the initiative will allow non-violent inmates who have served at least 10 years of a long drug sentence that would have been shorter if given today to apply for their sentences to be reduced by the president. “Some [defendants], simply because of the operation of sentencing laws on the books at the time, received substantial sentences that are disproportionate to what they would receive today,” deputy attorney general James Cole said at a press conference announcing the initiative. “Even the sentencing judges in many of these cases expressed regret at the time at having to impose such harsh sentences.”
The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department has identified 23,000 inmates on drug charges who have served over 10 years, though there are several other conditions they must meet in order to qualify for clemency, including having good standing in prison and not having a significant criminal history. Inmates will be told about the initiative and given a survey to see if they might quality. Those who do will be given help from a lawyer, pro bono, to prepare their application. Government lawyers will then review the applications to see who is eligible.
Finally, from BBC News, a reminder of other threats:
Saudi health minister sacked as Mers death toll rises
The Saudi health minister has been sacked without explanation, as the Mers coronavirus death toll there climbed to 81.
Abdullah al-Rabiah was dismissed just days after visiting hospitals in Jeddah to calm a public hit by panic over the spread of the respiratory virus.
Saudi has registered the largest number of infections of Mers (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).
The ministry said it had registered 261 cases of infection across the kingdom.
