So much for the City Attorney and local business. How do the police uphold state law when the Feds drop in?
I recently spoke with a LBPD undercover narcotics investigator–who works closely with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency–about the November 20th federal raid (and subsequent closure) of Long Beach Compassionate Caregivers, a local medical marijuana [...]

When state and federal laws conflict the City Attorney is put in a very awkward position. Local businesses, too.
On October 2nd of last year federal DEA agents raided Long Beach Compassionate Caregivers (aka LBCC–no jokes, people), one of 11 medical marijuana dispensaries then operating in Long Beach. Despite the 1996 passage of Prop. [...]

Hopefully not to my neighborhood. Alamitos Beach residents feel the same way.
Took a trip to Illinois to visit the in-laws recently. My father-in-law, noodling around on his computer, decided that it would be interesting to see how many residents of his upscale retirement community were on the Megan’s Law watch list. A [...]

YES!
Susan Jacoby has written a book on anti-intellectualism in America (a subject that we have touched on before). Her assessment: (1) we are woefully, blithely ignorant of the most basic facts of history, geography, science, whatnot. (2) Not only do we find our ignorance funny (good stuff for late-night television), we are smug [...]

We’ve been told that yes, Iraq is a mixed bag but we’re finally making some progress. Well guess what.
The war has come up in debates, but in a rather perfunctory way: so far, it’s been anything but the defining issue of the campaign season. I am the millionth person to make this [...]

Suicide rates go up 20%, while attempted suicide/self-injury rates jump sixfold

More details to be found here.

stag / fla / tion: (n) sluggish economic growth coupled with a high rate of inflation and unemployment.
CNN gives us this happy news, headlined with “Economy much weaker than expected.”
For those who were born before 1980 Investopedia provides a bit of historical context: “[Stagflation is] not a good situation for a country [...]

…six days to go…
* Reports are starting to accumulate that Rudy is going to withdraw, and endorse McCain
* McCain wins Florida; Hillary also wins Florida, but no delegates
* Delegate count: Obama-63, Clinton-48, Edwards-26, McCain-95, Romney-67, Huckabee-26
* Arlo Guthrie–ARLO GUTHRIE!–endorses Paul. One of these days I’ll present my opinions on Independents and Libertarians, but [...]

Sick people can go to hell, but they should stop by the welfare office first
In 1996 Californians voted to enact the Compassionate Use Act, permitting the cultivation and use of marijuana for medical reasons. Not wanting to look too flaky, seven years later the state followed up with SB 420, which implemented an ID [...]

A copy of the warning can be found here.
The cell was spotted 4 miles south southwest of Long Beach, and tornadoes tend to move north northeast (so I’m told by someone who grew up in tornado territory). Long Beach was the likely destination for the cell.
Considering that this was a warning and not [...]