Obama’s weed announcement: Don’t celebrate just yet

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:15:00 +0000

Advocates in Washington and Colorado have been waiting anxiously to see what the federal government will do about their newly-enacted marijuana legalization laws, and now we’ve finally gotten some word on it from President Obama himself. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, so the administration could theoretically crush the states’ nascent reforms by asserting its supremacy, but in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, Obama suggested that’s not what’s going to happen. "It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal,” he said. "We've got bigger fish to fry.

This certainly seems like good news for reform advocates as it apparently rules out the harshest possible response -- a lawsuit in federal court to trump the states' laws -- and suggests the feds will mostly leave the states be. And when asked if he personally supports legalizing the drug, Obama said he does not "at this point,” opening the door for a marriage equality-like “evolution” down the road. "This is a tough problem, because Congress has not yet changed the law. I head up the executive branch; we're supposed to be carrying out laws,” he added.

“Devastating blow” for Texas’ Aryan Brotherhood

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:56:00 +0000

In one of the largest racketeering cases brought this year, the U.S. Department of Justice has just unsealed a 43-page indictment of 34 members of a “violent, whites-only prison-based gang with thousands of members operating” in and out of prisons throughout Texas and elsewhere.

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) is accused of carrying out murders, attempted murders, conspiracies, arsons, assaults, robberies and drug trafficking as part of an enterprise that goes back to at least 1993. Among those charged in the indictment are four senior leaders or “generals” — Terry Ross “Big Terry” Blake, 55; Larry Max “Slick” Bryan, 51; William David “Baby Huey” Maynard, 42, and Charles Lee “Jive” Roberts, 68.

Blake and Roberts were among 17 of the defendants arrested last week by a task force of 170 state, federal and local law enforcement officers who conducted sweeps in Texas and North Carolina. Authorities say 14 of the defendants already were in custody and three remain fugitives.

Salon.com > U.S. Department of Justice

Obama’s weed announcement: Don’t celebrate just yet

“Devastating blow” for Texas’ Aryan Brotherhood