Patients Challenge Tehama County Anti-Cultivation Ordinance

RED BLUFF- In a lawsuit  supported by California NORML, Tehama County patients  filed suit  on June 4th against a county ordinance that limits their right to grow marijuana at home.

  
The lawsuit, by the law firm of Edie Lerman and J David Nick of Ukiah,  asks for a writ of mandate to strike down the Tehama ordinance.
The plaintiffs  claim that the ordinance makes it impossible for them to legally exercise their Proposition 215 right to cultivate medical marijuana for themselves.

The Tehama ordinance declares it a public  nuisance  to grow marijuana anywhere within 1,000 feet of  a school, school bus stop, church, park, or youth-oriented facility;  restricts gardens  to no more than 12 mature or 24 total plants on  parcels of 20 acres or less; requires outdoor gardens to be  surrounded by an opaque fence at least six feet high and located 100  feet or more from the property boundaries; and requires every patient garden to be registered with the county health services agency for a fee to be determined.

 
"The ordinance is an affront to property rights as well as patients' rights," declares Jason Browne, one of the Tehama plaintiffs.  "The patient community has attempted for months to work with the county. They have snubbed us at every turn. We had no alternative but to sue."

California NORML attorneys argue that local governments cannot legally declare activities that are protected by state law to be nuisances.

"They can't take everyone's rights away," says attorney Edie Lerman.   California law states patients can have whatever they need for themselves and for collectives." Lerman warns patients to expect a long battle, as the case is likely to go to the appellate level.

Tehama's  is the most restrictive of a number of  anti-cultivation measures that have recently been proposed by local  officials  hostile to medical marijuana. In another lawsuit filed by Lerman and Nick, Mendocino County patients are challenging an ordinance that limits patient cultivation to 25 plants per parcel, regardless of the number of patients.

The ordinance was recently amended to let collectives apply for licenses for larger gardens of up to 99 plants under certain conditions.

"The right to cultivate is fundamental  to Prop. 215's mandate that 'seriously ill  Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes,'" says California NORML Director Dale Gieringer, a co-author of Prop. 215.

CONTACTS: Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858;  Edie Lerman (707) 937-1711

Signs of the Apocalypse #13 : Elton John sings at Limbaugh’s wedding!

Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh had an unexpected wedding singer when he said "I do" for the fourth time yesterday to Kathryn Rogers at the Breakers hotel in Palm Beach: gay rights advocate Elton John, according to a wire report from the FOX-owned News Corporation.

The $1 million the Rocket Man reportedly took home for his trouble, however, may have smoothed over any conflicts of interest for the time being as Rush is homophobic. One million dollars has a way of loosening convictions.

Photo source

The stench of last minute attacks on political candidates reaches from Humboldt to South Carolina

Have you ever noticed how political campaigners wait until just before an election to release their “secret weapon/aka Smoking Gun” against opponents? It’s a time-honored practice in American politics, which has always been a messy process to say the least.

For example: The election of 1828 was significant as it heralded a profound change with the election of a man widely viewed as a champion of the common people. But that year's campaigning was also noteworthy for the intense personal attacks widely employed by the supporters of both candidates.

The most recent example of last minute attacks here in Humboldt is directed against 5th district supervisor candidate Ryan Sundberg’s DUI.

Decorum goes South in S.C. governor race

Nikki Haley is challenging the corrupt “Good Old Boy System” in the South and her opponents are trying their best to smear her bad enough to affect the election tomorrow. So far, it looks like their dirty tactics aren’t paying off.

PHOTO ABOVE: State Rep. Nikki Haley, 38, has been a state representative since 2004 — long enough, she says, to know the problems but not to be "part of the fraternity party."

Dirty tricks, local politics, and Elvis Costello

Writer Dan Ryan looks at five dirty campaign tactics at play in KC

Last-Minute Onslaught of Mud

With the June primary election just days away — next Tuesday — voters can expect a blitzkrieg of campaign mud smearing their TV screens and in their mailboxes over the weekend and early next week. The Democrat primary for the 35th Assembly District has generated the most contentious and over-the-top aspersions thus far, prompting the head of the Santa Barbara Democratic Central Committee to take both candidates — Santa Barbara City Councilmember Das Williams and coastal advocate Susan Jordan — to task for engaging in “cheap shots and character bashing.”

Haley Barbour: Oil? What Oil? Press Should Stop Scaring Tourists

This month we have a new “Spotlight on Idiots” featuring Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

It really cracks me up how these Republicans say they don’t want any part of Big Government, but the moment something like this massive oil spill happens they’re crying for help from the same reviled government.

Most revealing however, is the fact that here’s another Republican so friggin corrupt that he’s trying to downplay the worst ecological disaster in United States history because he’s worried the press is over blowing things and discouraging tourists! Unbelievable. But that’s a typical Republican stance. Big business first, the people last:

“The biggest problem facing Mississippi in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf isn't tarred beaches or ecological waste, the state's governor Haley Barbour said on Sunday. It's the national press corps, which, he asserted, is inflating the disaster's current impact and, as a result, decimating the state's tourism industry.

In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, the Mississippi Republican veered as close as any elected politician could to insisting that the biggest oil spill in the history of this country had been overblown -- at least when it comes to his state.”                    Photo source

As It Stands: Researchers claim to have solved the mystery of life -- now what?

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 06/06/2010 01:47:59 AM PDT

”Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive ... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!” Henry Frankenstein (played by Colin Clive) announced to the world when his creation moved, in the 1931 movie “Frankenstein” starring Boris Karloff.

Now reality has met fiction, and the latter is not as scary as the first. No terrible storm with jagged shards of lightning shattered the sky when the research team led by J. Craig Venter, Hamilton Smith, Clyde Hutchinson, and Daniel Gibson at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockeville, Md., recently announced the creation of life from non-living parts.

Unlike the movie, they didn't piece together parts from dead bodies to craft what they call a “synthetic cell” from a set of genes they decoded, artificially combined and then stuck into the cored-out shell of another bacterial cell, according to an MSNBC.com article by Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.

Since the book “Frankenstein” by Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley came out 200 years ago, philosophers, scientists, and theologians have debated the merits of mankind creating life. Some saw the book's message as a warning of what would happen to men if they messed with the secret of life.

READ THE REST HERE                          Photo source

Travel survey cites America’s dirtiest cities

___________________

From L.A. to Miami, find out which U.S. 30 cities need spring cleaning

Los Angeles is No. 3 on Travel + Leisure's list of America's dirtiest cities.

View related photos

_____________________

As It Stands Preview: Frankenstein’s Monster has competition!

“Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!” Henry Frankenstein (played by Colin Clive) announced to the world when his creation moved, in the 1931 movie “Frankenstein“ starring Boris Karloff.

Now reality has met fiction, and the latter is not as scary as the first.

See this Sunday’s As It Stands in The Times-Standard.

image source

Report finds ‘Earmarks’ set aside for campaign donors

Is anyone surprised? Do people take notice of information like this anymore?

All Obama’s talk about getting rid of earmarks hasn’t done a thing. It’s just talk. The following link shows the money trail.

What say we actually go after these fat cats and either vote them out or at least change the way they do business? 

House and Senate lawmakers have received nearly $2 million in campaign contributions this election cycle from organizations for which they had sponsored earmarks, according to a new report by two nonpartisan watchdogs.

image source

Montana Cannabis caravans fuel medical pot boom

-------------------------------------------

Chuck Campbell with Montana Buds talks with a new cardholder about the services he offers.

In Montana, roving cannabis caravans are makeshift clinics where patients can see a doctor, pay a fee, and leave with permission to use medical marijuana.

-------------------------------------------

June’s Random Viewer Pick is from Tirana

Tirana is the capital and the largest city in Albania.

Tirana has a typical Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot and dry summers and cool, wet winters.

The main cultural and artistic institutions of Tirana are the National Theater, the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania, the National Gallery of Figurative Arts of Albania (Galeria Kombëtare e Arteve), and the Ensemble of Folk Music and Dances. Another cultural event includes performances of renown world composers performed by the Symphonic Orchestra of the Albanian Radio and Television. The city has been a venue for the Tirana Biennale and Tirana Jazz Festival.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

Information and photo source

Study suggests chocolate health claims are ‘unproven’

Wouldn’t you know it? For the last couple of years studies have been touting the benefits of eating chocolate, much to the delight of my chocolate-loving wife. This news story is going to come as a blow to her, as she has been guilt-free while indulging in everything chocolate.

Studies have shown benefits from compounds in cocoa, but they remain unproved, and many of the studies have ties to chocolate makers.

It's every sweet tooth's dream. A steady stream of studies has linked chocolate to a variety of health benefits, including decreased blood pressure, lower cholesterol, reduced risk of heart disease, even effects on mood.

photo source