Senator seeks answers on pot law conflicts
MONTPELIER, Vt. – The chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday he wants to look into the conflicts between state and federal marijuana laws.
Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said he had invited Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole to talk to the committee about the issue Sept. 10.
Two states, Washington and Colorado, have legalized small amounts of marijuana for personal use. Twenty others have approved use of medical marijuana and others have shifted to civil fines like traffic tickets for small-level possession.
The federal government still calls marijuana illegal. Leahy said he’d like to see the state laws respected, and wants clarity on how federal authorities will respond to marijuana sales and use in states where penalties have been reduced or eliminated.
NAACP petition urges Zimmerman charges
WASHINGTON – NAACP President Ben Jealous said Monday his organization collected petitions with more than 1.7 million signatures calling for charges to be filed against George Zimmerman for violating Trayvon Martin’s civil rights.
Jealous said the signatures, about a million of which came in by mobile phone and many from young people, would be turned over to the Department of Justice on Monday afternoon.
The NAACP signatures would be in addition to another 219,000 handed over to the Justice Department last week by ColorOfChange, an online civil rights group.
Jealous cited the petitions as an example of the advocacy in which the NAACP and others have engaged since Zimmerman was acquitted by a Florida court for the shooting death of Martin, 17, on Feb. 26, 2012.
Peace talks canceled because of violence
QALANDIA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank – A Palestinian official said planned peace talks with the Israelis scheduled for Monday have been called off after a deadly clash in the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians Monday in clashes during an arrest raid in the West Bank outside Jerusalem. The violence came as Israel and the Palestinians were expected to begin rounds of peace talks, the first such meetings in five years.
The Palestinian official said the Palestinians decided to postpone Monday’s meeting to protest the killings. He said the Palestinians are also upset about an Israeli announcement on Sunday pushing forward with new settlement construction in east Jerusalem.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Associated Press
