ORLANDO, Fla. â Less than 24 hours before the Florida Legislature passed the stateâs first medical marijuana law in May 2014, Matt Gaetz and other members of the state House of Representatives rewrote the bill to limit who would be able to get in on the ground floor of what has since become a billion-dollar business.
A number of Gaetzâs friends and allies managed to squeeze through that narrow door. Among them:
â The brother of Gaetzâs friend and fellow state Rep. Halsey Beshears, who co-founded one of Floridaâs first licensed marijuana companies and amassed a fortune currently valued at about $600 million â and became a major Republican Party donor.
Thomas Ward and
Ranah Esmaili. Ward previously was enforcement director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Republican and Democratic administrations. Esmaili was assistant director in the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he served for over seven years.
Melissa Miller joined
Ford Motor Co. s D.C. office as government and public policy communications manager. She previously was communications director for Sen. John Hickenlooper
Rosario Palmieri joined the management and communications company
Kellen as vice president. He previously was associate administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget during the Trump administration. Before that, he was vice president of labor, legal and regulatory policy at the National Association of Manufacturers.
By Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA (Reuters) - Thousands of Colombians took to the streets on Saturday for International Workers Day marches and protests against a government tax reform proposal, in a fourth day of demonstrations that have resulted in at least four deaths. Unions and other groups kicked off marches on Wednesday to demand the government of President Ivan Duque withdraw the reform proposal, which originally leveled sales tax on public services and some food. Cali, the country s third-largest city, has seen the most vociferous marches, some looting and at least three deaths connected to the demonstrations. To lose lives is always a very painful situation and circumstance. During these riots three people have died, Cali Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said on social media, asking the attorney general s office to determine who fired the bullets responsible for the deaths. Rights organization Human Rights Watch said it had received reports of possible police abuse in Cali, and local human
By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - The leader of a group of artists, writers and activists has announced a new hunger strike, just six months after one led to a rare protest in Havana, putting them on a potential collision course with the island s communist authorities. A previous group hunger strike by the San Isidro movement in November was broken up by police, resulting in a rare demonstration of around 300 people in front of the Culture Ministry in Havana. Since then, the group has been vilified by authorities as outside agitators working with the United States. The few dozen members have been temporarily detained repeatedly and often told they cannot leave their homes with communications cut. Leader Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara was arrested and some of his art destroyed and seized a few weeks ago as the performance artist protested a Communist party congress by sitting in a garrote. Otero Alcantara, who is into the seventh day without food or fluids, is demanding his art be returned,
Hong Kong legislature to discuss new immigration bill amid exit ban fears
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Legislative Council meeting debating a Beijing-backed electoral reform in Hong Kong, China, June 18, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip reuters tickers
This content was published on April 28, 2021 - 03:46
April 28, 2021 - 03:46
By Pak Yiu
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong s legislature is set to discuss a controversial immigration bill, which lawyers, diplomats and right groups fear will give authorities unlimited powers to prevent residents and others from entering or leaving the Chinese-ruled city.
The government has dismissed those fears as complete nonsense, saying the bill merely aims to screen illegal immigrants at source amid a backlog of asylum applications and does not affect constitutional rights of free movement.