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California is changing how it goes after illegal cannabis farms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

Fighting the illicit pot marketIt’s been five years since recreational cannabis sales began in California. Many have played by the rules, but the illegal growth and sale of the plant continue to undermine those obeying the laws.Since its establishment in 1983, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) has had more than 110 law enforcement agencies involved, making it one of the largest law enforcement task forces in the U.S.But things are changing.California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced CAMP seized nearly 1 million illegally cultivated cannabis plants and more than 200,000 pounds of illegally processed cannabis. Bonta also announced that the Department of Justice will be phasing out CAMP in favor of a year-round multi-agency program, Eradication and Prevention of Illicit Cannabis (EPIC).What is EPICRelated ArticlesMarijuana | Marijuana law presents new challenges for California bosses Marijuana | Former Michigan House speaker and head of marij...

‘It kind of worked,’ says California pilot who missed homes with hard landing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

Gnyandev Patel had less than a minute to come up with a plan.Patel had made the 13-minute flight from Chino Airport to Riverside Municipal Airport to have breakfast there with two friends on Sunday morning, April 16, and was en route with the pair to Brackett Field in La Verne after easing his single-engine Piper into the sky at 10:07 a.m.“The run-up was great, then the takeoff was good. I had plenty of power,” Patel said in a telephone interview.But then at about 1,000 feet, the engine sputtered and stopped.“What happens in 45 seconds, it’s hard to describe,” Patel said.Patel, a 58-year-old resident of Orange who is an internal medicine physician in Lakewood, said he has been flying since 2008 without incident. But now he would be tested.He said he didn’t have the power to make a turn back to the airport, so he scanned the horizon.“There’s always a place to land,” Patel said. “Whether it’s safe or not, you don’t know. If I tried to make the runway, I probably would have crashed int...

California police officer shoots, injures suspect possibly involved in 3 other shootings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

The Long Beach Police Department was investigating on Sunday, April 16 after an LBPD officer shot and injured a suspect who may have been involved in three  other shootings.According to Michael Pennino, LBPD Commander of Special Investigations, officers responded to a shooting at 3rd Street and Elm Avenue at around 4:44 p.m. and found that no one had been struck by gunfire. Dispatchers announced a description of the suspect, a male who fled the scene.Long Beach police investigate after a police shooting Sunday afternoon, April 16, in the area of Elm Avenue and Ocean Boulevard. (Photo by OC HAWK)Long Beach police investigate after a police shooting Sunday afternoon, April 16, in the area of Elm Avenue and Ocean Boulevard. (Photo by OC HAWK)Show Caption of ExpandAt 4:46 p.m., an officer on patrol near Ocean Boulevard and Elm Avenue heard shots, found the suspect, and shot him in the torso. The suspect was transported to a hospital by the Long Beach Fire Department and was expected to ...

Coachella 2023: Fans react to Frank Ocean’s performance not being livestreamed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

When it was announced that Frank Ocean was going to headline Day 3 of Coachella, it was kind of a big deal: the Long Beach singer-rapper had not played live since 2017.So when fans that couldn’t make it to the festival found out Sunday that the performance wouldn’t be livestreamed, there was a lot of social chatter on the manner.The official announcement came via YouTube’s Twitter account after fans noticed that Ocean had been removed from the streaming schedule.Frank Ocean is not scheduled to appear on the Coachella livestream. The current schedule is in the description → https://t.co/oweGcgaTZs— YouTube (@YouTube) April 17, 2023The replies to the Tweet speak volumes:This is the worst day of my life— DANI MEDINA (@danimedinanews) April 17, 2023NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

Dear Abby: I saw security video of my fiance, and my heart is broken

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

DEAR ABBY: My fiance and I have been together for six years. We are in our late 40s. He’s a recovering alcoholic and former drug user from his late teens into his early 20s.He hasn’t touched drugs for 21 years. He often talked to people about his recovery, and I was beyond proud of him.I recently saw something that broke my heart. I went over to check on a neighbor and he asked me to look at the security camera he has for fear of strangers coming up to his door.My heart began to race as I saw my fiance in the background of the video smoking something. I watched the video at least 20 times and there he was, smoking a blunt!I was so shocked and disappointed that it took me an hour before I could text him.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: I can’t believe she ended our friendship over this wedding dispute Advice | Dear Abby: I’m afraid to speak up when strangers behave badly Advice | Dear Abby: My fiance doesn’t ...

Orthodox Easter mixes spiritual and pagan in equal measure

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Millions of Orthodox Christians across Eastern and Southern Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, have celebrated Easter, capping weeklong religious celebrations.The most important holiday on the Orthodox religious calendar is essentially an outdoor celebration, with equally intense spiritual and pagan parts and religious services followed by feasts, familial and communal.Customs such as eating spit-roasted lambs, knocking red-colored hard-boiled eggs together as a sort of contest and launching fireworks in celebration as soon as the priest intones “Christ has risen from the dead,” at midnight on Saturday, likely predate Christianity itself. But new customs, or variations of old ones, appear constantly. In the neighborhood of Neos Kosmos, in Greece’s capital, Athens, younger parishioners have recently taken to throwing Molotov cocktails — the rioters’ weapon of choice — into open spaces. On the Greek island of Chios, two neighborhoods in the villa...

MGM National Harbor welcomes Bill Maher, who predicts outcome of 2024 presidential election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.” toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley previews Bill Maher at MGM National Harbor (Part 1) $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ga('send', 'event', 'Audio', 'play', audio_filename); }); }); New rule: When Bill Maher performs in your town, you have to buy a ticket.OK, you clearly don’t have to, but who literally follows Maher’s new rules anyway?The prolific political comedian performs live at MGM National Harbor in Maryl...

Los intensos combates continúan por tercer día en Sudán mientras el número de muertos se acerca a 100

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

(CNN) — Los residentes de la capital de Sudán, Jartum, se despertaron este lunes con los sonidos de la artillería y los bombardeos de aviones de combate, mientras los intensos combates continuaban por tercer día y el número de muertos se acercaba a 100, con cientos más heridos.Los combates entre el grupo paramilitar sudanés Rapid Support Forces (RSF) y el Ejército de Sudán continuaron durante la noche de este domingo y se intensificaron después de las oraciones del alba, al igual que el domingo. Testigos presenciales dijeron a CNN que escucharon intensos combates con morteros y artillería en las primeras horas de la mañana de este lunes.Los enfrentamientos estallaron por primera vez el sábado entre el ejército del país y RSF, liderado por Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, también conocido como Hemedti, quien le dijo a CNN el domingo que el ejército había roto un alto el fuego humanitario temporal negociado por la ONU.Testigos presenciales declararon a CNN que se habían incrementado los a...

Now Frans Timmermans postpones China trip after positive COVID test

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

The EU’s climate policy chief Frans Timmermans has postponed a planned trip to China after testing positive for COVID-19, a member of his Cabinet said today.“We are looking to get [the trip] back on as soon as possible,” Timmermans’ communication adviser Jori Keijsper said.Timmermans was supposed to travel to China this week to meet with Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua after attending a G7 meeting on environmental issues in Sapporo, Japan over the weekend. But he had to cancel both visits after he tested positive before traveling to Japan.He is the second commissioner to test positive for COVID in less than a week. Last Wednesday, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also had to postpone a trip to China after testing positive for the virus.The fact that both commissioners caught coronavirus within days of each other is “a complete coincidence,” Keijsper said. “They didn’t see each other, there was no College [of Commissioner...

Fighting between Sudan military rivals enters a second day, with dozens dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:13:14 GMT

(CNN) — Fierce fighting across Sudan entered a second day as months of tensions between a paramilitary group and the country’s army erupted into violence.Clashes around the army headquarters and presidential palace in capital Khartoum involved heavy weapons. There have also been reports of battles hundreds of miles away in the eastern city of Port Sudan and in the western Darfur region.At least 56 people have been killed and nearly 600 injured in the clashes, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.“Since yesterday we have not been able to leave the hospital for our homes because the clashes are taking place near the hospital and armed men from the army are roaming inside the hospital with their weapons,” a female doctor in Khartoum told CNN.“We are in a real state of terror with the sound of explosions and bullets, we escaped death many times,” she added.Sudan’s paramilitary chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo claimed to have seized mos...