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Army Vet Discovers Feds Now Digging Up Decades Old Minor Convictions to Prevent Gun Ownership

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A local Army veteran is fighting for permission to own a gun after a misdemeanor pot conviction from 1971 stopped him from buying .22 caliber rifle.

Ron Kelly, who retired from the Army in 1993, after a career of firing tanks, machine guns and an array of other weapons [shooting an estimated 100,000 rounds through the course of his career], was recently turned away at the Wal-Mart in Tomball after a computerized background check turned up the arrest.

Today’s Houston Chronicle has a front page story on Ron Kellly and his fight to own a gun.

Kelly said he’d forgotten all about the incident, in which he was arrested over a baggie of pot while in high school, and given one year of probation.

He was a bit embarrassed. Now he’s outraged…

According to the FBI, which runs the background checks known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the law states that a person can be prevented from owing a gun if they are convicted of a misdemeanor in which they could spend more than two years behind bars.

Read more from this story HERE.

Judge Rules Defense Can Show Trayvon Martin Died With Marijuana in His System; Sheriff Prepares for Riots (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy Fox News. Defense lawyers will be permitted to show that Trayvon Martin had marijuana in his system when he and George Zimmerman had their fateful encounter in a gated community in Florida last year, the judge in Zimmerman’s murder trial ruled Monday.

Judge Debra Nelson denied a motion by prosecutors to keep toxicology results showing THC in Martin’s system from the jury, paving the way for Zimmerman’s lawyers to argue the drug may have influenced the teen’s behavior. Defense attorney Don West noted that in Zimmerman’s statement to the non-emergency 911 dispatcher that it appeared the person he was observing in the Sanford, Fla., community was “on drugs.”

Late Monday, Zimmerman defense spokesman Shawn Vincent said the defense could rest by the end of the day Tuesday or early Wednesday morning. The prosecution would then have rebuttal witnesses, with closing statements by Thursday or Friday. Vincent stressed this scenario depended on everything going as expected.

Nelson’s ruling on the toxicology results came after the jury was dismissed following a day of conflicting testimony about whose voice could be heard screaming on a subsequent 911 tape. A parade of Zimmerman’s friends said they recognized the neighborhood watch volunteer’s voice, but Martin’s father, who police said initially told them he did not recognize the voice, said he came to realize it was his son after hearing the tape some 20 times.

The testimony, in week three of Zimmerman’s murder trial, came after the mothers of both Zimmerman and Martin testified Friday it was their son doing the screaming in the Feb. 26, 2012, 911 call made to Sanford, Fla., police. The issue is critical because Zimmerman, a 29-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer, says he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense as he was being beaten.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Breitbart Broward County Sheriff’s Office Prepares Zimmerman Verdict Riot Plan

By Ben Shapiro. On Monday, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office released a video calling on the public not to riot in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, expected this week or next in Florida. The Sheriff’s Office released a statement explaining that it was “working closely with the Sanford Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies” to coordinate “a response plan in anticipation of the verdict.”

The video, titled “Raise Your Voice, Not Your Hands,” focuses on attempting to channel reaction into non-violent response. It depicts two youngsters, one black teenage boy, one Hispanic teenage girl. “Raise your voice!” says the girl. “And not your hands!” says the boy. “We need to stand together as one, no cuffs, no guns,” says the girl. “Let’s give violence a rest, because we can easily end up arrested,” says the boy. “I know your patience will be tested,” says the girl, and then both conclude, “but law enforcement has your back!”

“Let’s back up and choose not to act up, and deputies are with us, so no need to act up,” says the boy. “Let it roll off your shoulders,” says the girl, “it’s water off your back, don’t lack composure, because in one instant it could be over.” Both conclude: “So let’s make the choice to raise your voice and not your hands.” Sheriff Scott Israel says, “I’m Sheriff Scott Israel, and law enforcement does have your back.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Case Against Zimmerman Collapsing

By Jack Cashill. On Monday afternoon, the State of Florida’s case against George Zimmerman all but collapsed when the defense put a lie to the State’s claim that Trayvon Martin was the one whose voice was heard on the 9-1-1 tapes.

A critical part of the evidence to support the second-degree murder affidavit against Zimmerman was the identification by Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, of her son’s screaming voice on what the defense calls the “Lauer tape,” the 9-1-1 call that recorded forty seconds of cries for help.

On Friday, July 8, the State closed its case by calling Fulton to the witness stand. As expected, and as highly anticipated by those wanting Zimmerman’s head, Fulton claimed that it was her son’s voice on the 9-1-1 tape…

Under defense attorney Mark O’Mara’s guidance [on Monday], Chris Serino, the lead investigator in the case, told how he played the 9-1-1 tapes for Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father, two days after the shooting.

When Serino asked Martin if the screaming voice on the 9-1-1 tape was his son’s, Martin said “no.” Sanford PD officer Doris Singleton testified next. She witnessed the exchange and confirmed what Serino had said. “[Tracy Martin] was telling Chris it was not his son’s voice,” said Singleton. Read more from this story HERE.

Ohio Mayoral Hopeful Doles out Free ‘Weed’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Campaigning for the chance at mayor of Cincinnati, Jim Berns doled out supposed free “marijuana plants” to potential constituents near the University of Cincinnati to receive dozens of people in line hoping to snag some dope.

The catch? He was handing out harmless, but familiar-looking tomato plants.

Berns posits that the legalization of medical marijuana could raise the city’s economy.

He explained his position by attempting to prove how the money can be saved, mainly by not using up police officers’ time. ”The state can make millions, if not billions, of dollars making this into a legal industry, and that we don’t have to have all these police chasing petty criminals around,” he said.

In an effort to rally the crowd, Berns shouted, ”How many people want to grow marijuana on their back porch?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Ex-Microsoft Manager Plans to Create First U.S. Marijuana Brand

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Photo Credit: Reuters

A former Microsoft executive plans to create the first U.S. national marijuana brand, with cannabis he hopes to eventually import legally from Mexico, and said he was kicking off his business by acquiring medical pot dispensaries in three U.S. states.

Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, said he envisions his Seattle-based enterprise becoming the leader in both recreational and medical cannabis – much like Starbucks is the dominant name in coffee, he said.

Shively, 45, whose six years at Microsoft ended in 2009, said he was soliciting investors for $10 million in start-up money.

The use, sale and possession of marijuana remains illegal in the United States under federal law. Two U.S. states have, however, legalized recreational marijuana use and are among 18 states that allow it for medical use.

“It’s a giant market in search of a brand,” Shively said of the marijuana industry. “We would be happy if we get 40 percent of it worldwide.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Medical Marijuana Laws Have Led to Substantial Increase in Use, Hospitalization of Kids

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Photo Credit: APIncreased use of medical marijuana may lead to more young children getting sick from accidentally eating food made with the drug, a Colorado study suggests.

Medical marijuana items include yummy-looking gummy candies, cookies and other treats that may entice young children. Fourteen children were treated at Colorado Children’s Hospital in the two years after a 2009 federal policy change led to a surge in medical marijuana use, the study found. That’s when federal authorities said they would not prosecute legal users…

Unusual drowsiness and unsteady walking were among the symptoms. One child, a 5-year-old boy, had trouble breathing. Eight children were hospitalized, two in the intensive care unit, though all recovered within a few days, Wang said. By contrast, in four years preceding the policy change, the Denver-area hospital had no such cases.

Some children came in laughing, glassy-eyed or “acting a little goofy and `off,”‘ Wang said. Many had eaten medical marijuana food items, although nonmedical marijuana was involved in at least three cases. The children were younger than 12 and included an 8-month-old boy.

Read more from this story HERE.

Setback for Medical Marijuana as California Court Upholds Local Ban (+video)

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Photo Credit: Jeff ChiuCalifornia’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that individual cities and towns can ban the medical marijuana dispensaries that have sprouted around the state, dealing a blow to advocates of broader legal access to the drug and invigorating calls for the Legislature to speed measures regulating the business.

Because of the scores of jurisdictions across the state that have already banned the dispensaries, the ruling by the seven justices essentially leaves in place large contiguous tracts of territory where patients with a doctor’s prescription cannot purchase the drug legally.

Some medical marijuana advocates said the ruling made it likely that more cities and towns, angry that the regulatory burden falls on them and not the state, also would enact bans.

In the case before the court, a ban on such dispensaries was imposed by the city of Riverside in 2010. The plaintiff, the Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Center, which was objecting to being shut down, sued the city on the grounds that the ban contravened the state law’s objective of “ensuring access to marijuana for the seriously ill who need it in a uniform manner throughout the State.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Maher: Obama Would Still Be a Community Organizer If He’d Been Busted for Smoking Pot (+video)

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Photo Credit: NewsBusters Bill Maher said something on HBO’s Real Time Friday that Barack Obama’s fans in the media didn’t consider when they promoted the former junior senator from Illinois to the White House.

“This president wouldn’t be president if they had caught him” smoking pot. “He’d still be a community organizer” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Read more from this story HERE.

Shooting at Colo. Pot Holiday Gathering Injures 2

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Photo Credit: AP

Gunfire erupted at a Denver pot celebration Saturday, injuring two people and scattering a crowd of thousands who had gathered for the first 4/20 counterculture holiday since the state legalized marijuana.

The man and woman who were shot were expected to survive, and police were looking for one or two suspects, said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Police asked festival attendees for possible photo or video of the shootings, and had no immediate motive.

Witnesses described a scene in which a jovial atmosphere quickly turned to one of panic at the downtown Civic Center Park just before 5 p.m. Several thought firecrackers were being set off, then a man fell bleeding, his dog also shot.

“I saw him fall, grabbing his leg,” said Travis Craig, 28, who was at the celebration, saw the shooting and said he used a belt to apply a tourniquet to the man’s leg.

“He was just screaming that he was in pain, and wanted to know where his girlfriend was. She was OK. And then the cops showed up real quick, like, less than a minute. They put him on ambulance and left.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Bombing Suspect: Pot Head, Obama Supporter and Other Quirky Details

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Robby Soave. Boston bombing suspect and fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a “normal pot head” who supported President Obama for re-election last November, according to friends and his Twitter account.

Chris Barry, who attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Tsarnaev, described him as normal teenager who loved to smoke pot and cigarettes every day.

“He was a pot head, a normal pot head,” said Barry in an interview with Politico. “I couldn’t even imagine him being mad at someone let alone hurting someone.”

Tsarnaev, a Muslim, did not come across as strongly religious, said Barry.

“He never brought it up. It seemed like he could care less,” he said. Read more from this story HERE.

“Barack, You My Dawg,” and other Pro-Obama Tweets

By Matthew Sheffield. Several posts on what several news organizations have confirmed as the Twitter profile of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate that that the 19-year-old Chechnyan immigrant was a supporter of Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

If that is indeed the case, it does not mean that Obama has any sort of connection with or responsibility for the bombing suspect or his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It does, however, completely reverse the fantasy that many American liberals were openly hoping for: that the bombing suspects might be revealed as Timothy McVeigh 2.0, someone whose very name they could use to smear and deride anyone who stands against their belief system. In other words, one of those “dog whistles” we keep hearing so much about.

Now that information has emerged which not only indicates the suspected bombers were not radical conservatives but that one of them appears to be a supporter of President Obama, how widely will it be spread in the endless series of reports trying to report as many details about the two suspects? Read more from this story HERE.

Father of Captured Bombing Suspect: ‘Tell the Police Everything’

By Bianna Golodryga. The father of a suspected Boston Marathon bomber started to cry when ABC News told him that his son had been captured alive.

“Thank God,” Anzor Tsarnaev said, speaking in Russian, thanking ABC News for relaying word that his son, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was in custody and alive.

Asked what he wanted to tell his son, Anzor Tsarnaev said, “Tell police everything. Everything. Just be honest.”

Tsarnaev spoke to ABC News on more than one occasion today from his home in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, Russia, as Boston police carried out an intense dragnet for his son.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev survived a running gun battle with police during the night that left an MIT security officer dead and a Boston police officer badly wounded. His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in the shootout. Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Suspect: ‘I Don’t Have a Single American Friend’

By CBS Boston. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was killed early Friday, once described himself as not having a single American friend and aspired to be a U.S. Olympic boxer.

As police continue the extensive manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hours following a fatal shootout that killed his older brother, more details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s personal life and past athletic aspirations are coming to light.

In Johannes Hirn’s photo essay, “Will Box for Passport,” Hirn profiled Tamerlan Tsarnaev on his road to the National Golden Gloves competition in Salt Lake City. Throughout the 15-picture photo essay, which has since been made a private gallery, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s life is on display, talking openly about his religion, his straight-edge lifestyle, his boxing dreams, and the difficult time he had adjusting to living in the U.S. for five years.

“I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them,” Tamerlan Tsarnaev said in the photo essay. Read more from this story HERE.

Background on the Capture of the Second Bombing Suspect

By Sheldon Alberts, Daniel Strauss and Jonathan Easley. “We are exhausted folks, but we have a victory here tonight,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said.

After a long day of tension and uncertainty, Tsarnaev’s capture happened in a burst of action Friday evening. It started shortly after an update on the investigation in which law enforcement announced that a daylong lockdown on Boston and the surrounding area had been lifted.

Just after that, gunshots sounded in Watertown, where officials suspected Tsarnaev had been hiding. A fleet of police cars sped to surround the suspect. What followed was a standoff as law enforcement officials eventually closed in on Tsarnaev, who was hiding in a boat behind a Watertown home.

Just before 9 p.m., Boston police tweeted that the suspect was custody.

“CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody,” the department wrote on Twitter. Read more from this story HERE.

Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Protect Pot Smokers from the Feds (+funny video)

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Photo Credit: AP

A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants the federal government to butt out of states’ decisions to legalize and regulate marijuana, whether it’s for medical or recreational purposes.

The Respect State Marijuana Laws Act, introduced in Congress by a consortium of congresspeople led by Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, would immunize pot smokers, growers and sellers in permissive states from federal prosecution.

Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have some form of medical marijuana laws and two — Colorado and Washington — recently passed laws legalizing pot for recreational use.

The bill is co-sponsored by Republicans Don Young and Justin Amash and Democrats Jared Polis, Earl Blumenauer and Steve Cohen.

“This bipartisan bill represents a common-sense approach that establishes federal government respect for all states’ marijuana laws,” Rohrabacher said in a statement. ”It does so by keeping the federal government out of the business of criminalizing marijuana activities in states that don’t want it to be criminal.”

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.