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Marijuana sales have plunged in Colorado and it is making other states nervous for future
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Politico, State

Marijuana sales have plunged in Colorado and it is making other states nervous for future

By MONA ZHANG | Politico On Jan. 1, 2014, Iraq War veteran Sean Azzariti made headlines worldwide as the first person in the U.S. to buy legal weed. More than 10 years later, 3D Cannabis, the dispensary in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood where the historic purchase was made, displays a makeshift sign announcing it is “temporarily closed.” The windows and doors on the side of the building have been boarded up. Plastic bags, discarded coffee cups and other trash collect in the corners of the abandoned parking lot. The dismal state of the historic site is a fitting symbol of the plight of Colorado’s cannabis market. What once was a success story has now left a trail of failed businesses and cash-strapped entrepreneurs in its wake. Regulatory burdens, an oversaturated market...
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Lawyer, doctor, body man, bookkeeper: Joe Biden’s personal aides get involved in his relatives’ business dealings
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National, Politico

Lawyer, doctor, body man, bookkeeper: Joe Biden’s personal aides get involved in his relatives’ business dealings

By BEN SCHRECKINGER | Politico For years, Joe Biden shared a bookkeeper with his son, Hunter. He also shared a personal lawyer with his brother, Jim. And when Jim Biden wanted to know more about one of Hunter Biden’s associates, he hired the former head of Joe Biden’s Secret Service detail to investigate. Since 2019, Joe Biden has repeatedly distanced himself from his family’s business dealings, saying that he has never so much as discussed them with his relatives or with anyone else. But House impeachment inquiry interviews, public records and emails reviewed by POLITICO show that members of his inner circle were regularly enmeshed in those dealings: Many of the president’s closest staffers and advisers have doubled as his relatives’ business associates, both during and after their ...
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Hunter Biden was using drugs around the time he bought a gun, ex-partner and sister-in-law Hallie says
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National, Politico

Hunter Biden was using drugs around the time he bought a gun, ex-partner and sister-in-law Hallie says

bY BEN FEUERHERD and BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN | Politico  Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law and former romantic partner, Hallie Biden, took the stand at his trial on gun-related charges Thursday and told jurors she believed he was using crack cocaine around the time he bought a pistol in the fall of 2018. Federal prosecutors asked Hallie about a series of text messages she exchanged with Hunter in the days after he bought a Colt revolver on Oct. 12, 2018. In the texts, Hunter said he was “waiting for a dealer named Mookie” and said he was “sleeping on a car smoking crack.” The texts, along with Hallie’s testimony, are pivotal evidence as prosecutors try to prove that Hunter was an active drug user when he purchased the firearm. Special counsel David Weiss has charged the president’s son ...
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Where’s Hunter? President’s son in court today to begin case of illegal gun possession
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National, Politico

Where’s Hunter? President’s son in court today to begin case of illegal gun possession

By BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN and HAILEY FUCHS | Politico As Hunter Biden walks into court Monday to go on trial, he’ll pass a familiar sight: a large photo of his father, sporting a reassuring grin. The photo — hanging prominently in the lobby of a federal courthouse in dilapidated downtown Wilmington — is a vivid reminder of how the president’s political career and now his son’s legal travails both run through this struggling port city. For years, Hunter Biden has drawn scrutiny for his links to controversial Ukrainian, Chinese and Romanian business ventures. Congressional Republicans and former President Donald Trump have accused him of influence-peddling and corruption. But the trial — which opens Monday morning with jury selection — isn’t about any of that. Instead, its focus is ...
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Libertarians pick Chase Oliver as presidential nominee, rejecting RFK, Jr., and Trump
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National, Politico

Libertarians pick Chase Oliver as presidential nominee, rejecting RFK, Jr., and Trump

By BRITTANY GIBSON | Politico The Libertarian Party selected former Georgia Senate candidate Chase Oliver as their presidential nominee on Sunday, spurning appeals for support over the weekend from both Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The selection of Oliver, who has described himself as “armed and gay” and whose third-party candidacy helped force a runoff in the Georgia Senate race in 2022, came a day after Trump suggested he would be the best nominee for the party, drawing a sustained chorus of boos. The former president was deemed ineligible for the nomination by the Libertarian Party chair — Trump wrote on his social media platform that, as the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, he could not have accepted the nomination, anyway — while Kennedy was eliminated in the...
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Barron Trump to enter political arena as Florida delegate at GOP convention
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National, Politico

Barron Trump to enter political arena as Florida delegate at GOP convention

By KIMBERLY LEONARD | Politico Barron Trump hasn’t graduated high school yet. But he’s already headed into the political big leagues. The Republican Party of Florida on Wednesday night picked the 18-year-old youngest son of former President Donald Trump as one of the state’s at-large delegates to the Republican National Convention, per a copy of the results viewed by POLITICO. The state party also selected other Trump children as delegates, including Eric Trump as its delegation chair — meaning he’ll place his father’s name in for the nomination — and Donald Trump Jr. and Tiffany Boulos, formerly Trump, and her husband Michael Boulos as other at-large delegates. READ THE FULL STORY AT POLITICO
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‘There’s vote-buying going on at a scale like we have never seen before’
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National, Politico

‘There’s vote-buying going on at a scale like we have never seen before’

By DAVID COHEN | Politico North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Sunday supported the election integrity allegations made by former President Donald Trump, claiming on CNN: “I think it’s clear that there’s vote-buying going on at a scale like we have never seen before.” Burgum, who is considered to be a possible Trump vice-presidential pick, was responding on “State of the Union” to questions about statements made by the presumptive GOP presidential nominee during a weekend donor retreat in Florida. Trump, never shy about alleging uncorroborated malfeasance by Democrats, said his rivals use “welfare” as an enticement to get people to vote for them. “Don’t underestimate welfare. They get welfare to vote, and then they cheat on top of that — they cheat,” Trump said in his remarks on Satur...
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Teddy Roosevelt: Our most macho President owed everything to women
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National, Politico

Teddy Roosevelt: Our most macho President owed everything to women

By EDWARD F. O’KEEFE | Politico When you’re born in North Dakota, you get a few idols to choose from: Peggy Lee, Lawrence Welk, Roger Maris — or Theodore Roosevelt. For me the choice was easy. When I was a child, my family would take summer road trips to Medora, North Dakota, where Roosevelt rediscovered himself after the tragic loss of his wife and mother on the same day in 1884, to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park. On those long car rides, I read and reread Edmund Morris’ Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, so many times that its pages are tattered and torn. When I first considered writing my own history of my childhood idol, my intention had been to tell the story of how North Dakota saved Roosevelt’s life. After those tragic deaths,...
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Donald Trump held in contempt for violating gag order in New York trial
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National, Politico

Donald Trump held in contempt for violating gag order in New York trial

By BEN FEUERHERD and ERICA ORDEN | Politico Donald Trump was held in contempt by Justice Juan Merchan Tuesday morning for social media posts and other statements the former president made that violated a gag order imposed in his Manhattan criminal case. The judge ordered Trump to pay a $9,000 fine — $1,000 for each violation. And he warned Trump that additional violations could land him in jail. “Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” the judge wrote in an eight-page decision. READ THE FULL STORY AT POLITICO
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How much do we really know about the composition of the Trump jury?
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National, Politico

How much do we really know about the composition of the Trump jury?

By CALDER MCHUGH | Politico The first week of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial has concluded, and a full jury has been chosen — twelve jurors and six alternates. Beginning next week, they’ll put to the test Trump’s contention that he can’t get a fair trial in liberal Manhattan. What we’ve learned after a week filled almost entirely with the process of jury selection is that the jurors appear to represent a reasonable cross section of the kind of people you generally find in Manhattan. There’s a salesperson from West Harlem, an engineer from the Upper West Side, a businessperson from Murray Hill, two lawyers, two people who work in education and two people who work in finance. That’s in addition to a health care worker, a product manager and a tech worker. Many of the...
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