Recreational marijuana proposal certified for Alaska ballot
(Reuters) – Alaska voters will decide this summer whether America’s Last Frontier will become the third U.S. state to legalize the sale and recreational use of marijuana for adults under a proposal that officially qualified on Wednesday for a statewide…
Arizona governor vetoes bill widely criticized as anti-gay
PHOENIX (Reuters) – Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a bill on Wednesday derided by critics as a license to discriminate against gays in the name of religion, citing opposition from big business and warning that the measure could “create more problem…
Hundreds of foods in U.S. contain ‘ADA’ plastics chemical: report
(Reuters) – Nearly 500 foods found on grocery store shelves in the United States, including many foods labeled as “healthy,” contain a potentially hazardous industrial plastics chemical, according to a report issued Thursday by a health research and ad…
Detroit mayor promises more jobs, less blight for bankrupt city
DETROIT (Reuters) – Nearly two months into his tenure as Detroit mayor, Mike Duggan outlined a plan for adding jobs and removing abandoned buildings in the bankrupt city during his first state of the city address Wednesday night.
Singer Loretta Lynn puts out small house fire, prepares for tour
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) – Country singer Loretta Lynn suffered minor burns on her hands putting out a small fire at her ranch near Nashville, but the incident will not keep the coal miner’s daughter from performing in Texas on Friday, a represen…
Zimmerman lawyer seeks change in Florida trials on ‘stand your ground’ law
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – The lawyer for acquitted killer George Zimmerman said the rules for Florida murder trials should be changed so jurors are only instructed to consider the lenient standards of the state’s “stand your ground” self-defense law…
California police arrested over car-impound scheme targeting Latinos
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A corruption probe in a small California town has resulted in the arrests of four current and former police officers for stealing impounded cars belonging to mostly poor Latino drivers, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Amanda Knox’s former boyfriend distances himself in Italian murder appeal
(Reuters) – The ex-boyfriend of Amanda Knox is distancing himself from the U.S. former exchange student, convicted of murdering her British roommate in an Italian university town, as he pursues his own appeal in the case, his U.S.-based lawyer said on …
Florida man executed for trooper’s 1992 pipe-bomb death
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – A South Florida drug dealer, who was convicted in the pipe-bomb killing of a state highway patrolman during a traffic stop 22 years ago, was executed on Wednesday, state prison officials said.
State Department acted properly on Keystone: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The State Department acted properly in its choice of an outside contractor to review the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a U.S. report said on Wednesday, raising calls by the project’s supporters for President Barack Obama to approve i…