California lawmakers will consider next year whether to decriminalize psychedelic drugs.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said Tuesday that he plans to introduce a bill decriminalizing possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms and other psychedelics, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
A movement to decriminalize, or even legalize, psychedelics has grown across the country in recent years as researchers have determined psilocybin, the hallucinogenic component of so-called magic mushrooms, and other drugs could be used to treat depression and anxiety.
Oakland adopted a resolution last year decriminalizing certain natural psychedelics that come from plants and fungi, one of a handful of cities nationwide to take that step.
OTHER STATES ALSO CONSIDERING
Oregon voters last week passed a measure to permit supervised use of psilocybin in a therapeutic setting, becoming the first state to legalize psychedelic mushrooms. Another measure passed by the state’s voters will decriminalize small amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and psychedelics, so that possession will carry only a $100 fine, also a first for the nation.
Residents in Washington, D.C., meanwhile, voted to decriminalize certain psychedelic plants and fungi, though Congress could still overturn the law.
Wiener said he was encouraged by those developments and is talking with experts about exactly what form his proposal should take. He said he was leaning toward Oregon’s supervised-use approach, but also allowing for the use of synthetic psychedelics such as LSD. He is working with Assembly members Evan Low, D-Campbell, and Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles, on the bill.
Wiener, who said he does not take psychedelics himself, noted that cultures all over the world have been using them since the beginning of time.
“Any substance can be harmful, so I’m not suggesting that anything is like nirvana,” he said. “But we know that psychedelics can be used safely. We know they appear to have significant medicinal uses.”
Wiener also plans to reintroduce legislation that would allow San Francisco and Oakland, which are struggling with surging opioid overdoses, to experiment with safe-injection sites where users would take drugs under supervision.
DAWG SAYS: IT IS THE OLD “IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM JOIN THEM” MENTALITY.
THEN THEY WILL BRAG HOW CRIME RATES ARE DOWN.
WHEN YOU DECRIMINALIZE EVERYTHING THERE IS NO CRIME.
Rocklin Trump Supporter Files Restraining Order Against Biden-Supporting Neighbor
A Rocklin man has filed a restraining order against his neighbor, alleging his neighbor harassed him over his support of President Donald Trump.
“I didn’t want to do this,” Michael Mason said. “They’re making me have to do this.”
Mason says he filed the restraining order that would keep the neighbors 100 feet away from his home. He says his Ring doorbell video shows their children harassing his family with Biden chants outside the home.
“I’m tired of getting harassed all the time,” Mason said. “My kids don’t want to come outside.”
He says they also painted “BLM” and “LGBTQ” chalk art outside his house.
“I went down there and asked them, ‘Well, why didn’t you write this in front of your house, or anybody else’s house? Why mine?’ And they just laughed at me,” he said.
Sean Millard lives between the homes in this Trump-Biden block battle and says he’s not part of the dispute.
“It’s absolutely insane,” Millard said. “2020 has been kind of a crazy year.”
Rocklin police responded to a call for service on the block Saturday when the election was called to help the two sides settle down.
“It’s horrible,” Mason said.
A judge is set to rule on the restraining order tomorrow. The Mason family says they hope it will help keep the peace until they move.
The neighbors Mason filed the restraining order against declined to comment.
NFL approves plan to reward teams with draft picks for developing minority coaches, GMs
NFL CONFUSING REWARD POLICY ON MINORITIES
NFL owners adopted a resolution on Tuesday that will compensate teams with draft picks for losing minority staff members to head coaching jobs and other premium positions elsewhere.
It’s another attempt by the league to bolster minority hiring for high-level jobs against the backdrop of a lagging record of diversity by its teams.
The gist of the resolution:
• A team that loses a minority assistant coach who becomes a head coach or loses a personnel executive who becomes a general manager will receive third-round compensatory picks in each of the next two drafts.
• A team that loses two minority staffers to head coach and general manager positions would receive three third-round picks.
Given multiple measures instituted in the name of diversity over many years, why will this resolution – approved unanimously by owners, pending approval from the NFL Players Association — make a difference for a sustained change in the hiring patterns?
GOODELL CALLS IT PROGRESS
“I think that’s how we’ve made progress over the past several years,” Goodell told reporters during conference call on Tuesday that followed the virtual NFL owners meeting. “It’s continually keeping a focus on this, adapting, looking to see what areas we can improve on, and that constant evolution of improvement, to try to make sure we’re doing everything appropriate to give minorities an opportunity to advance in the head coaching ranks or the coaching ranks in general, in personnel and other football areas, to well beyond that. To the people at the league office here, to club levels, this is an important initiative of the NFL.”
The measure, 2020 Resolution JC-2A, differs from a previous plan that owners considered last spring that that would have provided incentives for teams hiring minority candidates. Instead, the incentives are granted to teams to theoretically develop more minority candidates.
Pushback to the NFL’s previous incentive plan prompted owners, led by a diversity committee headed by Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II, to formulate an alternative plan.
“I don’t look at this as a silver bullet,” Rooney told USA TODAY Sports. “This is just one more piece of the puzzle, one in a number of steps.”
THEY ALREADY HAVE THE ROONEY RULE
Earlier this year, the NFL expanded the Rooney Rule to stipulate that teams must interview at least two minority candidates (rather than one) for head coaching vacancies. Also, the Rule now dictates that at least one minority must be interviewed for any open coordinator position. And in May, owners passed a resolution that removed barriers with contract clauses that prevented coordinators (minorities or otherwise) from interviewing for head coaching jobs.
“I don’t that any one of them is the answer,” Rooney said of the newest measures, “but we hope the cumulative effect of all of them will make a difference.”
In a league where roughly 75% of players are African-Americans, there are only four minority head coaches. A similar pattern exists at general manager, with the Cleveland Browns’ Andrew Berry and Miami Dolphins’ Chris Grier the only Black men to hold the position.
“You look at the NFL and its track record and you have to wonder: How much of it is the result of racist attitudes and disregard to fairness?” Rod Graves, executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, told USA TODAY Sports during an interview last week. “Those types of issues have to come up when you look at the NFL’s track record.”
DAWG SAYS: LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT, THE NO FUN LEAGUE IS REWARDING TEAMS FOR LOSING MINORITIES NOT HIRING THEM?
IT IS THEIR LEAGUE THEIR CHOICE MY TV MY CHOICE ON SUNDAYS.
Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities.This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect
VETERANS THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE
World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”
The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.
CONGRESS’S DECLARATION
The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:
Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and
Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and
Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.
An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.” Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
FIRST PROCLAMATION
Later that same year, on October 8th, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first “Veterans Day Proclamation” which stated: “In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans’ organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. Toward this end, I am designating the Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs as Chairman of a Veterans Day National Committee, which shall include such other persons as the Chairman may select, and which will coordinate at the national level necessary planning for the observance. I am also requesting the heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the Government to assist the National Committee in every way possible.”
President Eisenhower signing HR7786, changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day.From left: Alvin J. King, Wayne Richards, Arthur J. Connell, John T. Nation, Edward Rees, Richard L. Trombla, Howard W. Watts
In 1958, the White House advised VA’s General Counsel that the 1954 designation of the VA Administrator as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee applied to all subsequent VA Administrators. Since March 1989 when VA was elevated to a cabinet level department, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has served as the committee’s chairman.
The Uniform Holiday Bill (Public Law 90-363 (82 Stat. 250)) was signed on June 28, 1968, and was intended to ensure three-day weekends for Federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. It was thought that these extended weekends would encourage travel, recreational and cultural activities and stimulate greater industrial and commercial production. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holidays on their original dates.
The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on October 25, 1971. It was quite apparent that the commemoration of this day was a matter of historic and patriotic significance to a great number of our citizens, and so on September 20th, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed Public Law 94-97 (89 Stat. 479), which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of November 11, beginning in 1978. This action supported the desires of the overwhelming majority of state legislatures, all major veterans service organizations and the American people.
NOVEMBER 11th WAS DECIDED
Veterans Day continues to be observed on November 11, regardless of what day of the week on which it falls. The restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.
DAWG SAYS: ALWAYS HONOR OUR VETERENS PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE- THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SERVICE.
