President Joe Biden announced his plans for reforming current policy on marijuana with three steps on Oct 6.
Biden announced a federal pardon for all those currently serving in prison for simple possession of marijuana. He is directing Attorney General Merrick Garland to develop a process to issue the pardon certificates.
“There are thousands of people who have prior Federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result,” his statement on the White House website said.
Biden also urged governors to consider pardons for those currently serving for the state offense of marijuana possession.
Lastly, Biden is directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, and the Attorney General to review how marijuana is currently scheduled under federal law. It is currently scheduled in the same category as heroin and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) which means it ranks higher than fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Biden closed his statement by saying, “even as federal and state regulation of marijuana changes, important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and underage sales should stay in place.”
An Arizona appeals court temporarily blocked the enforcement of a near-total abortion ban on Oct. 7. The blockage allows healthcare providers to perform abortions up to 15 weeks until the appeal is resolved.
This ruling comes after Pima County Supreme Court Judge Kellie Johnson ruled that the state’s 1901 abortion law could go into effect.
This law bans nearly all abortions with the exception of saving the mother’s life.
Judge Peter Eckerstorm wrote the temporary blockage order saying “the court further concludes the balance of hardships weigh strongly in favor of granting the stay, given the acute need of healthcare providers, prosecuting agencies, and the public for legal clarity as to the application of our criminal laws.”
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse is expected to resign his seat before the year is over.
Sasse is expected to take a job as president of the University of Florida.
Sasse was one of seven Republican U.S senators who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the January 6th insurrection.
Sasse said to NBC News that “Washington partisanship isn’t going to solve these workforce challenges; new institutions and entrepreneurial communities are going to have to spearhead this work. If UF wants to go big, I’m excited about the wide range of opportunities.”
The Justice Department believes that former president Donald Trump still has more documents that belong to the National Archives based on various court filings.
The Department of Justice, in response to an order barring the department from accessing documents received from Mar-a-Lago, said that the ruling “appears to bar the FBI and DOJ from further reviewing the records to discern any patterns in the types of records that were retained, which could lead to identification of other records still missing.”
