Wednesday, 20 April 2011 00:00Written by Spencer Iowa
HELENA, Mont (Reuters) - Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have repealed the state's seven-year-old, voter-approved law legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. Critics of the broadly written law, approved as a ballot measure by 62 percent of voters in 2004, say the statute has been used by some as a pretext for recreational pot smoking and even for illegal drug trade. The supply chain of pot-growing facilities and storefront dispensaries allowed under Montana's medical marijuana statute is little regulated and has expanded rapidly during the past couple of years. Meanwhile, the number of residents carrying cards allowing them to lawfully use pot as treatment for one ailment or another has jumped from about 1,000 to nearly 30,000.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 00:00Written by Spencer Iowa
ALBANY, N.Y., New York (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday announced a new contract with a law enforcement union and urged much larger public employee unions to accept the same terms or risk nearly 10,000 layoffs. Union leaders for Council 82, which represents 1,200 university police, park rangers and environmental officers, accepted higher health care contributions and a three-year wage freeze -- with no automatic pay hikes, the Democratic governor said in a statement. The likelihood of any near-term labor truce, however, appeared dim as the 58,000-strong Public Employees Federation said it already had rejected similar terms.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 00:00Written by Spencer Iowa
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is often mentioned as a presidential contender, but fewer than one in four voters in his home state would back him as a candidate, a poll released on Thursday said. Two-thirds of registered voters "oppose Chris Christie for president in 2012," according to the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. Fewer than half of Republicans and a quarter of independents support Christie as a candidate, the poll found. "This does not mean a future try would be opposed, just that New Jerseyans aren't joining the national media's storyline that Christie could take the nomination in 2012 if he wanted it," said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll and professor of political science at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 00:00Written by Spencer Iowa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum will set up an exploratory committee in pursuit of the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, he said on Wednesday. Santorum, once a top Senate Republican leader, said he was prepared to take the formal step toward running for president, traveling the country and measuring support for a potential campaign. "Now really the test for me is whether we can raise the money that's necessary, so I'm going to set up a committee," he said on the Fox News Channel. "We're going to determine over the next few weeks as to whether the resources are going to be there to do it."
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 00:00Written by Spencer Iowa
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Property magnate and reality TV star Donald Trump on Thursday strung out a media tease over whether he will run for U.S. president by setting a -- tentative -- date for announcing a date for announcing his decision. Trump said in a statement he may declare when he will declare whether he will seek the Republican candidacy on network television during the May 22 season finale for his reality TV show "The Celebrity Apprentice," which airs on NBC. "On the May 22 Season Finale of Celebrity Apprentice, Mr. Trump may announce the time and place of a press conference at which time he will make a statement as to whether or not he will run for President of the United States," Trump advisor Michael Cohen said in a statement.
