Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jul 2012
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559
Author: Robert Speer

POT, POWER AND POLITICS

Notes on Events Large and Small

It's now been two years since the June 30, 2010, police commando 
raids on eight medical-marijuana collectives in Butte County, and 
still nobody is facing charges.

Justice delayed is justice denied, as the saying goes, but 
justice-viz., a speedy trial-was never the purpose. District Attorney 
Mike Ramsey, who masterminded the raids, wanted first and foremost to 
shut down the dispensaries and strike fear in the hearts of anyone 
else thinking of opening one, and in that he was totally successful.

Meanwhile, most of those whose possessions-computers, bank accounts, 
financial records-were seized haven't gotten them back. The DA's 
Office keeps saying it intends to file charges, but it doesn't do so. 
The statute of limitations is three years, so the DA is in no hurry. 
Or maybe he has no evidence of criminal wrong-doing.

Either way, it's hard not to feel cynical about the heavy-handed arm 
of the law and all that...

What did they expect? Our local assemblymen, Dan Logue and Jim 
Nielsen, have their knickers in a twist these days because the 
Democratic-led Legislature has decided to delay the opening of new 
veterans' homes in Redding and Fresno. "This mistreatment of our 
veterans is outrageous!" Logue harrumphed in a press release.

Nobody wants to hurt veterans, of course. The problem is the huge 
budget deficit, which the Democrats are trying to fill with no help 
from Logue and Nielsen or their fellow Republicans, who refuse to do 
anything to increase revenues. And yet they bitch because projects 
they support will open in October 2013 rather than April 2013.

Speaking of Logue, he's so discombobulated by the Supreme Court's 
upholding of Obamacare that he's "considering" authoring a ballot 
measure to stop its implementation in California. I have a suggestion 
for him: While you're considering, Dan, remember what happened last 
time you authored a ballot measure: Proposition 23 to overturn the 
state's Global Warming Solutions Act. It sank like a stone, dude. 
Forget about it...

Banging on the City Council: It's an election year, so the City 
Council is taking some hits. Candidate Toby Schindelbeck's letter on 
page 6 is an example. What you wouldn't know from reading it is that 
the council held a special meeting on June 5 designed to answer 
Schindelbeck's and others' questions. I thought city officials did a 
pretty good job, but Schindelbeck wasn't buying it. You can decide 
for yourself by reading-at http://tinyurl.com/council6-5 -my account 
of the meeting.

The editorialists at the Chico E-R also took a potshot at the council 
in a June 30 "Hits and misses" item about library hours. The city has 
reduced its contribution to the library to $100,000, which led the 
county supervisors, "who have done a much better job of minding 
taxpayer money than the Chico City Council," says the E-R, to 
allocate an additional $32,000 to keep the library open longer.

Let's see if I understand this: It's the county library, but the 
county is so broke that the city is donating $100,000 to keep the 
Chico branch's hours up, but somehow the supervisors have done a 
better job financially? Right...

Robert Speer is editor of the CN&R.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom