SACRAMENTO — In a ruling by California’s chief justice nominee, a state appeals court has barred a school district from drug testing all students in extracurricular activities such as choir, the school band and Future Farmers of America. The Shasta Union High School District in Northern California began the testing in 2008, saying the prospect of being disqualified from a favorite after-school activity would discourage youths from using drugs or alcohol. The district noted that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that random drug tests of all students in extracurricular programs did not violate [...]
Bud’s note: Today’s must-read is this fascinating story by Julia Prodis Sulek of the San Jose Mercury News. Every courtroom drama needs a twist. ============ Defense lawyers in the Los Gatos murder-for-hire trial tried to put their first chink in the prosecution’s case on Thursday when they accused District Attorney-elect Jeff Rosen of withholding information they believe could help support their theory that the killing of Mark Achilli was actually a drug-debt collection gone bad. The argument arose during what seemed like routine testimony from a Santa Clara police officer about what he found in [...]
A federal grand jury in Sacramento indicted 10 people in four separate cases of marijuana growth operations on public land, according to a Thursday news release by United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner’s office. Authorities said the defendants operated large marijuana grows in three different counties. In all, agents found more than 36,000 plants being cultivated by the defendants, Chelsea Phua reports in Sacto 9-1-1. More than 3,000 marijuana plants, each about 5 feet tall, were found on Bureau of Land Management lands south of Cache Creek in Yolo County in early August. Agents raided [...]
The suspect in the killing of one man and the wounding of another on Aug. 25 pleaded not guilty in Humboldt County Superior Court Wednesday to charges of murder, attempted murder, and cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale. The 28-year-old Eureka man, Mikal Xylon Wilde — whose first name has also been spelled by officials as Mykal — allegedly killed Mario Roberto Juarez-Madrid of Santa Rosa, Guatemala, during an argument at a marijuana grow outside Kneeland. He also allegedly shot Fernando Lopez, according to the district attorney’s complaint, the Eureka Times-Standard reports. The two [...]
A Nevada City man’s pot conviction remains in limbo — and could drag on for at least a year. Eric Engstrom’s legal quagmire started after he was found guilty in March of unlawfully growing marijuana, Liz Kellar reports in The Union of Grass Valley. The verdict was set aside by Nevada County Superior Court Judge Candace Heidelberger after she found clear evidence of misconduct by the jury, but the Nevada County District Attorney’s Office has filed a notice of appeal with the state of California. The District Attorney’s Office “is asking the Court of Appeals [...]
Aug 312010
Humboldt County Judge Marilyn Miles on Monday set bail at $1 million for the suspect in a pair of shootings that left one dead and another wounded in Kneeland on Aug. 25. The arraignment for Mykal Xylon Wilde, 28, was put off for two days at the request of attorney William Bragg, making a special appearance on Monday. Wilde has been charged with murder, attempted murder, cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office alleges that Wilde shot two men who were working for him on a Kneeland-area pot [...]
Aug 262010
Los Angeles officials announced Wednesday that only 41 medical marijuana dispensaries are eligible to stay in business under the city’s restrictive ordinance, a number so low that the city will suspend the winnowing process and ask a judge to rule that it is legal. “It was a surprise,” said Jane Usher, a special assistant city attorney who worked closely with the City Council to draft the complex medical marijuana law and is defending it in court. After a two-month review of dispensary records, the city clerk determined that three-quarters of the 169 dispensaries that applied [...]
Bud’s note: This editorial appeared Friday in the Bakersfield Californian. I’ve added a couple of editorial comments of my own at the end, and you can too using the form below the post. Everyone’s got an opinion, right? ============== It’s well past time for the courts to give California cities and counties a definitive answer on the legality of medical-marijuana dispensaries. Conflicting state and federal laws are sending contradictory messages to law enforcement agencies, medicinal-marijuana advocates and the communities they all call home. Those laws are interpreted and enforced with degrees of vigilance that can [...]
He runs a small pediatrics practice in Marysville and has been busy lately with back-to-school checkups and vaccinations. Dr. Chukwuemeka Ndulue said when he received a lawsuit two weeks ago from the city attorney with his name on it, “I couldn’t believe it.” The suit, filed with the Yuba County Superior Court on behalf of Marysville, names Ndulue in connection with Norcal Health and Wellness Collective — a medical marijuana dispensary — which opened on I Street late last year. It also names Carothers Investments of Roseville, Sonoma National Bank and Alliance National Trustee. All [...]
A state appeals court Wednesday declined to decide whether California’s medical marijuana laws prevent cities and counties from outlawing dispensaries, sending the closely watched dispute over Anaheim’s 3-year-old ban back to the lower court for more hearings. Cities and dispensaries had been anxiously anticipating a major decision, the Los Angeles Times’ John Hoeffel reports, because the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana had asked for additional information and took an unusually long time to reach a ruling: a year rather than the usual three months. “We thought this case would cause things to [...]
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