San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón says three other California cities reached out to his office after he announced this week the city is wiping out Marijuana convictions dating back to 1975. Cheddar's Baker Machado spoke with Gascón about why he felt it was so important to clear these convictions.
"We've had now three different jurisdictions that have approached me, and my office this morning," said Gascón. "People in California are tired of the war on drugs, they are tired of the war on marijuana."
With San Francisco's move more than 3,000 misdemeanor convictions will be dismissed, and sealed automatically. Nearly 5,000 felony marijuana convictions will be reviewed for potential reduction, and resentencing said Gascón.
"We wanted to provide immediate relief for our community," said Gascón. "We are very concerned about the conversation at the national level where we have our Attorney General talking about marijuana being an existential threat to the American way of life."
Democratic lawmakers worry that damage has been done to safety net programs and it'll be difficult to unravel that in the years ahead as Republicans demand further cuts.
The Department of Justice has informed former Vice President Mike Pence 's legal team that it will not pursue criminal charges related to the discovery of classified documents at his Indiana home.
Fending off a U.S. default, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, grinding into the night to wrap up work on the bipartisan deal and send it to President Joe Biden's desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline.
He wasn't hurt and later joked that he "got sandbagged."
Canada will soon become the first country in the world where warning labels must appear on individual cigarettes.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that federal agencies are taking new steps to stop racial discrimination in appraising home values by proposing a rule intended to ensure that the automated formulas used to price housing are fair.
Centrist Democrats and Republicans pushed it to approval over blowback from conservatives and some progressives. The Senate is expected to act quickly by the end of the week.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that two state laws banning abortion are unconstitutional, but the procedure remains illegal in the state in nearly all cases except life-threatening situations.
A New York City police officer is speaking out against the use of “courtesy cards” by friends and relatives of his colleagues on the force, accusing department leaders of maintaining a sprawling system of impunity that lets people with a connection to law enforcement avoid traffic tickets.
A Pennsylvania restaurant owner who screamed death threats directed at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than two years in prison.
