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NATION/WORLD Thursday, January 21, 2016 Marijuana states take fresh look at investments from other plaFes By KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press DENVER — States that have legalized pot are taking a fresh look at making it easier for out-of-state inves- tors to get in the weed business, saying the industry¶s ongoing dif¿Fulty in banking means they need new options to ¿nanFe e[pansion The four states that allow reFre- ational pot sales — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — have another big reason to take a new look at pot investment That¶s California, the nation’s most populous state and largest mariMuana produFer, though it allows the drug only for people with Fertain mediFal ailments California voters Fould approve reFreational pot this fall, giving the nasFent pot industries in the other states reason to want to attraFt investment now, before a giant enters the piFture California has no ban on out-of-state owners, pressuring other pot states to loosen the rules before California opens for business “There’s only so many people willing to invest in this risky and new industry, so allowing people from out of state to beFome investors in this business seems like a good idea,” said Colorado Sen Chris +olbert, R-3arker, and sponsor of a bill to allow out-of-state ownership of mariMuana businesses The head of the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of CommerFe was more blunt “We Fan’t go get a loan from the bank to grow our business to help us aFFelerate,” Tyler +enson said “We are susFeptible to falling behind other states” %ut the prospeFt of big out-of-state money Àowing into legal pot states still gives regulators pause 3ot-business residenFy ownership requirements generally date to the early days of regulated pot as a safeguard against investment by foreign drug Fartels Those fears have largely dissi- pated, but publiF of¿Fials have hung onto the residenFy requirements beFause they believe it keeps the industry small and easier to manage 3ot regulators also Fite the 8S Department of JustiFe, whiFh has repeatedly warned pot states they must keep drug money out of interstate FommerFe or faFe a FraFkdown “The regulators will say, ‘Do we have money Àying Fross-Fountry to be deposited in the pot industry? Let’s just keep it loFal,”’ said Chris Lindsey, legis- lative analyst for the 0arijuana 3oliFy 3rojeFt, whiFh oversees legalization AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, ile In this 2013 ile photo, an employee trims away unneeded leaves from pot plants, harvesting the plant’s buds to be packaged and sold at Medicine Man marijuana dispensary, in Denver. Fampaigns in many states Alaska’s pot regulators voted last year to ease residenFy requirements for pot industry investment, then baFk- traFked in DeFember The regulators ended up using the more stringent standards needed to qualify to reFeive a yearly FheFk from Alaska’s oil wealth fund ResidenFy requirements range from si[ months in Washington to two years in the other states In Washington and Colorado, those requirements apply to business appli- Fants and investors But Washington’s Liquor and Cannabis Board announFed this month that it intends to drop the ban on out-of- state investment to make it easier for marijuana businesses to raise money The Fhange would take effeFt in 0arFh if it’s approved as e[peFted In Oregon, majority ownership must rest with Oregon residents Outside investment is allowed there, but non-res- ident owners Fan’t be direFtly involved in a business’ operation or management A bill Furrently pending in the Oregon Legislature would Fhange that 0arijuana businesses and aFtivists believe that marijuana residenFy requirements are an endangered breed, though Linsley argued that state marijuana proteFtions will one day be as illegal as any other kind of business proteFtionism And residenFy requirement Fan simply invite shadowy ¿nanFing “sFhemes,” said another sponsor of Colorado’s residenFy bill In Colorado, for e[ample, some investors pour money into anFillary pot businesses, suFh as warehouses or lighting Fompanies, then e[aFt heavy kiFkbaFks from the in-state pot growers “I want to make sure that we have baFkground FheFks on those investors,” 3abon said “To me, this is a transpar- enFy measure to allow what is already happening in Colorado but to do it above-board” One prominent Denver marijuana attorney Falled the removal of mari- juana ownership requirements a logiFal ne[t step in the industry’s maturation As long as interested pot investors Fan’t have a say in how a Fompany is run, they’re unlikely to pour muFh money into it, Brian ViFente said “Residents of other states are already allowed to loan money to these busi- nesses *iven the risk they are assuming in this unFertain industry, they should be able to hold equity in the Fompanies as well,” ViFente said But the Fhange won’t be easy, neither for regulators nor the e[isting marijuana businesses in legal states “I think the industry has always liked the idea of being a homegrown industry,” said Jason Warf of the Southern Colorado Cannabis CounFil “This de¿nitely opens the door for your larger out-of-state venture Fapitalists to walk right in If we have folks with muFh more Fapital than our owners who are able to walk in, when our owners have had to meet these requirements for many years, it would just be an unfair advantage” 2015 was Earth’s hottest by far WAS+IN*TON A3 — Last year wasn’t just the Earth’s hottest year on reFord — it left a Fentury of high temperature marks in the dust The National OFeaniF AtmospheriF Administration and NASA announFed Wednesday that 201 was by far the hottest year in 16 years of reFord keeping For the most part, sFientists at the agenFies and elsewhere blamed man-made global warming, with a boost from El Nino NOAA said 201’s temperature was 62 degrees Fahrenheit 1 degrees Celsius, passing 201 by a reFord margin of 02 degrees That’s 162 degrees above the 20th-Fen- tury average NASA, whiFh measures differently, said 201 was 02 degrees warmer than the reFord set in 201 and 16 degrees above 20th Fentury average BeFause of the wide margin over 201, NASA FalFulated that 201 was a reFord with perFent Fertainty, more than double the Fertainty it had last year when announFing 201 as a reFord NOAA put the number at above perFent — or “virtually Fertain,” said Tom Karl, direFtor of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information For the ¿rst time Earth is 1 degree Celsius 1 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was in pre-industrial times, NOAA and NASA said That’s a key milestone beFause world leaders have set a threshold of trying to avoid warming of 1 or degrees Celsius above pre-in- dustrial times BeFause of the paFe of rising temperatures, “we don’t have very far to go to reaFh 1,” Karl said But 1 or 2 degrees are not “magiF numbers” and “we’re already seeing the impaFts of global warming,” said NASA *oddard Institute of SpaFe Studies direFtor Thermometer place makes a difference AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File In this Aug. 15 ile photo, pedestrians walk past a digi- tal thermometer reading 113 degrees Fahrenheit in the Canoga Park section of Los Angeles. *avin SFhmidt “This trend will Fontinue it will Fontinue beFause we understand why it’s happening,” SFhmidt said “It’s happening beFause the dominant forFe is Farbon dio[ide” from burning of fossil fuels like Foal, oil and gas Although 201 is now the hottest on reFord, it was the fourth time in 11 years that Earth broke annual marks for high temperature “It’s getting to the point where breaking reFord is the norm,” Te[as TeFh Flimate sFientist Katharine +ayhoe said “It’s almost unusual when we’re not breaking a reFord” DeFember 201 was the 10th month last year that set a monthly warmth reFord, with only January and April not hitting high marks “That’s the ¿rst time we’ve seen that,” said NOAA’s Karl In DeFember, the globe was 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal, beating the old reFord set in 201 by more than a half a degree, NOAA FalFulated Earth has broken monthly heat reFords times sinFe 2000 The last time a global Fold month reFord was set was DeFember 116 and the Foldest year on reFord was 111, aFFording to NOAA An added faFtor this year is the strong El Nino, a warming of parts of the 3aFi¿F OFean that Fhanges weather worldwide and adds to the globe’s heat MiFhael Mann of 3ennsylvania State 8niversity said a strong El Nino Fan add about a third of a degree of warming to Earth’s temperature but that “sits upon the ramp of global warming” Karl and SFhmidt both said 201 would have been a reFord without El Nino “But El Nino pushed it way over the top,” Karl said And it’s likely to happen this year, too SFhmidt, Karl and others said there’s a better than even FhanFe that this year will pass 201 as the hottest year on reFord, thanks to El Nino “201 will be dif¿Fult to beat, but you say that almost every year and you get surprised,” said ViFtor *ensini, a meteorology professor at the College of Du3age outside of ChiFago Measurements from Japan, the 8nited Kingdom and the 8niversity of California at Berkeley also show 201 is the warmest on reFord Satellite measure- ments, whiFh sFientists say don’t measure where we live and have a larger margin of error, FalFulate that last year was only the third hottest sinFe 1 WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to measur- ing global warming, it’s all about altitude. Temperature readings taken close to Earth’s sur- face — about 6 feet off the ground — show a slightly warmer planet than mea- surements taken from on high by satellites in orbit. And that discrepancy has given ammunition to cli- mate-change doubters. Government agencies and most scientists rely pri- marily on ground measure- ments, and they show that 2015 was the warmest year on record. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administra- tion, NASA, the Japanese and British meteorological agencies and the World Meteorological Organiza- tion all use ground data. “We care about what’s happening where we live. That’s why ground-based temperatures are most relevant to humans,” said Texas Tech climate scien- tist Katharine Hayhoe. But those who try to cast doubt on accepted science — most often non-scientists — prefer satellite data that goes back to 1979. And the data shows that 2015 was only the third-warmest year on record. Politicians who reject mainstream climate sci- ence especially cite one satellite measurement system, Remote Sensing Systems, in asserting that there has been no global warming for 18 years. That’s a claim scientists, including the one who runs RSS, say is misleading. Carl Mears, senior scien- tist for Remote Sensing Systems, told The Asso- ciated Press in an email: “The satellite measure- ments do not measure the surface warming. They are measurements of the aver- age temperature of thick layers of the atmosphere.” East Oregonian Page 7A BRIEFLY Stocks slide again as oil tumbles NEW YORK A3 — 8S stoFks slumped Wednesday as the priFe of oil suffered its worst one-day drop sinFe September, and the Standard 3oor’s 00 inde[ fell to its lowest level in almost two years Investors are worried that low oil priFes mean there’s not that muFh demand for fuel That would be a sign that growth in the global eFonomy is slowing down StoFks in the 8S started sharply lower following widespread selling overseas, and looked like they were headed for huge losses At one point the Dow Jones industrial average fell as muFh as 6 points After a late reFovery, the Dow Flosed down 22 points, or 16 perFent, to 1,66 The S3 00 inde[ fell 22 points, or 12 perFent, to 1, That is its lowest Flosing priFe sinFe April 201 The Nasdaq Fomposite, whiFh brieÀy turned positive in the afternoon, lost 26 points, or 01 perFent, to ,16 The Dow is the lowest it’s been sinFe August, and the Nasdaq is at its lowest sinFe OFtober 201 8S Frude dropped 11, or 6 perFent, to 26 a barrel in New York That was the biggest one-day plunge for 8S oil sinFe Sept 1 8S Frude is down 2 perFent in 2016 and is trading at its lowest level sinFe May 200 Brent Frude, a benFhmark for international oils, fell Fents, or 1 perFent, to 2 a barrel in London Pakistani school attack raises security questions C+ARSADDA, 3akistan A3 — OnFe again, IslamiF militants stormed a sFhool in northeastern 3akistan in a deadly attaFk that lasted for hours And onFe again, the blood of students and teaFhers stained Flassrooms and hallways, raising questions about whether seFurity forFes are able to proteFt the Fountry’s eduFational institutions from e[tremists At least 20 people were killed and 2 were wounded Wednesday in the assault at BaFha Khan 8niversity in Charsadda before the four gunmen were slain and the military deFlared an end to the siege Two teaFhers were among the dead, inFluding a Fhemistry professor who was praised as a hero for shooting baFk at the attaFkers and allowing some students to esFape The university attaFk was grimly reminisFent of the DeFember 201 massaFre at an army publiF sFhool in nearby 3eshawar that killed 10, mostly Fhildren A breakaway faFtion of the Taliban took responsibility for the university attaFk, although a spokesman for the larger Taliban organization, led by Mullah Fazlullah, denied having anything to do with it and Falled it “un-IslamiF” Palin’s return underscores split in Republicans DES MOINES, Iowa A3 — If the RepubliFan 3arty is on the verge of an implosion, Sarah 3alin may have been the one who lit the fuse 3alin’s FompliFated relationship with *O3 leaders over the past eight years is a miFroFosm of the party’s broader struggles with its most restive members What started with an embraFe by party leaders evolved into wary toleranFe, followed by a potentially irreparable split So it’s perhaps little surprise that 3alin is re-emerging on the national politiFal sFene at this moment of reFkoning for RepubliFans While she’s hardly the Fonservative kingmaker she onFe was, 3alin remains a favorite of the tea party insurgenFy, and her endorsement of Donald Trump for the 2016 *O3 nomination gives him an added boost of Fonservative, anti- establishment Fredibility “+e’s been going rogue left and right,” 3alin said Tuesday, with a beaming Trump standing by her side “+e’s been able to tear the veil off this idea of the system” Love ! s e t o N Mwah Tell the world how you feel, send a message to your special someone for Valentine's Day! $ ONLY 15 00 10 Words + Photo $ ONLY 10 00 20 Words Fill out this form and send to our offices... 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