NATION
Saturday, June 22, 2019
East Oregonian
A9
California to illegal pot
shops: We’re coming for you
By MICHAEL R.
BLOOD
Associated Press
AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File
In this April 15, 2019, fi le photo, Secretary of the Army Mark Esper speaks to soldiers and family
members in Ft. Bragg, N.C.
A perilous time to have
temps running the Pentagon
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — It’s a
perilous time to have temps
running the Pentagon.
President Donald Trump’s
brinkmanship with Iran is
on the boil, spilling beyond
diplomacy to a planned air
attack on Iran that Trump
said he ordered, then pulled
back at least for now. This,
as the U.S. undertakes an
unusual troop deployment to
the Mexican border, tends its
nearly two-decade-old war
in Afghanistan and grapples
with stalled talks with North
Korea over its nuclear weap-
ons program.
Through it all, the U.S.
has no defense secretary,
but rather an acting one who
is taking over from another
acting one, who suddenly
quit.
And the latest one, Army
Secretary Mark Esper, who
takes over Sunday, might
only be able to serve as act-
ing Pentagon chief for less
than two months under the
rules, requiring yet another
short-term boss before
it’s all sorted out. On Fri-
day night, Trump offi cially
announced he intended to
nominate Esper for the per-
manent job.
Temporary leadership is a
hallmark of Trump’s admin-
istration. “It gives me more
fl exibility,” Trump has said
of the many people in acting
leadership jobs, not always
by his choice.
The practice lets Trump
quickly, if temporarily,
install allies in important
positions while circumvent-
ing the Senate confi rmation
process, which can be risky
with Republicans running
the chamber by a slim 53-47
margin.
But the Senate Dem-
ocratic
leader,
Chuck
Schumer of New York, says
it’s out of hand.
“With everything going
on in Iran and all the prov-
ocations and counteractions,
and to have no secretary of
defense at this time is appall-
ing,” he said. “It shows the
chaos in this administration.
They have so many empty
positions, revolving doors,
in the most sensitive of secu-
rity positions.”
Tensions
with
Iran
quickly escalated this week
after an attack on freighters
at sea that the U.S. blamed
on Iran. Tehran announced
it was breaking from com-
mitments it made under
the accord that restrains
its nuclear ambitions — a
deal Trump withdrew from
last year. Iran then downed
a U.S. drone, prompting
Trump to order a retaliatory
strike that he said he shelved
10 minutes before Iran was
to be hit.
As the situation grew
more dangerous this week,
the acting defense secretary,
Patrick Shanahan, stepped
down, saying he wanted
to spare his family a pub-
lic airing of domestic prob-
lems linked to his messy
divorce nearly a decade ago.
Trump said months ago he
would nominate Shanahan
for the defense job and seek
his Senate confi rmation but
he never did. Offi cials said
repeatedly that the vetting of
Shanahan was dragging on.
Trump
immediately
named Esper as the new act-
ing secretary, but because
of limitations laid out in
court decisions and legis-
lation governing how top
vacancies are fi lled, he may
only be able to serve for six
weeks. Inside the Pentagon,
lawyers are debating how
to get Esper through what
would be a diffi cult legal
and congressional confi r-
mation process. Defense
offi cials said Thursday they
had yet to fi nd a clear way
forward.
For the moment both
Shanahan and Esper have
been attending White House
and other meetings and tak-
ing part in debates over how
to respond to Iran’s destruc-
tion of the drone.
Esper is slated to take
over as acting defense sec-
retary at midnight Sunday,
then head out Tuesday to a
meeting of NATO defense
ministers. There it will be
critical for Esper to con-
vince allies that he is now
in charge, and that the U.S.
national security leadership
is stable and able to make
decisions in crises.
While lawmakers have
expressed initial support for
Esper, who is well known
on the Hill and previously
served on committees
as legislative staff, there
is no guarantee he’ll get
quick approval.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The Supreme Court on Fri-
day threw out the murder con-
viction and death sentence
for a black man in Missis-
sippi because of a prosecutor’s
efforts to keep African Amer-
icans off the jury. The defen-
dant already has been tried six
times and now could face a
seventh trial.
The removal of black pro-
spective jurors deprived
inmate Curtis Flowers of a
fair trial, the court said in a
7-2 decision written by Justice
Brett Kavanaugh.
The long record of Flow-
ers’ trials stretching back
more than 20 years shows Dis-
trict Attorney Doug Evans’
“relentless, determined effort
to rid the jury of black individ-
uals,” with the goal of an all-
white jury, Kavanaugh wrote.
In Flowers’ sixth trial, the
jury was made up of 11 whites
and one African American.
Prosecutor Evans struck fi ve
1055 S. Hwy 395, Suite 313
Hermiston, OR 97838
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www.hermistoncornerstone.com
met the state’s safety stan-
dards,” Ajax said in an ear-
lier statement.
The ads are also
intended to telegraph a
warning to illicit shops and
underground growers: Get
licensed to operate in the
legal market, or shut down.
The need for tougher
enforcement came up
repeatedly at the forum,
which was organized by the
United Cannabis Business
Association, a trade group.
State
Assemblyman
Tom Lackey, a Republican
from Palmdale, called the
problem the “biggest failure
right now in the system.”
“Regulations are merely
suggestions without an
enforcement arm,” he said,
adding that the state and
local governments are fail-
ing to work together.
Nicole Elliott, senior
adviser on cannabis to
Gov. Gavin Newsom, said
state funds for enforcement
would nearly double in the
fi scal year than begins July
1, to $113 million.
California kicked off
broad legal sales Jan. 1,
2018. But the illegal market
has continued a bustling
business, in part because
consumers can avoid steep
tax rates by buying in unli-
censed dispensaries.
But there’s a trade-off
for saving a buck. Illegal
products have not met strict
state testing standards and
could be tainted by mold,
pesticides, heavy metals —
even human waste.
“Do you know what’s
hiding in your counterfeit
edibles?” one ad asks.
Agency
spokesman
Alex Traverso said the ads
are part of a three-pronged
campaign intended to even-
tually corral illegal sales
— the others are enforce-
ment, including shutting
down illegal shops and
farms, and quickly licens-
ing businesses that want to
enter the legal economy.
The state is spending
an initial $1.7 million on
the campaign and hopes to
“get it in front of as many
eyeballs as possible,” Tra-
verso said.
No one is predicting
the campaign will bring
illicit sales to a halt. But it’s
being seen as another step
to aid legal businesses as
the state transitions from
what was once a largely
illegal economy into a mul-
tibillion-dollar, regulated
marketplace.
PENDLETON
LINEBACKER’S CLUB
HALL OF FAME
WEEKEND
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, June 28th
Pendleton Convention Center
black prospective jurors.
portraying him as a radical,
the one-time judge is laying
out the argument that state
voters are tired of Washing-
ton interference.
That may be. But some
die-hard Republicans aren’t
happy with Moore running
again after questions about
his relationships with young
girls decades ago translated
into a narrow 2017 victory
for longshot Democrat Doug
Jones.
“You can paint a leopard
any color you want but he
still has spots, and that’s what
Moore has. Moore still has
his spots,” 66-year-old retiree
and faithful Republican
Richard Clayton said Friday.
Roy Moore in
uphill battle to woo
skeptical voters
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
(AP) — In a state that has
long been reliably Repub-
lican, Roy Moore faces an
uphill battle in winning over
skeptical voters to take back
the Alabama Senate seat he
lost two years ago amid alle-
gations of sexual misconduct
involving teenage girls.
With GOP leaders includ-
ing President Donald Trump
and Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell aligned
against him and Democrats
5:00 - 6:45 p.m. • Cocktails Dinner & Auction
(Dinner $30)
6:45 p.m. • Introduction of Hall of Fame Inductees
9:30 p.m. • Close
Saturday, June 29th
29th Annual Don Requa
Memorial Golf Tournament
Wildhorse Golf Resort
7:00 - 8:00 a.m. • Registration
8:00 a.m. • Shotgun Start
1:00 p.m. • Awards
1:00 p.m. • Lunch
(Golf $65 per player)
Sunday, June 30th
Harrison Family Medicine Welcomes
Buckaroo Football Hall of Fame Breakfast
Andrea Carrasco, M.D.
Prepared by the Veterans of Foreign Wars
8:00 - 10:00 a.m. • Stillman Park
(Breakfast $8)
Pendleton Linebackers Hall of Fame
2019 Inductees
• Accepting patients
• Accepting all
insurances
• Schedule an
appointment today!
Starting
July 1, 2019
CORNERSTONE
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Christy Banda, a representative for the Jack Herer canna-
bis company, displays their latest marijuana fl ower during
the networking expo WeedCon West 2019 in Los Angeles
on Thursday.
Hall of Fame Reception
BRIEFLY
Court tosses black
man’s conviction
over racial bias
LOS ANGELES — Cal-
ifornia is planning to inten-
sify its enforcement against
the state’s thriving illegal
marijuana market, includ-
ing launching an ad cam-
paign Friday that urges con-
sumers to seek out licensed
shops with safe products.
The state has been under
pressure by the legal indus-
try to do more to stop the
illicit pot economy, which
in Los Angeles and other
cities often operates in
plain sight. According to
some estimates, up to 80
percent of sales in the state
remain under the table,
snatching profi ts from legal
storefronts.
“We are going to start
having a more aggres-
sive enforcement stance to
come after the illegal mar-
ket,” Lori Ajax, the state’s
top cannabis regulator, said
at an industry forum.
The state announced
it was kicking off a pub-
lic information campaign
— Get #weedwise — that
encourages consumers to
verify that their purchases
are tested and legal.
Ads will be hitting social
media sites and billboards
promoting a state website
where shoppers can quickly
check if a shop is licensed
— CApotcheck.com.
The campaign makes a
simple argument: You don’t
know what you’re getting if
you buy illegal products.
One ad says, “What’s
in your weed shouldn’t be
a mystery. Shop licensed
cannabis retailers only.”
The campaign “will
directly impact consumer
safety by clarifying that
only cannabis purchased
from licensed retailers has
• Casey Hunt • Jon Peterson • Sarah Keeler
• Mike Hodgen • Sara Jane Rosenberg • Bill McCrae • Michael Corey
• John Fossatti • Drew Larson • Mike Rickman • Leon Ransom
• Chuck Jenson • Sue Johnston
The 1963-1964 Buckaroo Football Team
Harrison Family Medicine
1100 Southgate, Suite 2
Pendleton, OR 97801
Phone: 541-215-1564
Fax: 541-215-1567
Office Hours: Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM
2019 Scholarship Recipients
Kirk Liscom & Aiden Patterson