SACRAMENTO — Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis on Thursday set Sept. 14 as the date for the recall election targeting California Gov. Gavin Newsom, leaving it up to voters to decide whether to oust a sitting governor for just the second time in the state’s history.

The tight election timetable gives prospective candidates just over two weeks to decide whether to jump into an expected frenzied race to replace Newsom, though a cadre of notable Republicans launched unofficial campaigns months ago with promises of loosening the Democrats’ ironclad grip on California’s state government.

“Although the window of time from which I could select a date was narrow, I believe we have chosen a fair and reasonable date for this election to take place,” Kounalakis said in a statement released Thursday. “It has always been my intention to choose an election date that gives election officials and the public ample time to ensure a smooth election with broad participation.”

Newsom and his supporters have dismissed the recall effort as a longshot ploy by the Republican Party to force its unpopular conservative agenda on Californians who support the governor’s policies, including his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting the environment and advocating for gun control measures. The Democratic governor has characterized recall campaign leaders as anti-immigrant supporters of President Trump who include QAnon conspiracy theorists and fringe members of the right wing.

Joe Biden is now delivering remarks in Miami after meeting with first responders and the families of the victims of the Surfside condo collapse.

The president commended the “remarkable” coordination between state and local officials of both parties as search-and-rescue efforts continue at the site of the condo collapse.

“They’ve all cooperated in ways I haven’t seen in a long time,” Biden said.

The president noted the federal government is deploying extensive resources to help respond to this disaster, with FEMA providing temporary housing for the survivors.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and a handful of other Republicans have invited pop star Britney Spears to testify before Congress about her conservatorship.

"You have been mistreated by America’s legal system. We want to help," Gaetz wrote in a letter to Spears dated Wednesday. "The United States Congress should hear your story and be inspired to bipartisan action. What happened to you should never happen to any other American."

Gaetz said he and fellow Republican Reps. Majorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Burgess Owens (Utah) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.) have been following her conservatorship battle with “deep concern” and stand with the pop star.

Rumors about Spears' discontent with her conservatorship spread for years online and trended with the #FreeBritney hashtag. But last week, Spears spoke directly about the issue herself in court, describing her conservatorship as “abusive.”

Apple Now Allows Marijuana Businesses On Its App Store

Apple will no longer prohibit marijuana delivery services from being hosted on its App Store—one of the latest pro-cannabis developments to come out of the tech industry.

The policy was updated last month to remove the ban, with some restrictions. A marijuana app must be geo-restricted to jurisdictions where cannabis is legal, and the program must be “submitted by a legal entity that provides the services, and not by an individual developer.”

Here’s what the previous policy said:

“Apps that encourage consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol are not permitted on the App Store. Apps that encourage minors to consume any of these substances will be rejected. Facilitating the sale of controlled substances (except for licensed pharmacies), marijuana, or tobacco is not allowed."

The new policy, which was updated on June 7, reads:

“Apps that encourage consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol are not permitted on the App Store. Apps that encourage minors to consume any of these substances will be rejected. Facilitating the sale of controlled substances (except for licensed pharmacies and licensed or otherwise legal cannabis dispensaries), or tobacco is not allowed.”

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/apple-now-allows-marijuana-businesses-on-its-app-store-while-google-maintains-ban/

A judge has shot down Britney Spears’ request to have her father removed from her conservatorship.

New court documents that were filed by the Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday show that the judge has denied the request by Spears’ attorney, Samuel Ingham III, to remove her father, Jamie Spears, as her sole conservator.

“The conservator’s request to suspend James P. Spears immediately upon the appointment of Bessemer Trust Company of California as sole conservator of estate is denied without prejudice,” the court documents state.

Samuel Ingham III had filed the request to remove Spears’ father back in November 2020, stating that his client was “afraid of her father” and would refuse to perform again, if her father continued to be in charge of her career. At that time, Judge Brenda Penny declined to suspend her father from the conservatorship, though she did not rule out future petitions for his removal or suspension. Also, at that time, the judge appointed financial company Bessemer Trust as a co-conservator.

For months, Andrew Yang seemed like he was exactly what New York City was looking for in a mayor.

He was relentlessly positive at a time when the city, still locked down during the pandemic, was somber. While other candidates were stuck in a loop of online mayoral forums, he seized attention by holding in-person events, capitalizing on his star power as a 2020 presidential candidate.

He leapt to the top of polls, drawing the affection of wealthy donors and envy from the race’s more established candidates. But as the race’s sudden front-runner, Mr. Yang began to draw more scrutiny from the news media and his rivals, and bit by bit, he lost ground.

Eric Adams was the first to pass him, and others would follow. By primary night, Mr. Yang was the first candidate to concede, far back in fourth place.

Russian diplomats and their families leave North Korea by hand-pushed rail trolley

Eight employees of Russia’s Embassy in Pyongyang and their families spent more than 34 hours trying to leave North Korea this week, a grueling trip that ended with at least one diplomat pushing his luggage and young children on a railway trolley into Russian territory.

North Korea’s borders have been effectively locked down for months as part of the Kim Jong Un regime’s efforts to keep Covid-19 at bay, stranding the few diplomats operating inside Pyongyang. North Korean state-owned airline Air Koryo operates flights from Vladivostok in eastern Russia, but those flights have also been suspended for months.

The labyrinthine journey was the only way the Russian diplomats and their families could leave the country, the Russian Embassy said on its verified Facebook page.

The journey began by train. The Russians spent 32 hours traveling on North Korea’s old, poorly maintained and notoriously slow rail system. They then rode a bus for two hours to the border, where the families needed to order a railroad trolley for their luggage and push it the rest of the way.

A trolley, also known as a handcart, is a type of railroad car popularized in the 1800s that is powered by its passengers through the use of a pump action lever, or by people manually pushing the car from behind.



https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/asia/north-korea-trolley-russian-diplomats-intl-hnk/index.html