Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Legal Marijuana Now Party’s candidate in the race for the Second Congressional District has died, prompting a special election in February.

Adam Charles Weeks died earlier this week, said Kevin O’Connor, the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate. “It’s a sad and sudden thing. We are pretty much taken aback,” he said.

Weeks was facing off with Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Republican candidate Tyler Kistner to represent the district. That election will now be postponed.

“The law is clear on what happens next,” Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement Thursday. “If a major party nominee dies within 79 days of Election Day; a special election will be held for that office on the second Tuesday of February (February 9, 2021).”

Read more: https://www.startribune.com/second-congressional-district-race-delayed-after-death-of-legal-marijuana-now-candidate/572523221/

Source: SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL

Florida prosecutors on Thursday dropped all criminal charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, ending a flawed case that began with a police prostitution sting using secret video cameras at a Palm Beach County massage parlor early last year.

State Attorney Dave Aronberg is scheduled to explain the decision during a 2:30 p.m. news briefing.

Last month, a state appellate court sided with Kraft’s arguments that Jupiter police unlawfully recorded the part-time Palm Beach resident with his clothes off at Orchids of Asia Day Spa on Jan. 19, 2019, and Jan. 20, 2019.

In charging Kraft, prosecutors said he paid in cash and then got naked for sex acts. The videotaping at the business lasted for five days, leading to the solicitation of prostitution charges against Kraft, 79, and 24 other men.

Read more: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-ne-robert-kraft-prostitution-charges-dropped-20200924-ukbylfdmojhz3p7jdaxmftq5vi-story.html

---

This was a ridiculous waste of tax dollars.

Source: CBS News

The University of Michigan-Dearborn issued an apology Wednesday for creating segregated online student "cafes," one for White people and another for people of color, that it says were intended to promote discussions about race and diversity. A statement by the university near Detroit came after two virtual "cafe" events were held Tuesday, with one advertised as a "non-POC Cafe" for non-people of color to "gather and discuss their experience as students on campus and as non-POC in the world."

The other, dubbed "BIOPIC Cafe" was for Black, Indigenous and People of Color, and described as a space for "marginalized racial/ethnic/cultural communities to gather and to relate with one another to discuss their experience as students on campus'' and in the world.

Abed Ayoub, legal and policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said he understood the intention but "it could have been done better, obviously."

Ayoub said such spaces are created for students of color who have experienced racism to safely share their experiences. He added it's important that White students hear and learn from the experiences of students of color in these discussions.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/university-of-michigan-dearborn-apologizes-segregated-online-cafes/

Immigration advocates are livid over the Biden transition team’s addition of Cecilia Muñoz, a former Obama administration official who was the public face of that administration’s immigration policy.

Muñoz, who once served as the head of former President Obama’s White House Domestic Policy Council, was named by the Biden campaign Friday as part of a group of eight new senior transition advisers.

The pick was quickly criticized by immigration reform advocates, a reaction that exhibited both ideological divides within the Democratic Party and a lingering resentment felt by many immigration advocates over the actions of the Obama administration, particularly in its first term.

“Huge mistake. Huge. Huge mistake. Worst part? We have no other option. I guess we gotta pick our opponent. That’s what it has come down to,” wrote Erika Andiola, an immigrant rights activist and advocacy director for The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

more: https://thehill.com/policy/515581-biden-pick-creates-furor-underscoring-bitterness-over-obama-immigration-policy