Investigative Reporter: The Secret to Pot Success in Albany
How can a building contractor, an ex-police chief, a plumber, a shoe-store owner and a security contractor turn their small investments in a medical-pot firm, NYCanna, into a $40 million-plus concern? It helped to be “politically connected,” per Tim Knauss of the Syracuse Post-Standard, who writes that “no amount of money matters unless you can secure a license.” The process is opaque: “New York gave out licenses based on written applications that were scored by Albany bureaucrats. But the major part of each application was kept secret, raising suspicions among critics that they were not graded consistently.” In NYCanna’s case, two of the founders were “friends and long-time political backers of former Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney,” an ally of Gov. Cuomo, “whose health department awarded licenses.” Nice work if you can get it.
Legal Scholar: Impeachment Is No Political Toy
“The criminal-justice system must not be used to even scores” or “garner political points,” writes Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz in the Hill. Yet that’s what both parties are doing. “The law should require that criminal prosecution be a last resort against only clear violations of narrowly defined federal statutes.” Under that standard, “President Trump should not be accused of ‘collusion,’ which simply not criminal under the law.” By the same token, “neither Hillary Clinton nor James Comey should be prosecuted for political sins that do not rise to the level of crimes.” Those alarmed by today’s politicization of justice, however, can take comfort in the fact that it has a long history: Jefferson and Lincoln, among other historical greats, were tempted to do the same thing.
Theoretical Physicist: Cool It With the Warming Hysteria
Global-warming activists had a predictable freak-out over last week’s US government climate report, but NYU physicist Steve Koonis urges calm in The Wall Street Journal. The gloomy predictions have centered on the report’s predictions of a climate-induced slowdown in the American economy, “yet a close reading of the report shows” the overall “is expected to be quite small.” For starters, the “‘worst-worst case’ estimate assumes the largest plausible temperature rise and only known modes of adaptation.” And once you factor in the time scale of nearly a century, “the projected reduction in the average annual growth rate” owing to climate “is a mere 0.05 percentage point.” The former Obama-administration official concludes: “Human-induced climate change isn’t an existential threat to the overall economy through the end of this century — or even a significant one.”
International Desk: Sanction Venezuela as a Terror Regime
“The Trump administration has spent the last two years making up for two full terms of the Obama administration’s naive optimism in Venezuela,” observe the editors of the Weekly Standard. Trump has identified Caracas as a “totalitarian regime” and sanctioned its top leadership. Now it’s time to take the next step: “designating Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism.” Doing so “has been used by successive administrations to call out regimes that repeatedly support international terrorism.” The likes of Iran are obvious cases, but so is Venezuela, which “has continued allowing terror groups to operate there while the country descends into chaos.” Caracas doesn’t cooperate with American counterterror efforts. It has ties to terror groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah. And it’s a friend to Tehran. A terror designation “will force those companies that have chosen to continue doing business in Venezuela to finally reckon with the nature of the regime.”
From the Left: Pelosi Tells Bipartisan Reformers to Take a Hike
As if the turmoil brewing on her left flank weren’t enough, House Dem leader Nancy Pelosi now has another problem, notes Jim Newell in Slate: “the Democratic membership of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan, moderate caucus affiliated with the centrist political advocacy group No Labels.” Those members are threatening to withhold their votes from Pelosi’s leadership bid unless she allows “for more transparency and bipartisan governing.” But “what they really want is a loosening of congressional leadership’s total control of what legislation reaches the floor.” Not surprisingly, Pelosi is resisting efforts to have her relinquish power—well, not exactly: She’s promised to “establish a select committee” to study the Problem Solvers’ ideas. Which is congressional-speak for: Nice try, buddy. Take a hike.
— Compiled by Sohrab Ahmari