by
Dan Mitchell on June 3, 2020
Over the weekend, one or more large groups of armed men targeted and robbed a long list of Bay Area cannabis dispensaries in what appears to be a long-planned spree.
Remarkably, most of the dispensaries in Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland seem to have been hit, reportedly along with some manufacturing and cultivation facilities. Some sources said every single pot retailer in Oakland was targeted, although that couldn’t be confirmed at press time.
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by
Steve Palopoli on May 27, 2020
Maybe we’ll eat beans and
emit noxious gases
Maybe we’ll start taking a bunch of online classes
Maybe we’ll drink lemonade every day at 5
And listen to the folk singers
on the Facebook Live
—Dan Bern
“Til The Quarantine Is Thru”
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by
Dan Mitchell on May 27, 2020
There’s been lots of chatter over what the cannabis industry might look like after the Covid-19 pandemic passes.
Most of the time, the attention is focused on how business is doing. So far, things are looking somewhere between “not bad” and “actually pretty good, considering.” Or, people wonder, will states hold off on moves toward legalization or regulatory reform as lawmakers concentrate on dealing with the fallout from the virus? In California, anyway, that’s looking pretty grim. Deeply desired cuts in pot taxes likely won’t happen until next year, if at all.
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by
Dan Mitchell on April 22, 2020
While the Trump Administration has deregulated right and left — for instance, allowing polluters to go hog wild — the Food and Drug Administration isn’t effing around when it comes to cracking down on companies selling supposed cures for the COVID-19 virus. Several of those targeted companies make CBD.
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by
Bill Kopp on April 22, 2020
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, top first priorities should be health and safety, and taking care of basic needs. But once those needs are addressed, maintaining some semblance of normalcy is important as well.
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by
Mike Huguenor on April 21, 2020
In the months before the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga launched a new thematic that would prove eerily prophetic: “SOCIAL: Rethining Loneliness Together.”
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I understand the need to make a living, but there’s more at stake here than dollars and cents. So, seeing the flashing, neon “OPEN” sign in the window of your beauty salon presented, for me, a moral conundrum. Should I snitch you out? Through the window, I could see you styling a silver-haired client—clearly someone old enough to be disproportionately vulnerable to the dreaded virus. I literally stopped in my tracks to mull over whether to call 3-1-1. Ultimately, I decided against it because of how loathe I was to get anyone tangled up in the criminal justice system over a misdemeanor. Plus, I figured that the flashing light in your window would signal another, perhaps less conflicted, passerby to alert the authorities.
I Saw You is an anonymous “man on the street” column. Email your rants and raves about co-workers or any badly behaving citizens to [email protected], or send to 380 S. First St, San Jose, 95113. Submissions should stick to about 100 words.
I saw you. You were sitting next to me at the wedding—the one we were all concerned about attending, given the novel coronavirus pandemic. Well… most of us were concerned. You were just running your mouth, doing everything in your power to bring our polite conversation back to the topic of guns. Perhaps you fancy yourself a tough guy, determined to keep this country great by any means necessary, including going out of your way to shake the hand of every person you encountered, as if your arrogant disregard of common sense public health practices proved your patriotism. You are truly the worst kind of American.
I Saw You is an anonymous “man on the street” column. Email your rants and raves about co-workers or any badly behaving citizens to [email protected], or send to 380 S. First St, San Jose, 95113. Submissions should stick to about 100 words.
Founded in 1972, the Swiss mask theater group Mummenschanz made a name for themselves by doing a lot with a little. Dressed in black spandex suits, the performers practically disappear on the all-black stage, as the eye is drawn to the wild masks and colorful props the members use to accentuate and express the strangeness of human moods. The New York Times describes the troupe’s current tour, “You and Me,” as something akin to “the Muppets, but heavily influenced by French surrealism and a few psychotropics.” Continue reading »
by
Wallace Baine on March 11, 2020
Straight out of the musical hotbed of Austin, Texas, comes Steel Betty, an all-acoustic trio of multi-instrumentalists who reflect the crazy quilt of today’s American roots music. Their music is a tasty stew of country and Western, Tex-Mex conjunto, three-part harmony folk and, most prominently, old-timey mountain bluegrass—these guys can totally rip on “Bile ’Em Cabbage Dow.” For this trio, eclecticism, which they call “New Age Old Time,” is the whole point. They’ve just released a new album, So Darn Lonesome, and now they’re ready to take America by storm. Continue reading »
