Despite overwhelming public support and support from a clear majority of Vermont’s Agriculture Committee, Vermont legislators are dragging their feet on a proposed GMO labeling bill. Why? Because Monsanto has threatened to sue the state if the bill passes. 

The popular legislative bill requiring mandatory labels on genetically engineered food (H-722) is languishing in the Vermont House Agriculture Committee, with only four weeks left until the legislature adjourns for the year. Despite thousands of emails and calls from constituents who overwhelmingly support mandatory labeling, despite the fact that a majority (6 to 5) of Agriculture Committee members support passage of the measure, Vermont legislators are holding up the labeling bill and refusing to take a vote.

Instead, they’re calling for more public hearings on April 12, in the apparent hope that they can run out the clock until the legislative session ends in early May.

 

So cutting spending reduces our debt.... Hey, you know what else might work? Gimme some of that creepy music. Computer graphics askew, please.

What if we also attack our deficit by getting rid of the Bush tax cuts?

A homeless man in El Paso, Texas, is receiving a country's worth of praise this week after rescuing Old Glory.
Leaving his two cats and the relative comfort of his makeshift shelter in the middle of the night, Gustus Bozarth rushed out into torrential rains to rescue a flag that had been knocked over by the storm. After carefully folding it military style and tucking it under a windshield wiper, Bozarth moved the flagpole to the front of the building.

Americans spend roughly $25 billion a year on marijuana, according to the Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, which gives some idea of the popularity of this drug. Eventually, we might be talking about a sizable sum of tax revenue from its sales as medicine, not to mention private investment and employment. A spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says hedge fund investors and an assortment of financial service firms are starting to call around to sniff out opportunities.... "people who are looking for ways to invest or offer their services."

Among poll respondents, support for the proposal was strongest among males (65 percent), 'liberals' (77 percent), and those between the ages of 18 and 34 (74 percent). Support was weakest among self-identified 'conservatives' (39 percent) and those 65 years of age or older (39 percent).

In December, a national poll of 1,004 likely voters by Angus Reid reported for the first time that just over half of all Americans endorse marijuana legalization.