More on babies and bars

By Jennifer J. Foster

You may remember when we talked last week about how the Auburn Planning Commission approved a new bar nestled up to a downtown daycare.

I wrote a column about it on Saturday. If you haven’t read it, check it out here. As an incentive, I’ll tell you that it involves a scene from a movie you’ve probably seen.

Also, if you are concerned about this issue, please consider signing the petition put together by some parents of Hardy’s children. More than 400 people already have.

Finally, we’ll know tomorrow whether this issue will make next week’s meeting of the Auburn City Council. The agenda will be published here sometime during the day.

DOJ medical marijuana reversal

By Jennifer J. Foster

From the Associated Press:

Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law.

That would be a departure from the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state’s law.

“The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law,“ Holder said in a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Justice Department.

*Sigh*

The federal government confuses me.

Taken on its own and viewed through the prism of the U.S. Constitution, this is a good move on the part of the Justice Department. Think about it: The citizens of California have passed a law about medical marijuana; the federal government is saying here that it will respect that state law.

Since the Constitution is silent on the issue of drug regulations, the U.S. government is right not to pursue federal prosecutions in states that have their own such regulations.

But that begs the question ... since the U.S. Constitution is silent on the issue of drug regulations, then why does the federal government have drug regulations?

We can chalk that up to overreach. We’ve gotten used to it, haven’t we? Uncle Sam has his hand in a bunch of things the Founders never intended.

But there’s a better question.

If President Obama’s Justice Department is going to respect state laws on medical marijuana, will it also respect abortion-related state laws—like parental notification and late-term abortion bans?

Right. I didn’t think so.

So, what we’re left with here is the undeniable conclusion that Obama’s Justice Department will continue the regrettable modern trend of putting politics above policy.

So much for change.

Barack-etology

By Jennifer J. Foster

After all the new words that were created from Barack Obama’s name during the 2008 presidential campaign, it was just a matter of time before someone noted his love of basketball with the malleability of his moniker.

So, ESPN gives you Barack-etology, the president’s picks for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

For the record, the president takes three No. 1 seeds—Louisville, North Carolina and Pittsburgh—to make the Final Four, but he picks 2-seed Memphis to knock off No. 1 Connecticut in the Elite Eight. He picks UNC to win it all over Louisville.

You can see President Obama’s handwritten bracket on the White House blog. Notice that the president changed his mind a few times when making his picks ... I’m sure there’s a joke there about a politician flip-flopping, but I’ll leave it alone.

For what it’s worth, I took Connecticut, North Carolina, Duke and Kansas in the Final Four, with the Huskies besting the Blue Devils for the title.

Who’d you pick?

UPDATE: Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski had this to say about the president’s picks:

Somebody said we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four. As much as I respect what he’s doing, really the economy is something he should focus on more than the brackets.

Doh!