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Tax Revenue Expected To Reach $125 Million As 2015 Colorado Cannabis Sales Near $1B

This November 25, 2009 photograph shows a close-up of a lush bud of cannabis in a legal medical marijuana grow house in Denver, Colorado. (Flickr / Coleen Elliott)

January 26, 2016

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Tax Revenue Expected To Reach $125 Million As 2015 Colorado Cannabis Sales Near $1B

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Colorado’s legal marijuana business boomed last year, with total sales in the state nearing the $1 billion mark, according to current estimates.

Official figures for marijuana sales in December won’t be available until next month, but Ricardo Baca, a staff writer for The Denver Post’s The Cannabist, reported on Jan. 13 that total marijuana sales, including for both recreational and medicinal purposes, had reached $895 million by November.

With cannabis taxed in three ways by the state, including two different kinds of sales tax, Colorado had earned $121 million through that month. That figure represents an especially important windfall for education, Baca noted:

Alex Jones Is ‘No Better Than ISIS’: How The Infowars Host Spreads Fear For Profit

Alex Jones speaks into an Infowars-branded megaphone at a February 28, 2014 event in Dallas, Texas. (Flickr / Sean P. Anderson)

December 29, 2015

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Alex Jones Is ‘No Better Than ISIS’: How The Infowars Host Spreads Fear For Profit

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and MintPress News

Allying himself with figures like Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, infamous talk show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is spreading misinformation about Muslims online and in his weekly radio program.

This tactic is Jones’ latest effort to use fear to generate clicks for his popular website and weekly radio program, “Infowars,” and to boost profits for his advertisers.

In a Dec. 8 broadcast, Jones defended Trump’s plan to close U.S. borders to Muslims. According to the talk show host, “upwards of 25 percent (of Muslims) who’ve been polled say they sympathize with ISIS and want to conduct violent attacks in Europe and the United States.”

The ‘Grinch’ That Stole Water: Nestlé Illegally Bottles 68,000 Gallons Of Water A Day In Drought-Stricken California

File: A close-up photo of the lids of dozens of sealed plastic bottles of water. December 2, 2010. (Flickr / Steven Depolo)

November 25, 2015

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The ‘Grinch’ That Stole Water: Nestlé Illegally Bottles 68,000 Gallons Of Water A Day In Drought-Stricken California

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Activists are preparing to disrupt business at a Nestlé bottled water plant for a third time as the corporation continues to bottle millions of gallons of water in California amid an historic drought.

Scheduled for Dec. 4, the protest marks the third time the “Crunch Nestlé Alliance” will target the corporation’s bottling plant for direct action. The group carried out similar temporary blockades of business in October 2014 and March 2015 at the Nestlé Waters bottling facility in Sacramento, California. Dan Bacher, reporting on the March 20 action for the citizen journalism site Indybay, claimed the group “effectively [shut] down the company’s operations for the day” by blocking both entrances to the plant from 5 a.m. until 1 p.m.

According to a story published by Bacher on Nov. 10 on YubaNet.com, a local news site devoted to the Sierra Nevada region of Central California, activists are expanding their efforts for the upcoming event to also protest at the nearby Alhambra Water Company. Still, Nestlé, who the alliance called “The Grinch Who Stole Our Water,” remains the main target.

Take The Boycott Home: 5 Household Products That Support Israeli Apartheid

An image of Scarlett Johansson drinking sodastream fizzy water in front of imprisoned Palestinians. SodaStream has been criticized for participating in Israeli occupation and displacement of Palestinians.

September 21, 2015

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Take The Boycott Home: 5 Household Products That Support Israeli Apartheid

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

A growing number of people worldwide support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to bring an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, and it’s already forced major corporations to change their practices.

Earlier this month, MintPress News offered six grocery products to avoid to support BDS, but companies whose products support Zionist war crimes aren’t limited to grocery store shelves.

Here are five products and companies to avoid in support of a free Palestine, starting with one of the most well-known product boycotts:

Environmental Justice Report: 81% Of Products Tested At U.S. Dollar Stores Are Unsafe

Protesters in hazardous material-handling suits gathered at a Family Dollar discount store in Austin, Texas on July 1, 2015 to demand “independence from toxic products.” It was part of a national day of action highlighting a report showing over 80% of products tested at dollar stores were unsafe.

July 3, 2015

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Environmental Justice Report: 81% Of Products Tested At U.S. Dollar Stores Are Unsafe

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

On July 1, activists gathered at dollar stores nationally to declare their “independence” from toxic chemicals, after a report earlier this year suggested products sold by these discount chains could be hurting consumers.

To produce the report, issued in February by Environmental Justice for All’s Campaign for Healthier Solutions, researchers tested 164 products from multiple discount chain stores nationwide and found that 133 contained “at least one hazardous chemical above levels of concern,” meaning that 81% of tested products were hazardous. These include chemicals identified to be carcinogenic, capable of causing developmental disabilities in children, or were otherwise found at levels considered toxic. Unlike major chains like Wal-Mart and Target, no major dollar store chain has a formal policy on selling or disclosing toxic ingredients in products.

In Austin, Texas, the campaign partnered with local activists from Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS) and Texas Campaign for the Environment. Dressed in white hazardous material-handling suits, they gathered in front of a Family Dollar store on the south side of the city to chant and hold protest signs and banners.

Missourians Fight ALEC Over Big Agriculture’s ‘Right to Farm’

A U.S. Department of Agriculture official and a Missouri farmer discuss a soybean crop in this Aug. 27, 2012 photograph. (Flickr / U.S. Department of Agriculture)

August 20, 2014

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Missourians Fight ALEC Over Big Agriculture’s ‘Right to Farm’

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

On Aug. 5, Missouri residents voted on the state’s Right-to-Farm, Amendment 1, a new addition to the state’s bill of rights. The results were extremely close: 498,751 voted in favor of the new amendment, while 496,223 opposed it. With a difference of less than half a percent, a recount is almost certain.

Though the Humane Society of the United States donated $375,000 in opposition, the amendment had the financial backing of Big Agriculture and its deep pockets as well as the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, the secretive organization which writes legislation on behalf of major corporations.

That the bill came so close to defeat is a testament to the efforts of grassroots Missouri activists like the members of People’s Visioning, a coalition of diverse progressive organizations led by Columbia, Missouri, resident Monta Welch. MintPress News spoke with Welch and other members of her coalition as they rested from what they described as an exhausting campaign and considered what their next steps might be if the recount fails.

Welch explained that the conflict was essentially between large agricultural factories and consumers increasingly concerned with the sustainability and ethics behind the food they eat.