Medical-pot backers sue US for crackdown

Medical-pot backers sue US for crackdown

SAN FRANCISCO

Attorneys for medical- marijuana advocates sought a temporary restraining order Monday to put a stop to a federal crackdown on California pot dispensaries, claiming the effort by the state’s four U.S. attorneys is unconstitutional.

Plaintiffs asked U.S. District Court Judge Donna Ryu in Oakland to issue an order barring the government from arresting or prosecuting patients, dispensary owners or landlords of properties housing dispensaries.

Pot advocates said dispensaries in the San Francisco Bay area would start closing this weekend if a restraining order was not issued.

Police: Man kept 29 mummified bodies

MOSCOW

The Russian historian always had been open about his interest in the dead and eagerly described how he loved to rummage through cemeteries, studying grave stones to uncover the life stories behind them.

What he failed to mention, according to police, was that he had dug up 29 bodies and taken them back to his apartment, where he dressed them in women’s clothes scavenged from graves and then put them on display.

A police video of the man’s apartment in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod released Monday shows his macabre collection of what look like dolls. Life-size, they are dressed in bright dresses and headscarves, their hands and faces wrapped in what appears to be cloth. Police said they were mummified remains.

Russian media reports identified the man as Anatoly Moskvin, a 45-year-old historian who was considered the ultimate expert on cemeteries in Nizhny Novgorod.

Soldier charged with espionage attempt

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

The U.S. Army charged an Alaska-based soldier Monday with attempted espionage, issuing false statements and other counts.

Spc. William Colton Millay, 22, of Owensboro, Ky., was charged Monday through the military justice system.

Millay’s Oct. 28 arrest at Joint Base Elmendorf- Richardson in Anchorage stems from an investigation by the Army and FBI.

His attorney has said his client told him he is innocent.

Experts: US can’t protect networks

WASHINGTON

America’s critical computer networks are so vulnerable to attack that it should deter U.S. leaders from going to war with other nations, a former top U.S. cybersecurity official said Monday. Richard Clarke, a top adviser to three presidents, joined a number of U.S. military and civilian experts in offering a dire assessment of America’s cybersecurity at a conference, saying the country simply can’t protect its critical networks.

Study: New way to predict obesity?

CHICAGO

Researchers say there’s a new way to tell if infants are likely to become obese later on: Check to see if they’ve passed two key milestones on doctors’ growth charts by age 2.

Babies who grew that quickly face double the risk of being obese at age 5, compared with peers who grew more slowly, their study found. Rapid growers also were more likely to be obese at age 10, and infants whose chart numbers climbed that much during their first 6 months faced the greatest risks.

But skeptics say not so fast. Babies often grow in spurts, and flagging the speediest growers could lead to putting infants on diets — a bad idea that could backfire in the long run, said Dr. Michelle Lampl, director of Emory University’s Center for the Study of Human Health.

Associated Press