Ill. House passes medical-pot bill
Ill. House passes medical-pot bill
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.
Illinois physicians could prescribe marijuana to patients with specific terminal illnesses or debilitating medical conditions under legislation approved Wednesday by the state House.
The proposed legislation creates a four-year pilot program that requires patients and caregivers to undergo background checks, limits the amount of marijuana patients can have at a time, and establishes cultivation centers and selling points.
Lawmakers voted 61-57 to send the measure to the state Senate. Senate President John Cullerton’s spokeswoman said this week that he supports the legislation.
Gov. Pat Quinn hasn’t said whether he would sign the measure.
Court challenge to gay-therapy ban
SAN FRANCISCO
California’s novel law seeking to ban licensed counselors from trying to turn gay teens straight is boiling down to a question over whether the therapy is free speech or a medical treatment that can be regulated by government.
It’s the “pivot point” of the legal debate, Judge Morgan Christen of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday.
Morgan and two other judges on the nation’s largest federal appellate court considered 90 minutes of legal arguments over the ban on “sexual-orientation change” counseling of minors, which other states are considering.
The three-judge panel is considering two challenges to the law approved in California last fall.
National GOP drops support for Sanford
COLUMBIA, S.C.
Mark Sanford lost the support of his national party Wednesday, a day after a trespassing complaint filed by his ex-wife became public and sent his South Carolina congressional campaign and attempt at political resurrection into a tailspin.
Palmetto State politicos say the decision by the National Republican Congressional Committee to drop Sanford is significant, noting the committee had staff stationed in Charleston and was confident the former governor was on track to win the 1st District congressional seat vacated by Tim Scott, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate in January.
New Zealand OKs same-sex marriage
WELLINGTON, New Zealand
Hundreds of jubilant gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand’s Parliament as the country became the 13th in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage.
Lawmakers voted 77 to 44 in favor of the gay-marriage bill on its third and final reading Wednesday night.
Fertilizer plant blast injures several
WAco, texas
Authorities say an explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, has injured several people.
A dispatcher with the West, Texas, Fire Department says the explosion happened Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant in the community north of Waco. She says any casualties would be taken to hospitals in Waco.
Gayle Scarbrough, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety in Waco, told television station KWTX that DPS troopers have been transporting the injured to hospitals in their patrol cars. She says six helicopters also were en route.
KWTX reports that the explosion at West Fertilizer was reported at around 7:50 p.m. in a frantic call from the scene.
Combined dispatches