"I don't really know enough about the referendum over there to comment.": PHOTO
Eric Holder, asked earlier this week in Maine about the marriage referendum, deflected the issue. When asked at today's hate crime shindig if he could clarify that, he said : "I don't really know enough about the referendum over there to comment." That a) untrue and b) cowardly. Meanwhile, let's check back in six months to see if this hate crimes bill has made any difference to anyone in the entire US. Remind me, won't you? I need to be kept honest as well.

Health Sciences Group, Inc. Locks in Consulting Agreement With Medical Marijuana, Inc.
INDIAN HARBOUR BEACH, Fla., Nov 3, 2009 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) ----Health Sciences Group, Inc. (Pink Sheets:HESG) is proud to announce that its CEO Thomas Gaffney has finalized a consulting agreement with Medical Marijuana, Inc. (Pink Sheets:MJNA) on a comprehensive agreement to advise on compliance issues with any state, local and city Medical Marijuana issues concerning the operations of dispensaries in California.

Mexican Cartel Suspects Nabbed In Hundreds In U.S. Raids: PHOTO
Attorney General Eric Holder speaks with reporters about another major series of raids against the Mexican drug cartel known as La Familia, as FBI Director Robert Muller (l) and and Acting Drug Enforcement Administrator Michele Leonhart and Acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Director Kenneth Melson listen. ( Kevin Wolf / AP Photo ) By Frank James Law Enforcement officials believe they landed another blow in their battle against Mexican drug cartels with two days of raids and arrests...

Federal prosecutor: Medical marijuana raids won't stop
'Not a change' in policy 'at all,' US Attorney says Operators of Medical Marijuana dispensaries in California are quickly learning that, contrary to recent news headlines, federal raids of Medical Marijuana clubs aren't going to stop -- an assertion the US Attorney for northern California is unequivocally making. Numerous news sources reported in February that the Obama Administration plans to put an end to DEA raids of Medical Marijuana dispensaries. But last month's memo from Attorney General...

Marijuana growers upend hard-luck California town: PHOTO
Education has long been preached as a way to keep kids away from drugs. It's the walk to school that has Supt. Tom Barnett worried. This hardscrabble Northern California town has become a hotbed for Medical Marijuana farming. Kids stroll much of the year past pungent plants flourishing in gardens and alleys. The red-and-black clad Timberjacks football team moved its halftime huddle on a recent Friday night to avoid the odor of Marijuana smoke wafting over the gridiron from nearby houses. Some...

Drug Raids on Mexican Cartel Nab 300: PHOTO
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder calls it largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating in the U.S.

Mexico extradites 11 fugitives to US; charges include murder, drug trafficking
WASHINGTON — Mexico has extradited 11 fugitives, accused of crimes including murder, sex offenses, drug trafficking and money laundering, to face trial in the United States, the Justice Department said Sunday. "The Extradition of these 11 defendants exemplifies the strong cooperative relationship between the United States and Mexico," said Attorney General Eric Holder. Justice said Mexico has extradited a record 100 fugitives to the United States in 2009. The previous record, 95, was set...

Attorney general, DEA chief to witness return of bodies of agents killed in Afghanistan
DOVER, DEL. — The leaders of the U.S. Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration plan to travel to Delaware to honor three DEA agents killed in Afghanistan. Attorney General Eric Holder and DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart were to travel to Dover Air Force Base Wednesday night to meet the plane carrying the bodies of the agents, who died Monday in a helicopter crash that also killed seven U.S. service members. The crash is still under investigation. The agents, the first...

AG: Plot One of Most Serious Since 9/11: PHOTO
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder says the alleged terror plot disrupted in New York was one of the most serious in the United States since the 2001 terror attacks. In a question-and-answer session with reporters, Holder said Tuesday that prosecutors will bring all those involved in the plot to justice. He would not give a timeline when more arrests might come or say how many people might be involved. So far, one suspect, Najibullah Zazi, has been charged with conspiring to...

The Associated Press: Colo. ski town could push marijuana legalization
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — Voters in this Rocky Mountain resort town will decide next week whether to legalize pot for all adults at a time when the movement to allow Marijuana]Medical Marijuana is gaining steam around the country. A measure before Breckenridge voters in Tuesday's municipal election would legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of Marijuana along with bongs, pipes and other pot paraphernalia. Supporters of the measure say it would inch the whole state closer to full legalization. Other...

Health department changes marijuana "caregiver" rule
Colorado Health officials on Tuesday temporarily revised rules governing Medical Marijuana in order to comply with a court decision that said a supplier must do more than give patients Marijuana to qualify as a caregiver. The rule change — and the scant public notice given to the meeting where the state Board of Health passed it unanimously — drew fire from lawyers who represent Medical Marijuana patients, growers and dispensary owners. Last summer, the Board of Health defined...

Colo. health board suspends medical marijuana rule
DENVER—Colorado health officials have decided to temporarily eliminate a regulation involving Medical Marijuana caregivers, putting off a final decision until next month. The state health board took action Tuesday because members are concerned their definition of who can provide patients with Medical Marijuana contradicted a ruling last week from the Colorado Court of Appeals. The board has said that anyone who supplies the drug should be considered a caregiver under the state's...

Attorney General Eric Holder Praises Hate Crimes Law, Lacks Familiarity with Maine Marriage Equality Ballot Measure: PHOTO
COREY JOHNSON I just left the signing of the Department of Defense Authorization bill, to which the the inclusive Hate-crimes bill was attached. It was a very moving occasion and I'll have a post later reflecting on this historic day for the LGBT community, but for now some remarks from Attorney General Eric Holder. I took the (blurry, apologies) photo above of Holder, Judy Shepard, and White House Office of Public Engagement Deputy Director Brian Bond just before the ceremony. Holder made...

The Associated Press: Obama administration: Toss wiretap lawsuit
Washington — Attorney General Eric Holder says a lawsuit in San Francisco over warrantless Wiretapping threatens to expose ongoing intelligence work and must be thrown out. In making the argument, the Obama Administration agreed with the Bush Administration's position on the case but insists it came to the decision differently. A Civil Liberties group criticized the move Friday as a retreat from promises President Barack Obama made as a candidate. Holder's effort to stop the lawsuit...

AG Holder: Effort to Close Gitmo by January Deadline Will be Difficult
DEVELOPING: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that it will be difficult to meet the administration's Jan. 22, 2010, deadline to close the Prison at Guantanamo Bay.

U.S. arrests 300 in raids on Mexican drug cartel
By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Law Enforcement agencies arrested 303 people in 19 states over the past two days in a strike against the distribution network of a major Mexican drug trafficking cartel, officials said on Thursday. Attorney General Eric Holder said the sweep against networks of the La Familia Michoacana cartel in the United States was the largest U.S. Law Enforcement action ever taken against Mexican Drugs gangs, involving more than 3,000 federal, state and local...

Herenton Object of Federal Probe: PHOTO
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Former Memphis Mayor Dr. Willie Herenton is fighting a federal investigation, saying the probe is politically motivated. Herenton sent a copy of a letter he wrote the U.S. Attorney General to the Commercial Appeal. In the letter Herenton tells Attorney General Eric Holder, the investigation coming just weeks before his first political event as a candidate for Congress is nothing more than a well orchestrated attempt to influence the outcome of the Congressional election next...

The Associated Press: Mass. man says Brazilian husband denied US asylum
Boston — A gay Brazilian man has been denied asylum by the Obama Administration and won't be reunited with his Massachusetts husband in the U.S., the husband said Monday. Tim Coco said Attorney General Eric Holder did not act on a Friday deadline in the case of Genesio "Junior" Oliveira, effectively denying the 30-year-old Brazilian man's request for asylum in the U.S. on humanitarian grounds. "We needed the Attorney General to make a decision on whether Junior could come home," said...

Same-sex marriage, medical pot on ballots
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Same-sex marriage, Medical Marijuana and casino gambling lead the list of measures voters in several states across the United States considered Tuesday. Six states have 26 measures on their ballots for the 2009 Election Day, down from the 33.2 average number of initiatives common in odd-year Elections, the National Council of State Legislatures said on its Web site. Voters in Maine and Washington considered ratcheting back the rights of same-sex couples Tuesday. In...

Holder to meet plane carrying bodies of DEA agents
DOVER, Del. (AP)

Mexico extradites 11 fugitives to U.S.
WASHINGTON — Mexico has extradited 11 fugitives, accused of crimes including murder, sex offenses, drug trafficking and money laundering, to face trial in the United States, the Justice Department said Sunday. “The Extradition of these 11 defendants exemplifies the strong cooperative relationship between the United States and Mexico,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. Justice said Mexico has extradited a record 100 fugitives to the United States in 2009. The previous record,...

NY imam linked to U.S. bomb probe says did not lie
By Christine Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City imam accused of tipping off a suspected al Qaeda-trained militant that he was under investigation pleaded not guilty on Monday to lying to the FBI. Ahmad Wais Afzali was arrested in September as part of a probe in which federal prosecutors allege the prime suspect, Najibullah Zazi, was planning to set off bombs in the United States. Attorney General Eric Holder has called the purported Zazi plot one of the most serious security threats...

Former CIA Directors Ask President Obama to Tell Holder to Stop Investigating CIA
A bipartisan team of seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency wrote to President Obama today urging him to direct Attorney General Eric Holder to close the criminal investigation looking into whether any CIA officers went beyond what they were told was legal in their interrogations during counterterrorism investigations.

Medical marijuana users less of a target
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department said Monday that it would mellow out on prosecuting medical Marijuana users in the 14 states in which therapeutic pot smoking is allowed. Breaking more definitively from the Bush Administration, Attorney General Eric Holder formally directed federal prosecutors in medical-Marijuana states to refocus investigations on heftier targets. "It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are...

Maine Update: PHOTO
It's mighty close, with the pro-marriage equality forces currently a smidgen ahead with 17 percent of precincts reporting. The Medical Marijuana law looks like a sure-fire win.