Plus, a possible CDC revamp, Biden to delay student loan repayments again, the MLB approves an electronic device to replace hand signals, and more. Email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser ([link removed]) .
[link removed]
[link removed]


** The House approved it, so when will the US legalize marijuana?
------------------------------------------------------------
In this April 2, 2016 file photo, a demonstrator waves a flag with marijuana leaves on it during a protest calling for the legalization of marijuana, outside of the White House in Washington. Marijuana would be decriminalized at the federal level under legislation the House approved Friday as Democrats made the case for allowing states to set their own policies on pot. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Despite the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives just passed it, there is little chance that the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act — or MORE Act — will become law anytime soon.

It is not the first time the House has voted to decriminalize weed. The last time, in 2020, the Senate never even considered the bill. It probably won’t this time, either.

President Joe Biden promised ([link removed]) that he would support changing the classification of marijuana to make it less regulated than other narcotics like heroin, but he has remained unmoved by state after state allowing recreational marijuana. Biden’s marijuana stance may be best illustrated by the fact that his administration fired five staffers ([link removed]) who admitted to past cannabis use.

Marijuana Moment tracks laws ([link removed]) and noted this after the House vote Friday: “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said hours after the House vote in favor of the MORE Act that the president agrees that ‘our current marijuana laws are not working,’ but she declined to say whether he supports the specific legislation ([link removed]) .”

For the MORE Act to pass the Senate, supporters would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Mother Jones describes the political battlelines ([link removed]) :

Sure, there were a few defectors on either side. Two Democrats—Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas) and Chris Pappas (N.H.)—voted against the bill. Three Republicans voted for it: Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Brian Mast ([link removed]) (Fla.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.). And advocates for drug reform now face a Senate that’s at least somewhat sympathetic, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer planning to introduce his own legislation. But Democrats are unlikely to win many Republican votes with their current proposal, which includes social equity programs ([link removed]) to redress the harm done to communities of color by the war on drugs.

In addition to Republicans’ general tough-on-crime opposition to weed, this is another major factor plaguing the prospect of legal pot. A Pew study notes that just 32 percent of Americans aged 75 and older support legalizing recreational and medical weed—far lower than any other age group. That could be a problem in Congress’ upper chamber, which has 11 senators over the age of 75.

Barrons explains that the MORE Act would ([link removed]) :

… remove marijuana from the list of scheduled substances and establish a process to expunge prior cannabis convictions. It also will impose a federal tax on marijuana products — a 5% excise tax for the first two years, increasing by 1% incrementally each year in the next three years.

More importantly, it would eliminate the existing conflict between federal and state laws, allowing states to set their own regulations without forcing them to do so.

Federal legalization could have far-reaching ramifications for the cannabis industry. It could unlock access to traditional banking and basic financing options, such as raising capital on U.S. exchanges and applying for loans. Currently, cannabis companies and dispensaries are forced to either pay high fees to cannabis-friendly banks or deal solely in cash, as credit card companies and other financial services won’t process their payments, Adam Horowitz, a cannabis attorney atCole Schotz ([link removed]) said.

A recent Pew Research poll ([link removed]) shows 91% of Americans say it is time to legalize at least some uses of marijuana. Gallup polling says two-thirds of Americans favor outright legalization of pot.
[link removed]
(Pew Research Center)
[link removed]
(Gallup)
[link removed]
(Gallup)

States are doing what Congress refuses to do. Vox points out ([link removed]) :

Cannabis is one of the fastest-growing industries in the US; sales of adult-use and medical marijuana products hit $25 billion in 2021 ([link removed]) and, by one Wall Street estimate ([link removed]) , could reach $100 billion by 2030. Eighteen states have legalized cannabis for adult use, and another 19 currently have at least a comprehensive medical marijuana program. As of 2020, one in three Americans lived in a state with access to legal marijuana, according to ([link removed]) Politico, and that number is quickly growing as the East Coast catches up with the West — last year, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia all passed adult-use cannabis laws, joining Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Rhode
Island lawmakers are expected to approve ([link removed]) a legalization bill this month.

Just this week, state lawmakers in South Carolina ([link removed]) heard new testimony about medical marijuana and the New Hampshire House passed a pot bill ([link removed]) . New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham made cannabis legislation such a priority that she called the legislature into special session to legalize its recreational use. Sales began ([link removed]) a few days ago. The governor says while she has never used marijuana, she might purchase some at some point.
[link removed]
(Twitter)

It is lost on nobody that New Mexico’s new marijuana law means that just across the border from Texas, it is now legal to buy up to 2 ounces of marijuana — enough to roll about 60 joints. The Associated Press reports ([link removed]) that Texas intends to keep arresting people who are holding marijuana.

The recreational sales will be steps away from neighboring El Paso, where local law enforcement officials are warning, it’s still not legal to bring cannabis across state borders.

“Any person caught with any usable amount of marijuana here will be charged accordingly,” El Paso Police Sgt. Enrique Carrillo told Nexstar affiliate KTSM.

New Mexico is the first state bordering Texas to fully legalize marijuana. Neighboring states Oklahoma and Louisiana have fully legalized medical marijuana usage. Texas remains the largest prohibition state in the country.

Because of that, local El Paso officials said they expect to see more possession arrests in the coming months.

“Do whatever you will with it in New Mexico, but just don’t bring it back into Texas. Because if you are stopped by an El Paso Police officer, you will be charged accordingly,” Carrillo said.

Vox summarizes the sides this way:

Critics of legal marijuana cite the potential for confusion ([link removed]) among law enforcement agencies keeping up with evolving regulations, concern ([link removed]) about minors gaining access to the drug, a potential drop ([link removed]) in property values, and more for maintaining marijuana’s status as an illicit drug. (Though it looks like legal cannabis can actually increase ([link removed]) property values.)

Legal cannabis, however, also presents a tremendous financial opportunity, and despite federal inaction, the industry is growing fast; a report ([link removed]) from the cannabis website Leafly shows there are more than 428,000 full-time jobs in the cannabis industry, with a 33 percent increase in jobs just last year. Even so, the fallout from the lack of federal legalization is felt by many sectors of society: Medical research is stalled, prisoners are languishing in jails, small businesses are going under without access to federal banking ([link removed]) , and big cannabis companies ([link removed]) face stiff challenges in raising money to stay afloat as long as marijuana is illegal under federal law.

Certainly, it is an issue journalists should ask about during the midterm races. Vox says:

“Gallup poll numbers indicate that half of Republican voters ([link removed]) now also support legal marijuana. Support among younger Republicans is especially high, says Morgan Fox, political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML ([link removed]) ): “It’s difficult to find any issue right now that enjoys as much public support as ending prohibition for cannabis.” It seems increasingly likely that a bipartisan effort to legalize cannabis at a federal level will pass in the next few years.”


A NOTE FROM POYNTER
[link removed]


** Celebrate the role of facts in everyday life.
------------------------------------------------------------

As a subscriber to Covering COVID-19, you're introduced to examples of superb, fact-based reporting every weekday, including how the pandemic continues to impact society. It's easy to see the connection between freedom of information and how we make decisions about our health. Help protect both by supporting fact-checkers today and celebrate International Fact-Checking Day with Poynter.

Support facts today ▸ ([link removed])


** Time to revamp the CDC?
------------------------------------------------------------

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky admits that the organization may need to be reconsidered. She has hired an outside adviser ([link removed]) to start the review process that she says will take a month.

The CDC has come under intense scrutiny for its COVID-19 response, which Walensky said in a memo to her staff often necessitated the CDC to move quickly without all of the research it would normally require to make decisions.

A poll earlier this year conducted by NBC News ([link removed]) found 44% of Americans trusted the CDC’s statements about COVID-19 while about the same number said they did not. Two-thirds of Democrats said they trusted the CDC’s COVID-19 response but only one in five Republicans said the same. Gallup polling found similar doubts about the CDC ([link removed]) .

Last week, the CDC quietly changed the number of COVID-19 deaths in America, adjusting the figure downward by 72,000 deaths because of a “coding error.” While the number of COVID-19 deaths still stands at well above 968,000 — and even that number may be an undercount — the error adds to the chatter that the CDC’s data cannot be trusted. Of course, part of the problem is that the data that the CDC is attempting to assemble comes to them from a firehose of sources, including state and local agencies. The latest change came after The Guardian’s reporting ([link removed]) :

Last week, after reporting ([link removed]) from the Guardian on mortality rates among children, the CDC corrected a “coding logic error” that had inadvertently added more than 72,000 Covid deaths of all ages to the data tracker ([link removed]) , one of the most publicly accessible sources for Covid data.

The agency briefly noted the change in a footnote, although the note did not explain how the error occurred or how long it was in effect.

A total of 72,277 deaths in all age groups reported across 26 states were removed from the tracker “because CDC’s algorithm was accidentally counting deaths that were not Covid-19-related”, Jasmine Reed, a spokesperson for the agency, told the Guardian.

It is worth noting that there is an agency called theNational Center for Health Statistics ([link removed]) within the CDC that uses actual death certificates in its calculations. But that data is much slower to compile, and we want both speed and accuracy during a pandemic.

The Hill explains ([link removed]) that this review follows a sort of warning that came from the Government Accountability Office:

On Jan. 27, the GAO delivered a rare “high risk” rating ([link removed]) to the Department of Health and Human Services, specifically citing the CDC’s poor data management and ineffective messaging. These findings added fuel to congressional proposals to set up an independent COVID commission ([link removed]) to examine the CDC’s performance.

The CDC’s antiquated information system, designed in 1925 ([link removed]) , could not support modeling to show how a pandemic might spread, or a real-time picture of how the COVID crisis was developing. This information would have been useful to developing an effective containment strategy. Yet, the CDC’s estimates were always days old.

The Hill also adds this spirited commentary on how a reformed CDC might emerge stronger. It starts, the piece says, with narrowing the CDC’s focus:

Over the last three decades, the CDC has de-emphasized its principal mission ([link removed]) of protecting Americans from novel microbes and viruses that, if uncontrolled, can kill millions. Instead of modernizing its information systems, to choose but one example, the agency has sought a role in solving more high-profile social problems. Shamefully, it has encouraged a promiscuous use of the term “epidemic” to describe conditions that its methodologies are powerless to affect, including racism ([link removed]) , gun violence ([link removed]) , child abuse ([link removed]) , sex trafficking ([link removed]) , opioid abuse ([link removed]) , obesity
([link removed]) and loneliness ([link removed]) . The CDC won’t be the agency that ends those crises and trying to do so only distracts from its critical core mission.


** MLB approves electronic device to replace hand signals from catchers to pitchers
------------------------------------------------------------
The electronic pitch-calling system approved by Major League Baseball, sits on display, Tuesday, April 5, 2022 in New York. In an effort to eliminate sign stealing, Major League Baseball says catchers may use a new electronic signal system to call pitches this season. (AP Photo/Ron Blum)

Major League Baseball ([link removed]) on Tuesday told teams they may use PitchCom ([link removed]) , an electronic device that lets a catcher communicate with a pitcher and even some fielders through a signal that will be transmitted in the players’ caps ([link removed]) . The goal is to reduce “pitch sign stealing.” Some teams tried it in spring training and will use it on opening day this week.


** Biden to delay student loan repayment again
------------------------------------------------------------

The AP, Politico and others are reporting ([link removed]) that the Biden administration plans to extend the pause on student loan debt repayment until at least the end of August. Debtors were facing an end-of-May deadline. Some Democrats are still pushing the president to not just extend the grace period but to forgive some portion of student debt.


** New list of billionaires, most of the top dozen are Americans
------------------------------------------------------------

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are all in Forbes’ top five billionaires ([link removed]) , which you can search by country ([link removed]) and gender. There are a fair number of people in their 20s and 30s ([link removed]) on the list; 86 people on it are under age 40 and a dozenare under age 30 ([link removed]) . 735 people on the 2022 billionaires list are from the United States ([link removed]) . 327 billionaires are women
([link removed]) .

The 2,668 billionaires on Forbes’ list are worth $12.7 trillion. Forbes says:

In all, 329 people fell off the billionaires list ([link removed]) this year–the most since the 2009 financial crisis. That includes 169 “one-year wonders”, newcomers to the 2021 ranking, including Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd ([link removed]) and Peloton’s John Foley ([link removed]) , who debuted a year ago and have already dropped from the list.

Still, 236 newcomers ([link removed]) joined the ranks this year, including pop star Rihanna, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and venture capitalist Josh Kushner. Barbados, Bulgaria, Estonia and Uruguay each gained their first billionaires ever ([link removed]) . And, despite the volatile year, 1,050 billionaires are wealthier than they were a year ago.

Incidentally, if you are on the list and want to support journalism, drop me a note (mailto:[email protected]) .

We’ll be back tomorrow with a new edition of Covering COVID-19. Are you subscribed? Sign up here ([link removed]) to get it delivered right to your inbox.
[link removed]
I want more fresh story ideas during the COVID-19 pandemic. ([link removed])
GIVE NOW ([link removed])

[link removed] [link removed] [link removed] [link removed] mailto:[email protected]?subject=Feedback%20for%20Poynter
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
© All rights reserved Poynter Institute 2022
801 Third Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
If you don't want to receive email updates from Poynter, we understand.
You can update your subscription preferences here ([link removed]) or unsubscribe ([link removed]) .