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Texas medical marijuana companies spent big on Republican lobbyists to push THC ban

Gov. Greg Abbott has a choice when it comes to banning hemp-derived delta-8 and delta-9 THC products: listen to hundreds of thousands of Texans who enjoy them or a handful of powerful Republican lobbyists working for marijuana investors.

Abbott is in the crossfire of a cannabis civil war. Medical marijuana and retail hemp companies are fighting over who can legally get people high. The standoff is typical Texas politics, with the medical marijuana companies hiring former aides to Abbott and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick to lobby for them, and the hemp industry relying on public pressure.

The Texas Legislature authorized medical marijuana in 2017 for a tiny number of patients. Three medical cannabis companies have spent millions complying with the Texas Compassionate Use Program to legally sell products with THC, the ingredient in marijuana that makes you high. They expected exclusivity. Since then, lawmakers have steadily expanded TCUP to treat more conditions, adding people with chronic pain this year.

In 2021, cannabis-focused venture capital firm AFI Capital Partners led a $21 million Series B investment in Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation. The company supplied 77% of the medical cannabis consumed in 2022, the latest full-year data available in an annual Texas Department of Public Safety TCUP analysis.

The investment had horrible timing. In 2019, federal and state lawmakers legalized hemp, a type of cannabis with low levels of THC. Hemp entrepreneurs figured out how to concentrate the THC, and today, the hemp industry primarily sells edibles containing enough THC to get you stoned.

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The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel

As Israel and Iran trade blows in a quickly escalating conflict that risks engulfing the rest of the region as well as a more direct confrontation between Iran and the U.S., social media is being flooded with AI-generated media that claims to show the devastation, but is fake.

The fake videos and images show how generative AI has already become a staple of modern conflict. On one end, AI-generated content of unknown origin is filling the void created by state-sanctioned media blackouts with misinformation, and on the other end, the leaders of these countries are sharing AI-generated slop to spread the oldest forms of xenophobia and propaganda.

If you want to follow a war as it’s happening, it’s easier than ever. Telegram channels post live streams of bombing raids as they happen and much of the footage trickles up to X, TikTok, and other social media platforms. There’s more footage of conflict than there’s ever been, but a lot of it is fake.

A few days ago, Iranian news outlets reported that Iran’s military had shot down three F-35s. Israel denied it happened. As the claim spread so did supposed images of the downed jet. In one, a massive version of the jet smolders on the ground next to a town. The cockpit dwarfs the nearby buildings and tiny people mill around the downed jet like Lilliputians surrounding Gulliver.

It’s a fake, an obvious one, but thousands of people shared it online. Another image of the supposedly downed jet showed it crashed in a field somewhere in the middle of the night. Its wings were gone and its afterburner still glowed hot. This was also a fake.

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X-Ray Telescopes Reveal 23-Million-Light-Year Filament That May Help Solve “Missing Matter” Mystery

A potential solution to the decades-long “missing matter” problem has been uncovered as astronomers’ recent analysis of X-ray data identifies a filament of hot gas, 10 times the size of the Milky Way, filling the space between four galaxy clusters.

While the discovery does not completely answer the question of where all of the currently unaccounted for matter resides, the filament does appear to represent a significant chunk of it. Astronomers sourced the data used in the new research from the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton and JAXA’s Suzaku X-ray space telescopes.

Missing Matter

Current models of the universe have a major shortcoming: they can’t fully account for all the matter that should exist. While dark matter and dark energy—detectable only by their effects—compose most of the cosmos, visible matter accounts for just about 5%. Yet even among that 5%, nearly half of the expected matter remains missing.

One possible explanation is the existence of long, tenuous strings of gas called “filaments.” However, detecting these structures is notoriously difficult, as they are extremely faint and often obscured by brighter cosmic phenomena like galaxies and black holes. The breakthrough in the new research lies in the team’s successful identification and characterization of a hot gas filament connecting four galaxy clusters.

“For the first time, our results closely match what we see in our leading model of the cosmos – something that’s not happened before,” says lead researcher Konstantinos Migkas of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. “It seems that the simulations were right all along.”

Identifying the Missing Matter

The four galaxy clusters and the filament linking them are part of the Shapley Supercluster, one of the largest known structures in the universe, containing around 8,000 galaxies. Two clusters sit on each side of the filament, which stretches 23 million light-years diagonally away from Earth.

XMM-Newton and Suzaku’s X-ray data were crucial to mapping the filament’s properties, supported by optical data from multiple sources. Each telescope contributed a unique perspective: Suzaku scanned a broad area of space, while XMM-Newton focused on identifying supermassive black holes within the filament and removing their interference from the data.

“Thanks to XMM-Newton we could identify and remove these cosmic contaminants, so we knew we were looking at the gas in the filament and nothing else,” adds co-author Florian Pacaud of the University of Bonn, Germany. “Our approach was really successful, and reveals that the filament is exactly as we’d expect from our best large-scale simulations of the Universe.”

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Veterans deserve change. US should reschedule cannabis now.

When our nation’s heroes return home, they often face a quiet suffering — something I have seen happen so often in my peers. As a combat veteran and an advocate for those who have worn the uniform, I know that so many of us face these challenges long after we return home. Post-traumatic stress (PTS) is a battlefield of its own — invisible, relentless, and too often fought alone.

Over the years, I’ve dedicated my life to improving the lives of our veterans, whether serving as a Veterans Fellow and Lead Policy Advisor on Military and Veterans Affairs to Sen. Chuck Grassley, leading within the Iowa Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), or conducting academic research focused on veterans’ issues. One thing has become undeniably clear: it’s time to reschedule cannabis as a Schedule III substance under federal law, a change that is backed by President Donald Trump, which would open the door for unlocking its therapeutic potential for veterans suffering from PTS and other chronic illnesses.

Currently, cannabis remains a Schedule I substance — the same category as heroin — defined as having “no accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse.” This is not only scientifically outdated, but also morally indefensible. Veterans are not asking for a miracle cure. We are asking for options. We are asking for the freedom to explore alternative treatments when conventional therapies — prescription medications, talk therapy, or exposure therapy — fall short. For many veterans, they do. And for some, cannabis has helped where nothing else has.

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DARPA Wants to Crack the Code of Human Behavior—And They’re Betting on “MAGICS” for Bold New Ideas

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a new program to solicit paradigm-shifting research ideas to revolutionize how scientists predict collective human behavior. 

The program, known as Methodological Advancements for Generalizable Insights into Complex Systems (MAGICS), aims to address the problem that despite the rise of big data and machine learning, we’re still surprisingly bad at forecasting how large, dynamic human systems respond to change.

“For the past decade or more, there has been an assumption and hope that the explosion of digital data streams (e.g., social media, purchase patterns, traffic dynamics, etc.) combined with powerful machine learning tools would usher in a new era of research in complex, dynamic, evolving systems,” a DARPA solicitation notice writes. “[However] Despite many attempts, results have failed to meet expectations.” 

The MAGICS opportunity, announced through DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, invites individual researchers to propose innovative concepts that could form the foundation for a new science of social prediction. 

As DARPA notes, today’s best statistical tools often falter when applied to real-world, evolving systems—whether it’s understanding how economies adapt to disruption, how populations shift under demographic pressure, or how societies react to technological upheaval.

At the heart of the MAGICS effort is answering the question: Can we develop new ways to model collective human behavior that outperform current statistical approaches and capture the dynamics of complex, evolving systems? 

The Pentagon brain trust is looking for fresh frameworks beyond what’s possible with today’s machine learning models, namely systems that can handle the messy, recursive, and often unpredictable nature of human systems.

The stakes are high for national security. From forecasting the spread of misinformation to anticipating societal responses to crises, the ability to model human behavior accurately could offer profound advantages. 

Yet DARPA acknowledges that researchers must overcome foundational challenges that large datasets and artificial intelligence have failed to address before these benefits can be realized.

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Israel’s Attack on Iran: The Violent New World Being Born Is Going To Horrify You

Western politicians and media are tying themselves up in knots trying to spin the impossible: presenting Israel’s unmistakable war of aggression against Iran as some kind of “defensive” move.

This time there was no rationalising pretext, as there was for Israel to inflict a genocide in Gaza following Hamas’ one-day attack on 7 October 2023.

There was not a serious attempt beforehand to concoct a bogus doomsday scenario – as there was in the months leading up to the US and UK’s illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. Then we were lied to about Baghdad having “weapons of mass destruction” that could be launched at Europe in 45 minutes.

Rather, Iran was deep in negotiations with the United States on its nuclear enrichment program when Israel launched its unprovoked attack last Friday.

The West has happily regurgitated claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel was forced to act because Iran was on the cusp of producing a nuclear bomb – an entirely evidence-free claim he has been making since 1992.

None of his dire warnings has ever been borne out by events.

In fact, Israel struck Iran shortly after President Donald Trump had expressed hope of reaching a nuclear agreement with Tehran, and two days before the two countries’ negotiators were due to meet again.

In late March Trump’s head of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had expressly stated as part of the US intelligence community’s annual assessment: “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader [Ali] Khameini has not authorized a nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”

This week four sources said to be familiar with that assessment told CNN that Iran was not trying to build a bomb but, if it changed tack, it would be “up to three years away from being able to produce and deliver one [a nuclear warhead] to a target of its choosing”.

Nonetheless, by Tuesday this week Trump appeared to be readying to join Israel’s attack. He publicly rebuked his own intelligence chief’s verdict, sent US warplanes to the Middle East via the UK and Spain, demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, and made barely veiled threats to kill Khameini.

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Trump Calls for Special Counsel to Investigate Rigged 2020 Election

Ex-President Joe Biden was so “grossly incompetent,” there’s absolutely no way he could have won the 2020 election, President Donald Trump argued Friday as he called for a full investigation.

“Zero Border crossings for the month for TRUMP, verses 60,000 for Sleepy, Crooked Joe Biden, a man who lost the 2020 Presidential Election by a ‘LANDSLIDE!”’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD! The evidence is MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING. A Special Prosecutor must be appointed,” he noted, adding, “This cannot be allowed to happen again in the United States of America!”

“Let the work begin! What this Crooked man, and his CORRUPT CRONIES, have done to our Country in 4 years, is grossly indescribable!” the president wrote.

Trump’s call for an investigation comes as FBI Director Kash Patel this week told Congress the bureau had discovered an illegal Chinese scheme to produce fake driver’s licenses to rig the 2020 election with mail-in ballots.

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High Doses Of LSD Lead To ‘Greater Reductions In Depression’ Compared To Low Doses Of The Psychedelic, New Study Finds

Taking a high dose of LSD, coupled with assisted therapy, led to “greater reductions in depression” among patients compared to those who received a low dose of the psychedelic, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland investigated the therapeutic potential of LSD for people with moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder, and they found the substance showed “promise” as a “novel approach” to treating the condition.

Notably, the study—published this month in the journal Med—indicated that “high-dose-LSD-assisted therapy reduced depressive symptoms more than low-dose therapy” and that the improvements lasted for up to 12 weeks after the treatment.

The randomized, double-blind trial involved administering doses of 100μg and 200μg of LSD for one cohort and two doses of 25μg of the psychedelic for the other. Symptoms of depression were measured at multiple intervals, starting with the baseline and followed up with examinations after two weeks, six weeks and 12 weeks.

After assessing the 61 patients post-administration, the researchers concluded that the “findings of this exploratory study support further investigation of LSD-assisted therapy in depression in a larger phase 3 trial.”

“The present trial’s strengths include a clinically representative sample with respect to the duration of illness, common comorbid conditions, and various pretreatments,” the study authors said. “Other strengths include the comparison with a low-dose group and a relatively long follow-up period of 12 weeks after the last administration.”

“LSD could be used safely within the framework of this study,” they said, adding that compared to previous trials involving psilocybin, “LSD has a longer duration of action.”

“This prolonged effect makes clinical application more resource intensive. It remains to be resolved whether this extended duration offers clinical advantages,” the study text says. “Furthermore, it is yet to be determined if there are other relevant differences among hallucinogenic drugs in terms of therapeutic potential.”

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DEA Judge Shuts Down Cannabis Manufacturing Case Without Hearing, Company Plans Legal Challenge

The company behind the application, MMJ BioPharma Cultivation, is now preparing to challenge the ruling in federal court and call for the judge’s recusal.

The ruling was issued by DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney II, who dismissed the company’s bid for a marijuana bulk manufacturing license after more than six years of delays. MMJ BioPharma said the decision came without warning and without any opportunity to present evidence or respond to agency claims—calling it a “procedural ambush.”

“This isn’t regulation—it’s an illegal ambush,” said MMJ CEO Duane Boise, who said the company had complied with all requirements under the Controlled Substances Act and FDA pathways.

MMJ, which is developing cannabis-based medicines for Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis, submitted a legally binding supply agreement in March 2024 with a DEA-licensed Schedule I facility. The agreement included specific sourcing protocols, defined volume, and DEA Form 222 compliance. Despite that, Mulrooney’s June 16 ruling ignored the document entirely and blocked it from being entered into the record.

Boise accused the DEA of demanding the agreement and then refusing to acknowledge it once submitted. “The agency cannot demand a document, receive it, then declare it irrelevant behind closed doors,” he said.

The order also reversed a previous determination by another administrative judge that certain disputed facts warranted a hearing. Instead, Mulrooney cited internal communications from a DEA investigator that MMJ was never allowed to challenge or respond to—raising concerns of ex parte communications and due process violations.

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Families plead for answers in the mystery of the Yuba County Five almost 50 years later

The Plumas National Forest has held the mystery of the Yuba County Five for almost 50 years. Their disappearance has puzzled people around the world.

The five men, who lived with intellectual disabilities, were known as “the boys.” They were Ted Weiher, Jack Huett, Bill Sterling, Jack Madruga and Gary Mathias. 

“Madruga was from Yuba City and everybody else lived in Yuba County in the Olivehurst area,” said Brian Bernardis with the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office.

Dallas and Perry Weiher remember their brother Ted as a gentle giant. Tony Wright, the author of “Things Aren’t Right: The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five,” describes the other boys as very active and friends who loved to spend time together.

“You had Jack Madruga who was 30 years old. He was a very quiet introverted person but very very smart, very kind and loving. That’s how he was remembered by his family. Bill Sterling was 29. He was a very avid bowler, he too was an athletic individual known for being very sweet individual. There was Gary Mathias who was 25 years old. He was very athletic, known as a great brother, he was a musician who played in a rock band in high school, was a great harmonica player, spent time in the military. And then there was Jackie Huett. He was 24 years old. He was a great friend. A very loving person. Very kind, very sweet,” said Wright.

The boys met in the 70s on a basketball team for a Yuba County nonprofit helping people with disabilities. They followed UC Davis basketball and on Feb. 24, 1978, the five men piled into Madruga’s car to watch a college basketball team in Chico.

“I think it was Chico State and UC Davis. Davis was their kind of home team. They really want to see them do well so they had traveled this before. It wasn’t the first time for him, so he was familiar with the territory,” said Bernardis.

Bernardis, the cold case investigator for the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office, says there’s no doubt the boys made it to the game. 

“The editor of the Chico newspaper actually recalls seeing the five of them there where they were because they were kind of out away from everybody else. There was something very distinctive about them,” said Bernardis.

They stopped at a convenience store in Chico after the game.

“Their next reported appearance would have been at the Behr Market not too far from the college. They’d stopped in there and picked up candies and cakes and milks,” said Bernardis.

But what happened next still puzzles law enforcement agencies today.

“We know nothing. From that point, we know nothing. They literally disappeared into nowhere,” said Bernardis.

They vanished without a trace and their families reported them missing the next day.

“That night they were saying, ‘Well, they’re grown boys, they can go do what they want. They’re not lost or anything.’ Well, those weren’t normal grown boys. They were different boys,” said Perry.

“Back then they, that small town, small community, everybody knew everybody. It paid a large impact on how they responded and how they felt about the case,” said Bernardis.

The five men had big plans to play in a basketball tournament the following day. The prize for the winning team was tickets to Disneyland.

“These men were not going to miss that basketball game for any reason. It was of utmost importance and they were going to get home come hell or high water,” said Wright.

Jack Madruga’s car was found in the snow on the Oroville Quincy Highway in Butte County four days later — about 70 miles in the wrong direction from home. ABC10 asked what condition the car was found in.

“It was intact and undamaged? (The) best way to describe it. It was abandoned for lack of a better term. Windows were down or at least one of the windows were down. The candies and milk and things that they’d purchased at the store; those wrappers were in the car. There were some maps that were found in the car which Madruga was kind of a map student, so nothing would indicate that there was any foul play or some type of heinous act that occurred,” said Bernardis.

A massive search followed near where the car was found.

“So now you have Yuba and Butte counties both working the case. They brought in snow equipment so they could travel across the snow and search the area looking for the guys. They’d spent a couple of days, but then that was a very bad snow year and the weather came in and put a complete halt to any efforts to look further,” said Bernardis.

Families searched for their missing loved ones for days on end. Detectives wouldn’t get a break in the case until about three-and-a-half months later.

Motorcyclists off-roading near a rural Plumas County campground came upon some portable buildings used for fire crews during fire season. They found a broken window and went to take a closer look.

“When they opened the door, the smell of decomposition was pretty intense and they realized that something significant was in there and they found a body, a human body in there on a bed. So that was four months after the disappearance, a little less,” said Bernardis.

It was Ted Weiher’s.

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