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Obama chef Tafari Campbell’s cause of death is revealed as an accident – after he died while paddleboarding at their Martha’s Vineyard home last month

The death of Barack Obama’s personal chef while paddleboarding in Martha’s Vineyard has been ruled an accident, a state official has said.

Tafari Campbell, 45, visited the resort island in late July and was on Edgartown Great Pond near the former president’s summer home.

He was seen going under the water, sparking a two-day search for his body.

Timothy McGuirk, from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, said on Tuesday the cause of death was drowning and an accident.

But the update has left numerous unanswered questions, not least surrounding the identity of the female paddleboarder who was with him and the identity of the 911 caller from the Obamas’ home and what they said.

McGuirk also said that Massachusetts does not release autopsy results to the public – the accident ruling was all that was released by the authorities on Tuesday night.

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Bipartisan Senators Say Marijuana Legalization Disrupts Cartels In Letter Challenging Proposed Menthol Cigarette Ban

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators are acknowledging that state-level marijuana legalization has disrupted the operations of international drug cartels as they raise concerns with the State Department over plans to ban menthol cigarettes and cap nicotine content.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said that prohibitionist policies for certain tobacco products would benefit the illicit market, which is continually evolving in response to new regulatory policies.

The lawmakers used cannabis as an example of how cartel operations shift depending on whether certain substances are prohibited or regulated. Legalization at the state level, they argued, has reduced demand for illicit marijuana.

“As it has become easier to sell marijuana products in the U.S., Mexican TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] have prioritized trafficking fentanyl and other synthetic drugs that are cheaper to manufacture, easier to transport, and generate more profit,” the senators—none of whom are vocal cannabis legalization advocates—said.

Republican senators, including Cassidy, Rubio and Hagerty, made the same point in a letter to the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month, imploring the agency to reconsider its plans to ban menthol cigarettes and cap nicotine content.

“TCOs have expanded their operations to include the production and distribution of cigarettes,” the bipartisan group wrote in the new letter to Blinken. “TCOs more generally have taken advantage of drug smuggling routes to import illegal cigarettes into the U.S., contributing to the significant use of smuggled cigarettes.”

The senators included a list of questions for the secretary of state about how the department is dealing with issues related to illicit tobacco trafficking. They asked about the status of interagency work to combat the problem, how efforts to limit tobacco use could empower traffickers and engagement with international partners to address the problem, for example.

“It is clear that threat actors—from transnational organized crime entities to terrorist organizations—are employing increasingly creative tools to subvert controls imposed by the U.S. and our international partners,” they said. “We appreciate the work that the men and women of the Department of State do in countering these efforts, and urge continued action to address these threats.”

The senators’ point about shifting trends in marijuana trafficking as states legalize is bolstered by a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report that was released last year, showing how demand for illicit cannabis from Mexico has continued to drop as more states open regulated domestic markets.

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Ohio’s Local Health Departments Join Marijuana Legalization Opposition Campaign Ahead Of November Vote

An association representing Ohio’s 112 local health departments is opposing a marijuana legalization ballot measure set to go to voters in November, claiming the policy change would only contribute to drug-related problems in the state.

“Making marijuana more accessible through legal recreational use and retail sales hurts Ohio, creates serious new risks for children’s health and makes our workplaces and highways less safe,” the Ohio Association of Health Commissioners warned in a statement Tuesday. “With Ohio’s rates of opiate abuse and overdoses still among the highest in the country, we need to be helping Ohio find solutions to addiction, not facilitating it or the interests of an industry that profits from it.”

Ohio’s secretary of state’s office announced last week that advocates for the legalization measure turned in enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, which prompted statements of support—and opposition—from stakeholders across the state. The health commissioners join the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and Adolescent Health Association, as well as law enforcement and some business groups, in advocating against the change.

Many of the new opposition group‘s claims treat as settled science issues that other say demand further investigation. For example, a recent federal research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that teen marijuana use has actually been in decline since legal retailers began opening. And a number of studies have associated cannabis use and legalization with reductions in the use of unregulated opioids, prescription drugs and other regulated substances.

Ohio currently ranks seventh among all U.S. states in terms of drug overdose death rates, after West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, Delaware and New Mexico.

The campaign backing the measure, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that it’s “confident that Ohioans, just like voters in the states that have come before us, will see through these tired, debunked talking points.”

“Ohio’s current system of prohibition does not work,” said campaign spokesman Tom Haren. “We know that there is an adult-use market in Ohio today. It is called the illicit market. It is completely unregulated, products are not tested and products are not taxed. Also, drug dealers in the illicit market are happy to sell to children without ever checking for ID. This is a reality that is bad for the health of Ohioans.”

In states that have legalized, Haren added, “We know that usage among minors and adolescents does not change. We know that regulation does not adversely affect the workforce, and we also know that it is a boon for state tax revenue.” The measure’s 10 percent proposed tax, for example, “will generate more than $100 million every year to fund substance abuse and addiction treatment.”

In fact the state could see between $257 million and more than $400 million annually in tax revenue through legalization, according to a recent analysis from Ohio State University researchers.

Voters, for their part, appear to be leaning in favor of legalization. A USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University poll published in July found that about 59 percent of Ohioans supported legalizing the possession and sale of cannabis for adults 21 and older. Just 35 percent were opposed.

Republicans officials in Ohio remain divided on the issue. Gov. Mike DeWine said last week that he believes “it would be a real mistake for us to have recreational marijuana,” adding that he visited Colorado following its move to legalize in 2012 and saw what he argued is an “unmitigated disaster.”

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St. Louis mayor wants to ban AR-15s, AK-47s on city streets

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones will introduce new legislation that would ban AR-15s, AK-47s, and similar “military-grade” weapons on city streets.

In a Tuesday morning press conference, Jones announced her intent to introduce new gun safety regulations with support from the Board of Aldermen.

Jones said the legislation would be designed to:

  • Prohibit military-grade weapons on city streets
  • Prevent the transfer or sale of guns to minors
  • Take action on military-grade guns and similar untraceable firearms
  • Prepare St. Louis for the passage of Blair’s Law to ban celebratory gunfire
  • Prohibit anyone convicted of insurrection or hate crimes from having guns in St. Louis

“My daughter was killed with a military-style weapon, which was an AK-47. People of the military know what type of impact those type of weapons do,” said Erica Jones, whose daughter, Whitney, was murdered on Aug. 13, 2015, in the Walnut Park area.

She said Whitney, 24, was the mother of a five-year-old. She was studying to become a nurse and worked two jobs.

“Her oldest sister held her when she took her last words,” Erica Jones said. She said the crime remains unsolved.

“What do you tell a 13-year-old young man who cannot see his mother, he cannot smell her, he cannot touch her?” she said.

Jones was one of many advocates who shared their stories at a listening session hosted by Mayor Jones on Tuesday.

“Gun violence is a plague. And it’s painful touch has stung families across our region,” the mayor said.

She said on average, 1,351 people die from guns in Missouri each year. Jones said this push comes in an effort to tackle gun violence in St. Louis City.

“Gun violence is a public health crisis that impacts families and communities in every neighborhood across our city,” she said. “We’re coming together around a shared vision: A safer, stronger St. Louis that is ready to stand up for our values.”

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Look How Google Shoos You Away From The Biden Family Biz And Other Big News

While fact-checking a Federalist article early Monday morning, I did a quick Google search for “hunter biden joe biden ‘an absolute wall.’”

It’s the language now-President Joe Biden used during the 2020 campaign to allege a separation between his vice-presidential duties and his son’s overseas work for the family business. It’s back in the news after the House Oversight Committee on Thursday asked the National Archives and Records Administration for unredacted communications containing three of Joe Biden’s vice presidential pseudonyms: Robert Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware.

Google, however, apparently didn’t want me to find too much information — at least not from certain sources.

“It looks like the results below are changing quickly. If this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for reliable sources to publish information,” Google alerted me, prompting me to make sure the source is “trusted on this topic” and maybe just to “come back later.”

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GOP Congressman Threatens Indian Tribe With Loss Of Federal Funding Over Marijuana Legalization

A Republican congressman from North Carolina is urging members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to reject a referendum next month that would legalize marijuana on tribal land, warning that the move would mean a loss of federal funding under a bill he plans to introduce.

In an op-ed published last week in The Cherokee One Feather, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) acknowledged that Congress cannot stop the EBCI referendum, set for September 7, from going forward. But he appealed to the tribe’s members to vote against it.

“I proudly consider the tribe my friends, and I respect their tribal sovereignty,” the freshman House member wrote. “But there are times when friends disagree, and I must do so regarding this question of legalizing recreational marijuana. The tribe’s rights should not infringe on the overall laws of our nation.”

Passage of the legalization referendum would bring legal cannabis sales within a short drive of many people in North Carolina, where both medical and adult-use marijuana remain illegal under state law. Sales on EBCI land under the proposal would be open to all adults 21 and older, regardless of tribal membership. And as Edwards noted, the tribe has land holdings “all over western North Carolina.”

“To allow our citizens to travel only a few miles to buy and use this common gateway drug,” wrote Edwards, who opposed cannabis reform in North Carolina during his time as a state senator, “would be irresponsible, and I intend to stop it.”

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U.S. Emulates Communist China in New TikTok Draft Agreement

TikTok asked to pledge allegiance to U.S. security over corporate profits. To avoid being banned, TikTok might have to give the government “unprecedented control over essential functions that it does not have over any other major free speech platform,” reports Forbes, which reviewed a draft agreement between the company and the feds from last summer.

The situation is sadly ironic, considering that the ostensible concern U.S. lawmakers have about TikTok is that it could be subject to too much government surveillance and control by the Chinese government.

Of course, U.S. lawmakers and politicians have never actually been strictly opposed to government snooping on digital communications or strong-arming tech companies. Just look at the Snowden revelations or the Facebook Files. They just don’t like it when they’re left out of the game.

And spreading unproven tales about how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might access TikTok’s U.S. user data served the dual purpose of stirring up anti-China sentiment (always a win for a certain strain of hawkish Republican) and giving American authorities a pretense to grab more control of TikTok themselves (a bipartisan desire).

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Parents remove their four-year-old daughter from pre-school after she was shown ‘Grandad’s Pride’ book featuring men in bondage gear and trans ‘top surgery’ that was written by winner of Waterstones Children’s Book Prize

A couple have taken their four-year-old daughter out of a pre-school after they say they were branded bigots for complaining about a book featuring men in bondage and with trans ‘top-surgery’ scars. 

Will and Maria Taylor, of Hull, East Yorkshire, were horrified when they spotted ‘images of men who are partially naked in leather bondage gear’ in the pages of Grandad’s Pride.

One image featured trans men with ‘top surgery’ scars, sparking a furious reaction from parents who claims that it encourages body modifications too early. 

‘Top-surgery’ involves either the removal or augmentation of the breasts, which if undergone by a trans man means breast tissue is taken out and the chest is contoured to emphasise the pectoral muscles. 

‘Grandad’s Pride’ is the creation of Waterstones children’s book winning author and illustrator Harry Woodgate – who uses they/them pronouns.

When the couple approached Genesis Pre School in Hull with their concerns over the overtly sexualised images, they were shocked when the school refused to apologise for stocking the book.

The book, which has a 4+ reading aged, tells the story of Milly spending the summer in Grandad’s cottage by the sea.

When Milly is playing in the attic one day, she unearths Grandad and Gramps’ old Pride flag. When Grandad explains to Milly what Pride is, he and Milly plan a Pride march in the village.

The BookTrust, which promotes children reading, has already warned parents: ‘The illustrations in Grandad’s Pride include realistic depictions of what a Pride march might look like, including a person dressed in adult leather wear and some images which are culturally sensitive.

‘Parents and carers should read the book before sharing.’

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Tracking Orwellian Change – The Aristocratic Takeover of ‘Transparency’

“Transparency” was one of America’s great postwar reforms. In 1955, a Democratic congressman named John Moss from California — who served in the Navy in World War II, was nominated for office by both Democrats and Republicans, and was never defeated in any election for public office — introduced legislation that would become one of the great triumphs of late-stage American democracy.

The Freedom of Information Act took a tortuous path to becoming law, opposed from the start by nearly every major government agency and for years struggling to gain co-sponsors despite broad public support.

In a supreme irony, one of Moss’s first Republican allies was a young Illinois congressman named Donald Rumsfeld. After a series of final tweaks it eventually passed the House 307-0 in 1966, when it landed on the desk of Lyndon Johnson, who didn’t like the bill, either. Johnson signed it, but decided not to hold a public ceremony, electing instead to issue a public statement crafted by none other than Bill Moyers, which concluded, “I signed this measure with a deep sense of pride that the United States is an open society.”

The Freedom of Information Act gave reporters and citizens alike extraordinary power to investigate once-impenetrable executive agencies that conduct the business of government. FOIA requests gave windows into the affairs of the Hoover-led FBI, the Iran-Contra scandal, and the “Afghan logs” story made public after a bitter fight put up by the National Security Archive and the Washington Post. The irony alert here was this last FOIA lawsuit ultimately revealed behaviors unflattering to none other than Donald Rumsfeld.

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