M&A activity heats up in CT’s marijuana industry, ahead of recreational market launch – hartfordbusiness.com
By Christina H. Davis It was only a few months ago that Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law legislation clearing the way for recreational, adult-use marijuana in the Nutmeg State. But already market forces inside and outside the state’s borders are moving rapidly in anticipation of a multimillion-dollar business opportunity. Those forces include a series of acquisitions involving out-of-state companies looking to gain a foothold in the state in advance of the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) opening applications for recreational marijuana licenses. One notable deal includes Chicago-based Verano Holdings Corp.’s acquisition of two medical marijuana dispensaries as well as…
Read More »
CommonWealth Magazine – CommonWealth magazine
AFTER MASSACHUSETTS voters legalized adult-use cannabis in 2016, the Legislature made history as the first in the nation to require full participation in the regulated industry by individuals who were harmed by previous marijuana prohibition. Unfortunately, five years later, our state is now falling behind others when it comes to meeting our own equity mandate. This concerns me as one of five Cannabis Control Commissioners charged with ensuring the safe, effective regulation of a marketplace that has become an economic engine for the Commonwealth and 18 states (and growing) nationwide. On a more personal level, this deeply upsets me after growing up…
Read More »The Big East: Theory Wellness Berkshires
Walking into Theory Wellness, an impeccably styled, high-end East Coast dispensary, I felt the same excitement I’d had the first time I stepped foot into a fabled Beverly Hills luxury retailer back in the day. And I loved it. Fred Segal is, in essence, a luxury conglomeration of (mostly) one-of-a-kind boutiques that all live within the chic walls of its only-in-LA retail campus; think of it as a couture farmers market, but instead of $8 heirloom tomatoes you’re surrounded by $400 T-shirts, $1200 boots and $700 sunglasses. It’s an intoxicating, surreal shopping trek for retail rookies, to be sure, but once…
Read More »Nearly 50000 People Protest Austria’s Vaccine Mandate – The Daily Beast
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Vienna on Saturday to protest Austria’s new COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Austria, with about 68 percent of its population vaccinated, is the first European nation to implement such a measure; those who have not yet been vaccinated are subject to home confinement orders. As reported by Al Jazeera, about 44,000 demonstrators turned out to argue the vaccination mandate is a threat to democracy, with signs reading, among other things, “no to vaccine fascism.” The policy will go into effect in February and essentially requires all Austrian citizens who are at least…
Read More »Avalanche Traps Backcountry Skiers, Injuring 5 and Killing 1 – The Daily Beast
A blustery morning turned to tragedy for six skiers in Washington state on Saturday. According to The Seattle Times, an avalanche on Crystal Mountain trapped the skiers around 10:50 a.m., and was first reported to ski patrol by witnesses. Though five skiers survived the snow, one could not be resuscitated and was confirmed dead. The Pierce County sheriff reported that despite the tragedy, ski operations across the resort would remain open since the avalanche had occurred in a backcountry region of the mountain known as Silver Basin. Read it at The Seattle Times
Read More »FBI Accuses CNN Staffer of Trying to Sexually ‘Train’ Moms, Young Girls – The Daily Beast
A CNN staffer from Connecticut was arrested by the FBI Friday after he allegedly had mothers and their underage daughters engage in wild and expensive trips to his home so he could “train them“ sexually. An indictment alleges that John Griffin, 44, used a sexual fetish website to lure “submissive” moms in, then he used messaging apps Kik and Google Hangouts to communicate with them and their daughters. In one alleged instance last year, he paid a woman $3,000 for her and her 9-year-old daughter to travel from Nevada to his Vermont home for “training.” He then allegedly forced the…
Read More »FedEx Driver Says Grief Made Him Toss $40K Worth of Packages Into Ravine – The Daily Beast
An Alabama FedEx driver who allegedly threw around 400 packages in a ravine told police officers he was grieving a family death, among “other issues.” The suspect, 22-year-old Deandre Rayshaun Charleston, told officers the death made him uninterested in delivering the packages, which had a total value of $40,000. A passerby later came across the packages while on a walking trail. “It appeared that he was very sorrowful for what he’d done and just admitted he was having some hard times in his life and just made poor choices,” Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon said Friday. Charleston was charged with…
Read More »Ex-Army Guy Behind Insane Jan. 6 PowerPoint Claims He Briefed Meadows – The Daily Beast
A retired U.S. army colonel routinely briefed then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on a plot to overturn the 2020 election results, he told the Washington Post. Philip Waldron claimed he was part of a team that briefed Trump’s inner circle on a PowerPoint offering ways to contest the election results, a presentation that made its way to Meadows (though Waldron said he did not send it). Waldron also said he spoke to Meadows “maybe eight to 10 times” the night before the insurrection. The disclosure was made after the House committee investigating the insurrection revealed this week that…
Read More »