NPR News

Three Ballot Measures Would OK Pot Beyond Medicine

Credit Ed Andrieski / AP

A marijuana bud at a marijuana dispensary in Denver. Colorado, Oregon and Washington could become the first to legalize marijuana this fall.

Credit Rick Wilking / Reuters/Landov

Colorado already allows the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Amendment 64 would regulate marijuana like alcohol.

By Martin Kaste

Originally published on Wed October 24, 2012 5:53 pm

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Marijuana legalization is back on the ballot this year. California voters defeated a legalization proposal in 2010, but now similar measures have cropped up in three more Western states. This time around, some of the most intense opposition is coming from the earlier pioneers of legalization — the medical marijuana industry.

4:24 pm

Wed October 24, 2012

More Than 700 Kurdish Prisoners Now on Hunger Strike in Turkey

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Turkish soldiers block a street as Kurds demonstrate on September 3 in the center of Beytussebap, about 25 miles from the Iraqi border.

By editor

Originally published on Wed October 24, 2012 4:44 pm

As the war in Syria rages unabated and Turkey struggles to manage an increasingly dire refugee situation and cross-border retaliations, another conflict simmers.

4:22 pm

Wed October 24, 2012

'Middlesteins' Digs Into The Dark Side Of Food

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Credit Michael Sharkey

Jami Attenberg is the author of The Middlesteins.

By editor

Originally published on Wed October 24, 2012 5:53 pm

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Food appears so often and takes on so much importance in Jami Attenberg's novel The Middlesteins, that while reading it I sometimes felt like I was on a kind of literary cruise ship. But excess isn't presented here wantonly; instead, it's laid out and explored with sympathy, thought and depth. Early on, the parents of the main character think, "Food was made of love, and was what made love, and they could never deny themselves a bite of anything they desired." And so the novel takes off from the evocative starting point known as appetite.

4:15 pm

Wed October 24, 2012

Political Memes: Fast, Cheap And Out Of Control?

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By Scott Neuman

Originally published on Thu October 25, 2012 10:49 am

Even if you didn't watch any of the three presidential debates, chances are you're familiar with Big Bird, binders and bayonets.

3:46 pm

Wed October 24, 2012

Florida Republican Rep. David Rivera Charged In Ethics Probe

Credit Alan Diaz / AP

Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., talks during a freedom for Cuba march in Miami on Feb. 24, 2011.

By Greg Allen

Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., was charged Wednesday by Florida authorities with alleged ethics violations while he was in the state Legislature, perhaps imperiling his bid for re-election to the House in an already tight contest.

3:45 pm

Wed October 24, 2012

Texas Attorney General Sends Warning To International Election Observers

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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott speaks to reporters 2011.

By editor

Originally published on Thu October 25, 2012 10:47 am

The Texas attorney general is warning international election observers not to mess with Texas.

"Your opinion is legally irrelevant in the United States, where the Supreme Court has already determined that Voter ID laws are constitutional," Greg Abbott wrote in a letter sent to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors elections across the world.