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San Francisco court: medical pot use firing offense
By Times Wires
Published January 25, 2008
Employers can fire workers found to have used medical marijuana even if it was legally recommended, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The high court upheld a small Sacramento telecommunications company's firing of a man who flunked a company-ordered drug test. Gary Ross held a medical marijuana card authorizing him to use the drug to treat a back injury sustained while serving in the Air Force. The company, Ragingwire Inc., argued that it rightfully fired Ross because all marijuana use is illegal under federal law, which does not recognize the medical marijuana laws in California and 11 other states. The justices upheld that argument in a 5-2 decision. "No state law could completely legalize marijuana for medical purposes because the drug remains illegal under federal law," Justice Kathryn Werdegar wrote for the majority. DETROIT 14,000 messages belie mayor's affair denial Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick bristled in the witness chair last year when asked whether he had an affair with a top aide. No, the mayor confidently told jurors, the two were never romantically involved. But a trove of 14,000 text messages that emerged this week tell a different story: The mayor and his chief of staff carried on a flirty, sometimes sexually explicit dialogue about where to meet and how to conceal their numerous trysts. The mayor's indiscretion could cost him his job and his law license and even bring perjury charges. The Detroit Free Press did not explain exactly how it obtained the messages, which were sent or received in 2002-03 from chief of staff Christine Beatty's city-issued pager. NEWARK, N.J. Two ships collidein Newark Bay A 669-foot ship carrying orange juice collided Thursday with a dredging vessel in Newark Bay. No one was hurt, but a small amount of hydraulic fluid leaked into the frigid water. The freighter, the Orange Sun, and a dredging vessel carrying seven people collided just before 2 p.m. A third vessel got out of the way just in time, said Coast Guard spokesman Seth Johnson. As a precaution, five people were evacuated from the dredging vessel, which was taking on water. Times wires
[Last modified January 25, 2008, 00:26:20]
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