Remember candy cigarettes?

Ever try to light a Tootsie Roll? Tobacco companies are using the same fruit flavor additives used in candies and Kool-Aid to make small flavored cigars, raising concerns that the candy-like flavors are being used to hook teens on tobacco.

The tobacco companies angrily denied the charge, then excused themselves to continue work on their new Nacho Cheese Doritos cigar.

First Bank of Cannabis: Colorado is attempting to steer its legal marijuana industry away from a cash-based system and into a financial model similar to banks. Under the plan, pot growers and retailers would pool their money in a financial cooperative to allow the use of “merchant services,” including credit cards and checks.

“Uh, dude,” a Colorado grower asked a lawmaker, “can’t I just barter my pot for, like, a moped and some hemp bracelets?”

Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1961, FCC Chairman Newton Minnow decried TV as a “vast wasteland.”

The bad news: The wasteland has grown by hundreds of channels since then. The good news: Remotes make the wasteland easier to surf.

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Editorial cartoons for Saturday, May 10

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FILE - The sun dial near the Legislative Building is shown under cloudy skies, March 10, 2022, at the state Capitol in Olympia, Wash. An effort to balance what is considered the nation's most regressive state tax code comes before the Washington Supreme Court on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, in a case that could overturn a prohibition on income taxes that dates to the 1930s. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
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The best way to ensure living space for people, fish and animals are science-based regulations.

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The nation’s museums need the support of the public and government to thrive and tell our stories.

Comment: Better support of doula care can cut maternal deaths

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Forum: Permit-to-purchase firearm law in state would save lives

Requiring a permit to purchase will help keep guns in responsible hands and reduce suicides and homicides.

Forum: Whether iron or clay, father and son carry that weight

Son’s interest in weight training rekindles father’s memories of a mentor’s high school ‘blacksmith shop.’

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Editorial cartoons for Friday, May 9

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Liz Skinner, right, and Emma Titterness, both from Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County, speak with a man near the Silver Lake Safeway while conducting a point-in-time count Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, in Everett, Washington. The man, who had slept at that location the previous night, was provided some food and a warming kit after participating in the PIT survey. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Editorial: County had no choice but to sue over new grant rules

New Trump administration conditions for homelessness grants could place county in legal jeopardy.

The Buzz: We have a new pope and Trump shtick that’s getting old

This week’s fashion question: Who wore the papal vestments better; Trump or Pope Leo XIV?

Schwab: Trump isn’t a lawyer, but plays president on TV

Unsure if he has to abide by the Constitution, Trump’s next gig could be prison warden or movie director.

Klein: Trump’s pick of Vance signaled values of his second term

Selecting Vance as his vice president cued all that what mattered now was not just loyalty but sycophancy.

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