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, March 15

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

**EMBARGO: No electronic distribution, Web posting or street sales before Saturday at 3:00 a.m. ET on Mar. 1, 2025. No exceptions for any reasons. EMBARGO set by source.** House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, (D-NY) speaks at a news conference about Republicans’ potential budget cuts to Medicaid, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 27, 2025. As Republicans push a budget resolution through Congress that will almost certainly require Medicaid cuts to finance a huge tax reduction, Democrats see an opening to use the same strategy in 2026 that won them back the House in 2018. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
Editorial: Don’t gut Medicaid for richest Americans’ tax cuts

Extending tax cuts, as promised by Republicans, would likely force damaging cuts to Medicaid.

Comment: County must balance needs for housing and habitat

A proposed policy for the county’s critical areas rules sticks with standards that are working well.

Comment: Cap on rent would work against better housing supply

The state doesn’t need price controls; it needs to help builders create a supply that eases costs.

Comment: County’s veterans, others need mesothelioma registry

The disease, caused by asbestos exposure, can affect veterans and others. A registry would improve care.

Forum: It’s come to this; maybe some states should join Canada

If the U.S. is so ideologically divided, maybe Washington and other states should look to the Great White North.

Forum: Kids and parents navigate transitions as years pass

Boxing up the playthings of childhood is an exercise in choosing what to part with, what to keep.

Editorial cartoons for Friday, March 14, Pi Day

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

Schwab: Drugs or narcissism, Trump, Musk outcome no different

Callous firings. Weird insults. Rejection of empathy. Flip-flopping on decisions. This isn’t normal.

Stephens: None of this is likely to end well for democracy

Off-again, on-again tariffs. Insulting allies. Turning our backs on NATO and Ukraine. What will it accomplish?

Comment: Recession isn’t a certainty, but it would fit pattern

All but one GOP president had to deal with recessions. Trump seems keen to create conditions for one.

Mandatory reporting of child abuse by clergy is just

\Thank you for your excellent coverage of Senate Bill 5375 (“Hold clergy… Continue reading

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