Group of N.J. prosecutors endorses legalization of marijuana

MARCH 31, 2014, 6:29 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2014, 6:33 PM
BY REBECCA D. O’BRIEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

A group of municipal prosecutors has endorsed legalization of marijuana, a move that could signal growing support in the law enforcement community for reform of New Jersey’s drug laws.

At a sparsely attended meeting in February, the trustees of the New Jersey State Municipal Prosecutors Association voted by a 7-2 margin on a verbal, non-binding resolution, affirming general support for legalization of pot, “with reasonable regulations,” according to the association’s president, Jon-Henry Barr.

“It is increasingly clear to me that we are doing this incorrectly,” said Barr, who is a municipal prosecutor in Clark and Kenilworth. “What we should be doing is strictly regulating it, taxing it, and treating it the way we do alcohol.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/group-of-n-j-prosecutors-endorses-legalization-of-marijuana-1.838936#sthash.kZTgnBWl.dpuf

Ridgewood clerk praised by council

MARCH 31, 2014    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2014, 5:23 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER

The audience at the March 12 council meeting joined Ridgewood’s governing body in a standing ovation directed toward Heather Mailander, who was sitting in on her final regular public session as acting village manager.

Mailander will step down from the temporary position at the end of this week, giving way to Roberta Sonenfeld, who will move in as full-time village manager March 31. Mailander, who was not present at Wednesday’s council work session, will resume her daily duties as municipal clerk.

For nearly seven months, Mailander filled in as Ridgewood’s chief executive officer and managed the daily operations of the village. At the same time, she also handled the responsibilities of village clerk, a position that she has held for the past 25 years.

“I want to thank the Village Council for their faith in me, for giving me this amazing opportunity,” she said, expressing further gratitude to department supervisors and all village employees “who work so hard every day for the village residents.”

She also thanked Ridgewood residents for their recent patience and flexibility during an “unusual year, with leaves that came down all at once, near record snowfalls [and] record breaking low temperatures.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/ridgewood-clerk-praised-by-council-1.838914#sthash.uGPmXUIP.dpuf

CIA officer confirmed no protests before misleading Benghazi account given

By Guy Taylor The Washington Times

Information on ground rejects protest account

Before the Obama administration gave an inaccurate narrative on national television that the Benghazi attacks grew from an anti-American protest, the CIA’s station chief in Libya pointedly told his superiors in Washington that no such demonstration occurred, documents and interviews with current and former intelligence officials show.

The attack was “not an escalation of protests,” the station chief wrote to then-Deputy CIA Director Michael J. Morell in an email dated Sept. 15, 2012 — a full day before the White House sent Susan E. Rice to several Sunday talk shows to disseminate talking points claiming that the Benghazi attack began as a protest over an anti-Islam video.

That the talking points used by Mrs. Rice, who was then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, were written by a CIA that ignored the assessment by its own station chief inside Libya, has emerged as one of the major bones of contention in the more than two years of political fireworks and congressional investigations into the Benghazi attack.

What has never been made public is whether Mr. Morell and others at the CIA explicitly shared the station chief’s assessment with the White House or State Department.

Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/31/cia-ignored-station-chief-in-libya-when-creating-t/#ixzz2xcha3unF
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