Media

The Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday rejected a petition to loosen federal restrictions on the use of marijuana. In making the move, however, the DEA did allow for more facilities to grow marijuana for use in medical research.

While praising the decision to allow more marijuana to be grown, many lawmakers — Republican and Democrat alike — were dismayed at the DEA's determination that marijuana should remain in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, the most strictly regulated category.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont led a chorus of critics after the Drug Enforcement Administration declined to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes — the latest example of fast-changing politics in the war on drugs.

"People can argue about the pluses and minuses of marijuana, but everyone knows it's not a killer drug like heroin," Sanders wrote in a tweet, after the DEA announced that marijuana would remain a Schedule I drug with "no currently accepted medical use in the United States."

A California congressman wants answers as to why a federal funding source for local Jewish institutions to beef up security has mostly dried up.

Last fiscal year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued about $1.9 million in security grants to 27 California nonprofit organizations — all but one of them Jewish — as part of its Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP).

The following funding cycle, the amount was reduced to $297,950 — an 84 percent decrease.

In November, the American people will elect not just a President who signs and vetoes legislation, but the Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces. This distinction is critical because the checks and balances in the Constitution largely go away when the President acts as a military commander. That was an acceptable trade-off when weapons of war were muskets and cannons. Today, the President is vested with the unparalleled responsibility to order a nuclear strike without approval from Congress or the courts.

PHILADELPHIA — Stephanie Murphy's family escaped Vietnam on a boat, eventually making it to the United States with aid from an American Navy ship.

Now, the 37-year-old businesswoman and defense expert is running for a House seat in Florida as a Democrat. Murphy said she would be proud to become the first Vietnamese-American woman in Congress, but even prouder that her election would mark another step toward lawmakers reflecting the diversity of the U.S. population.