Marijuana convicts may appeal

A Colorado state appeals court ruled on Thursday that the new marijuana legalization law may now allow some people found guilty of minor marijuana crimes to challenge their convictions in court. This decision does have several limitations. It applies only to small amounts of marijuana that were made legal under Amendment 64 (Colorado’s legalization law), and only applies to people who have already been appealing their convictions when the measure went into effect. It will not allow people to expunge old marijuana convictions from their record. The ruling brings with it many questions such as: Do people convicted of possession still have to pay their fines? Do people have to admit old marijuana convictions as part of a background check? Advocates for marijuana legalization and decriminalization say this is one more step in the right direction for Colorado and will in turn influence other states to do the same. Protesters say the most recent ruling has opened the floodgates for mass appeals that will overwhelm the legal system.

In Other News Five people were stabbed to death this morning at a market in the capital of Hunan Province in central China. Local media reports that several Uighur shop owners suddenly went on a knifing rampage after a disagreement among food stall owners escalated into violence. The killings may be linked to the Chinese massacre from earlier this month when 29 people were knifed to death and another 140 were injured at a train station in southern China. Authorities quickly pinned the terrorist attack on “Xinjiang separatist forces.” Xinjiang is a far northwestern province of China populated by the predominantly Muslim Uighur ethnic group. Unrest in Xinjiang resulted in at least 100 deaths last year, and Beijing has moved to clamp down on the ethnic group, which has often opposed the cultural and religious restrictions shackling them. Rachel Canning, the high school senior who filed a lawsuit against her mother and father for financial support for college has returned to her parents home although the lawsuit has not been dropped yet. As a contentious referendum on the future of Ukraine's Crimea region looms, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov are set to hold last-ditch talks Friday in London. The two met four times last week in Europe and have been in daily phone contact since. But they have failed to reach common ground on how to solve the crisis over Crimea. They will meet again Friday at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to London, as the clock ticks down on efforts to find a diplomatic solution. Crimea's pro-Russian government has scheduled a referendum Sunday in which residents of the Crimean Peninsula will vote whether to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Ukraine's interim government in Kiev, as well as U.S. and European leaders, have warned that the vote is illegitimate. Kerry said U.S. President Barack Obama was very grateful for Europe's unity and strong position on Ukraine. Both Europe and the United States have warned Russia of potential sanctions if it continues its actions in Ukraine. A US Airways plane blew a tire during takeoff Thursday evening at Philadelphia's airport. The number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more, excluding primary residence, rose to 9.63 million in 2013.