By Kevin Spak
Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was a US citizen. He was also a typical 16-year-old; “he watched The Simpsons , listened to Snoop Dogg, read Harry Potter , and had a Facebook page with many friends,” his grandfather, Nasser al-Awlaki writes in a New York Times op-ed. In October 2011 he was killed in a… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Thousands of people are expected to join an unofficial counterculture holiday celebrating marijuana in Colorado and Washington this coming weekend, including out-of staters and even packaged tours. The events and crowds will test the limits of new laws permitting pot use by adults.
More than 50,000 are expected to light up outdoors in Denver’s Civic Center Park on April 20 to celebrate marijuana legalization. Thousands more are headed here for the nation’s first open-to-all Cannabis Cup, April 20-21, a domestic version of an annual marijuana contest and celebration in Amsterdam. Expected guests at the Cannabis Cup, a ticketed event taking place inside the Denver Convention Center, include Snoop Lion, the new reggae- and marijuana-loving persona for the rapper better known as Snoop Dogg.
Marijuana activists from New York to San Francisco consider April 20 a day to celebrate the drug and push for broader legalization. The origins of the number “420” as a code for pot are murky, but the drug’s users have for decades marked the date 4/20 as a day to use pot together.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and its sale without a doctor’s recommendation isn’t allowed yet in Colorado or Washington. Neither state allows open and public use of the drug. But authorities largely look the other way at public pot-smoking, especially at festivals and concerts, and entrepreneurs are finding creative ways to capitalize on new marijuana laws.
One of them is Matt Brown, co-owner of Denver’s new “My 420 Tours,” which gives traveling pot users everything but the drug. Brown has sold 160 tour packages to visiting pot smokers for the April 20 weekend. Prices start at $499, not including hotel or air.
The tour sends cannabis tour guides to pick up marijuana tourists at the airport in limousines, escort them to Cannabis Cup and other Denver-area marijuana celebrations and deposit them at a hotel where smoking — tobacco or reefer — is permitted on room patios.
Marijuana tourists on Brown’s tour can add extra days of touring medical marijuana dispensaries and commercial growing operations. A cannabis cooking class is another option. Five-day tours run $649 to $849.
Brown, a medical marijuana patient who is new to the travel business, says his tours will enable sharing of pot but not selling it. Eighty percent of his clients are coming from outside Colorado — meaning it’s illegal for them to bring marijuana from home. And because commercial pot sales in Colorado don’t start until January, out-of-state visitors can’t yet buy pot at Colorado’s 500-plus dispensaries.
Despite the legal barriers, Brown said his tours quickly filled to capacity and he had to turn away would-be cannabis tourists. He’s hoping to book future pot-themed weekends if the April 20n weekend does well.
“People are fascinated by what’s happening here, and they want to see it up close,” Brown said. “We want to make sure people don’t come here, land at the airport, rent a car and drive around stoned all weekend.”
The tour group isn’t affiliated with the Cannabis Cup, sponsored by High Times Magazine, which has
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/P0mq9b6i5h0/
By The Huffington Post News Editors
News that Snoop Dogg had taken a smoker’s sabbatical from West Coast party rap was met with a healthy skepticism, bemusement and even derision when it first started making its way around the web last summer. But now, Snoop has settled into his newest incarnation: Snoop Lion, a peace-loving, violence-hating reggae artist who claims to be a descendent of Bob Marley.
His transformation was the subject of “Reincarnated,” a VICE documentary that traced the 41-year-old rapper’s trip to Jamaica and subsequent cultural baptism. The film offers a fresh look at Snoop, best known for hits like “Ain’t No Fun” and “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” and makes up what it may lack in cohesion with tender glimpses at a man who appears to be pondering his place in the world.
The result of said introspection is a reggae album produced by Major Lazer and also titled “Reincarnated.” The record features songs like “No Guns Allowed,” on which Snoop teams with his daughter Cori B. and Drake for an anti-arms statement that the Snoop of 15 years ago would have bristled at.
So, who’s got their buns in the seats this time? Dimension Films has just unveiled the official Scary Movie 5 poster, featuring stars Ashley Tisdale, Charlie Sheen, Snoop Dogg, Katt Williams, Sarah Hyland, Katrina Bowden, Mike Tyson — and Ted, of course. Check it out:
There’s also a new trailer out. Click over here to see it (possibly NSFW).
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Movies
A large LED screen being set up for the Ultra Music Festival crashed onto the main stage Thursday night in downtown Miami, seriously injuring two workers.
Fire rescue workers responded to Bayfront Park at about 8 p.m. and took two victims to Ryder Trauma Center, according to Lt. Ignatius Carroll Jr., a Miami fire and rescue spokesman. Carroll said one worker was in critical condition, another serious.
A third worker suffered minor injuries and was transported to another hospital, and a fourth was treated on the scene after being shaken up by what he saw.
An event spokeswoman, Alexandra Greenberg, says that the accident occurred during preparations for the festival.
Carroll said the LED screens were about 30 feet above the stage, and that one section — several squares connected together — fell.
“For whatever reason they came crashing down on workers on the stage,” he said,
He said the workers were struck by a section that was about 7 feet in height and that extended three-quarters the length of the stage.
Firefighters who were there as a standby unit responded, removing debris and freeing the workers, Carroll said.
“Fire Rescue was on site so there was a rapid response,” event spokeswoman Greenberg said in a statement. “Festival organizers are working with, and supporting, authorities as they investigate the details behind the accident.
The fire marshal, structural engineers, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration representative, and city police and fire officials plan to review the accident scene on Friday.
“Once we get the approval that everything is structurally sound, we’ll go ahead and allow the event promoter to open up the finished stage,” he said. The main goal is to prevent something similar from happening on the main stage, which faces downtown Miami, and the other stages..
The annual outdoor electronic music festival is set to begin Friday and run over two weekends. Among those scheduled to perform are David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5, Avicii and Snoop Lion, who was formerly known as Snoop Dogg.
After his appearance in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 last year, it seems Snoop Dogg has gotten a taste for video games. His newly announced venture into the digital realm is the Echo Peak-developed Way of the Dogg, a rhythm/fighting game for Xbox Live, PS3, and mobile platforms.
