Latest news with #Donahue
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘Betrayed': A Trump-backing Idaho sheriff tears into the feds' ‘sanctuary' list
On Thursday, President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security released a list of jurisdictions it said defied federal immigration law, including Boise. On Saturday, Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue criticized the list. Now, the department has removed the list from its web site. Was Donahue, a Republican who supports Trump, coming to the defense of Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, a Democrat who opposes him? He's not saying. A county spokesperson said Monday that Donahue was tied up with meetings related to the list and was unavailable for comment. But he is coming to the defense of fellow sheriffs around the country. Donahue is president of the National Sheriff's Association, and it's under that banner that he spoke out. It's unclear why Boise was included on the list, since sanctuary cities are banned in Idaho. Donahue issued a statement Saturday saying the department sought no input for its listing, provided no indication of the criteria used for making the list, and offered no way to object to it. 'The completion and publication of this list has not only violated the core principles of trust, cooperation, and partnership with fellow law enforcement, but it also has the potential to strain the relationship between Sheriffs and the White House administration,' Donahue said. 'The Sheriffs of this country feel betrayed.' Donahue said members of the National Sheriffs' Association and the Department of Homeland Security met on Saturday to talk about the list. However, no political appointees 'could explain who compiled, proofed and verified the list,' he said. In an emailed statement on Friday, a department spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman that the list was based on several factors, including places calling themselves sanctuary cities, legal protections for undocumented immigrants and restrictions on immigration sharing. The list can be changed at any time, the spokesperson said. There is no clear definition of 'sanctuary city,' local lawyers told the Idaho Statesman. Sanctuary cities grew in popularity before President Donald Trump's first term and colloquially refer to areas where officials limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. For example, some 'sanctuary' cities don't comply with immigration detainers, which are requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement for jails to notify agents of a person's release from jail or hold someone for agents to come get them. Boise doesn't have a jail, nor does it have jurisdiction over Ada County's. McLean said Friday that she was waiting to hear from the department why Boise made the list — the only jurisdiction in Idaho that did. On Saturday, at a local Pride event, McLean told the Statesman that Boise was not a sanctuary city, and 'we're not in charge of the jails.' Idaho lawyers and an immigrant advocate told the Statesman that Boise does not appear to be violating federal immigration laws. 'I was very confused when I saw Boise was on the list. They do work with ICE,' said Estefanía Mondragón, executive director of PODER of Idaho, a local group dedicated to immigrant and Latino communities. 'If anything, PODER thinks that Boise can do more for undocumented immigrants.' The term 'sanctuary' may even be a bit of a misnomer: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can do immigration enforcement anywhere in the country, according to Geoffrey Heeren, a University of Idaho law professor. Idaho may have banned sanctuary cities, but neighboring states have embraced them. In Washington State, the Keep Washington Working Act instructs law enforcement to not honor immigration detainers. 'This issue has become really politicized,' Heeren said. 'The reality is that under federal law, there's a spectrum in terms of the allowable involvement of state and local governments.' Trump administration just listed Boise as an immigrant 'sanctuary.' But is it? These immigrants in Idaho fled violence. Now they face a harsh reality
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
CCC overhaul, cannabis reforms sprouting in House
BOSTON (SHNS) – The House side of the Cannabis Policy Committee unanimously advanced legislation Wednesday to downsize and restructure the embattled Cannabis Control Commission and to address a handful of industry pressure points like retail license limits, restrictions on medical marijuana businesses, and the emergence of intoxicating hemp products. All 11 representatives on the committee backed Chairman Daniel Donahue's recommendation for a favorable report on the 46-page bill Wednesday, and it next heads to the House Ways and Means Committee. House Speaker Ronald Mariano earlier this year said a bill to deal with issues at the CCC was an early-session priority. Frustration with the slow pace of CCC regulatory changes, headline-grabbing internal conflicts and a plea from the inspector general for the Legislature to intervene at the 'rudderless agency' and revisit its 'unclear and self-contradictory' 2017 enabling statute combined last summer to compel the committee to weigh a response. 'The committee has been working on this issue, it's no surprise to anyone, we've been working on this issue for quite a while,' Donahue said Wednesday. The Worcester Democrat said the bill came about as a result of 'listening to the industry, CCC, experts about the challenges that the CCC has been chasing over the past couple years, and some of the ways that we think we can help industry and also reform the commission to be more nimble and more effective in its regulation of the market.' Created by the Legislature in 2017 after voters legalized non-medical marijuana in 2016, the CCC is a five-commissioner body, with appointments made singularly and jointly by the governor, attorney general and treasurer. Under the bill moving to the House, the CCC would include three people all appointed by the governor, with the governor also selecting one to serve as chair. Donahue said the idea behind making all CCC members gubernatorial appointees is that it will create a 'unified structure' and will make it easier for the CCC to coordinate with other agencies that fall under the governor's office. 'I think that having this structure is going to help it to kind of focus in on its its role of promoting, regulating and enforcing the cannabis laws,' he said. Currently, the treasurer appoints the CCC chair. A CCC spokesperson said the agency 'neither lobbies for nor against legislation,' but looks 'forward to continued collaboration with the Legislature that would allow the Commission to address needed statutory updates in pursuit of our mission to oversee a safe, equitable cannabis marketplace in Massachusetts.' CCC Executive Director Travis Ahern said he looks forward to 'continued collaboration' as the legislative process advances. Under the bill advanced Wednesday, the CCC's chairperson, rather than the entire body of commissioners, would hire the agency's executive director. Two potentially contradictory sections of the CCC's enabling statute delineating powers of the CCC chair and the agency's executive director were among the issues Donahue identified last July in a memo to Mariano. 'There was some ambiguity that was there on exactly who was in charge and who had what responsibilities and where it was. So we hope that this way, having it a little bit clearer, will have a little bit of a better relationship up and down from the chair to the executive director, and hopefully have a little more effective management,' Donahue said Wednesday. The bill extends beyond cannabis products that are already under the CCC's purview to address intoxicating hemp-based products that largely fall into a gray area of the law and between the regulatory cracks. Since hemp-based gummies, energy shot-like drink bottles and seltzers proliferated across Massachusetts convenience store checkout counters and social media feeds in recent years, lawmakers and regulators have already expressed a desire to straighten out what is and is not cannabis, and how it should all be regulated. Donahue said restructuring the CCC provides the opportunity to straighten out the ambiguity around what agency is supposed to regulate these products. The committee bill would ban the sale of hemp beverages and consumable CBD products unless the product is registered with the CCC and complies with regulations that the CCC would be required to promulgate to deal with things like product testing, labeling requirements and more. 'It's time for us, I think, to have to step up and look at how we can kind of get ahead of this product, which sometimes … is geared towards children, it might be sold somewhere that's not age-restricted and, to be honest, we don't know what's in it, it doesn't have the same standard as other cannabis products,' Donahue said. 'So with the restructuring of the CCC, we see it as an opportunity … we need to have a place that's able to kind of set a standard on what is allowable and what's safe and where it's at.' The bill adjusts the existing cap on retail licenses any one operator can hold. The current limit is three, but some business owners have said the cap prevents them from selling their businesses. Under the bill advancing towards the House, the cap on retail licenses would be raised to six over a three-year period (increasing first to four, a year later to five and finally to six), and the existing three-license caps would remain in place for cultivation and manufacturing. Payton Shubrick, founder and CEO of the 6 Brick's dispensary in Springfield, told the Cannabis Policy Committee in April that she viewed her entry into the legal cannabis sector as 'an opportunity to create generational wealth, acknowledging the money that could be made.' But cannabis prices have been dropping every month since her store opened in September 2022, she said, and the limit of three retail licenses per operator makes it hard for her to find a buyer for her business. 'With the license cap in place, it's prohibiting an exit that my family and I have worked hard and earned, in my humble opinion. At this point in time, I'm sitting on an asset that's losing value over time with oversaturation and oversupply and creating a dynamic where I can't create a successful exit,' she said. Opponents, including Equitable Opportunities Now and the Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council, have warned that multistate operators are able to spend heavily to increase their market share and that allowing them to grow even more will hurt small and equity-owned businesses. 'We don't want multistate operators dominating the market. And we're keeping it to six, which I think is a reasonable number, in this draft of the bill to make sure that we have the competition and that the market share that [multistate operators] would have would be very small,' Donahue said. The bill also eliminates the requirement that medical marijuana businesses be 'vertically integrated,' meaning they must grow and process all the marijuana they sell. Patients and advocates have been calling for that change for years, saying the medical-only options have become scarce across Massachusetts since cannabis was legalized for non-medical use. Donahue said the Cannabis Policy Committee has backed that idea each session since he became chairman in 2021. It includes language that would let the CCC 'establish and provide for issuance of additional types or classes of licenses to operate medical use of marijuana-related businesses' and would change the terminology in state law from 'medical marijuana treatment center' to 'medical marijuana establishment.' It also would carve out a new definition for 'fully integrated medical marijuana treatment center,' essentially existing businesses that may continue to operate as vertically integrated. Donahue said medical marijuana retail licenses would be available exclusively to social equity applicants for at least the first three years. 'The big push here is that it gives a whole other revenue stream to many of our social equity applicants by allowing them to also sell medical marijuana. And also, one of the big issues that we're seeing is on the patient side. We've had a lot of these medical marijuana treatment centers that have closed across the state, which kind of have created areas that don't have, if you're a patient and rely on this, you don't have access to it,' he said. 'So this hopefully will allow for more dispensaries to have access to medical marijuana, so the patients have better access across the state.' WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Rochester emphasizes pedestrian safety to reduce fatalities
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) – According to a report done by Smart Growth America, the number of pedestrian fatalities in the United States has increased by 75% over the past ten years. Over the past few weeks, Monroe County has seen an uptick in pedestrian crashes causing injury, and in one case, killing a 74-year-old woman. That fatality happened on May 23, on Monroe Avenue in Pittsford. Co-executive director of Reconnect Rochester, Cody Donahue, spoke on the roadway and the dangers it can bring. 'Monroe Avenue around the Pittsford Plaza is a very large roadway,' Donahue said. 'It's not designed with pedestrians or cyclists in mind. The roadway design does not lend itself to safe crossing, and it prioritizes cars in general.' According to Donahue, it is up to both the driver and the pedestrian to keep those in the crosswalk safe. For pedestrians, Donahue says to remember to always look both ways when crossing the street, and only cross when you are signaled too. Of course though, the driver holds the majority of the responsibility to keep those crossing the road safe. 'My biggest message to the drivers of Monroe County is to slow down, put down the phone, make sure you're not running red lights, and keep an eye out for people,' says Donahue. 'New York State law says if someone is in a crosswalk, you have to yield to them. Even if you have a green light, you have to yield to the person who is walking through the crosswalk.' To help push the importance of pedestrian safety, Reconnect Rochester host different community events throughout the year, including their 'Complete Street Makeover' and 'Downtown smART Streets'. 'It's a new initiative to paint curb extension murals,' Donahue explained. 'It creates this physical sign to the driver that you need to slow down here, that there may be pedestrians crossing.' You can learn more about Reconnect Rochester and their many safety initiatives on their website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
North Scott student takes 1st place in high school journalism contest
A North Scott High School student journalist has won first place in the Column/Opinion category in the Iowa High School Press Association (IHSPA) Spring Journalism Contest. Olivia Donahue took first place in the Column/Opinion category for her piece, 'How Elon Musk Bought The President.' This column featured Donahue's analysis and strong writing skills, earning her the top spot among entries across the state. She also took third place for Opinion Writer of the Year. 'If my journalism isn't making someone squirm, it's probably not doing enough,' Donahue said. 'I'm proud to write pieces that challenge power, question comfort or upset some people, as long as it pushes the fight for a better future onwards. To have my writing recognized like this — it means people are listening. That gives me hope.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Eater
23-05-2025
- Business
- Eater
Step Down Into Georgetown's Hot New Basement Sushi Destination
D.C. isn't exactly starving for sushi — with sleek omakase counters, Michelin-starred places, and quiet hole-in-the-walls in just about every neighborhood, the city's raw fish game is strong. But, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing. Enter Sushi Gaku, the latest contender to roll into the District that hopes to slice, dice, and impress its way into your weekly dinner rotation. Occupying the subterranean Georgetown space formerly held by cocktail lounge Donahue (1338 Wisconsin Avenue NW), Sushi Gaku is the newest installment from chef Yoshi Ota — but it's not his first pass at the D.C. restaurant scene. Sushi Gakyu was a longtime favorite of Washingtonians, serving up similar rolls in a sleek spot near the White House until its closure this year. Its newest D.C. iteration, named Sushi Gaku, sits blocks away from always busy M Street, nestled along the less crowded corridor of Wisconsin Avenue NW. 'I am so honored to join this historical area in Washington,' says Ota, in a statement. 'I am planning to serve traditional sushi as well as a different style that our guests have never seen before.' Born in Hokkaido Japan, Ota's culinary career began at ANA International Tokyo restaurant in Tokyo, Japan. He took his talents across the globe, spending the last four decades perfecting his knife skills across his home country and the U.S., notably at New York's legendary Sushi Den. He is one of the only in the area to hold a preparation license for fugu, or pufferfish — the Japanese delicacy that contains a poisonous toxin. For this new-look sushi spot in the nation's capital, chef once again called on Bethany Kazaba, CEO and Managing Principal at Neighborhood Retail Group, for help. The space is modestly small, but the decor is on brand — striking a cultured balance between modern elegance and traditional Japanese artistry. Delicate orchid plants sit atop polished wooden counters, while minimalist wall panels adorned with ink-brushed calligraphy evoke a quiet sense of comfort. Bamboo accents and stone plateware add texture, all brought to life under tailored mood lighting that softens every corner and sets the tone for intimate conversations. On the menu is a mix of recognizable fare and perhaps new-to-you rolls and sashimi. One signature dish is its traditional style nigiri sushi, prepared edo style with akazu (dark vinegar), sushi rice, and fish pieces. He will also serve regular nigiri with white sushi rice, as well as maki, and other casual Japanese plates. Sashimi arrives in bulk by plates of at least 10 or smaller portions of four pieces per serving, featuring mackerel, tuna, squid, scallop, fatty tuna, and plenty more cuts. The same offerings are available for nigiri, except two pieces per platter. Starters consist of the classics: edamame, green salad, seaweed salad, and spring rolls. Cooked protein are pickings of grilled eel, shrimp tempura, fried oyster, grilled black cod, and hamachi kama. Though not coming for at least two months, given it needs ample time for preparation, diners have an omakase course to look forward to. Chef plans to serve a very fermented ancient-style sushi. The reservation-only tasting, which starts at $180 per person, features four appetizers in addition to 12 pieces of premium nigiri and dessert. To accompany the aforementioned options is a sprawling beverage program headlined by four opening cocktails. The cheeky Royal Fizz combines rum, lime juice, umeshu, saline, and prosecco while the refreshing Gaku Breeze blends tequila, almond liqueur, lime juice, cucumber syrup, and mint leaves for garnish. And it wouldn't be a proper Japanese establishment without sake by the carafe and bottle. For the simpler palates, there is plenty of wine and Sapporo beers. Over on M Street NW, Georgetown is home to another great downstairs sushi cave called Kyojin, named Eater DC's 2023 Restaurant of the Year. And more raw fish is on the horizon across the city, with all-you-can-eat Sushi Sato coming to H Street in the next month. Sign up for our newsletter.
