COLU @ CONCEPTS

NIPTON, Calif. (AP) — Now that one of the nation’s largest cannabis companies has bought the entire California desert town of Nipton, a question remains: Will the new owners rename the place Potsylvania? The name Weed already belongs to an old mill town in Northern California. American Green Inc. announced Thursday it is buying all 80 acres of Nipton, which includes its Old West-style hotel, a handful of houses, an RV park and a coffee shop. Its plans are to transform the old Gold Rush town into what it calls “an energy-independent, cannabis-friendly hospitality destination.” The town’s current owner, Roxanne Lang, said the sale is still in escrow, but confirmed American Green is the buyer. She declined to reveal price before the sale closes, but noted she and her late husband, Gerald Freeman, listed the property at $5 million when they put it up for sale last year. Asked what her husband would think of the buyers’ plans to turn Nipton into the pot paradise of the Californ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Get your insurance through your employer? The ongoing political turmoil around “Obamacare” all but guarantees you’ll still be able to do that. Ask Walt Rowen, whose business is etching glass but whose experience managing century-old, family-owned Susquehanna Glass makes him something of an expert on health care. He’s provided coverage to employees, then canceled it, steering them to the health insurance exchange. But with those premiums rising, Rowen this year is again covering his 70 or so workers under the umbrella of employer-sponsored health insurance. As politicians continue debating government’s role in health care, employers like Pennsylvania-based Susquehanna Glass will likely continue offering health insurance as a way to attract and retain employees. (Aug.3) Employer-provided health insurance is so ingrained in the American workplace that people expect it to continue even as politicians thrash out the role of government in health care. That’...

NEW YORK (AP) — Dunkin’ is thinking about dumping “Donuts” from its name. A new location of the chain in Pasadena, California, will be simply called Dunkin’, a move that parent company Dunkin’ Brands Inc. calls a test. The Canton, Massachusetts-based company said Thursday that a few other stores will get the one-name treatment too. The chain wants people to think of its stores as a destination for coffee, although it will still sell doughnuts. Dunkin’ Donuts said it won’t make a decision on whether it will change its name until late next year, when it expects to start redesigning stores. News of the test was first reported by Nation’s Restaurant News. Source: www.apnews.com 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The staff of the weekly newspaper Riodoce normally meets on Wednesdays to review its plans for coverage of the most recent mayhem wrought in Sinaloa state by organized crime, corrupt officials and ceaseless drug wars. But on this day, in the shadow of their own tragedy, they’ve come together to talk about security. It’s important to change their routines, they are told. Be more careful with social media. Don’t leave colleagues alone in the office at night. Two senior journalists discuss what feels safer: to take their children with them to the office, which was the target of a grenade attack in 2009, or to leave them at home. Security experts have written three words on a blackboard at the front of the room: adversaries, neutrals, allies. They ask the reporters to suggest names for each column — no proof is needed, perceptions and gut feelings are enough Allies are crucial. In an emergency, they would need a friend, a lawyer, an activist to call. The lon...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions took new steps Thursday to punish cities he believes are not cooperating with federal immigration agents in a move that was met with bewilderment by local officials who said they did not know why they were being singled out. The Justice Department sent letters to four cities struggling with gun violence, telling them they would not be eligible for a program that provides money to combat drug trafficking and gang crime unless they give federal immigration authorities access to jails and notify agents before releasing inmates wanted on immigration violations. Baltimore, Albuquerque, and Stockton and San Bernardino in California all expressed interest in the Justice Department’s Public Safety Partnership, which enlists federal agents, analysts and technology to help communities find solutions to crime. None of the four has declared itself a “sanctuary city,” a mostly symbolic term that nevertheless is strongly associated w...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transcripts of President Donald Trump’s conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia in January offer new details on how the president parried with the leaders over the politics of the border wall and refugee policy — with random asides on such subjects as drug abuse in New Hampshire. The president’s exchanges with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull just a week after the inauguration were widely reported upon at the time. But transcripts published Friday by The Washington Post offer new detail on the new president’s blunt exchanges with the U.S. allies. The White House said Thursday that the release of the transcripts is a disservice to Trump. “I’m not going to comment on leaked calls,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said. “It’s a national security matter when phone call transcripts are being leaked out. It prevents the president from being able to do what he does best, negotiate with foreign...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s tweets declaring transgender people unwelcome in the armed forces have plunged the Pentagon into a legal and moral quagmire, sparking a flurry of meetings to devise a new policy that could lead to hundreds of service members being discharged. Months after officially allowing transgender troops to serve openly in the military, the department may be forced to throw out those who willingly came forward after being promised they’d be protected. A team of military lawyers has been pulled together to deal with the matter, Adm. Paul Zukunft, the Coast Guard commandant, revealed at the Center For Strategic and International Studies this week. These lawyers are working with the White House to flesh out some of the issues, and they’re bolstered by a Pentagon working group that had initially been set up to advance the implementation of the Obama administration’s year-old repeal of a transgender ban. Now, they must deal with whatever new post-t...