good side. >> i don't know if there's a connection with he and andrew cuomo on bridge-gate or cuomoomething that he's holding back information that could be damaging to the governor. >> that is a very serious allegation. that's not to say it's unique. in wondering aloud why chris christie and andrew cuomo seem so simpatico, astorino is giving question to what's been swirling for some time. why do these two governors, big national ambitions and big egos from opposite sides of the hudson river and opposing political parties seem to have each other's backs? having asked the question, himself, and called on christie resign as rga chairman, astorino was asked not to attend an rga meeting in aspen, colorado. he went, anyway, tweeting out this picture with his friend, governor rick perry of texas. returning home to the support of rick perry along with three others not including chris christie. joining me, rob astorino. first of all, you, i understand, met with the governor while you were -- >> which governor? >> governor christie. >> governor christie. you met with governor christie. you h

as andrew cuomo campaigns for his reelection, he can be secure knowing that his tenacity helped clean up gotham city. a reformer who rose above politics as usual corruption because of great power comes great responsibility because hulk smash. >> reports in the "new york

binge watching. >>> andrew cuomo is taking flak. the commission a year ago which he touted having the best minds in law enforcement to try to rout out corruption and to restore public trust. >> it's not about a witch hunt. it's clear there are cases that need to be policed. i mean, that's inarguable at this point. why we are doing this and the need to do this is totally clear to anyone who has been living in this state. >> he even campaigned on this saying the commission would be independent. >> so i am appointing a new commission to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing. >> but "the new york times" reports it was stifled nearly from the outset by the governor's own aids. in one case the commission investigated a media buying firm whose client was none other than the governor. when cuomo's office found out the firm was being subpoenaed, "the times" reports a top staffer called one of the cochairs of the commission and ordered him to take it back and the commission about. now a federal prosecutor says he won't rule out investigating t

andrew cuomo is the current governor. he was elected in a landslide in 2010. t hanging over governor cuomo's entire first term has been a slew of government corruption cases in new york state. one after another. you remember, andrew cuomo took over. he took over for the guy who had to take over for the guy that resigned in the hooker scandal. that's right, that's how he got there. that was the environment andrew cuomo was coming into. the state legislature was a different style of utterly corrupt, within a two-day span last year, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, announced that his office was bringing federal corruption charges against a new york state senator, a new york city councilmember, two party leaders for trying to sell the mayoral race, he was bringing bribery charges for trying to sell legislation. all in the space of 48 hours, that was accompanied by this footage. it's not the kind of thing that engenders confidence in government. newly elected governor of new york, maybe with presidential aspirations, was going to clean up his

as andrew cuomo campaigns for his reelection, he can be secure knowing that his tenacity helped clean up gotham city. a reformer who rose above politics as usual corruption because of great power comes great responsibility because hulk smash. >> reports in the "new york times" claim after appointing the commission, the governor's office interfered with its work, "objecting whenever the commission focused on groups with ties to mr. cuomo." >> the governor created a panel to tackle corruption then systematically blocked it from probing anything related to himself. [laughter] >> jon: say it ain't so, andy. say it ain't so. well, it's not like he ever said the commission could investigate the governor's office. >> the commission clearly has the legal authority to look at anything they want to look at, including the governor, the attorney general, the controller, et cetera. they have the legal authority. >> jon: basically cuomo formed a commission promising you we even look at me, and then when they looked at him, he said, you lookin' at me? you lookin' at me? i don't see any other governo

right now nervous new yorkers are all waiting on governor andrew cuomo who must decide whether to uphold the statewide moratorium on hydro fracking earlier this week new york's highest court ruled that local townships and cities have the right to prohibit drilling within their boundaries but it's up to the governor to decide on giving that discretion to them new york governor andrew cuomo inherited a fracking ban from his predecessor david paterson when taking office in two thousand and eleven the moratorium bans fracking which is a controversial way of accessing natural gas in shale rock by pumping water sand and other chemicals into the wells at very high pressures there's been some pushback over the environmental effects of fracking including recent reports connecting the procedure to earthquakes in oklahoma and opponents to fracking in new york state fear that if cuomo lifts the state wide ban the decision to frack would fall to local municipalities creating a potential patchwork of towns that allow this process this will no doubt be a difficult decision for cuomo as energy industry

it's not a topic that andrew cuomo wants to be talking about.s escaped a lot of scrutiny on this and wants to keep it that way. >> what was in the report? >> really not much. a lot of vague stuff about stuff that they are going to look into over the next few months. there's, i think, the main thing is the idea that they actually copy and pasted the mission of the port authority. there is no founding mission of the port authority into this. let's get back to what this mission is. the real difficult questions about, okay, fine, make broad statements about what the port authority is or should be and what it's become. how do you change this massive hugely sort of cash rich bistate agency and change the culture in a place like that? it doesn't get into that at all. >> what's the latest on the investigation? >> which investigation? >> yeah, that's true. >> the manhattan district attorney is looking into questions of money that was originally earmarked for another tunnel under the hudson river. how the christie administration took that money and paid f

spread of a dangerous illness like ebola is no longer somebody else's progress. >> last july, andrew cuomoackle public corruption. >> now three-month examination by "the new york times" claims that governor cuomo's office deeply compromised the panel's work. >> if you had watched the movie to the end, the name of the movie would have been "independence." you named it "interference." >> we will get to that story in a moment. >>> welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now from washington, nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" andrea mitchell. senior editor at the "the new republic" julia yanfey. good to have you both with us. >>> the west increasing pressure on vladimir putin. president obama and leaders of several european countries agreed to a sweeping new set of sanctions. they will target defense, energy, and financial industries in russia. moscow, however, remains defiant. the country's foreign minister downplayed the impact of the sanctions and warned they will would only make russia stronger and more independent. in another sign of stepped-up

yesterday, governor andrew cuomo signed the compassionate care act.er the bill, a doctor can with serious conditions. the state legislature passed the meanwhile, the first retail marijuana stores are opening for business today in washington state. the store openings are expected to be accompanied by celebration, but also high prices and shortages. that's because washington's growers are behind on product. and the growing price for a gram of marijuana will be 25 dollars. or about 700 dollars an ounce. that's twice the rate of medical happening today in oakland. the city council is meeting to talk about minimum wage increases. and workers will be there to share just what a wage in the bay area means to them. low-income workers from across oakland are planning a noon rally at city hall. they say they are trying to create urgency around passing the 'lift up oakland' oakland's minimum wage from 9 dollars to 12-25 per hour. the rally takes place outside the oakland chamber of commerce. flat a news conference scheduled for 1 p-m. followed by a hearing at cit

>> andrew cuomo is a corporate democrat who doesn't care about schools.ork, new york is one of the most unequal states in the union. and i have traditional democratic values as do most new yorkers, and so i'm ready to challenge him. >> he would say this is pure nonsense, i'm the governor of a state, i compromise when i have to, i govern from the left when i can. i've done things on marriage, drug decriminalization. i haven't raised taxes, you always say i raise taxes. what do you say to that? >> he has slashed school funding to pay for tax breaks for big banks and tax breaks for millionaires. that is not the traditional democratic set of values. and what's more, he's really abandoned the state in a lot of ways. he acts in some ways like a crony democrat. he serves his donors, he may be serving his presidential ambitions, but he's not visiting schools. he's not actively riding public transportation which is suffering right now. >> do you think he's vulnerable. i mean, look, i would think, i would say this, if i were -- you asked me to bet a thousand dollar

and andrew cuomo had a signing today. it's the most restrictive when it starts in a year and a half. the drug cannot be smoked. it has to be ingested through an oil base. those that have epilepsy or lou gherig's will be eligible with a prescription. >>> it's set to begin in the state of the washington. two dozen stores are given the permits to sell. the legal trade gets off the ground. the doors open at 8:00 a.m. two years after they voted to legalize pot. colorado the only other state, started sales in january. >>> the prosecutors say they are ready to charge dozens of students for a hazing death in the poconos this past december. chun michael dang was pushed by members of a delta psy fraternity. he hit his head. they never called 911. they waited two hours before they went to hospital. he died of blunt forced head trauma. >>> and pope francis begged for forgiveness for those that caused sexuality abuse from the fraternity. they spent time with each of them and listening to their accounts. >>> a feral judge in philadelph

i think what the feds are saying is that if andrew cuomo's commission isn't going to follow up, thenll. >> politically, does this tell us anything in your view as a political reporter about andrew cuomo? he is someone that's rumored as potential presidential aspirant if hillcally clinton doesn't run. >> i covered him for a long time. he is a very shrewd guy. the one thing that you do see from time to time, gets too clover for his own good, he gets in these word salads about who has the right to do what. he argue as lot of things and gets tied up. that's what we have seen in some of the appearances, you know. it is my commission. i can't interfere with it. you know, you can get -- you can get in too deep with the political operative side of your brain when the governor's side of your brain may tell you to go in a different direction. i'm not really sure what the long-term impact of this will be. in the past, he has shown that as long as he delivers on fundamentals that are important to new yorkers on the budget, on economic growth, on development, they aren't hugely concerned about sh

kind of a treasure trove for any prosecutor, and i think what the feds are saying is that if andrew cuomo'sg to follow up then they will. >> and politically, does this tell us anything in your view as a political reporter about andrew cuomo? he's someone who's rumored as a potential presidential aspirant? >> i covered him for a long time, and i think he's a very shrewd guy. but one thing you do see from time to time is he gets too clever for his own good, he gets in these word salads about who has the right to do what, and he argues the logic of things and gets tied up. that's what we see in some of these appearances. it's my commission. i can't interfear with it. you can get in too deep with the political operative side of your brain when the governor side of your brain might tell you to go in a different direction. i'm not really sure what the long-term impact of this will be. in the past, he's shown, ari, that as long as he defends on things that are important to new yorkers, on economic development and growth, that they aren't hugely concerned about shenanigans in albany. so we'll see i

unions really need to start achallenging democratic governors like andrew cuomo in new york. so those -- >> which you wush they would never do. >> yeah. >> they're not going to touch him in wisconsin. >> the thing is scott walker, he is just too bold. he wnts to cut off the heads of the unions. they're doing the same thing. by the time unions wake up and realize what's going on, they're too weak. they're in a vulnerable position. and the member shps are not activated. may 1st, a union rally. 1,000 people came up. i would say for every -- >> city hall where? >> new york city. for every five union staff that showed up, probably told to go after work. 1,000 people total. this is the most union dense area of this country. they have their membership engaged. they have a stake in the union. the thing the unions used to say, that is only true in a few democratic unions. aenthose need to be the model. >> so let me close on the show. what makes you hopeful and obviously you're hopeful because you're doing work and people are paying attention to it. the conversation is starting i think

new york governor andrew cuomo. >> you have at house on one side of the street that is basically fine. the other house on the opposite side of the street was just gone. we don't get tornadoes in new york, right? anyone will tell you that. well, we do now. >> reporter: the same weather system swept through portions of pennsylvania and maryland, scott. in maryland a tree fell at a summer camp, one child was killed and six others were injured. >> pelley: vanita, thank you very much. with thousands of illegal immigrant children surging into the united states, president obama is meeting this evening with a rival, the republican governor of texas. major garrett is traveling with the president in dallas. major? here with local leaders and governor perry, president obama said the united states will meet the basic needs of these children and speed up a process likely to lead to their deportation. he sternly warned parents in central america not to send more children on a dangerous and ultimately fewtile journey to america. finally, the president explained why he will not go to the texas border

. >>> new york governor andrew cuomo is pushing back and pushing back hard against allegations that his office interfered with a political ethics commission, one that he himself put into place. and it all stems from a front-page article last week in "the new york times," which alleges cuomo's office squashed certain subpoenas that would have looked into the governor's own dealings including one to a media firm connected to the new york's democratic party. but now one of the firm's three co-chairs at the center of the story, syracuse district attorney william j. fitzpatrick is claiming that the panel was indeed independent. he says, quote, the bottom line is that nobody interfered with me or my co-chairs. governor cuomo was quick to praise the commission yesterday during a news conference. >> when you look at the facts, this commission performed exactly the function they were supposed to perform. we passed a law that has brought historic reform to the state. it was an overwhelming success, and the commissioners have not gotten the credit that they deserve. independent. they were talking

. >>> up next, the latest development in the governor andrew cuomo ethics inquiry.hy his administration may now face an investigation into obstruction of justice and evidence tampering. >>> we will hear from jesse ventura. >> let's not! can we not? >> there is also a major update. >> you hate my show, joe! is he suing dead guys, jesse ventura pr ventura. >>> and the lawsuit against bob mcdonald. >>> first, a check on the forecast with bill karins. bill, are you seeing anything? >> no, my defamation lawsuit, nothing against you guys any time soon. >> i'm worried about that. >> you should be. >>> good morning, everyone! our great stretch of weather continues this summer, that is if you don't like the hot stuff. we had thunderstorms overnight and a lot of people will be woken up east of dallas area. sulfur springs to tyler, texas. big thunderstorms rolling through and western new york thunderstorms overnight and they are still continuing but watch out if you're around the oswego, new york, area, north of syracuse and look like the storms rolling your way half hour from

i'm talking about new york's democratic governor, andrew cuomo. tigation by "the new york times" that looks at last year's highly public sized attempt by cuomo to clean up corruption in state government. the "times" report may have been thwarted by the governor's office, if not by the governor himself. >> trust is everything to me, that's why for all we've accomplished to fix state government, our job is not done until we've cleaned up the legislative corruption in albany. so i am appointing a new independent commission. led by top law enforcement officials from all across this great state. to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing. the politicians in albany won't like it, but i work for the people and i won't stop fighting until we all have a government that we can trust. >> cuomo dpirkted the commission depicted the commission as far-reaching and untouchable. with a mandate to look into anyone in state government, anyone including cuomo, the government himself. but the investigation ended abruptly. and now an article published by "the new york time

yesterday, governor andrew cuomo signed the compassionate care act. under the bill, a doctor can prescribe marijuana to patients with serious conditions. bill in june. meanwhile, the first retail marijuana stores are opening for business today in washington to be accompanied by celebration, but also high coming up on the kron four morning news. jesse chavez matched a career staff innings, and three relievers pitched scoreless ball to lead oakland past san francisco 5-0 on monday night for their fifth straight win. alberto callaspo hit a two-run double, and three others drove in a run to power the a's in front of an announced sellout crowd of 36,067 festive fans. the coliseum had a colorful sprinkling of green and gold from oakland revelers mixed with the orange and black of san francisco supporters for the bay bridge series opener. chavez allowed four hits and two walks to help extend the a's record to a major-league best 56-33. fernando abad, dan otero and ryan cook shut down san innings. ryan vogelsong lost his third straight start for the giants, w

new casinnos here and that is a push by andrew cuomo and pennsylvania has become the new hot bed of gamblingity for those willing to get on a bus and drive to a casinno. at this point he got out. and he said many investors that put their money down and made big bets on atlantic city are finding it is a money loser. fox business will continue to follow the story and give you the updates. >> jon? >> thank you. >> and lingering controversy over the releasing of five taliban soldiers for a soldier that was some call a deserter. and what he is doing now. and the plan to help honeybees is not so sweet. [ mom ] with life insurance, we're not just insuring our lives... we're helping protect his. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow. plus, can you be fired from your job for legally buying marijuana? there is a big twist in the case now. and dra mastic moments when a pregnant woman was caught in a burning building and forced to jump. we'll see you then. >> albert einstein said if bees disappeared we will have four years to live. and ho

have the money and so we, the fellowship, come to their aid. úññ @úñx >>> finally tonight, andrew cuomome problems. >> the governor created a panel to tackle corruption, then systematically blocked it from probing anything related to himself. >> it's not like he ever said the commission could investigate the governor's office. >> the commission clearly has the legal authority to look at anything they want to look at, including the governor, the attorney general, the controller, et cetera. they have the legal authority. >> basically he formed a commission promising you can even look at me. then when he looked at him he said, "lookin at me?" >> that's it for "special report" fair, balanced. >>> streaming into the united states, children. streaming out of washington, the president. senate leader harry reid and speaker john boehner and hundreds more politicians, the entire house and senate are all streaming out. nothing is going to get in the way of their vacation, even the crisis they helped create. >> they're illegal. >> they're breaking our laws. >> hearing complaints about some the cond

here he is political career circle in the drain and stumbling and fumbling trying to make andrew cuomosirable to new yorkers. he's helping rob resterino a lot. the news he's sending rob's way is encouraging for rob. when you see a man who's had his failures, hugging the president two weeks before the election and off with his bridgegate nonsense, playing games and having cuomo cover up for him, and all that stuff adds up to a guy who's got serious problems at this point. neil: how serious? i know among the people -- >> rick perry -- neil: i know, carl, you follow the people close, you are familiar with it. people outside say we don't care who he backs. we might be honest to say he's down 35, 40%. with scandals around the cuomo administration, i think you could be very, very right that he's being pennywise and bound foolish. do you think americans outside the new jersey, new york, connecticut area care? >> wait a minute. he's not only the governor of new jersey. he's also the chairman of the republican conference in the republican party. neil: right, right. >> he's the chairman. and her

while massachusetts senator elizabeth warren and new york governor andrew cuomo both gained three points. maryland governor martin o'malley brings up the rear. he's an over shadowed underdog and casts himself as a liberal to defends the obama agenda and battles the right. it only takes one person and then another to stand up and say enough. enough obstruction. enough wasted time. stop shutting down our government. and stop selling our country short. >> reporter: a dead last long shot despite of more than a year of campaign trips to early voting strips o'malley got a warm reception in iowa. >> it makes for a better campaign, you know, you don't want an anointed one. >> reporter: with her book tour wrapping up the clintons plan to spend the rest of the summer in the hamptons. senator cruz heads to the hamptons in august too not to hang with the clintons but for gop fundraisers. rand paul continues to ramp up, he's just hired a national political director. the first big gathering of iowa social conservatives of the 2016 presidential cycle is next week called the family leadership summit. it

andrew cuomo has made a big, big issue. guy who was going to clean it up, not long after revelations of a bribery plot in the mayor's race last year, involving a state lawmaker, cuomo created a new panel to investigate the state's political corruption. >> i worked with the people, i won't stop fighting until we all have a government we can trust. >> he vowed the moreland commission would be independent but a blockbuster investigative story reveals it was far from it. after the commission issued a subpoena to a media buying firm. cuomo's most senior aid called a commission and ordered him to pull it back. the subpoena was swiftly withdrawn. that's just one example from the times investigation, that found that cuomo's office deeply compromised the commission's work. federal prosecutors are investigating the shutdown in march. we reached out to governor cuomo's office to invite him to the show tonight. professor of harvard law school. he's urged a petition if he did indeed interfere with the commission. >> you are one of the b

the afternoon, before holiday weekend, new jersey governor chris christie and new york governor andrew cuomot how to fix the agency at the center of bridgegate. steve kornacki will be here to tell us what's in that report and what is not in that report. good afternoon to

and yesterday governor andrew cuomo held a signing ceremony making new york the 23rd state to authorizese of medical marijuana. you can't blame proponents of marijuana legalization for thinking they're winning especially when the polling date to backs them up. close to 60% of americans, 60% favor the legalizing of marijuana. i did not think i'd live to see that. beneath the surface there's a sophisticated well-funded lobbying campaign aimed at keeping marijuana illegal. in a piece in "the nation," writing, "it's more than a little odd community anti-drug "legalization's biggest threat is to the bottom line of these same special interests which could it be companies are work to keep marijuana legal because pot might be a cheaper, safer alternative to the legal prescription products they're in the business of selling right now? lee fang joins me. it was an impressive bit of reporting. you obtained a confidential document that showed the funding structure of one of these groups pushing hard against marijuana legalization and i was amazed to see it was a lot of big pharmaceutical companies

governor andrew cuomo visited today. >> we don't get tornados in new york.e seen tornado damage in other parts of the country. i haven't seen it in new york. we haven't seen a house just gone literally like a bomb exploded within the house. neighboring homes with 2x4's shot into the side of the home. >> ifill: the storm system struck from virginia to vermont. 200,000 customers were still without power today. >> woodruff: the mayor of new orleans during the hurricane katrina period, ray nagin, is going to federal prison for ten years for corrupt dealings. nagin was sentenced today for bribery, money laundering and wire fraud, among other crimes. he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, much of it involving rebuilding projects after the hurricane. >> ifill: in iraq, security forces found the bodies of 53 men blindfolded and handcuffed. the corpses were near a mainly shiite village about 60 miles southeast of baghdad. most of the victims had been shot. the motive for the attack remains unclear, but the discovery comes amid a sunni insurgency in n

barred statewide under a 2008 moratorium, but more than 75 towns have block it in case governor andrew cuomo lifts the ban. fracking involves blasting chemicals into cracks and shell rock to extract oil and gas, process critics warn can poison water supplies, destroy land, and fuel climate change. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the global media forum in, germany. first, this national news in the united states. in a closely watched case, the u.s. supreme court has ruled most private companies that claim religious objections can refuse to provide birth control in their employee health plans as required by the affordable care act. in a five to four ruling opposed by all three women on the court, the justices ruled that requiring closely held corporations to pay for contraception violates a federal law protecting religious freedom. the title closely held corporation applies to about 90% of u.s. businesses employing more than half of the u.s. workforce. the case concerns two compani

california governor jerry brown said that if the rangers win, he's going to give the new york governor andrew cuomoook about california and a package of rice cakes. [ laughter ] >> steve: what? >> jimmy: seriously? it sounds like christmas presents i would get from my grandma. [ laughter ] it's like -- here's one ping pong paddle and a purse. [ laughter ] that's right. brown would give cuomo some rice cakes and cuomo would give brown some chicken wing sauce. [ light laughter ] what the hell is going on with these bets? i mean that doesn't sound like a good bet. this is like crap in their pantries that no one ate. like oh hey, okay you win and i'll give you can of water chestnuts -- [ laughter ] ---and cream of mushroom soup and i have a half box of the bisquick with the top ripped off weird cause it's hard to open those things. [ laughter ] >> steve: i got some -- i got three packets of soy sauce and some walter crisp -- [ laughter ] >> jimmy: i'm going to give you some rubber bands and a square battery -- it still works. and a -- [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] awful bet. some international n

attorney for manhattan is threatening to investigate andrew cuomo's office.e move is the latest in an ongoing battle over the governor's decision to shut down his own ethics panel. the governor wausz -- the u.s. attorney's office has been investigating what's being called an abrupt shutdown of the commission and pursuing the panel's unfinished corruption cases. well house majority leader eric cantor taking to the floor on his last day as a majority leader will bring you some of his remarks. what he's saying in his farewell coming up. plus, they have never seen so few laws being passed. that's not it. but some people would say congress has fallen down a cliff like that. this is actually dramatic video of something that really did happen to a person, thank goodness she's okay. it's one of the stories we're following around the news nation. >>> plus, a texas store clerk goes ham on three robbers. it was all caught on tape. he just happens to be a champion fighter, if you can't tell by his moves, he's going to join me to talk about those moments. he's going to jo

york just became the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana under the bill signed by governor andrew cuomo. only nonsmokeable forms of the drug will be admitted in new york. >>> meanwhile in seattle, people started lining up yesterday outside the one and only pot shop. it opens at noon today. why noon when they can open at 8:00? well, the owner of cannabis city says, quote, know your audience. we're talking stoners here. that would be mean to say they need to get up at 5:00 a.m. it's unclear how many will open today. unclear will stores have a supply to meet demand? among those who will be in line this tomorrow allison. drug policy director of washington state's aclu. she's one of the architects of washington's legal marijuana law. allison, good to see you. after being so involved in this, how are you feeling now that the day is finally arrived in washington state? >> well, this is an amazing day. it's quite a historic moment to finally see the beginnings of the kron crete realization of what the voters passed in 2012. i'm very excited. >> let's take a look at the nuts and bolts of pot sal

and yesterday governor andrew cuomo held a signing ceremony making new york the 23rd state to authorizeana. you can't blame proponents of marijuana legalization for thinking they're winning especially when the polling date to backs them up. close to 60% of americans, 60% favor the legalizing of marijuana. i did not think i'd live to see that. beneath the surface there's a so fist kated well-funded lobbying campaign aimed at keeping marijuana illegal. in a piece in "the nation," writing, "it's more than a little odd community anti-drug coalitions of america and other groups leading the against relaxing marijuana laws including the partnership for drug-free kids, derive a significant portion of their budget from opioid manufacturers and other pharmaceutical companies." "legalization's biggest threat is to the bottom line of these same special interests which reap significant monetary advantages for pot prohibition that are rarely acknowledged in. public debate." could it be companies are work to keep marijuana legal because pot might be a cheaper, safer all teternative to the legal prescr