Colorado’s Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper says the state is moving forward with efforts to dismiss marijuana convictions for non-violent offenders.
“It’s roughly 40 cases where we can be absolutely sure there was no violence involved in the sentencing,” Hickenlooper told Cheddar.
Earlier in the day, Hickenlooper met with other state governors on the matter.
This comes on the heels of San Francisco’s District Attorney announcing the dismissal of more than 3,000 marijuana convictions dating back to 1975. Recreational marijuana is legal in both California and Colorado.
Hickenlooper pointed out the financial burden these marijuana convictions have had on the criminal justice system.
“This country spends $80 billion a year, if you include jails and prisons, on all the kinds of incarceration," he said.
Hickenlooper believes dismissing these convictions will cut back on prison costs and will help reintegrate non-violent offenders back into society.
The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-colorado-governor-john-hickenlooper-says-amazon-is-missing-out-if-it-doesnt-pick-denver-for-hq2).
A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
