*By Carlo Versano*
The competition is on for new medicinal marijuana licenses in New Jersey after Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy prioritized cannabis production when he took office. The CEO of one potential licensee, Moxie, thinks the state has "passed the tipping point" for accepting medical pot at the state level.
Jordan Lams, founder and CEO of the medicinal marijuana producer, told Cheddar as he awaited news on whether his company had been awarded one of the licenses that Moxie has a fully built-out, 16-acre farm and greenhouse operation at the ready ー which would help New Jersey get its operations up to scale quickly.
"The state can count on us to do what we say we will," he said.
Lams praised Gov. Murphy for "taking ownership" of medical marijuana policy after it had languished under previous administrations.
There is now so much pent-up demand from patients Lams said, that the state has concerns over shortages.
The license that Moxie hopes to win is a fully-integrated, "seed-to-sale" license, though Lams said he will also apply for licenses to just grow and process, if this one is not granted.
Lams, who started a career in medical marijuana after his younger sister died of leukemia, now advocates for responsible regulations in the nascent cannabis industry.
He said he's seeing a market that's "developing every day."
"Every day someone who never would have touched this before is really coming into the marketplace. It's global at this point."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/moxie-vies-for-nj-medicinal-marijuana-license).
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
Japanese automakers Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi are dropping their talks on business integration.
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
