Redlands Daily Facts
Any assumption that all of the state’s marijuana backers are in support of this fall’s ballot initiative to legalize cannabis would be incorrect. “My position is that I am for legalization but against this particular bill,” wrote Los Angeles attorney Jennifer Soares in an e-mail. “From an attorney’s perspective, I cannot endorse a bill that I feel is poorly written, even if I am pro-legalization.”
The Good Neighbor Coalition’s (GNC) anti-Walmart initiative will appear on a ballot in June if the City Council does not adopt outright. The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters counted the number on the initiative petition after the GNC filed it Oct. 14. The petition had 5,830 valid signatures, meaning Redlands voters will see the initiative sooner rather than later. “The (City) Council still has an option to make it a law,” said City Clerk Sam Irwin. “If that doesn’t happen, it will be on a ballot in June.”
With about a month left, a group bent on banning a new Wal-Mart in Redlands is close to having enough signatures for an Anti-Wal-Mart initiative to show up on a June 2010 ballot. The Good Neighbor Coalition is a Redlands-based volunteer organization trying to gather enough signatures of Redlands voters for an initiative that could ban Wal-Marts - and similar retailers - from building in Redlands. The group has until mid-October to gather signatures from at least 15 percent of Redlands’ registered voters for the initiative to appear on a ballot.
California state lawmakers would be tested for drugs on the first day of every session under a proposed initiative. The initiative backers plan to collect the roughly 434,000 signatures they need using all volunteers. Initiative experts say the campaign likely will not make the ballot supporters do not use paid signature gatherers.