Torrey Holistics employees, Matt Sullivan, left, and Taron McElroy, arrange jars of cannabis in San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. On Thursday, California issued its first batch of business licenses for the state's upcoming legal marijuana market, setting the stage for sales to begin to adults in January. The first license for recreational retail sales went to Torrey Holistics in San Diego. Photo: Julie Watson / Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — California on Thursday issued its first batch of business licenses for the state’s upcoming legal marijuana market, setting the stage for sales to begin in January.
The first temporary license was awarded to Pure CA, which does business as Moxie brand products, a company known for its cannabis extracts.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” said Moxie CEO Jordan Lams, who credited “a lot of the stars aligning” for being awarded the first distributor license for recreational pot.
“California has been without regulations for a very long time. So there is going to be a transition period,” he added, referring to the changes coming in 2018 with legal cultivation and sales.
The release of the initial 20 temporary licenses, good for 120 days, represents another steppingstone toward legal purchases, which were approved by voters last year.
“We plan to issue many more before Jan. 1,” Lori Ajax, the state’s top marijuana regulator, said in a statement.
The first license for recreational retail sales went to Torrey Holistics in San Diego, which submitted a 60-page lease, diagrams and a detailed business plan.
Tony Hall, who opened the shop two years ago with a college friend, said he sees recreational marijuana taking off like the wine and craft beer industries.
Customers go through an electronic security gate manned by a guard. Once inside, the business looks like a stylish pharmacy with wood floors and Christmas decorations.
“The taboo part is slowly going to be removed and this is going to be like any other business,” Hall said.
In general, California will treat cannabis like alcohol, allowing people 21 and older to legally possess up to an ounce and grow six marijuana plants at home.
Come January, the newly legalized recreational sales will be merged with the state’s two-decade-old medical marijuana market, which is also coming under much stronger regulation.
The state and local governments have been rushing to develop rules for the new industry. A patchwork is emerging with some cities embracing legal sales and others banning commercial pot activity.
In the background is widespread uncertainty about whether President Donald Trump’s administration will attempt to intervene in states where marijuana is legal.
As marijuana is illegal in the eyes of the federal government, major banks are leery to do business with dispensaries and growers so much of the business is conducted in cash.
FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2017, file photo, The Walt Disney Co. logo appears on a screen above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Disney is buying a large part of the Murdoch family's 21st Century Fox in a $52.4 billion deal, announced Thursday, Dec. 14, including film and television studios, cable and international TV businesses as it tries to meet competition from technology companies in the entertainment business. Photo: Richard Drew / Associated Press
NEW YORK — Disney is buying a large part of Fox, but Fox News Channel and other U.S. television businesses are staying with the Murdoch family.
Here’s a look at what the Disney and Murdoch empires will look like under The Walt Disney Co.’s $52.4 billion deal for 21st Century Fox:
THE DISNEY BANNER
Besides classics such as Mickey Mouse and Goofy, Disney already owns several iconic franchises, including the Muppets, “Star Wars” and Marvel superhero movies and comics. It operates a major movie studio and several TV networks, including ABC, ESPN, the Disney Channel and Freeform.
With the deal, Disney gets the Fox movie business, including Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox 2000. Fox held rights to some Marvel characters; this deal will bring Marvel’s X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool under the Disney roof. Disney will also take ownership of the “Avatar” franchise, which has alreadyspawned a Disney theme park; sequels are on the way.
In terms of television production, Disney will get Twentieth Century Fox Television, FX Productions and Fox21, with shows including “The Simpsons” and “Modern Family.”
Disney will get at least a 39 percent stake in European satellite-TV and broadcaster Sky. Fox is hoping to acquire the remainder of Sky before the deal closes, giving Disney full control. Disney is also acquiring Star India, a major media company with dozens of sports and entertainment channels.
Disney, a co-owner of Hulu, will get Fox’s share in the streaming company, giving Disney a majority control.
THE MURDOCH FAMILY
Before the sale, Fox will spin off some properties into a separate company, which the Murdoch family will control. Murdoch’s new Fox will have the Fox television network and stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and the U.S. sports channels FS1, FS2 and Big Ten Network. It will also keep the Fox studio lot in Los Angeles and an equity investment in Roku, a maker of TV-streaming devices.
The publishing and newspaper businesses will stay with Murdoch, as those have already been separated into a different company, News Corp. Those businesses include the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Sun and The Times in the U.K., and book publisher HarperCollins.
There’s been speculation the Murdoch family will try to combine News Corp. with what’s left of Fox, though Rupert Murdoch told investors Thursday, “We haven’t thought about combining with News Corp.”
BANGKOK — A primetime soap with sexual assault as a central plot point has inflamed social debate over the death penalty and rape culture.
Human rights activists and academics point out that while the primetime soap “Lah” (The Hunt) is sympathetic toward the view that rapists should pay the ultimate penalty, it is also hostile toward the prevalent rape culture found in lakorn, or soap operas.
Although sexual violence against women is a common plot points in lakorn, usually to punish morally suspect women or advance romantic relationships between protagonists and their love interests, “Lah” places the blame squarely on the attackers rather than the victims.
Characters in the series even explicitly argue for the death penalty for rape, the main reason being that if the rapists are not executed they will come out of jail and continue to sexually assault people.
Lalita “Mew” Panyopas as Matusorn in an episode of Lah.
In “Lah,” single mom Matusorn (Lalita “Mew” Panyopas) and her middle school student daughter Matukorn (Pornsroung “Xiang Xiang” Ruayruen) are gang raped by seven men. The men escape prosecution and prison because of their social status. In the meantime, Matthayom 1 student Matukorn suffers a mental breakdown. In revenge, Matusorn dons elaborate disguises to kill off the rapists in her own form of vigilante justice.
The hashtag #Lah2017 has been the top trending tweet in Thailand for several days as people weigh in on capital punishment, victim-blaming and vigilantism.
“Some people said the lakorn is too dramatic. Hmm?” @Chocooliie tweeted. “In a country where rape happens on trains, and a whole village can gang rape one woman, and where an uncle rapes a 5-year-old niece to death, what can be too dramatic? #Lah2017”
Chocoolie’s tweet was retweeted more than 42,000 times as of Thursday.
“We live in a society that teaches women not to dress provocatively because it risks rape, but we never taught men that they have no right to rape anyone,” @Mariko3407 tweeted in another widely shared message.
But Amnesty Thailand director Piyanut Khotsan said that the lakorn’s “eye-for-an-eye” solution shouldn’t be applied in real life.
“As for Amnesty, we view that rape is a terrible thing that should not happen to anyone. However, punishing it with the death penalty is not the solution. Our standpoint is that there should be no death penalty in any case, even rape.”
Piyanut said that society should “prevent rape and find solutions within the justice system” without resorting to the death penalty – a point illustrated by Matusorn’s trial for murder.
“Even the main character is judged for killing the rapists. Does she have to get the death penalty, too?” she said. “Lakorn or real, it’s a very emotional situation, but we have to remember everyone’s right to life.”
Both Piyanut and Pasavit Boonkongchuen, an expert on mass media culture at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Arts, said that death penalty for rapists can increase the danger for victims, since the rapist may kill or harm the victim to prevent them from speaking out.
Piyanut said that the death penalty does not point to a decreased sexual assault crime rate.
The scene where Matusorn and Matukorn are beaten and sexually assaulted.
‘Good Start’ to Cultivating an Anti-Rape Culture
Although the series may not change minds on the death penalty, Pasavit said it was “a good start to [cultivating] an anti-rape culture” and beneficial social debate.
“Portrayals of rape can spark debate on sensitive subjects that people never bring up over lunch,” Pasavit said. “In Thai society usually hot-button issues get space over other topics.”
In recent years, explosions of outrage in the wake of rape crimes has periodically flared up campaigns for death sentences. In February 2016, a group of minors who confessed to raping and killing a woman in Phattalung ignited a campaign led by an actress, while a man who raped and killed a 13-year-old girl on a train was sentenced to death amid public outroar.
The lakorn, Pasavit said, has a strong message against sexual violence, albeit one that is also pro-death penalty, because it places the blame on the perpetrators rather than the victim.
“The soap showed that the victims didn’t do anything wrong but were victims. This can increase understanding of consent in society,” he said. “The audience and the lakorn don’t blame the victims for how they were dressed or where they were walking at night.”
Matukorn is raped in a scene from the soap opera ‘Lah.’
Although Pasavit doesn’t think that the tide will be turned all at once against rape culture in lakorns will be as “anti-rape culture,” he says “it’s a good start against plots where the victim and rapist falls in love.”
Elements of the lakorn even apply to the worldwide #MeToo campaign initiated by sexual harassment allegations at Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein.
“In the lakorn, the little girl is the one who identifies the rapists. This could help reproduce in society courage in victims to identify their attackers, who usually do not step forward. The soap shows that the victim plays a big part in bringing the culprit to justice,” said the mass media expert.
The lakron’s official TV Instagram account even posted a photo asking viewers who agreed with the death penalty to type #TeamPaSoi and those who disagreed with #TeamLoongYai, according to the characters espousing those views in the drama. An overwhelming number wrote #TeamPaSroi.
In July during the filming of Lah, actor Pharunyoo “Tack” Rojanawuthitham, who plays one of the rapists stirred some online drama when he posted on-set photos with a caption asking fans who wants to get raped. Pharunyoo is often vocal in calling for the death penalty for rape when the issue comes up.
“Lah” (The Hunt) is currently airing on One 31 channel Mondays and Tuesdays from 9:15pm to 10:35pm and 11pm on Line TV. The 2017 version is the third remake, with previous versions aired in 1994 and 1977.
BANGKOK — A well-known human rights lawyer was summoned by police Thursday to hear charges of violating the Computer Crime Act and contempt of court.
Arnon Nampa, who has represented numerous pro-democracy activists and rights advocates, denied any wrongdoing and said the charges were lodged because of his activism against the military regime. A string of junta opponents has faced similar charges in recent months.
Arnon responded to the news by posting the summons letter he received from the police and in his irreverent and chauvinist style suggested that potential suitors seek him out while they can.
“Girls who want to screw this little lawyer better hurry because this time I’m in for serious charges = contempt of court, violating the court’s authority and the Computer Crime Act! If I am imprisoned, it will be long. You can send a message to my inbox. First come, first served,” he wrote today on Facebook.
Thailand’s contempt of court statute has become broadly interpreted to punish any remark deemed offensive or even critical of the courts and their rulings.
Apart from serving as a lawyer, Arnon also leads an activist group called Resistant Citizens.
The letter stated that the accusations were filed Dec. 5 by police Lt. Col. Supharat Kam-in, but Arnon was only informed today. It ordered Arnon to appear by Wednesday. The lawyer said he will inform police he isn’t free that day.
The summons did not specify any alleged wrongdoing. Arnon believes however that the charges relate to a Nov. 2 post on Facebook in which he criticized a court ruling that supporters of lese majeste convict Jatupat “Pai” Boonpattararaksa were guilty of contempt of court.
Asked if the charges would soften his criticism of the junta, Arnon, who has over 46,000 followers on Facebook, said no.
“I insist I will continue,” he said.
Violating the Computer Crime Act carries a maximum prison term of five years. Those guilty of contempt of court face up to six months in jail.
Cybercrimes and other offenses have been used in recent months to prosecute critics of the junta, which include the likes of politicians, activists and journalists.
Just this week, Pheu Thai Party spokeswoman Sunisa Divakorndamrong was charged with violating the Computer Crime Act and sedition for criticizing the regime online.
Sirawith Seritiwat leads an anti-junta demonstration on May 7, 2016, in Bangkok
BANGKOK — Pro-democracy activists will converge Friday to tell the military junta that its days in power are numbered.
In what appears to be a test case, protest leader Sirawith Seritiwat said Thursday that he has decided not to notify the police about the demonstration, which is set to take place 6pm at One Siam Skywalk, as required by a public assembly law.
“I didn’t notify the police. Political gatherings ought to be a permissible right. We are not violating anyone’s rights or shutting down the street,” said Sirawith, aka Ja New.
All political protests and gatherings of more than four people are banned by the junta. The Public Assembly Act 2015 passed by the junta-appointed parliament also requires demonstrators to notify local police no less than 24 hours in advance. Violators face fines of no more than 10,000 baht.
Sirawith, 25, said he received a phone call from a man claiming to be an army intelligence officer Wednesday enquiring about the planned demonstration.
“[He] asked me what I am going to do,” Sirawith said. “I said it’s like what I announced. He said I didn’t ask for permission right? I asked him back why should I seek permission?”
But the chief of Pathumwan Police Station said he already learned about the protest from social media. He also suggested that Sirawith would not be charged with any crimei f he agrees to keep the protest quiet and brief.
“I don’t think so,” Col. Popathorn Jitman said when asked whether police will disperse tomorrow’s rally. “Ja New has organized his activities here before. He was just here on Sept. 29.”
He added, “If his activity is quiet and only takes a short time, there shouldn’t be any problem.”
Sirawith said he expects about 100 demonstrators to show up for the event, which is titled “Time is Running Out.” He said he hopes the rally will remind dictators that their time are up.
He also said he will petition the junta’s rubber stamp parliament to launch a no-confidence motion against the military government next week.
In this Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017, photo, F, 22, who says she was raped by members of Myanmar's armed forces in June and again in September, cries as she speaks to The Associated Press in her tent in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. The Associated Press has found that the rape of Rohingya women by Myanmar's security forces has been sweeping and methodical. The AP interviewed 29 women and girls who say they were raped by Myanmar's armed forces, and found distinct patterns in their accounts, their assailants' uniforms and the details of the rapes themselves. The most common attack involved groups of soldiers storming into a house, beating any children inside and then beating and gang raping the women. Photo: Wong Maye-E / Associated Press
BANGKOK — International aid group Doctors Without Borders said its field survey has found at least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September in a crackdown by Myanmar’s security forces.
The group, known by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement made available Thursday that it had conducted the survey in refugee camps in Bangladesh and estimated that at least 9,000 Rohingya died in Myanmar’s Rakhine state between Aug. 25 and Sept. 24. About 630,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh to escape what the United Nations has called “ethnic cleansing.”
The estimate of the number of deaths announced by the group compares to Myanmar’s government figure of 400 in September as a result of attacks on police posts by Rohingya militants.
According to MSF, the dead included at least 730 children younger than 5.
Myanmar’s Information Ministry had said that most of the 400 dead were “extremist terrorists” who died during the military’s “clearance operations.” International aid and rights groups have accused the military of arson, killings and rapes of Rohingya villagers. Myanmar authorities blamed Rohingya militants for the violence.
Though more than 1 million ethnic Rohingya Muslims have lived in the country for generations, they were stripped of their citizenship, denied almost all rights and labeled stateless.
“The peak in deaths coincides with the launch of the latest ‘clearance operations’ by Myanmar security forces in the last week of August,” MSF Medical Director Sidney Wong in a statement.
She said the findings were staggering, both in terms of the numbers of people who reported a family member dead as a result of violence and horrific ways in which they said they were killed or severely injured.
MSF said that among children below the age of 5, more than 59 percent who were killed during that period were reportedly shot, 15 percent burnt to death in their homes, 7 percent beaten to death and 2 percent died due to land mine blasts.
Since the Myanmar’s military conducted operations against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state, the civilian government has barred most journalists, international observers and humanitarian aid workers from independently traveling to the region.
MSF said the numbers of deaths are likely to be an underestimation “as we have not surveyed all refugee resettlements in Bangladesh because the surveys don’t account for the families who never made it out of Myanmar.”
BANGKOK — As if one unexplained multi-million baht Richard Mille watch on the wrist of deputy junta leader Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan wasn’t controversial enough, yet another timepiece in a different model was spotted by social media sleuths in a recent photo.
The national anti-corruption commission, which is giving Prawit until Jan. 8 to clarify the first watch, said Thursday that it might look into the second Richard Mille watch as well. In response to the latest scandal to hit his military government, junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha on Tuesday urged the media not to be “too hard” on his second-in-command.
“Don’t be too hard on him,” Prayuth told reporters about Prawit and his Swiss wristwatch.
The self-proclaimed “online detective” page CSI LA posted on Wednesday a photo that purports to show another model of Richard Mille watch, an Model RM 30, strapped on Prawit’s right wrist while handing scholarships to students in Chanthaburi province on Sept. 11.
“No one would have said anything if he was a Hollywood star or a singer, but he’s an army general who is in power to solve corruption,” the page admin wrote.
A sales rep at PMT The Hourglass at Siam Paragon shopping mall said Thursday that Prawit is not listed as a customer of the shop, which is the sole distributor of the brand in Thailand.
The woman, who only identified her name as Som, said the watch shown in the CSI LA photo appears to be an RM 30. A titanium case Model RM 30 is sold at the shop for 3.59 million baht, the saleswoman said. The price goes up to 5 million baht for a white gold case. She added that she cannot tell from the photo if the one pictured was titanium or white gold.
The first Richard Mille watch on Prawit’s wrist, which was spotted when the general joined an official photo shoot of the new cabinet, was model RM 29 and costs 3.1 million baht in titanium and more if it’s in a white gold case, the saleswoman said.
The saleswoman, who said company’s policy prevents her from giving her full name, said the brand makes about 2,000 watches a year.
The photo prompted the National Anti-Corruption Commission to pledge action. Anti-graft commissioner Vorawit Sukboon said he will check if Prawit has declared the second Richard Mille as part of his assets, as required by the law, when he became deputy prime minister in 2014.
According to the anti-corruption regulations, political office holders must declare any belonging priced above 200,000 baht. Any failure to do so is punishable by up to six months in jail.
Over the past week, including today, Prawit has repeatedly refused to answer reporters’ questions about how he has obtained his first Richard Mille watch. He said he would only explain the issue to the anti-corruption commission.
Reports that he would tell the commission it was borrowed from a friend didn’t come to fruition after meeting a contemptuous response from the public.
TV footage of the mother being arrested Dec. 7 in Phitsanulok.
PHITSANULOK — The admin of the Line group where a mother and a stepfather streamed videos of them raping their 3-year-old boy remain at large by Thursday.
It’s been five days since the court issued a warrant for Pathumporn Mongkornchaiya, who allegedly paid the child’s parents to rape him for 400 baht. Other members in the group remain unidentified, police said.
“We’re still looking for her,” Songpol Sangkasem of Phitsanulok police said Thursday. “I can’t disclose where we’re looking for her since it could affect her movements.”
According to the arrested mother, “Ae” Pathumporn, 27, introduced her to the Line group and encouraged her as well as the other members to post the rape videos for money. The mother and stepfather who assaulted the 3-year-old boy did so at least three times for 400 baht each time, police said.
Songpol said police still has no concrete information of the whereabouts and identities of the other Line group members.
The victim’s mother was arrested on Dec. 7 and the stepfather on Sunday. Both were charged with violating the Computer Crime Act, human trafficking and sexually assaulting a child. Police said the same charges will be applied to Pathumporn and the other Line group members, said police.
BANGKOK — A prominent Redshirt leader will serve a year in prison for defamation after the Supreme Court reaffirmed his conviction Thursday morning.
While the court rejected Jatuporn Prompan’s final appeal of his 2009 conviction for making libelous remarks about Democrat Party leader and former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, it also halved his original sentence of two years to a year in jail.
Jatuporn was previously convicted in 2015 for a speech in which he accused Abhisit of ordering soldiers to kill Redshirt supporters earlier that year at a protest in Bangkok’s Din Daeng district.
Jatuporn, 52, leads the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), a Redshirt umbrella organization.
Abhisit filed defamation charges against Jatuporn in response. Court of First Instance and Appeal Court formerly sentenced him Jatuporn to two years in jail. The Supreme Court today reduced the sentence to one year in prison because he confessed.
Jatuporn has been in jail on separate charges since July. Given the ruling, he’s expected to remain behind bars until July 2018, pending the outcomes of other criminal cases against him.
