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Voters in Oklahoma, a state with one of the most lenient medical marijuana laws in the country, said “no” Tuesday to allowing recreational pot sales and possession.

The law would have allowed Oklahomans to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and to own up to a dozen marijuana plants. Almost one in 10 Oklahoma adults has a medical license to buy marijuana. Oklahoma does not have a list of medical conditions required to qualify for marijuana purchases and patients can get a doctor’s referral online that is good for a couple of years.

Texans closely watched the vote because the Oklahoma law would have allowed out-of-state residents to buy Okie pot.

Poll after poll shows the majority of Americans favor allowing recreational pot use.

(Gallup)

Gallup’s surveys show growing support stretching five decades. The support spreads across many social categories.

(Gallup)

(CNN)

Many of the states that approved the recreational use of marijuana are now collecting taxes on it. CNN reports:

Activists supporting Oklahoma’s legalization measure argue that recreational marijuana sales could bring in billions in tax revenue. Of the 21 states where recreational use is currently legal, 19 are collecting taxes on marijuana as of February, according to the Tax Policy Center.

The battle over family seating on airlines

Right now, only three airlines promise “family seating,” which the federal Department of Transportation defines as, “A parent who purchases airline tickets for a family should receive a guarantee from the airline that it will seat the parent and child together without fees or a last-minute scramble at the gate or having to ask other passengers to give up their seat to allow the parent and child to sit together. “

The DOT opened a new dashboard (see below) that shows which airlines have the family seating promise and which do not. The notion is that putting the green checkmarks and red Xs in front of the public may pressure all of the airlines to comply voluntarily.

(U.S. Department of Transportation)

It is interesting that Frontier would sign on to the family seating policy given that airline is historically one of the leaders in charging fees for things like baggage and selected seating.

This effort is part of the DOT’s campaign against what the Biden administration calls “junk fees,” which the president says are unnecessary and hidden fees that can cost each of us hundreds of dollars a month. The administration is also pressing airlines to fix “junk fees” with a “proposed rule to require airlines and online booking services to show the full price of a plane ticket up front, including baggage and other fees. DOT also published a dashboard of airline policies when flights are delayed or cancelled due to issues under the airlines’ control, leading 9 airlines to change policies to guarantee coverage of hotels and 10 airlines to guarantee coverage of meals, none of which was guaranteed before.”

Dish TV still suffering from ransomware attack

Dish TV is using careful language to describe why there are still service interruptions for its nearly 10 million satellite and Sling TV customers. But a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission confirms that a cyberattack is causing the problems.

Dish uses couched language on its website, calling the interruption a “cybersecurity incident.”

On February 23, we experienced a cybersecurity incident that has affected some of our internal communications, customer call centers, and internet sites. We immediately activated our incident response and business continuity plans to contain, assess and remediate the situation. Cybersecurity experts and outside advisors were retained to assist in the evaluation of the situation, and we notified appropriate law enforcement authorities.

But the company just filed a notice with the SEC explaining it was hit with a ransomware attack and says future earnings might be affected by the attack:

These statements include, but are not limited to, express or implied forward-looking statements relating to the Corporation’s expectations regarding its ability to contain, assess and remediate the ransomware attack and the impact of the ransomware attack on the Corporation’s employees, customers, business, operations or financial results.

The company said that some customer data may have been stolen.

Dish is not naming the hacker but various online security websites have named a known hacking threat as the probable invader. Dish has also not said if it was asked to pay or if it did pay a ransom to the hacker.

A new report on global ransomware says that while the number of cyberattacks this year will rival 2022, the number may go down a little because victims are increasingly refusing to pay ransoms. The report identifies new targets that will be under attack in 2023:

William Altman, CyberCube’s Principal Cyber Security Consultant, said: “Ransomware gangs are currently targeting lower-profile critical infrastructure operations and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in healthcare, agriculture, and food supply chains.

He added: “Businesses in these industries are among those who can least afford the downtime associated with ransomware and extortion attacks, and often lack resources for effective cyber security in the face of well-resourced and determined attackers.”

France proposes raising retirement age to 64, millions protest in national strike

The retirement age in the United States is 66.5 years if you want your full Social Security benefits, and age 65 if you want Medicare. Meanwhile, France is considering raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and millions of people went on strike and filled the streets in protests this week. Unions say they could be more strikes this week. Already the strikes have closed schools, interrupted fuel supplies and disrupted train service.

Iceland, Israel and Italy all set the retirement age at 67. Spain, Portugal and Canada are similar to the U.S. at 66 years. Many other countries set retirement at a younger age. Here is a sampling:

(TradingEconomics.com)

Is it harder for “nice people” to save money?

The American Psychological Association published the findings of Columbia University researchers who tried to figure out what might motivate people to save more money. They looked at the habits of more than 6,000 people and found that “people high in agreeableness are less likely to save than others, possibly because they’ve been taught that valuing people and valuing money are at odds with one another, and that ‘nice people’ don’t value money.”

The researchers said, “In the U.S. and around the world, savings rates are critically low. In October 2022, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Americans save just 2.3% of their income, the lowest in nearly two decades. Although people report wanting to save more money, saving is difficult—in part because it requires people to overcome the psychological hurdle of making a sacrifice in the present to benefit themselves in the future.”