Soft drink brand Gatorade says it is to drop a Tiger Woods-endorsed product but said it was not related to revelations about the golfer’s private life.

PepsiCo-owned Gatorade said the decision to axe the Tiger Focus drink was made a few months ago.

Since the 14-times major winner crashed his car on 27 November, many women have claimed to have had affairs with Woods. Read the full story

Meteorologists said the snow storm closing in on the Iowa City area will create a “truly life-threatening situation,” in the next few days.

The snow storm is expected to drop more than a foot of snow on the Iowa City area, follow it up with blizzard conditions and leave bitter cold in its wake.

“Everything you can expect in the worst of winter weather is coming our way in the next few days,” said Andy Ervin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities. Read the full story

In September, ladymag Marieclaire ruffled some feathers when it published a piece about women who smoke weed. But its most interesting effect was not the “marijuana moms” chatter it unleashed, and instead the fact that it brought to the mainstream media a more open discussion of the fact that women can be avid tokers, too.

Public acceptance of pot is at an all-time high, and the fact that women have drastically changed their attitudes may be what is most fascinating about the sea change in public opinion — and policy — regarding marijuana. In 2005, only 32 percent of polled women told Gallup they approved legalizing pot, but this year 44 percent of them were for it, compared to 45 percent of men. In effect, women have narrowed what had been a 12-point gender gap. Read the full story

By Dan Cook

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – The United States’ first marijuana cafe opened on Friday, posing an early test of the Obama administration’s move to relax policing of medical use of the drug.

The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give certified medical marijuana users a place to get hold of the drug and smoke it — as long as they are out of public view — despite a federal ban.

“This club represents personal freedom, finally, for our members,” said Madeline Martinez, Oregon’s executive director of NORML, a group pushing for marijuana legalization. Read the full story

The American Medical Assn. changes its policy to promote clinical research and development of cannabis-based medicines and alternative delivery methods.

The American Medical Assn. on Tuesday urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research.

The nation’s largest physicians organization, with about 250,000 member doctors, the AMA has maintained since 1997 that marijuana should remain a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive category, which also includes heroin and LSD.

In changing its policy, the group said its goal was to clear the way to conduct clinical research, develop cannabis-based medicines and devise alternative ways to deliver the drug.

“Despite more than 30 years of clinical research, only a small number of randomized, controlled trials have been conducted on smoked cannabis,” said Dr. Edward Langston, an AMA board member, noting that the limited number of studies was “insufficient to satisfy the current standards for a prescription drug product.” Read the full story

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 games are sure to be a great time for everyone involved. When the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 games were announced, there was celebration all over the streets of this Brazilian city.

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 games come as a surprise to many that assumed that President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Oprah would be able to sway the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to select Chicago as the 2016 Olympic Games venue. Read the full story

Medical pot may make ballot
By Austin Counts

Print this article
Share this article
Published: Thursday, October 1, 2009
Updated: Thursday, October 1, 2009

Amir Adib/ Arizona Daily Wildcat
Marijuana reform advocates say patients in need of herbal pain medication are closer to relief, as efforts increase in Arizona to turn out support for a proposition in favor of the legalization of medical marijuana.

Read the full story

Bryon Russell has a message for Michael Jordan: Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be waiting in California – in my basketball shorts.

“I’ll play his a— right now,” Russell told Yahoo! Sports. “This is a call-out for him to come play me. He can come out here in his private jet and come play. He’s got millions of dollars. He can pay for the jet. He can meet me at the Recreation Center in Calabasas. Read the full story

Sept. 14, 2009 — Attention, countries of the world: Do you know where your moon rocks are?

The discovery of a fake moon rock in the Netherlands’ national museum should be a wake-up call for more than 130 countries that received gifts of lunar rubble from both the Apollo 11 flight in 1969 and Apollo 17 three years later. Read the full story

Remembering Tupac (1971-1996)

It almost slipped my mind today that this day marks the 13 year anniversary of Tupac Shakur’s passing. With my head consumed with all the VMA coverage I have been swamped in, I had to pull myself away from the glitz to pay homage to Hip-Hop’s most prized possession. Read the full story

The answer to the eternal mystery of what makes up a Filet-O-Fish sandwich turns out to involve an ugly creature from the sunless depths of the Pacific, whose bounty, it seems, is not limitless.

The world’s insatiable appetite for fish, with its disastrous effects on populations of favorites like red snapper, monkfish and tuna, has driven commercial fleets to deeper waters in search of creatures unlikely to star on the Food Network.

One of the most popular is the hoki, or whiptail, a bug-eyed specimen found far down in the waters around New Zealand and transformed into a major export. McDonald’s alone at one time used roughly 15 million pounds of it each year. Read the full story

Fishermen near the Minquiers – islands under the jurisdiction of Jersey – found the isopod, a type of louse, inside a weaver fish.

Marine researcher Paul Chambers, from the Société Jersiaise, was one of the fishing party and identified the find.

He said he was surprised to find the isopod away from the Mediterranean sea.

Isopods are normally about 2cm (1in) long and live in fish, surviving on the animal’s blood, in warm waters. Read the full story

SAO PAULO — The coach of a second-division soccer club in Brazil says armed men threatened players in the locker room after a loss.

Four men carrying guns confronted the players following a 2-1 home loss to Vila Nova on Tuesday, Portuguesa coach Rene Simoes said. The defeat extended the team’s winless streak to six games.

“What kind of football is this? What kind of world is this?” said Simoes, who coached Jamaica at the 1998 World Cup and also coached Brazil’s women’s national team. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my career. It’s unbelievable.” Read the full story

LOS ANGELES, California, September 1, 2009 (ENS) – The level of inorganic mercury in the blood of American women has been increasing since 1999 and it is now found in the blood of one in three women, according to a new analysis of government data for more than 6,000 American women.

“My study found compelling evidence that inorganic mercury deposition within the human body is a cumulative process, increasing with age and overall in the population over time,” said author Dan Laks, a neuroscience researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Read the full story