I think we could all use some good news, especially during a celebration holiday, so I pulled together three items that are reversals of previous bad news.

1. A landmark reversal in favor of medical marijuana
2. A reversed ruling about the state of the environment
3. A 71-year-old hero will not, after all, be charged

1. About a week ago, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirmed the right of seriously ill patients to grow and use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. The suit was brought by two California women, and the John Doe growers for one of them, against Attorney General John Ashcroft and Asa Hutchinson, Administrator of the DEA. In RAICH V. ASHCROFT, the court, in reversing a District court ruling, had this to say (bolding is mine):

[10] On the basis of our consideration of the four factors, we find that the CSA [Controlled Substances Act] as applied to the appellants, is likely unconstitutional. See McCoy, 323 F.3d at 1124 (“It is particularly important that in the field of criminal law enforcement, where state power is preeminent, national authority be limited to those areas in which interstate commerce is truly affected. . . . The police power is, essentially, reserved to the states, Morrison, 529 U.S. at 618 . . . . That principle must guide our review of Congress’s exercise of Commerce Clause power in the criminal law area.”); see also Morrison, 529 U.S. at 610 (“[A] fair reading of Lopez shows that the noneconomic, criminal nature of the conduct at issue was central to our decision in that case.”).

2. Bjorn Lomborg's 2001 book "The Skeptical Environmentalist" exposed the Green movement's exaggerated and doom-laden view of the state of the planet, producing the scientific facts to show the environment was actually doing much better and, in many instances, had improved markedly in recent years.

Lomborg's book naturally aroused the ire of those who make great sums of money with their "sky is falling" fear-mongering, who succeeded in getting the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD) to effectively accuse him of bending the facts to suit his arguments.

Lomborg's opponents tried to use the judgement to get him removed from his post as director of Denmark's Environmental Assessment Institute.

They failed and now the DCSD committee, which operates under the aegis of the country's national academy of sciences, has itself come in for criticism over the way it handled the issue. Full coverage by the BBC News.

3. NO charges will be filed against 71-year-old hero Melvin B. Spaulding. Spaulding, who fired a gun at three men allegedly beating up his 63-year-old friend, striking one of them in the arm, will not be charged with attempted murder, prosecutors said. Spaulding fired his .22-caliber pistol at the men on Nov. 30 after telling them to stop hitting and kicking his friend George Lowe, he told deputies when he was arrested.

When the story was first reported, authorities were considering filing charges against Spaulding. The evidence showed Spaulding was trying to prevent Lowe from being killed or from suffering serious bodily harm, and the law allows such intervention, said Bruce Bartlett, a Pinellas-Pasco assistant state attorney.

Have a pleasant holiday!