(NEW YORK) — Looking for a holiday or vacation rental this summer? Beware the fake listing.
It’s a scam that Morgan MacFarlane encountered when she booked an Airbnb room for a trip to Mexico.
After she paid and showed up to the destination shown on the Airbnb listing to check in, she learned there was no reservation under her name.
“When I got there, I started speaking with the manager who was working, who explained to me that it was $15 more U.S. a night, which I was like I’ve already paid, like I already have a booking,” MacFarlane said.
According to MacFarlane, the listing photos, address and phone number of the place she arrived matched up with what she saw in person — but there was one catch.
“He was like, ‘This isn’t the right hotel,’ that’s when I was like, ‘Oh, something’s really not right,'” MacFarlane recalled.
MacFarlane said she reached out to Airbnb for assistance and that’s when she learned the listing was fake.
Both Airbnb and the hotel had been targeted by a bad host and the actual hotel wasn’t even open yet.
Airbnb told Good Morning America that fake listings have “no place” on their website and platform. In MacFarlane’s case, Airbnb said the bad host was later banned and has never received any money through Airbnb.
Airbnb said they refunded MacFarlane the money she paid and the hotel gave her a real reservation.
To avoid such pitfalls, Amy Nofziger, a director of fraud victim support at AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, said to look for red flags.
“If anyone is asking you to pay in a nontraditional form of payment, like a prepaid gift card, Bitcoin or even via a peer-to-peer app like Venmo, Cash App or Zelle, those are huge red flags,” Nofziger said.
If you’re booking online, Nofziger said to check for other reviews and use a credit card to charge the reservation.
“Find out what the actual hotel is charging for that room and most likely, you’re probably going to get a better deal from the hotel directly anyways,” Nofziger said.
It is also a good idea to confirm a booking has been made by contacting the property before traveling.
(NEW YORK) — Jamilla Vanbuckley would like to buy a home one day.
A correctional counselor in New York City, Vanbuckley has been living with her parents and tucking as much money as possible into her savings account. But by late summer, she expects a new expense to enter her monthly budget — gradually paying off the $68,000 she owes in student debt.
“I’m gonna have to dip into my savings to start paying back on August 29,” she said, mentioning the day that payments for direct federal student loans are set to resume. “And now that kind of hinders the goals I had set for myself for the next couple of years.”
Vanbuckley is among the 37 million borrowers who have not been required to pay their student loans since March 2020 due to legislative and executive action during the pandemic.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona confirmed in May that the Biden administration intends to restart student loan payments by 60 days after June 30, a plan later cemented in the government’s deal to suspend the debt ceiling.
However, advocates worry that the resumption of payments and the legal challenges to President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt can result in catastrophic consequences for vulnerable borrowers.
The uncertainty comes amid a change in debt servicing companies for millions of borrowers and staffing shortages that experts see as unprecedented in consumer finance, resulting in logistical headaches, hourslong wait times, and potential communication errors in billing.
“Anyone who has been paying attention to the student loan system sees a train wreck coming, and there’s very little time to try to avoid it at this point,” said Abby Shafroth, a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and the director of its Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.
Why is this change happening?
The original pause to student loan payments originated from the early days of the pandemic, according to University of Wisconsin Madison professor Nick Hillman.
Fearing that the sudden spike in unemployment might lead many borrowers to default, the government put millions of federal direct student loans into administrative forbearance and dropped their interest rate to zero percent.
With the end of the federal COVID emergency, the government lost its ability to continue the student loan pause, originally authorized through the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, according to Hillman.
The deal made by congressional Republicans and Biden to suspend the debt ceiling confirmed that student debt payments would resume this summer. With the change, experts worry that the historically low rate of delinquency for student loans will return to the previous high of 10 percent or worse.
“We are anticipating what has been described as a wave of student loan defaults and delinquencies,” said Cody Hounanian, executive director of nonprofit Student Debt Crisis Center.
What factors complicate the change?
Without having to pay for student loans over the last three years, many Americans have created strict budgets that do not include a monthly student loan payment, according to Shafroth. With a new monthly student loan bill averaging $160, something in these budgets has to give.
“Leisurely spending is probably gone,” Robert Bistoury, a 2020 graduate of Baruch College who said he has $27,000 in student debt, told ABC News.
Both Hounanian and Shafroth worry that borrowers will be cutting into their budgets for rent, medical expenses and food.
“For the majority of people, this is just a new bill that they have to pay, the size of which they may not even realize quite yet,” said University of California Irvine professor Dalié Jiménez.
Complicating the resumption of payments is the logistical hurdle of suddenly resuming payments for millions of Americans, which a Department of Education spokesperson described to ABC News as “unprecedented” and “herculean.”
Multiple companies that service student loans have left the industry, according to Shafroth, meaning that millions of borrowers will also be dealing with an unfamiliar company that might not have up-to-date contact information for borrowers.
For example, Vanbuckley’s student loan servicer switched from Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, which no longer services student loans, to NelNet — a transition she described as relatively smooth. Others like Hounanian described a more chaotic switch, including receiving false information from his servicer that needed to be corrected.
Shafroth added that many loan servicers have reduced their staff during the pandemic and will need to hire and train new employees to handle the demand for assistance, further complicated by a smaller-than-desired budget for the Department of Education this year.
Those constraints “may lead to some longer processing times and call hold times than would be ideal for this situation,” Scott Buchanan, the executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, said in a statement to ABC News.
The Department of Education spokesperson told ABC News that it recognizes the return to repayment will result in “significant financial hardship” for borrowers but is committed to helping borrowers.
Perhaps the most significant unknown for borrowers is the fate of the Biden administration’s plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in student debt, which is facing a legal challenge in the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, Biden vetoed a bill that would reverse the debt relief program, and the bill faces low chances of a successful override vote in Congress.
“It does give me some anxiety…it is what it is, and I have to budget accordingly,” Vanbuckley said about the stalled plan.
Who is most vulnerable?
Experts worry that the shift back to student loan payments places financial hardship on vulnerable Americans and presents an opportunity for bad actors. For borrowers who are still determining how they might pay their monthly student loan bill, some may turn to companies that promise student loan relief but are nothing more than scams that prey on vulnerable consumers, according to Hounanian.
“We know that a lot of companies prey on the confusion and anxiety and stress that people are feeling about their student loans,” Shafroth said.
Before the change, experts recommend that borrowers confirm the contact information for their loan servicers and their repayment plan. The Department of Education offers a new income-driven program for borrowers and has discharged loans for borrowers who qualify through public service, disability, or college wrongdoing.
Hillman particularly encouraged borrowers under $20,000 in debt to confirm their servicer and repayment plan, especially given the uncertainty with loan forgiveness.
According to Hillman, while six-figure loans often drive media attention, borrowers with “smaller” loans who never completed their degrees face the highest rate of default.
(NEW YORK) — Kennedy Davenport, a drag queen, rejoiced when she learned last year that she would be featured on apparel in the forthcoming Pride collection at Target.
“You never imagine opportunities like this,” Davenport told ABC News, comparing the breakthrough to her previous role competing on the TV show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
For Davenport, elation turned to disappointment last month when Target announced it would remove some Pride products from stores in response to anti-LGBTQ harassment faced by employees, she said. Davenport says she does not know whether products with her image were removed.
“The bigwigs at Target should continue to take a stand with us and not be so quick to fold,” Davenport said, calling on the company to return the full Pride collection to their shelves. “I would love for Target to put on their boxing gloves and fight.”
Davenport is among five artists and organizations tied to this year’s Pride collection at Target who criticized the company’s response to the backlash in interviews with ABC News.
Critics acknowledged the difficult position faced by Target when anti-LGBTQ backlash nationwide boiled over last month into a boycott and reported employee harassment, including bomb threats at stores in Utah, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
However, some critics said, the decision to remove Pride products marked a retreat from the company’s longstanding support of the LGBTQ community that could further embolden extremists and imperil vulnerable people.
“The thing that’s so disappointing is that the leadership that Target has shown over such a long period of time seems to be wavering in a moment when the attacks on our community are increasing,” Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, the executive director of LGBTQ advocacy group GLSEN, which has partnered with the company for more than a decade, told ABC News.
Rob Smith, the founder and CEO of The Phluid Project, an LGBTQ-owned clothing company that has placed products in Target stores for three years, expressed disappointment over the decision to remove some products from the Pride collection nationwide rather than focus on specific stores at heightened risk of threats.
“It’s a big blanket decision that didn’t seem appropriate,” Smith told ABC News, noting that he does not think his products were among those removed. “I would’ve made a different decision if I was in charge.”
An LGBTQ designer who contributed products to this year’s Pride collection at Target — and requested anonymity because they did not want to be publicly identified speaking about the company — said the response to the backlash leaves them “questioning how committed to the LGBTQ community these companies really are and how much we can trust their word.”
Target, which has seen its stock decline about 13% since the boycott began last month, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
In a statement last month, Target said it removed some products from this year’s Pride collection because the company “experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work.”
“Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year,” the company said in the statement.
More than 200 LGBTQ advocacy groups, including GLSEN and the Human Rights Campaign, signed a public letter on Monday calling on Target to make all Pride products available for sale online and in-store, reaffirm the company’s commitment to the LGBTQ community and ensure employee safety.
The boycott of Target follows a similar consumer protest against Anheuser-Busch InBev over a Bud Light promotion in April from a trans influencer. Bud Light sales have declined for seven consecutive weeks, and Anheuser-Busch’s stock has plummeted about 20%.
Meanwhile, the boycott of Bud Light gained momentum after the company’s initial response was perceived as conciliatory by some LGBTQ advocates, prompting frustration on the left.
MORE: The boycott against Bud Light is hammering sales. Experts explain why.
“It’s my hope that other corporations see what’s happening to Anheuser-Busch, see what’s happening to Target and choose a different path,” Willingham-Jaggers said.
To be sure, some of the people tied to this year’s Pride collection identified the root cause of the unrest as a rise in right-wing extremism centered on the LGBTQ community, which they said has put companies like Target in a difficult position.
“On the one hand, they risk losing sales from individuals who oppose the LGBTQ+ community,” a second designer who contributed to this year’s Pride collection told ABC News. “While on the other hand, they risk alienating the pro-LGBTQ+ community, which may result in a loss of sales as well.”
As of last month, more than 520 anti-LGBTQ bills had been introduced in state legislatures, including over 220 bills specifically targeting transgender and non-binary people, the Human Rights Campaign found.
Smith, who said he has been in contact with Target often since the decision to remove some Pride products, said he remains optimistic that the company will respond more forcefully to the backlash.
“Target has continually done a good job and been a good leader,” he said. “They just need a moment to reset and recalibrate.”
(NEW YORK) — CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht is stepping down, parent company Warner Bros. Discovery said on Wednesday.
Over a 13-month tenure, Licht vowed to institute down-the-middle coverage but faced backlash over decisions such as a recent town hall event with former President Donald Trump.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 22,530 pounds of beef chili with beans that was meant to be served in schools has been recalled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
J.T.M. Provisions Company announced the recall of its “frozen, ready-to-eat beef chili with beans products that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically white plastic,” the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said on Sunday.
The affected items from the Harrison, Ohio-based food manufacturer were produced on Feb. 27.
The products in question include a 30 pound case of “CHILI WITH BEANS” that contains six 5-pound boilable bags of “CP5309 CHILI WITH BEANS” with lot code 23058 printed on the bag, and “February 27, 2023” and lot code 23058 printed on the case, the USDA wrote in the recall announcement.
“The products subject to recall bear establishment number ‘EST. 1917’ inside the USDA mark of inspection on the case. These products were purchased by USDA Foods for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). These items were shipped to distributors in California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin,” the statement said.
The FSIS was first notified of the problem from the company after it received “a customer complaint about semi-rigid white plastic material found in the frozen, ready-to-eat beef chili with beans.”
As of time of publication, there have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.
The FSIS said it’s “concerned that some product may be in school freezers or refrigerators” and advised all school nutrition professionals who may have purchased the products not to prepare or consume them.
“These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase,” the agency stated.
Consumers with additional food safety questions are encouraged to call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 513-367-4900 or live chat online.
(NEW YORK) — Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America on Tuesday that the company’s first-ever spatial computer, the Apple Vision Pro, is the “most advanced piece of electronics equipment out there.”
“It’s tomorrow’s engineering, today,” Cook told Robin Roberts. “So you’re going to live in the future and you’re going to do it today.”
Apple announced a series of new products at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, including the Apple Vision Pro.
The device, which will cost at least $3,499, allows users to manipulate apps, messages and other virtual programs displayed within their physical environment, Apple said.
When individuals approach a user’s physical space, the glass appears transparent, allowing a user’s counterpart to see his or her eyes, the company added.
In his interview with Good Morning America, Cook said the product marks a turning point for the company.
“We started working on augmented reality quite some time ago because we saw it as a big idea, as a profound technology,” Cook said. “This is the next chapter in that, and it’s a huge leap.”
“You can immerse yourself in movies, TV shows, sports, and feel like you’re right there. You can take photos and videos and then enjoy those and bring back memories as if you were there and repeating that experience,” Cook explained.
“It’s not about one thing, it’s — it is a platform. And so we can’t wait to unleash it to the developers so they can begin to work on applications for it,” he added.
Disney+ will be among the apps available for use on day one. Disney is the parent company of ABC.
Apple Vision Pro will be available for purchase online and in stores in the U.S. early next year, with additional countries to follow later in 2024, Apple said.
In the exclusive sit down, Cook also said artificial intelligence poses serious risks such as bias and misinformation, calling for government regulation to protect against potential abuses.
The comments thrust one of the tech industry’s most prominent executives into a policy discussion that has drawn heightened interest in Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley since the emergence of ChatGPT and other advanced conversation bots.
“I do think that it’s so important to be very deliberate and very thoughtful in the development and the deployment of these,” Cook said. “They can be so powerful that you worry about things like bias, things like misinformation — maybe worse in some cases.”
The rapid development of AI requires government intervention but also places responsibility on tech companies, Cook said.
“Regulation is something that’s needed in this space,” Cook said. “Regulation will have a difficult time staying even with the progress on this because it’s moving so quickly, and so I think it’s incumbent on companies as well to regulate themselves.”
With the remarks, Cook joins a chorus of industry leaders cautioning about possible negative consequences of AI.
Last week, hundreds of business leaders and public figures — including Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT — sounded a sobering alarm over what they described as the threat of mass extinction posed by artificial intelligence.
Still, Cook said conversation programs such as ChatGPT hold “great promise,” describing it as “something that we’re looking at closely.”
(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) — Apple announced a mixed reality headset called Vision Pro on Monday at its annual developer conference.
The headset, which will cost at least $3,499, allows users to see apps messages and other virtual programs displayed within their physical space, the company said.
When individuals approach a user’s physical space, the headset becomes transparent, allowing a user’s counterpart to see his or her eyes, the company noted.
Users can enter search queries using voice commands and scroll through the results by gently tapping their fingers, the company said.
“Vision Pro is a new kind of computer that augments reality by seamlessly blending the real world with the digital world,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said. “This is the first Apple product that you look through and not at.”
“In the same way that the Mac introduced us to personal computing and an iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Vision Pro will introduce us to spatial computing,” Cook added.
Vision Pro affords users wide latitude to shrink or expand a program that appears within the display, including movies and TV shows, the company said.
“Turn any environment into your own personal movie theater,” the company added.
Alongside Cook, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced a partnership between the two companies that will make Disney+ content available on “Day 1” of Vision Pro.
Vision Pro will be available for purchase online and in-store in the U.S. early next year, with additional countries to follow later in 2024, the company said.
Shares of Apple fell slightly after the Vision Pro announcement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Thrift shopping is a great way to score trending and vintage looks on a budget.
Thrifting has been around for decades but sometimes it can be a challenge to know the best ways to find exactly what you are looking for.
ABC News’ Good Morning America set out to a handful of thrift shops across the country to learn some best practices from the pros, whether you are searching for clothing for adults and kids, wedding attire, furniture or something else entirely.
Tip 1: Ignore sizes and always try on
Yoshi Isogaya, a sales associate at Jet Rag, a vintage thrift store based in Los Angeles, told Good Morning America that thrifting “can be very overwhelming.”
“You have to take your time and look through all the racks, have patience,” Isogaya said.
While shopping at Jet Rag, Good Morning America lifestyle correspondent Lori Bergamotto had a similar insight to share.
“I tried on jeans three sizes up from what I normally wear — and they were too tight. You have to try everything on before you find a gem,” Bergamotto said.
Tip 2: Only shop for designer pieces at trusted establishments
Dom Marlowe, general buying manager at Wasteland, another vintage thrift shop based in LA, told GMA that shoppers should “make sure you’re looking for good condition, good fabric, and you’re going to a trusted place” when looking for designer items specifically.
It is important to remember to shop for designer brands only at well-established stores that have professional authenticators on staff.
Tip 3: Start with denim jeans
If you’re unsure where to start, given the large inventory most thrift stores keep on hand, try kicking off your shopping trip by searching for a good pair of jeans.
“Every thrift store I went to had a large selection of jeans. Denim holds up really well over time and used jeans start with that broken-in feel and look,” Bergamotto said.
(NEW YORK) — Salespeople promoting Bud Light for a Florida–based distributor have grown accustomed to car horns, middle fingers and jokes amid a weekslong boycott, but say they have struggled to ignore thousands of dollars in lost commission pay, two sales supervisors at the distributor told ABC News.
A typical salesperson at the distributor made roughly $2,000 less in May than he or she would have over each of the previous two years, suffering primarily from a decline in Bud Light sales that reached as much as 60% over the week ending on Memorial Day, the sales supervisors said.
“This has really, really killed a lot of the guys who are commission-based. That’s who it’s really hurting,” one supervisor said. “There’s nothing they could’ve done — this was thrown in their faces.”
A consumer boycott of Anheuser-Busch InBev over a promotion in April from a trans influencer has pummeled the company’s stock, but it has also brought financial pain for thousands of salespeople at independent distributors nationwide, many of whom depend largely on performance-based pay, former Anheuser-Busch InBev executive Anson Frericks told ABC News.
Sales of Bud Light have recorded declines for seven consecutive weeks after a product endorsement from Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, sparked backlash among many conservatives.
The boycott gained momentum, meanwhile, after the initial response from the company was perceived as conciliatory by some LGBTQ advocates, prompting frustration on the left.
Those losses have slashed the income of salespeople who work for roughly 500 independent wholesalers that sell Anheuser-Busch beverages to restaurants, bars and grocery stores, according to interviews with two distributors, two sales supervisors and Frericks.
The sales supervisors and distributors declined to share their names because they didn’t want to be publicly identified speaking about the financial consequences of the boycott.
Compensation for salespeople differs widely between different distributors, but a typical salesperson makes about $60,000 a year, including $20,000 in variable pay that depends largely on commission, said Frericks, who left Anheuser-Busch InBev last year.
“Good people are going to start leaving because they aren’t making money,” Frericks told ABC News.
On an earnings call last month, Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris acknowledged the strain that the boycott has placed on workers in the field.
“This situation has impacted our people and especially our frontline workers: The delivery drivers, sales representatives, our wholesalers, Bud owners and servers,” Doukeris said.
“These people are the fabric of our business. They are our neighbors, family members, and friends. They are in every community in America,” Doukeris added. “We’ve been doing everything we can to support our teams.”
Anheuser-Busch said in a statement to ABC News that the boycott has had an impact but they remained committed to bringing people together.
“Anheuser-Busch employs over 18,000 people and our independent wholesaler partners have an additional 47,000 valued colleagues. The current situation has impacted our people and especially our front-line workers including delivery drivers and sales representatives. These people are our neighbors, family members and friends. They are in every community in America. As we move forward, we will continue doing everything we can to support our teams while working tirelessly to do what we do best – bringing people together over a beer,” the statement read.
Sales of Bud Light across the U.S. fell nearly 26% over the week ending on May 20 compared to the same period a year ago, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting and Nielsen NIQ reviewed by ABC News.
At an Anheuser-Busch distributor in the Midwest, nine salespeople rely on commission for roughly two-thirds of their pay, the president of the distributor told ABC News.
The salespeople sustained overall sales declines in May of between 6% and 26% compared to the same month a year prior, which translates into losses ranging from $200 to $900, the president added.
At a meeting with the salespeople earlier this month, the president told them, “None of this is your fault and none of this is my fault,” he recounted. He vowed to pay them each a lump sum that would put their income for last month at or above where it would have stood without the losses.
“I’m frustrated that this has [dragged] on as long as it has,” the president of the distributor said. “I’m hopeful that we’re moving in the right direction.”
Anheuser-Busch InBev also provided financial support for frontline workers at independent distributors, Doukeris said on the earnings call last month. The company provided $500 for each employee and additional ad spending last month, the Wall Street Journal reported.
To be sure, some Anheuser-Busch salespeople at independent distributors depend on little or no sales commission.
The owner of a different distributor in the Midwest said the company previously paid salespeople entirely on commission but stopped the practice in recent years because sales varied significantly between the strong summer months and weak winter ones.
“My employees haven’t been hurt that bad on it,” the owner said, referring to the boycott.
Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business who studies consumer movements, said the losses for some salespeople at Anheuser-Busch distributors mark an unanticipated result of the consumer boycott.
“This has a disproportionate effect on a handful of people who had little or nothing to do with the decision that triggered people to be upset,” Schweitzer told ABC News. “It has this cascade of unintended consequences.”
(CALIFORNIA) — California cannabis users may soon not have to travel far to get a cup of coffee to go with their legal pot.
The state’s assembly passed a bill Wednesday that would allow California’s localities the right to approve the sale of food and non-alcoholic drinks inside legal cannabis dispensaries. Current state law prohibits any food or beverage from being served in recreational marijuana dispensaries.
State Assemblyman Matt Haney, who introduced the bill, told ABC News that those current regulations are “outdated and nonsensical,” and as a result, a lot of legal cannabis shops are losing out on revenue.
“There is a huge demand for this. This idea came from shop owners. They wanted to diversify their businesses,” he said.
The bill, which now heads to the state senate for approval, would also allow dispensaries to have live music inside their establishment.
Haney said that even though legalized cannabis stores have been popular ever since the first legal sales began in 2018, however, those business owners are still competing with illegal marijuana sales.
Those illegal sellers have been able to get past the regulations and offer food, he said.
“The advantage the illegal market has is it can sell that experience, similar to what you can do in a neighborhood bar,” Haney said.
The assemblyman cited a West Hollywood cannabis shop that originally sold its own food but was forced to stop that by local regulators for violating the current rules.
“They were required to have the food made, sold and delivered from another establishment,” he said.
Under California law, if food and drink are to be allowed in cannabis shops, it would have to be consumed indoors in a well-ventilated room.
Current California cafes and restaurants won’t be able to offer cannabis in their establishments, according to the bill.
Haney emphasized that customers under 21 will still be barred from entering the dispensaries even if food and drink are allowed.
Haney said that concerns about whole streets being lined with these pot cafes are not strong as California’s law doesn’t permit multiple cannabis shops to be located close to each other.
“It will look nothing like Amsterdam,” he said. “So you won’t have an entire block of them and they won’t be near schools.”
Haney said municipalities could decline to allow for the food and drink rules in the dispensaries, however, some cities, including San Francisco, have already passed ordinances to permit them if the bill becomes a law.
Haney said he was impressed with the 64-9 vote in the Assembly and the bi-partisan support for the proposal.
“A lot of people who didn’t initially support legalized marijuana voted in favor of the bill,” he noted. “It just goes to show how crucial the cannabis industry has been for the state.”
