Free Republic

What was billed as the Twin Cities' "premiere marijuana festival" was nipped in the bud Thursday by Macalester College officials, who believe student organizers were advocating illegal activity rather than cannabis reform. The CHEEBAdanza celebration, which was held last year on campus, was supposed to start today at 4:20 p.m. "It's not happening," said Doug Stone, a Macalester spokesman. "The publicity was misleading from our standpoint. The impression was that the event was about smoking marijuana and not about advocating for the legalization of, which are two very different things."

The CHEEBA Club's celebration of marijuana is 'part entertainment (free food and dodge ball), but it's also about social justice.' So, like, check this out. These dudes at Macalester College are throwing this righteous party Thursday. They're calling it CHEEBAdanza — "the Twin Cities premier marijuana festival." Says so right on the green flier. This isn't one of those mediocre pot fests — it's A-grade all the way. Excellent. First of all, OK, you have the date, right? Thursday, April 20. That's 4/20. And you know the party starts at 4:20 p.m. That's the legendary tokin' hour, my friends. So...

The world today is full of evils that compete for our outraged attention. In Sudan, genocide is underway. Closer to home, in Castro's Cuba, political prisoners languish in fetid jails. But at Macalester College, some students are crusading against the friendly folks at Coca-Cola through an initiative called the "Campaign to Stop Killer Coke," the latest cause du jour on "progressive" campuses. Last week, the students announced that Macalester's Social Responsibility Committee had voted unanimously to ban Coke from vending machines and fountain-drink locations on campus. Macalester's president must sign off on the ban for it to take effect. Mac's...

former Chaska man who was an animal rights activist at Macalester College in St. Paul has been described by the Times of London newspaper as the "mastermind" behind a campaign to incite violent attacks on officials at England's Oxford University. Nicolas Atwood, who now lives in West Palm Beach, Fla., said the story about him published in the Sunday Times is "pretty ridiculous." But Atwood acknowledged that the Web site he helps maintain has been posting "communiqués" from the radical Animal Liberation Front, which opposes Oxford's plan to build an animal research laboratory. The Times reported that the site's postings...

The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed the up to 61/2/-year sentence of a Macalaster College student caught with thousands of pornographic images of children on his dorm room computer. The three-judge appeals panel upheld the charges against Joshua S. Bertsch but said the sentence imposed on him last year was too severe. The appeals court said Bertsch was entitled to a new sentence.