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Whoops and cheers shattered the cold morning air as the first legal cannabis customers flooded into a government-run marijuana store in this western Canada city on Wednesday.

Tucked into a shopping plaza near a dry cleaner, liquor store and a dollar store, this small, brightly lit store about 200 miles north of Vancouver has planted itself on the global front lines of the battle over cannabis legalization. It’s one of only a handful of weed stores in the country as Canada became only the second country behind Uruguay and the first member of the prominent Group of Seven nations to legalize, regulate and tax the sale of marijuana.

Dubbed “Weed Wednesday,” the event was heralded by legalization advocates who hope Canada’s new law will lend weight to federal approval in the United States.

Continue reading “Marijuana is now legal in Canada, but buying and selling weed remains a challenge”

In rulings by two federal judges this week, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos encountered some roadblocks in her efforts to roll back relief for some defrauded student borrowers who seek to cancel federal student loans.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Sallie Kim certified a nationwide class action by 110,000 former students of the collapsed Corinthian Colleges who claim the Department of Education violated federal privacy law to obtain their income data, Courthouse News Service reports.

The department used data from the Social Security Administration to eliminate full debt forgiveness for the students, forcing them to repay part of their loans.

Continue reading “DeVos’ attempt to curtail debt forgiveness to defrauded students meets judicial roadblocks”

Nomura Holdings Inc has agreed to pay $480 million to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government that it misled investors in marketing residential mortgage-backed securities, U.S. authorities said on Tuesday.

Nomura knowingly bundled defective mortgage loans into marketable securities from 2006 to 2007 and misled investors about their quality, authorities said. The settlement stems from an investigation by federal prosecutors in New York.

“This settlement holds Nomura accountable for its fraudulent conduct in connection with its residential mortgage-backed securities offerings, which caused substantial harm to investors and contributed to the financial crisis of 2008,” said Richard Donoghue, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office conducted the probe.

Continue reading “Nomura to pay $480 million to U.S. over ‘fraudulent’ mortgage-backed securities”

Sears Holdings Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday with a plan to close about 142 of its 700 stores by the end of the year, throwing into doubt the future of the century-old retailer that once dominated U.S. malls but has withered in the age of internet shopping.

The bankruptcy filing to reorganize debts of the parent of Sears, Roebuck and Co and Kmart Corp follows a decade of revenue declines, hundreds of store closures, and years of deals by billionaire Eddie Lampert in an attempt to turn around the company he acquired in 2005 for $11 billion.

Lampert, who stepped down as Sears CEO on Monday but will remain chairman, had pledged to restore Sears to its glory days, when it owned the tallest building in the world and companies that included a radio station and Allstate insurance.

Continue reading “Sears, once a retail titan, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla Inc and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk submitted a joint filing late on Wednesday in support of a settlement, saying the terms were in the best interest of investors.

“We therefore respectfully submit that the court should accept and enter the proposed consent judgments,” they said in a letter filed with the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

Continue reading “SEC, Tesla support approval of settlement”