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close video Actor Cheech Marin launches cannabis company: ‘It will always be good’

Actor and comedian Cheech Marin shares why he launched his own cannabis company with longtime friend Tommy Chong and curated an exhibit of Chicano art on ‘Kennedy.’

Georgia’s first medical marijuana dispensaries finally opened last week after years of the drug being legal for medical reasons but illegal to purchase.

Trulieve Cannabis Corp. opened stores in Macon and Marietta on Friday, with the grand opening at the Macon location complete with a ribbon cutting, food trucks and merchandise giveaway.

A state commission issued licenses to dispense medical marijuana following years of arguments at the state Capitol and lawsuits, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

Georgia has permitted the use of low-THC cannabis oil to treat a variety of diseases since 2015, but legal sales have been delayed for years by regulatory challenges. More than 27,000 Georgia residents have registered to use the oil. 

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Medical marijuana dispensaries opened in Georgia on Friday. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit / AP Newsroom)

"Thousands of Georgians will be able to have improved quality of life through access to medical cannabis here in our state," Allen Peake, a former Republican state representative from Macon who advocated for the legalization of medical marijuana, told The Associated Press. "The sky is not going to fall if medical cannabis is provided to Georgia citizens."

The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission approved licenses to Trulieve and Botanical Sciences on Wednesday to sell low THC oil to registered patients who suffer from severe seizures, Parkinson's and terminal cancer. 

Botanical Sciences plans to open its first dispensary next month in Savannah, and Trulieve said it expects to open additional locations across the state. The companies can each have up to six licenses.

Several companies that were denied licenses have filed lawsuits. Four other production licenses are tied up in the courts.

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Trulieve Cannabis Corp. opened stores in Macon and Marietta. (Getty)

Nearly 40 states already have medical marijuana programs.

One customer in Marietta told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his 19-year-old daughter uses cannabis oil to treat her epilepsy. He said he can now purchase the product legally instead of violating federal law by importing it across state lines.

"We just hit the lottery. We finally got to a point where we could actually walk in instead of having to meet in a parking lot and pick up our oil," Jim Wages said. "It's such a relief."

Medical marijuana will be sold as cannabis oil packaged as liquid tinctures, topical creams or capsules.

Medical marijuana will be sold as cannabis oil packaged as liquid tinctures, topical creams or capsules. ((AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File) / AP Newsroom)

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"This is a great move," Peake told FOX 5 Atlanta. "We are at the end of this journey, finally, hopefully going to have access to medical cannabis oil in the boundaries of our state."

Marijuana that can be smoked is still prohibited, and recreational use remains illegal in the state. Medical products sold in Georgia are required to contain less than 5% THC.

More than 20 states plus Washington, D.C., have fully legalized marijuana while nearly 20 other states allow it for medical use. The drug remains illegal in 12 states.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sports

No ‘clear-cut’ Cup favorite as Panthers eye No. 3

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No 'clear-cut' Cup favorite as Panthers eye No. 3

Bookmakers across the sportsbook marketplace don’t see a consensus Stanley Cup favorite as the Florida Panthers gear up to attempt a very rare NHL three-peat.

The Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers are the co-favorites (+800) at ESPN BET, with the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights and Panthers at +900, and the Tampa Bay Lightning at +1000. However, no major American sportsbook has the same combination of solo or co-favorites, with Florida and Vegas taking the top billing at some shops.

“The way I look at it, there’s no real clear-cut, short favorite,” DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello told ESPN. “This year, it’s more wide open at the top, and then you have a whole second tier of teams that are in that 20-to-40 range. There’s another 10 teams there. Could the Stanley Cup winner come from there? Absolutely. But the top tier has eight teams that we believe will contend for the title.”

The last preseason Stanley Cup favorite to win it all was Colorado (+600) in the 2021-22 season.

The Panthers opened as one of the favorites to win the Cup immediately following their second straight championship. They were +600 solo favorites by mid-September following offseason contract extensions for Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett — despite offseason surgery for superstar Matthew Tkachuk, who is expected back before the new year.

However, a training camp knee injury to captain Aleksander Barkov, which is expected to keep him out for the entire regular season, if not longer, derailed Florida’s Stanley Cup lines at most books. Several operations immediately dropped the team’s championship odds, with ESPN BET briefly lengthening them to +1000.

Still, action on the Cats has remained robust, with ESPN BET reporting its highest portion of bets (17.1%) and handle (21.4%) backing them to three-peat, while BetMGM says the team’s 13.8% handle is the second-highest in the market. Some bookmakers, such as Karry Shreeve, the head of hockey at Caesars Sportsbook, refused to even dethrone the Panthers as favorites, noting that Barkov and Tkachuk’s injuries have more effect on the team’s regular-season odds.

“We’re not ready to drop them in price significantly, at least for the Stanley Cup, just because I’m not convinced who’s going to fill their spot [in the playoffs],” Shreeve told ESPN. “So long as Florida’s getting into the playoffs again, as far as right now, not knowing anything else, they’re still, to me, the favorite. Not by a lot, but still a favorite, and not a team we’re willing to push out in price just yet.”

Several sportsbooks, including DraftKings and ESPN BET, are instead high on the Hurricanes, even though bettors are backing them at a relatively low clip in terms of both the number of tickets and money wagered.

“Carolina is one of the most consistently dominant teams we have seen in recent years, having recouped some talent over the summer as they look to make another deep run,” ESPN BET senior director Adrian Horton said by email. “Patrons will likely have their postseason struggles in mind, but it took the Panthers at full steam to eliminate them. We fully expect Carolina to be back battling in the playoffs.”

In the favorites tier, bettors are more focused on the Avalanche, who have garnered the third-highest handle at BetMGM and ESPN BET. Beyond the first tier, many patrons are keying on the Toronto Maple Leafs (+1600), who have taken the most tickets and money at BetMGM.

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Millions of people could each get hundreds of pounds in compensation over car loan mis-selling

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Millions of people could each get hundreds of pounds in compensation over car loan mis-selling

Up to 14.2 million people could each receive an average of £700 in compensation due to car loan mis-selling, the financial services regulator has said.

Nearly half (44%) of all car loan agreements made between April 2007 and November 2024 could be eligible for payouts, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said.

Those eligible for the compensation will have had a loan where the broker received commission from a lender.

Lenders broke the law by not sharing this fact with consumers, the FCA said, and customers lost out on better deals and sometimes paid more.

A scheme is seen by the FCA as the best outcome for consumers and lenders, as it avoids the courts and the Financial Ombudsman Service, therefore minimising delay, uncertainty and administration costs.

The scheme will be funded by the dozens of lenders involved in the loans, and cost about £8.2bn, on the lower end of expectations, which had been expected to reach as much as £18bn.

The figure was reached by estimating that 85% of eligible applicants will take part in the scheme.

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What if you think you’re eligible?

Anyone who believes they have been impacted should contact their lender and has a year to do so. Compensation will begin to be paid in 2026, with an exact timeline yet to be worked out.

The FCA said it would move “as quickly as we can”.

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Payouts due after motor finance scandal

People who have already complained do not need to take action. Complaints about approximately four million loan agreements have already been received.

There’s no need to contact a solicitor or claims management firm, the FCA said, as it aimed for the scheme to be as easy as possible.

A lender won’t have to pay, however, if it can prove the customer could not have got cover anywhere else.

The number of people who will get a payout is not known. While there are 14.2 million agreements identified by the FCA, the same person may have taken out more than one loan over the 17-year period.

More expensive car loans?

Despite the fact many lenders have to contribute to redress, the FCA said the market will continue to function and pointed out the sector has grown in recent years and months.

In delivering compensation quickly, the FCA said it “can ensure that some of the trust and confidence in the market can be repaired”.

It could not, however, rule out that the scheme could mean fewer offers and more expensive car loans, but failure to introduce a scheme would have been worse.

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The FCA said: “We cannot rule out some modest impacts on product availability and prices, we estimate the cost of dealing with complaints would be several billion pounds higher in the absence of a redress scheme.

“In that scenario, impacts on access to motor finance and prices for consumers could be significantly higher with uncertainty continuing for many more years.”

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Technology

Michael Dell says ‘at some point there’ll be too many’ AI data centers, but not yet

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Michael Dell says 'at some point there'll be too many' AI data centers, but not yet

Dell CEO Michael Dell: AI demand is very solid

Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell said Tuesday that while demand for computing power is “tremendous,” the production of artificial intelligence data centers will eventually top out.

“I’m sure at some point there’ll be too many of these things built, but we don’t see any signs of that,” Dell said on “Closing Bell: Overtime.”

The hardware maker’s server networking business grew 58% last year and was up 69% last quarter, Dell said. As large language models have evolved to more multimodal and multi-agent systems, the demand for AI processing power and capacity has continued to be strong.

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Dell’s AI servers are powered by Nvidia‘s Blackwell Ultra chips. The company then sells its devices to customers like cloud service provider CoreWeave and xAI, Elon Musk’s startup.

Dell shares rose over 3% Tuesday after increasing its expected long-term revenue and profit growth in an analyst meeting.

The computer maker raised its expected annual revenue growth to 7% to 9%, up from its previous target of 3% to 4%, with diluted earnings per share now expected to be 15% higher, up from its previous 8% target.

The company reported strong second-quarter earnings in August, and said it planned to ship $20 billion worth of AI servers in fiscal 2026. That is double what it sold last year.

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