Every time a prominent elected official speaks out in support of marijuana legalization it is important because it helps reduce the stigma and it makes it easier for other politicians to “come out of the closet” on this issue, but Newsom’s endorsement of legalization is especially significant because of his position.

On November 16, Richard Estes interviewed me on his KDVS program Speaking In Tongues about Burning Man and the recent suicide of Paul Addis. Burning Man centers around an annual festival in a temporary desert city that surrounds a human effigy. This effigy is ritually burned on Saturday night of the week-long event, but Addis was jailed for setting fire to it on the Monday before its scheduled destruction.

While the Pacific coast is getting battered by storms, and while the Northeast coast continues to recover from Sandy, the only falling water that farmers in Nebraska, Kansas, and the great plains can see are the tears on their own faces. Drought may not make for gripping television, and it didn’t end once October’s lower temperatures arrived. Things are still dry — exceptionally so — and in many places, it’s getting worse.

Yet to the national media, “no rain today” in the Midwest and Plains remains “not news”.

The Taiwan animators have made San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener a superhero for decency and prudery.

Existing-home sales rose 2.1% in October, with the number coming in slightly above expectations, although the previous month’s numbers were revised down. Inventory has decreased 21% year-over-year (in no small part due to structural factors like trapped borrowers not putting their houses on the market, as well as artificial constraints on supply from banks keeping homes off the market).

In another in a long line of weak settlements where the perpetrators of fraud don’t have to technically say whether or not they’ve committed it, the Securities and Exchange Commission reached agreement with JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse on a collection of violations related to the handling of mortgage backed securities.

Last Monday, I attended the Austin Overpass Light Brigade’s fourth gathering. As previously reported on Firedoglake, the group had been shut down by police at its previous two attempts. The message on election eve was DO MORE THAN VOTE, and occupiers came prepared for police interference.

Two thousand workers who clean the rooms and serve the food at hotels in Long Beach, California had special cause for celebration election night. They will finally earn a living wage and be able take a sick day without risking a paycheck or a job.

“I have said all along that the second thing I would do when Measure N passes is take my family off of public assistance,” said Maria Patlan, a ten-year housekeeper in Long Beach’s hotel industry. “But the first thing I will do is a dance of joy.”

Just to pick up on what happened in my neck of the woods out here in California. It turned out to be a great night.

The tax revolt is dead, or at least not a binding religious totem, the way it was described here for the last 35 years. Prop 30, which temporarily raises income taxes on wealthy earners and 1/4 cent sales taxes on everyone, passed with 54% of the vote. Schools will not be shut down an additional 20 days. Public safety budgets will swell. Most polls had this topping out at 48% support leading up to the vote, so it defied expectations. In addition, Prop 39, which repeals a corporate tax break worth $1 billion, passed easily. Three strikes was reformed with Prop 36, which will save money.

So, I voted. I don’t remember the exact day, but it was sometime in early October. California allows residents to sign up for permanent vote-by-mail. They get their ballot a month in advance and can then mail it back in. You can vote with all the materials in front of you, you don’t have to wait in line, you can mull over your vote for a while and hold your mail-in ballot until the final weekend if you want, or even the final day (you can turn it in to any polling place). And it works extremely well.