Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Attorney general moves to reclassify marijuana as lower-risk drug

Poll shows how RFK Jr.’s appeal to anti-vaccine right could hurt Trump

Views of the campus protests are too broad — and too narrow

Miss Manners: Some audience members ask rambling questions post-lecture

Carolyn Hax: Her family left all the kitchen work to her, so she went on strike

Ask Amy: Why did my friend lie about seeing my ex-girlfriend?

A murder plot that cannot be ignored: India must come clean at last

How to confront antisemitism, deal with protests — and respect free speech

Is student loan debt an emergency? Take our quiz.

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Soldiers reunite with their pets from overseas: ‘It meant everything to me’

Nationals sweep away the Marlins to get back to .500

Jayden Daniels is latest in Washington’s checkered history of first-round QBs

The Rangers swept the Capitals, and it’s time for the new core to take charge

Southwest passengers now get a $75 voucher for big flight disruptions

The Rick Steves guide to life

The sad, stale state of in-flight vegetarian meals

Americans are sleeping more than ever. See how you compare.

Parenting in Gaza today is so much more than keeping your children alive

In photos: Flash floods kill over 100 people in Kenya

Apple banned this app for years. It’s now America’s No. 1 iPhone app. 

8 major newspapers join legal backlash against OpenAI, Microsoft

Fired Google workers who protested Israel deal file complaint with labor board

The FBI director’s concerns over terrorism are at ‘a whole other level’ 

U.S. campus protests spread to the Middle East and Europe  

Biden is letting Assad off the hook, with dangerous consequences

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Eighty percent of Ukraine-Israel bill will be spent in U.S. or by U.S. military

Facts in the Trump courtroom v. ‘facts’ in the court of public opinion

 Donald Trump Speaks During A Campaign Rally In Green Bay Wisconsin

Daron Taylor

Today the Associated Press <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=maine%20election%20results&amp;oq=maine&amp;aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j69i60l4.1384j0j1#eob=enn/r/////0//////me//bmc43700/" target="_blank">finally called Maine's marijuana ballot</a> measure in favor of legalization. The 'yes' votes just squeaked by the 'no' votes with just a couple thousand votes to spare.

In sum, reform of marijuana laws won in eight out of the nine states where it was put on the ballot, the strongest signal to date that the public is ready to embrace change and potentially put the harsh prohibitionist policies of the past behind them.

Notably, advocates of reforming marijuana laws made progress in regions of the country they'd previously had little success in. On the medical marijuana sign, Florida became the first state in the South to approve a robust medical marijuana proposal. Arkansas soon followed suit, a surprising development given the chaotic history of the measure -- <a href="http://www.thecannabist.co/2016/08/31/arkansas-medical-marijuana-second-initiative-approved/62309/" target="_blank">two separate proposals</a> were actually on the ballot there, but <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-arkansas-marijuana-idUSKCN12R21W" target="_blank">due to a late court ruling</a> only one could be voted on.

Another surprise in the medical marijuana space was deep-red North Dakota, where <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=north+dakota+election+results&amp;oq=north+dako&amp;aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l5.1559j0j4&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8#eob=enn/r/////0//////nd//bmc43713/" target="_blank">nearly two-thirds of voters cast their ballots</a> in favor of medical pot. That contest flew so far under the radar that there wasn't a single poll conducted on the question.

Neighboring Montana had initially approved of a medical marijuana way back in 2004. But since then state lawmakers had steadily chipped away at the measure, <a href="http://www.thecannabist.co/2016/08/31/montana-medical-marijuana-laws-dispensaries-shut-down/62292/" target="_blank">eventually passing strict new rules</a> that would have shut down many of the state's dispensaries.

This year, medical marijuana supporters put an item on the ballot to roll back most of those restrictions. Polls <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Montana_Medical_Marijuana_Initiative,_I-182_(2016)" target="_blank">seemed to indicate voter skepticism</a>, with 51 percent opposing the ballot measure as recently as October. But in a surprising twist, they ultimately passed the measure by 58-42.

On the recreational marijuana side, one of the biggest surprises was a strong showing in favor of legalization in Massachusetts where voters approved the measure by <a href="https://www.google.com/search?num=100&amp;q=massachusetts+election+results&amp;oq=massachusetts+election+results&amp;gs_l=serp.3..35i39k1j0i3k1j0i131k1j0i7i30k1l7.178784.180343.0.181079.13.13.0.0.0.0.155.1247.7j5.12.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..6.7.705.iuJICN2npeQ#eob=enn/r/////0//////ma//bmc43690/" target="_blank">a strong 54-46 showing</a>. Political and businesses leaders had <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2016/09/06/why-marijuana-legalization-in-liberal-mass-might-be-a-tough-sell" target="_blank">come out swinging against the proposal</a> earlier in the year. They were bolstered at the last minute by an <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/10/28/archdiocese-spend-against-marijuana-legalization/qtCwVY4ViWjRFwOvcyveeK/story.html" target="_blank">11th-hour donation of $850,000 to the opposition campaign</a> from the Archdiocese of Boston. But most voters were unswayed by the arguments against marijuana.

Maine's contest was the closest on the recreational marijuana side. But voters there <a href="https://www.google.com/search?num=100&amp;q=maine+election+results&amp;oq=maine+election+results&amp;gs_l=serp.3..35i39k1j0i131k1j0i7i30k1l8.235641.235992.0.236208.5.5.0.0.0.0.145.531.3j2.5.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..2.3.327.tmSMHkuYv5w#eob=enn/r/////0//////me//bmc43700/" target="_blank">ultimately passed legalization</a> by just a few thousand votes. With the votes in Massachusetts and Maine, marijuana reformers have won their first major legalization battles on the east coast. Those victories could set the stage for efforts to legalize marijuana in other New England states via state legislatures in the coming years.

On the other side of the country, Nevada voters also approved recreational marijuana by a margin of 54 to 46. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson <a href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/sheldon-adelson-gave-135-million-more-campaign-opposing-recreational" target="_blank">almost single-handedly funded the opposition</a> to legal pot there, giving a total of $3.35 million to legalization opponents, or about 97 percent of their total fundraising.

Adelson's bet against pot paid off better <a href="https://www.google.com/search?num=100&amp;q=arizona+election+results&amp;oq=arizona+election+results&amp;gs_l=serp.3..35i39k1j0i3k1j0i67k1j0i7i30k1j0i131k1j0i7i30k1l3j0i131k1j0i20k1.131984.132659.0.132798.7.7.0.0.0.0.152.636.3j3.6.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..3.4.463...0i13k1.WQz3XqPD_1w#eob=enn/r/////0//////az//bmc43646/" target="_blank">in neighboring Arizona</a>, where voters shot down a legalization bill by 52 to 48. Adelson gave <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/26/a-casino-magnate-is-spending-millions-to-fight-legal-marijuana-in-three-states/" target="_blank">half a million dollars to the opposition campaign in Arizona</a>, joining forces with a number of local business interests.

But the biggest news of the evening was the decisive <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=california%20election%20results&amp;oq=california%20election&amp;aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j0l4.8424j0j4#eob=enn/r/////0//////ca//bmc43622/" target="_blank">56-44 win for legal marijuana in California</a>, the nation's most populous state and itself one of the largest economies in the world. With the vote in California the use of marijuana will become legal down the entirety of the west coast, from the Mexican border to Canada and up again to Alaska.

The victory for pot in California means that dozens of legislators in the U.S. House will soon represent the interests of a growing California-based marijuana industry, making a congressional push to resolve differences between state and federal marijuana laws all the more likely.

All told, nearly one quarter of U.S. residents will now live in states that allow the recreational use of marijuana. President Obama recently predicted that this situation would make strict federal policies toward marijuana untenable.

"You'll now have a fifth of the country that's operating under one set of laws and four-fifths in another," he <a href="http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/11/obama-federal-prohibition-not-tenable-after-state-marijuana-votes/" target="_blank">told Bill Maher</a>. "The Justice Department, DEA, FBI, for them to try to straddle and figure out how they're supposed to enforce laws in some places and not in others... that is not going to be tenable."

Cornell University, BA in religious studies

Christopher Ingraham was a reporter on The Post’s business desk from 2014 to 2021. He currently writes <a href="https://thewhyaxis.substack.com">the Why Axis</a>, a newsletter about the data shaping and informing our lives.