Huffington Magazine Issue 83 | Page 7

Enter 2 POINTERS OPEN FOR BUSINESS Colorado saw the first legal sales of recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, as 37 new dispensaries around the state opened their doors. According to a HuffPost calculation, first-week sales totaled roughly $5 million. In an email to supporters, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) noted, “Across the state, recreational marijuana was sold for the first time. And guess what? The world didn’t end.” FROM TOP: THEO STROOMER/GETTY IMAGES; JEFF ZELEVANSKY/GETTY IMAGES; AP PHOTO/RICK BOWMER 3 BRIDGEGATE 4 HUFFINGTON 01.12.14 WALK BACK New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) spent more than two hours on Thursday apologizing over revelations that his staff purposefully caused a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge in order to punish a local mayor who did not endorse the governor’s reelection bid. Christie, a possible presidential contender for 2016, maintained he knew nothing of the plan, which caused major traffic jams for four days on the nation’s busiest bridge. The governor dismissed his deputy chief of staff and cut ties with another key member of his inner circle over the scandal, and the U.S. attorney for New Jersey has opened a probe into the incident. Utah’s governor on Wednesday announced the state will not recognize the more than 1,000 same-sex marriages that have been performed since a federal judge ruled in December that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to wed. The Supreme Court officially halted same-sex marriages in Utah on Monday, pending an appeal of the judge’s decision. The governor’s announcement means the newlywed couples in Utah are in legal limbo and cannot currently file joint state tax returns, add spouses to insurance or adopt children.