I-News Network

President Barack Obama's county-by-county victories in Colorado virtually mirrored the vote to legalize marijuana use in the state.

Corporations and billionaires – and their extravagant contributions to the presidential campaigns – have drawn the most national attention this year in terms of campaign financing. But in Colorado it is the same handful of wealthy Democrats and the labor unions continuing to play a steady hand.

Colorado Amendment 65 is a non-binding referendum that encourages the state’s U.S. representatives and senators to support a U.S. constitutional amendment limiting campaign contributions and spending.

Colorado’s ballot initiative to legalize marijuana possession is billed by one leading local advocate as “a grassroots effort here on the ground,” but an examination of contributions to the campaign tell a far different story.

The deadly listeria outbreak at Jensen Farms last fall illustrates wider failures in the private food safety auditing industry, an industry which operates with little government oversight.