Also: Weather threatens Gulf oil spill site; Obama signs financial overhaul into law.
View full sizeMedical marijuana for sale at Alternatives, A Health Collective, in Santa Rosa, Calif.From The Associated Press:
SAN FRANCISCO -- Oakland has moved closer to becoming the first city in the nation to authorize wholesale pot cultivation.
The Oakland City Council voted 5-2 with one abstention late Tuesday in favor of a plan to license four production plants where marijuana would be grown, packaged and processed.
The vote came after more than two hours of public comment, with speakers divided between those who opposed the measure - largely on the grounds that it would put small medical marijuana growers out of business - and those who said it would generate millions of dollars for Oakland in taxes and sales and create hundreds of jobs.
» Read the full story: Oakland votes to permit large marijuana farms
» Will Oakland become "the Silicon Valley of Pot?" [TIME Magazine]
» Small growers fear Walmart effect on California's regulated marijuana market [Sydney Morning Herald]
» Is California ushering in an era of factory farmed pot? [Atlantic Wire]
In other news
» Bad weather in Gulf could threaten BP oil spill site [BBC]
» Defense rests without Blagojevich testifying [Chicago Tribune]
» Obama again protests "Republican obstruction" on jobless benefits [USA Today]
» Clinton, Gates visit Korea's armed border [Bloomberg]