With two full days of events and programs along with performances by Wu-Tang Clan, Redman, and Thundercat, the 2024 National Cannabis Festival will be bigger than ever this year. Leading up to the festivities on Friday and Saturday at Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium are plenty of can’t-miss experiences planned for 420 Week, including the National Cannabis Policy Summit and an LGBTQ happy hour hosted by the District’s Black-owned queer bar, Thurst Lounge (both happening on Wednesday). On Tuesday, the Blade caught up with NCF Founder and Executive Producer Caroline Phillips,...

But now, the area is slated to be home to a new rail hub after Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced his intention to build four new MARTA infill stations. Where exactly it might fit into the canopy of retail and residential buildings is a good question, said George Banks, who was one of the original Krog Street Market developers more than a decade ago. “I think the Krog station is interesting because it’s the one place where the real estate needs it the least,” Banks said. “But since the traffic...

WASHINGTON — The scenes of Donald Trump being warmly greeted on Wednesday by a Black audience at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta electrified conservative political media at a moment when Republicans hope to make inroads with Democrats’ most committed voting bloc. Those widely shared moments were days in the making, an alliance between the Trump campaign, local activists, and students at some of the nation’s most iconic historically Black colleges. Trump and his allies have argued he can win greater Black support due to his messages on the economy and...

• Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock has strongly criticized the decision by Republicans in Tennessee to expel two Black Democratic lawmakers from the state House. • Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled on Thursday after they spoke out of turn to support a youth-led protest for gun control following the deadly school shooting in Nashville.

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) refrained from taking a position Wednesday on a resolution to block D.C.’s controversial criminal code rewrite, instead voting “present” on the measure while 31 of his Democrat colleagues joined Republicans in voting in favor of it. The resolution passed the Senate with remarkable bipartisan support, 81 to 14, after President Joe Biden revealed last week that, despite disapproving of the bill, he would not veto it if it came to his desk. The update to the criminal code was widely criticized by Republicans and some Democrats...