In Brief - May 21, 2008

Around the Northwest

• The debate over medical marijuana, and how much a patient can possess under Washington state law, intensifies.
• Washington will be receiving $1.6 million from Merck in the Vioxx settlement.
• Jail overcrowding and living conditions within the jail are prominent issues in Tuesday's primary election in Canyon County, just outside of Boise.

Around the Nation

• Finding new oil isn't getting any easier.
• Senator Ted Kennedy has been released from the hospital.
• Hamilton Jordan, Chief of Staff to President Carter, has died.
• The U.S. will now allow Americans to send cell phones to Cuba.
• Investigators in California are searching for bodies at the former rural hideaway of convicted murderer Charles Manson.

Around the World

• France has arrested a high ranking leader of the Basque separatist group ETA.
• Syria and Israel are engaged in peace talks.
• U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is meeting with Myanmar's (Burma) Senior General, to try and get the junta to accept relief operations.

This Day in History

• 1881 - Clara Barton established the American Red Cross.
• 1904 - FIFA, the international soccer federation, is founded.
• 1991 - Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated.