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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 31 January 2018

Amid publicity tour, porn

star denies affair with Trump

By JEFF HORWITZ and JAKE dent’s State of the Union kered a $130,000 payment
PEARSON address on ABC’s “Jimmy to Clifford to keep her from
Associated Press Kimmel Live!” In recent publicly discussing it.
NEW YORK (AP) — Adult film weeks she has changed A week after that report, In
star Stormy Daniels, in the production companies, Touch magazine printed a
midst of a publicity tour fu- given a television interview 5,000-word interview it con-
eled by past allegations of and promoted strip club ducted with Clifford in 2011
a 2006 sexual relationship appearances with a risque but never published after
with a then-married Donald play on Trump’s “Make Cohen threatened the
Trump, said in a statement America Great Again” tabloid with a lawsuit, The
Tuesday the alleged affair campaign slogan. Associated Press has previ- In this Feb. 11, 2007, file photo, Stormy Daniels arrives for the
never occurred. Michael Cohen, Trump’s ously reported. 49th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
A lawyer for Daniels, whose personal lawyer, has de- In that interview, Clifford Associated Press
real name is Stephanie Clif- nied there was any affair. described a single sexual corroborated her account never happened.”
ford, confirmed the state- Clifford’s allegation, first encounter with Trump in with friends and said she Neither Cohen nor Clifford
ment was authentic but made in 2011 and then 2006, when he was recent- passed a lie detector test. has addressed whether she
didn’t offer any further de- again a month before the ly married to his third wife, In her statement Tuesday, was paid $130,000, or if so,
tails. The statement comes election, went mostly un- Melania, as well as a sub- Clifford said she wasn’t de- why.
at a curious time for Clif- noticed until The Wall Street sequent years-long rela- nying the affair because A publicist didn’t respond
ford, who is scheduled to Journal reported earlier tionship with the reality TV she was paid “hush mon- to questions about the
appear following the presi- this month that Cohen bro- star. The magazine said it ey,” but rather “because it statement Tuesday.q

A taxpayer-backed bank for pot money? Maybe in California

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD with pot money for fear it and growers must often
Associated Press could expose them to le- do without commonplace
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cali- gal trouble from the federal conveniences such as writ-
fornia officials announced government, which still lists ing checks or obtaining
Tuesday that they will take marijuana as illegal. a loan. In Los Angeles, of-
a detailed look at the pos- That means a lot of pot ficials have seen bags of
sibility of creating a taxpay- business is conducted in cash as large as $300,000
er-backed bank to handle cash, sometimes tens of come through the door to
what could be billions of thousands of dollars, which cover pot taxes.
dollars in revenue gener- is risky for cannabis workers Chiang compared the
ated by the state’s legal and the public. problem in California to
marijuana industry. Is a public bank a solution? conditions that led to the
State Treasurer John Chi- “Maybe,” said Chiang, a creation of the North Da-
ang stopped short of en- Democratic candidate for kota bank in 1919.
dorsing the idea but said governor. Completing the At that time “private banks
his office would work with study is expected to take In this June 27, 2017, file photo, Jerred Kiloh, owner of the Higher failed to promote agricul-
the state attorney general about a year. Path medical marijuana dispensary, prepares his monthly tax ture, commerce and indus-
to examine how a weed However, the idea comes payment, $40,131.88 in cash in Los Angeles. try in the rural state, so the
bank might function for with formidable risks that Associated Press public bank was created,”
California’s emerging pot were outlined in a state obtaining federal regula- U.S. prosecutors. That fed- he said. The failure to meet
economy, estimated to report last year, includ- tory approval. eral action “casts into tur- the needs of the multibil-
grow to $7 billion. ing unknown startup costs, Another problem: The moil a newly established lion-dollar cannabis indus-
Legal pot sales kicked the probability of losses for Trump administration has industry that is creating jobs try in California “could well
off in California on Jan. several years or more that signaled a potentially more and tax revenues,” Chiang turn out to be the catalyst
1. However, many banks California taxpayers would aggressive approach to said. The shortage of bank- that vaults public banking
don’t want anything to do have to cover and trouble marijuana prosecution by ing services means sellers into a reality here.”q