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Colorado is working to becoming the first state to regulate production of medical marijuana. Regulators say pot consumers deserve to know what they're smoking, and producers should have safety regulations such as pesticide limits for plants destined for human consumption. Now, patients have no way to verify pot-shop claims that certain products are organic, or how potent a strain might be.

The FDA says its new guidelines would make the food Americans eat safer and help prevent the kinds of food borne disease outbreaks that sicken or kill thousands of consumers each year. The rules could cost manufacturers up to $475 million annually. The bill also authorized more surprise inspections by the FDA and gave the agency additional powers to shut down food facilities. In addition, the law required stricter standards on imported foods.

"The U.S. International Trade Commission agreed in a unanimous vote today that Chinese solar manufacturers have benefited from illegal subsidies from its government and sold products at less than fair value, the final decision in more than a year-long trade tussle."

Hey Google is actually giving stats on how many requests they get from governments to supress or delete url from the search engine. Unfortunately no stats on China...

Twitter said in its first transparency report that the number of government requests for user information or to block content is rising in 2012. "We've received more government requests in the first half of 2012, as outlined in this initial dataset, than in the entirety of 2011," Twitter's legal policy manager Jeremy Kessel said in a blog post on Monday. The overwhelming number of requests came from the United States, accounting for 679 of the 849 requests for user information. In 75 per cent of the US cases, Twitter gave some or all information.

Google now posts regular "Transparency Reports" the include not only private content removal requests but also requests made by the US Government via court orders and law enforcement officials. The breakdown shows requests to remove content (mostly on YouTube) due to various reasons such as violence, privacy, and defamation.

The most interesting stat is that Google has complied with only 42% of the requests.

The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012

During 2012, virtually every aspect of American life, from caloric intake to dishwasher efficiency, was subjected to government meddling.
Most of these rules increase the cost of living, others hinder job creation, and many erode freedom. Not all regulations are unwarranted, of course, but increasingly, the rules imposed by the government have less to do with health and safety and more to do with whether government or individuals get to make basic pocketbook and lifestyle decisions that affect them. And it is not just the regulators who are to blame.

Google is reconsidering its involvement in China after suspicions hacker attacks from Chinese authorities: