Category: 3. Business

by John Forbes, Fort Worth Report
December 20, 2025

THC shop owner Alex Noriega sold nearly everything, including his family home, to open Natural Buds on 7th Street. Now his livelihood is on the line.

New federal limits on THC will force cannabis shops in Fort Worth and across the nation to close, according to advocates and proprietors. Business owners say the new regulation, which goes into effect next fall, will cripple a budding industry.

However, President Donald Trump on Thursday recategorized marijuana to a drug along the lines of Tylenol with codeine and ketamine and asked Congress to revisit the THC prohibition. Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.

Noriega supports his family through his THC shop, which has found success since opening two years ago. His shop was profitable enough to even expand to a second location and start his own manufacturing and cultivation. Those plans now could go up in smoke.

“I am very scared,” Noriega said. “Voters should be active in this.”

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, added the limit into a bill reopening the government from the longest shutdown in history. The move closes what some legislators called the THC loophole left in the 2018 Farm Bill that limited the concentration of Delta-9 THC, the primary chemical in marijuana that induces a high, but left other compounds — such as tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, or THCA, which converts to Delta-9 when heat is applied — unregulated.

Inserted midway through the 161-page appropriations package, the language limits the sale of consumable hemp to no more than 0.4 milligrams of total intoxicating tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, compounds per container. 

The cap is detrimental, said Candice Stinnett, a Texas Hemp Coalition board member who owns a Fort Worth THC shop and smoke lounge.

At Stinnett’s shop, Emerald Organics Cannabis, even the lowest-level THC-infused edibles contain 5 milligrams each, with multiple sold per container. 

All edibles in Noriega’s shop contain 10 milligrams of THC, the amount typically sold in states with less restrictive hemp legislation such as Colorado and California.

“We would close our doors for good,” Stinnett said.

The new language also expands the definition of hemp to include all THC compounds within the cannabis plant. Previous law only limited Delta-9 THC, the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana. 

All THC compounds must total 0.3% or less. Cannabis with a higher concentration is considered marijuana, which is a prohibited federally controlled substance alongside heroin and LSD.

Removing THC compounds out of cannabis entirely to comply with the new regulations is not viable, said João Mitchell, legislative director for the Texas Cannabis Collective.

“Taking the THC out of the cannabis, even if it’s low THC cannabis, is like taking the vitamin C out of an orange,” Mitchell said. “If you do that, then you’ve turned the product into something it’s not.”

The new federal regulations come five months after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a state ban on consumable hemp products. Abbott asked the Texas Legislature to impose more regulations on the product — a stance some hemp advocates now support.

“Seeing the progress that Gov. Abbott has made and what he said in his proclamation, I would trust what Gov. Abbott would want,” Stinnett said. 

For Mitchell, who spent months talking with state legislators, the veto sparked hope that cannabis had surpassed being a partisan issue, he said. He was disheartened after hearing about the new federal regulations, he said. 

Texas’ hemp industry contributes over $267 million in state tax revenue each year, Whitney Economics estimates. 

Stinnett expects the new regulation to adversely affect those who rely on the substance, she said. 

Veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress, older people who endure chronic pain, and general customers who ingest THC products to calm anxiety or help themselves sleep are regulars at her shop and lounge storefront, she said. 

Those customers would no longer have access to the same products, making “criminals out of everyday, law-abiding citizens,” Stinnett said.

“It’s heartbreaking because that’s what I think about first — the faces and the people in Fort Worth that we see daily or weekly that rely on these products for their quality of life,” she said.

Stinnett worries her customers would look for similar, unregulated products on the black market, she said.

Some of Noriega’s customers prefer THC products as an alternative to alcohol and other drugs, he said. He worries the new legislation would strip them of a safer alternative, he said.

Mitchell worries reclassification of the substance would open marijuana up to pharmaceutical companies who wish to file patents that would make accessing the substance more difficult, he said.

“The Texas Cannabis Collective really advocates just completely removing it from the Controlled Substances Act and treating it like a drug like nicotine or alcohol or caffeine,” Mitchell said.

Advocates plan to turn their voices to Washington, D.C.

“Money talks, and the only way to get stuff done these days politically is to put your money where your mouth is,” Mitchell said.

Noriega, the Fort Worth THC shop owner, intends to double down.

He said he believes hemp is a safer alternative to other substances like alcohol, and he is optimistic that the truth will keep the substance in shops. Noriega will begin offering franchise locations of his shop to investors in April, he said. 

His family depends on it.

John Forbes is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at john.forbes@fortworthreport.org.

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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A paraplegic engineer from Germany blasted off on a dream-come-true rocket ride with five other passengers Saturday, leaving her wheelchair behind to float in space while beholding Earth from on high.

Severely injured in a mountain bike accident seven years ago, Michaela Benthaus became the first wheelchair user in space, launching from West Texas with Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin. She was accompanied by a retired SpaceX executive also born in Germany, Hans Koenigsmann, who helped organize and, along with Blue Origin, sponsored her trip. Their ticket prices were not divulged.

WATCH: Blue Origin’s latest mission takes a professor and entrepreneur to the edge of space

An ecstatic Benthaus said she laughed all the way up — the capsule soared more than 65 miles (105 kilometers) — and tried to turn upside down once in space.

“It was the coolest experience,” she said shortly after landing.

The 10-minute space-skimming flight required only minor adjustments to accommodate Benthaus, according to the company. That’s because the autonomous New Shepard capsule was designed with accessibility in mind, “making it more accessible to a wider range of people than traditional spaceflight,” said Blue Origin’s Jake Mills, an engineer who trained the crew and assisted them on launch day.

Among Blue Origin’s previous space tourists: those with limited mobility and impaired sight or hearing, and a pair of 90-year-olds.

WATCH: William Shatner goes to space on Blue Origin rocket

For Benthaus, Blue Origin added a patient transfer board so she could scoot between the capsule’s hatch and her seat. The recovery team also unrolled a carpet on the desert floor following touchdown, providing immediate access to her wheelchair, which she left behind at liftoff. She practiced in advance, with Koenigsmann taking part with the design and testing. An elevator was already in place at the launch pad to ascend the seven stories to the capsule perched atop the rocket.

Benthaus, 33, part of the European Space Agency’s graduate trainee program in the Netherlands, experienced snippets of weightlessness during a parabolic airplane flight out of Houston in 2022. Less than two years later, she took part in a two-week simulated space mission in Poland.

“I never really thought that going on a spaceflight would be a real option for me because even as like a super healthy person, it’s like so competitive, right?” she told The Associated Press ahead of the flight.

Her accident dashed whatever hope she had. “There is like no history of people with disabilities flying to space,” she said.

When Koenigsmann approached her last year about the possibility of flying on Blue Origin and experiencing more than three minutes of weightlessness on a space hop, Benthaus thought there might be a misunderstanding. But there wasn’t, and she immediately signed on.

It’s a private mission for Benthaus with no involvement by ESA, which this year cleared reserve astronaut John McFall, an amputee, for a future flight to the International Space Station. The former British Paralympian lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident when he was a teenager.

An injured spinal cord means Benthaus can’t walk at all, unlike McFall who uses a prosthetic leg and could evacuate a space capsule in an emergency at touchdown by himself. Koenigsmann was designated before flight as her emergency helper; he and Mills lifted her out of the capsule and down the short flight of steps at flight’s end.

“You should never give up on your dreams, right?” Benthaus urged following touchdown.

Benthaus was adamant about doing as much as she could by herself. Her goal is to make not only space accessible to the disabled, but to improve accessibility on Earth too.

While getting lots of positive feedback within “my space bubble,” she said outsiders aren’t always as inclusive.

“I really hope it’s opening up for people like me, like I hope I’m only the start,” she said.

Besides Koenigsmann, Benthaus shared the ride with business executives and investors, and a computer scientist. They raised Blue Origin’s list of space travelers to 86.

Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, created Blue Origin in 2000 and launched on its first passenger spaceflight in 2021. The company has since delivered spacecraft to orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, using the bigger and more powerful New Glenn rocket, and is working to send landers to the moon.

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New restrictions on temporary foreign workers are harming smaller towns in northern B.C., business and economic leaders say.

It comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney forges ahead with plans to reduce the numbers of both foreign workers and students in an effort to curb population growth over the next few years.

In Prince Rupert, on B.C.’s North Coast, the population is stagnating despite being home to Canada’s third-busiest port.

Employers say they simply aren’t able to find enough locals to hire for much-needed jobs.

“We’ve done numerous job fairs,” said John Farrell, the executive director of Community Futures in Prince Rupert, a non-profit focused on supporting small business and community development.

“We’d rather hire local — but the locals just aren’t there, and if they are, they’re already working.”

Making matters worse, he said, the changes are resulting in existing temporary foreign workers, once on track for permanent residency in Canada, having their applications to remain in the country denied or delayed.

“Some of them are [restaurant] servers and some of them are managers, and they’re all going home,” he said.

“There just isn’t anybody that’s picking up those jobs.”

Prince Rupert isn’t alone.

Concerns about limits on foreign workers and students have been raised by other northern communities, including Fort Nelson and Prince George, where cuts have been felt at both job sites and on college campuses.

Coast Mountain College, which serves northwest B.C., has closed one of its campuses in response to the reductions.

‘Left behind and helpless’

Among those currently in limbo are Samjhana Khatri and Sudhan Battari, who until recently worked at the Crest, one of the most prominent hotels and restaurants in Prince Rupert.

Waiting for word on their future, they say, has been very stressful — as they are unable to save money or pay bills while waiting to find out if their work permits will be renewed.

“I feel left behind and helpless because I want to work, support myself and continue living legally in Canada,” Battari said.

Khatri’s and Battari’s employer is the Gitxaala First Nation, which owns the Crest.

Gitxaala business director Blair Mirau estimates they’ll be losing upwards of 30 people in the coming months to similar circumstances.

While some of those holes can be plugged by hiring locally, he doesn’t expect all of the positions will be filled.

“Prince Rupert is a small, rural and remote community, so there’s not a whole bunch of people … where they’ve got a degree in hospitality and ten years’ experience managing five-star hotels,” he said.

“And if it does exist in Prince Rupert, I guarantee that we’ve already hired them.”

Earlier this year, Farrell led local businesses in delivering a “call to action” to their MP Ellis Ross, asking that exemptions to the foreign worker cuts be carved out for rural, remote and northern communities.

But Farrell says Ross declined to bring it forward.

Ross did not respond to requests for comment from CBC News, but he is a member of the Conservative Party, whose leader Pierre Poilievre has called for the complete scrapping of the foreign worker program.

Poilievre has argued the program shuts youth out of jobs by instead relying on poorly-paid workers from other countries who are “ultimately being exploited” by the businesses they work for.

Farrell said that may be the case in bigger cities.

But in Prince Rupert, he says his experience is that businesses will not only pay fair wages, but also put funding towards travel and housing, in order to get people to work in everything from hospitality to construction.

Over the past few months, the non-profit leader has seen multiple employers on the ropes due to the federal changes.

“We definitely need a different approach to immigration in the north,” he said.

Keith Jones

Keith Jones

Keith Jones

Keith Jones

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “It was really busy, a lot of people were on the platform. I do have very cold hands, but it was worth it.”

Tickets for the Pathfinder Finale journey, which features a locomotive built in Swindon in 1962, sold out in just 54 minutes.

“It’s a mix of people [aboard],” Mr Watts said.

“There are people who just have a general appreciation and enjoyment from looking out the window, to those who know every nut and bolt on every locomotive.

“From trainspotters through to the armchair enthusiasts, it’s quite a wide section of interest.”

Published on 20th December 2025

The Mayor of Cheltenham has personally thanked racegoers for their generosity in helping to raise more than £1,000 for charity.

The company said it invested £17.7m in the electric single-deck project and £12.3m was secured from the Department for Transport’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) Fund with the help of Nottingham City Council.

Linda Woodings, the council’s executive member for regional development, growth and transport, said the delivery of the buses in 18 months was an “incredible achievement”.

She added there would be a “real impact on local air quality” and the council’s carbon neutrality goals, with the equivalent of 3,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide being saved each year.

“Over the lifetime of the buses, they will also make a significant contribution to wider efforts to improve air quality, with an estimated 31 tonnes of harmful nitrogen oxides and 777kg of PM2.5 [particulate matter] removed from the atmosphere.”

NCT said it now planned to deliver 19 electric double-deck buses through £4.5m of funding from the East Midlands Combined County Authority.

Managing director David Astill added: “Our attention will now turn to the double-deck fleet and I am pleased to confirm that we have placed an initial order for 13 electric double-decks which will be delivered in the autumn of next year.”

Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.

Environment Canada meteorologist Graham MacDonald said they had registered winds as high as 138 km/h in the Wreckhouse area.

Winds are also predicted to reach close to that velocity in Nain as well, with a orange winter storm warning in effect for the area until Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, Newfoundland Power says crews are investigating outages across the province, including on the Avalon, Burin Peninsula, Sunnyside-Clarenville-Bonavista Peninsula area, Gander-Glenwood-Twillingate-New-Wes-Valley area, and the Corner Brook-Deer Lake area.

As well, Marine Atlantic has cancelled ferry crossings between Port aux Basques and North Sydney for the remainder of the day.

Outages a safety concern

Hurricane-force winds have been playing havoc with the province’s power grid all month.

Many of the communities affected this weekend spent two days without power earlier in the week.

Volunteer Firefighter Michelle Wells was among those without power in the town of Embree, N.L. for 42 hours.

She says such outages present a major concern, as with little cell service in some areas, if there was a fire or other emergency there might be no way to reach first responders.

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