In the weeks leading up to David Letterman’s very last show, a procession of entertainers—from Tom Hanks to Tina Fey—stopped by his studio to thank him for inventing a new dialect of American television, a funny and irreverent language that inspired many talented young men and women to take risks and try out for a life in show business.

But actors and comedians aren’t the only ones that have much to learn from Dave; helming one of the most talked about TV programs for more than three decades, Letterman has much to teach all of us who labor to get a company, a non-profit, or any other sort of enterprise off the ground.

Here, then, as a tribute to the Master, are the Top 10 things you can learn from CEO David Letterman:

AUGERTIES >> A proposed medical marijuana growing operation could bring 100 jobs to a site just south of the U.S. Army Reserve Center on Old Kings Highway, according to town Supervisor Greg Helsmoortel.

Helsmoortel said Monday that the proposal, by a company called New York Growing Partners, envisions a facility to grow medical marijuana. He said it is unrelated to a previous proposal by a company called Canna Care LLC. “They’re out of the picture now,” he said.

The proposed 12-acre site of the operation, known as the John Mullen shovel-ready site, already has gone through most of the planning process, including water, sewer, archaeological and environmental reviews, Helsmoortel said.

During Prohibition, it was booze. Then gambling, racketeering and cocaine. But today, the New York mob makes big money from an unlikely product — marijuana. And the godfather of ganja is from one of the storied names in Mafia lore: Eboli.

Silvio Eboli, 44, is the grandson of Tommy Eboli, who ruled the Genovese crime family from 1969-72, and grandnephew of Patsy Eboli, a Genovese capo and head of the what the family called the Greenwich Village Crew.

Tommy Eboli was killed, his family believes by Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, a k a the “Oddfather,” who replaced him as boss of the Genovese. Patsy, the family tells me, figured he was next, so he fled to Lagos, Nigeria, then made his way over land and by boat to Sicily, where he lived in exile.

The state expects to register the companies selected to grow, distribute medical marijuana by July.

ALBANY – The state Department of Health has pushed back a deadline to apply for a license to grow and distribute medical marijuana.

The new deadline for businesses seeking one of five licenses statewide is now June 5, according to a notice posted Friday to the health department's website. It had previously been May 29.

The state said the delay is the result of a high number of questions about the application process and is pushing back the deadline to provide answers.

A health worker on Rikers Island was caught bringing contraband tobacco and marijuana into the prison complex, and when he was stopped he acknowledged he'd done it before, according to a criminal complaint.

The complaint, made public Saturday by the Bronx district attorney's office, charged Richard Bustamante Quon, 42, with promoting prison contraband and official misconduct.

His arrest is part of an ongoing probe by the city's Department of Investigation into jails. Correction officials are trying to cut down on contraband, especially weapons, in part by tightening restrictions on the 300,000 people who visit Rikers inmates each year.

Eddie Miller, the 30-year-old founder of a budding pot empire, doesn’t come off as your typical weed advocate. And yet, his company eCann Inc., is an extensive technology platform for the weed industry that could add more steam to the end of prohibition movement sweeping the country.

“Right now the opportunity is the best because the market is being regulated in many states,” Miller told iDigitalTimes. “Every six months there’s a new revelation and a new revolution that's happening. Even here in New York state in about eight months cannabis will be regulated and there will be a very small amount of patients that will be eligible to purchase medicinal cannabis.”

A medical marijuana extract shows considerable promise as a treatment for epilepsy in young people that could reduce seizures in children with severe epilepsy that usually do not respond to other treatments, according to a study by the Langone Comprenhensive Epilepsy Center at the University of New York ( USA) and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
 
The study is based on the use of cannabidiol extract, the main component of this plant and which, unlike the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is not psychoactive, so it has no direct effect on the central nervous system or change its functions or perceptions.
 

An entrepreneurial investment opportunity in a new industry is unfolding as more and more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana. “Investing in the Emerging Cannabis Industry While Managing Risk” on June 18th in New York will explore and discuss the opportunities and risks in this growing multi billion-dollar industry. Hosted by Viridian Capital Advisors, the first investment banking and strategic advisory firm dedicated to the cannabis market, this invitation-only morning briefing is open to attendees of the Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition (CWCBExpo).

Applications for one of five medical-marijuana licenses in New York will roll into the state Department of Health through a May 29 deadline, but winners and losers already are emerging. And at least one aspiring marijuana grower has decided to take his business elsewhere.

With a May 29th deadline for applications from prospective marijuana growers and sellers who want to do business in New York State fast approaching, we turned to the nation's leading cannabis business figure to help make sense of what's happening.

Brendan Kennedy, CEO of Seattle-based private equity firm Privateer Holdings, talked about why New York became the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana, how New York's law differs from other states, and how the unions fit into all of this. Here's an edited transcript of our conversation.