By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Tom Constanten wasn’t a part of the Grateful Dead for very long, but fans still value his time with the iconic group.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Deadheads have rallied around the 81-year-old and are raising money to help pay for the radiation treatments he is undergoing to treat lung cancer.

“Each round knocks me out for days, though so far that’s the one symptom,” he told the newspaper about his treatment. “It’s pretty intense.”

Constanten was the band’s keyboardist in its early days, playing with the Dead for 14 months in 1968 and 1969.

A GoFundMe set up for him has nearly reached its goal of $70,000.

He’s not the only one in the Grateful Dead’s entourage who fans are flocking to help.

A GoFundMe set up for Candace Brightman, who served as the Grateful Dead’s lighting director from 1972 to 1995, has surpassed its goal of $75,000 as she battles financial and medical problems, including failing eyesight. Fans have also chipped in for Betty Cantor-Jackson, a producer and sound recordist for the band, roadie Kidd Candelario and the Dead’s former onstage monitor engineer, Harry Popick.

The Grateful Dead is one of the world’s most famous rock bands. It was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Sometimes traveling the world to see the band, Deadheads have developed their own subculture and community.

“We’re surrounded by a culture that feels like we’ve been living in a house together all these years,” David Gans, a musician who hosts the syndicated radio show “The Grateful Dead Hour” and co-authored the book “Playing in the Band: An Oral and Visual Portrait of the Grateful Dead,” told the publication. “We see it as a family and communal social scene. But the actual structures are different. What is the obligation?”

Medical debt is an increasing concern for many Americans and has been part of a national conversation that has ramped up as some brace for rising costs with the expiration of tax credits for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that have helped many afford health insurance.

On Wednesday House Republicans narrowly passed their own version of a health care bill which didn’t include ACA subsidies.

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By Tierney Sneed, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that two entities that implement policy and conduct administrative tasks for the judicial branch are not required under a transparency law to turn over their communications to a private legal group aligned with President Donald Trump.

The opinion by Judge Trevor McFadden came in a longshot case brought by America First Legal, which argued the judicial offices were the type of executive branch agencies that are covered under the Freedom of Information Act — the federal public records law.

The entities — which are known as the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office, and are led by judges — had refused to produce correspondences with Democratic lawmakers, prompting the FOIA lawsuit.

America First argued that the Judicial Conference is actually an executive agency that should be “overseen by the president, not the courts,” thus putting it under FOIA, which does not cover the judicial branch. The organization also contended during oral arguments last month that FOIA’s exemptions for the courts applied to judges and the law clerks that work in their chambers, but not the clerks and other officials who manage a courthouse’s administrative functions.

While the FOIA request predated the current Trump administration, the lawsuit itself was filed amid several major legal battles concerning the Trump White House’s control over independent and quasi-independent agencies.

The lawsuit’s lead defendant was US Chief Justice John Roberts, in his role as head of the Judicial Conference.

McFadden in his ruling Thursday concluded that “the Judicial Conference and Administrative Office do not appear to be the type of entities Congress had in mind in creating FOIA — Executive Branch departments and independent agencies.”

“Nothing about either entity’s structure suggests the President must supervise their employees or otherwise keep them ‘accountable,’ as is the case for executive officers,” he wrote.

The Administrative Office declined to comment for this story.

Roberts did not respond to request for comment. America First Legal — which was founded after Trump’s first term by top White House aide Stephen Miller — also did not respond immediately to CNN’s inquiry.

Gabe Roth, who leads Fix the Court, which advocates for judicial transparency, said that it was “obvious” that the offices in question were not subject to FOIA, but that Congress could act to give the public more insight into the judicial branch’s internal operations.

“Since this lawsuit is not the way to do that, I hope today’s ruling encourages Congress to consider legislation to create a real open records process in the judiciary,” Roth said in a statement.

CNN’s John Fritze contributed to this report.

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By Kit Maher, Steve Contorno, Sarah Owermohle, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to expedite the reclassification of marijuana – an effort to increase research on its medical use but not fully legalize it.

“This reclassification order will make it far easier to conduct marijuana-related medical research, allowing us to study benefits, potential dangers and future treatments,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It’s going to have a tremendously positive impact.”

The order — which directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to hasten the process of loosening federal restrictions but does not include a timeline, according to senior administration officials — comes after an intensive lobbying campaign from the cannabis industry.

Cannabis is currently considered a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy, which are not considered to have any acceptable medical use, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. It will eventually be reclassified as a Schedule III drug, which, according to the DEA, have “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”

“The facts compel the federal government to recognize that marijuana can be legitimate in terms of medical applications when carefully administered. In some cases, this may include the use as a substitute for addictive and potentially lethal opioid painkillers,” Trump said, calling the move “common sense.”

Trump’s action does not federally legalize marijuana, though the drug is already legal in several states. The order does not affect recreational marijuana and does not include any criminal justice changes.

It also calls on White House aides to work with Congress to allow access to “appropriate full-spectrum CBD products,” according to the senior administration officials, and directs the Department of Health and Human Services to research broader access to hemp-derived CBD products.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Por Annie Grayer, CNN

Los demócratas de la Comisión de Supervisión de la Cámara de Representantes publicaron este jueves fotos del patrimonio de Jeffrey Epstein, la última de una serie de revelaciones intermitentes que han impulsado una importante intriga política en las últimas semanas sobre quién podría haber estado asociado con el delincuente sexual convicto.

Las cinco fotografías, publicadas sin contexto adicional por los miembros del panel, incluyen un pasaporte ucraniano con una anotación femenina; al filósofo Noam Chomsky en un avión con Epstein; y a Bill Gates posando con una mujer cuyo rostro fue censurado por los demócratas del panel.

Las imágenes también incluyen una captura de pantalla de un fragmento de una conversación de texto en la que una persona habla sobre enviar chicas.

“No sé, intenta enviar a alguien más. Tengo una amiga exploradora que me envió algunas chicas hoy. Pero pide US$ 1.000 por chica. Te enviaré chicas ahora. ¿Quizás alguien le sirva a J?”, dice la serie de mensajes. La persona envía una descripción detallada que incluye nombre, “18 años”, altura, medidas, peso, una nota sobre el espacio Schengen y una “ciudad de salida”. Muchos de los datos están tachados, aunque la edad y una marca de verificación junto a Schengen y Rusia son visibles.

No se proporciona contexto en torno a esta conversación y se desconoce quiénes son los participantes en el intercambio de mensajes.

Una quinta fotografía muestra el pie de una mujer con una cita de “Lolita”, la novela de Vladimir Nabokov sobre la obsesión sexual de un hombre con una niña de 12 años.

No se aclaró de inmediato cuándo ni dónde fueron tomadas, ni quién las tomó.

Los demócratas señalaron que los administradores del patrimonio no proporcionaron contexto alguno sobre las imágenes compartidas con la comisión y afirmaron que las han publicado a medida que las recibieron, salvo las censuradas. Los demócratas han decidido qué fotos publicar, ya que el panel recibió más de 95.000 imágenes la semana pasada, que los legisladores aún están revisando.

Los miembros del panel han declarado, con cada publicación, que han censurado cualquier información personal identificable de las víctimas y sobrevivientes, o si se desconoce si una persona en la foto es víctima de abusos de Epstein.

Los demócratas encargados de la supervisión han publicado fragmentos de las fotos entregadas a la comisión del patrimonio de Epstein la semana pasada, mientras que el panel, liderado por republicanos, suele publicar documentos e imágenes en una sola entrega, una vez que los legisladores los han revisado en su totalidad. Los republicanos de la comisión han acusado a los demócratas de seleccionar imágenes a su antojo para crear una narrativa específica.

“Los demócratas encargados de la supervisión continuarán publicando fotografías y documentos del patrimonio de Epstein para brindar transparencia al pueblo estadounidense”, declaró el miembro de mayor rango, Robert García, en un comunicado. “A medida que nos acercamos a la fecha límite para la Ley de Transparencia de los Archivos de Epstein, estas nuevas imágenes plantean más preguntas sobre qué tiene exactamente en su poder el Departamento de Justicia. Debemos poner fin a este encubrimiento de la Casa Blanca, y el Departamento de Justicia debe publicar los archivos de Epstein ahora”.

Fotografías anteriores del patrimonio de Epstein publicadas por los demócratas han mostrado la isla privada del difunto financiero y las muchas figuras poderosas en su órbita.

Gates y Chomsky han informado previamente de haber conocido a Epstein, y han aparecido en imágenes previas de su patrimonio. CNN se ha puesto en contacto con representantes de ambos.

Un portavoz de Gates ha negado repetidamente que Epstein haya trabajado para él.