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Torture Prosecutions May Target Low-Level Offenders
From Adam Serwer for American Prospect: By now, everyone’s heard that the Justice Department is apparently considering the Abu Ghraib strategy for dealing with torture as a legal matter—prosecuting only those low-level operators who went beyond the Office of Legal Counsel guidelines detailing how much torture was legal. The LA Times article quotes Human Rights…
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Mentally Ill Offenders Burden Juvenile System
FRANKLIN FURNACE, Ohio — The teenager in the padded smock sat in his solitary confinement cell here in this state’s most secure juvenile prison and screamed obscenities. The youth, Donald, a 16-year-old, his eyes glassy from lack of sleep and a daily regimen of mood stabilizers, was serving a minimum of six months for breaking…
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Swine Flu Prepares to Make a Comeback
From the Washington Post: As the first influenza pandemic in 41 years has spread during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter over the past few months, the United States and other northern countries have been racing to prepare for a second wave of swine flu virus. At the same time, international health authorities have become increasingly alarmed…
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Lucky Number 70: Tiger Wins at Bridgestone
From Golf.com: There were all kinds of delicious implications had Padraig Harrington hung on to defeat Tiger Woods at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday, and the pundits were salivating. As Woods sat out the second half of 2008, Harrington stole his mantle and won the British Open and PGA Championship. Not that the Irishman seemed…
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The Confusing Lives of Marion Barry
“How the hell did Marion Barry get his job back? Smoked crack and got his job back. How the hell did that happen? I mean, if you get caught smoking crack at McDonald’s, you can’t get your job back. … Marion Barry! Come on, how you gonna tell little kids not to get high when…
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40 Inmates Hospitalized in CA Prison Riot
From CNN: Forty prison inmates were sent to hospitals, four of them airlifted, after a riot erupted at the California Institution for Men in Chino, a spokesman said. The melee broke out at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Reception Center West facility, said Lt. Mark Hargrove, prison spokesman. The situation was under control as…
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A Saint Goes Marching In
From CNN: Drumsticks in hand, Derrick Tabb has found a way to transform New Orleans children from troublemakers to tuba players. Tabb, wearing a gold chain and a baseball cap, doesn’t look the part of a typical band teacher. But every weekday evening in the French Quarter, he beats out the rhythm on his music…
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VIDEO: GOP to Heather Blish: Stop Snitchin'
From Think Progress: Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) faced a “heated” discussion about health care at a town hall meeting yesterday, with people in the crowd who were heckling, interrupting, and filibustering him. One vocal attendee was a woman named Heather Blish, who identified herself as “just a mom from a few blocks away” and “not…
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Jobless Rate Falls from 9.5 to 9.4%
From CNN: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Employers cut far fewer jobs from payrolls in July, according to a report from the government Friday, and the unemployment rate fell for the first time in more than a year. The Labor Department reported a net loss of 247,000 jobs in July, the fewest job losses since August…
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