Is anyone following the new Big Brother season? I think Kathy (the Arkansas Deputy Sheriff) is the saboteur. Other possibilities: Lane or Matt.

My iPhone 4 dropped two calls today. My 3G never dropped one in two plus years. I still like the 4 better because the sound is clearer and the internet is so fast. But I'd give it up quick for the IPad which has become my favorite. Especially for reading books and magazines and watching Netflix and videos.

Whoever thought Ward Churchill and Scott McInnis would have something in common? The plagiarism story continues to escalate, with the Denver Post calling on McInnis to "throw in the towel" and Colorado Ethics Watch filing a complaint against him and asking for an investigation. But McInnis defused the second accusation somewhat today when the Washington Post columnist whose column he appropriated said it was with his permission.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Speaking in New Orleans this week, Attorney General Eric Holder said it's time to "turn the page" on our approach to crime and expressed commitment to re-entry programs.

...we can’t simply arrest our way out of the problem of violent crime. Of course, incarceration is necessary for public safety. But it’s only partially responsible for the declining crime rates we’ve seen. It’s not a sole, economically sustainable, solution.

Over the last few decades, state spending on corrections has risen faster than nearly any other budget item. Yet, at a cost of $60 billion a year, our prisons and jails do little to prepare prisoners to get jobs and “go straight” after they’re released. People who have been incarcerated are often barred from housing, shunned by potential employers and surrounded by others in similar circumstances. This is a recipe for high recidivism. And it’s the reason that two-thirds of those released are rearrested within three years. It’s time for a new approach.

[More...]

I bet Sarah Palin is thrilled to learn of her daughter's re-engagement to Levi Bristol from U.S. Weekly.

Guess what mom? We're engaged! Again!

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston announced today on the cover of Us Weekly that they're back together, have decided to get hitched – and that even their parents had no idea.

"We got engaged two weeks go," the daughter of 2008 vice-presidential candidate and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the magazine. "It felt right, even though we don't have the approval of our parents."

Tariq Aziz has been turned over to Iraqi custody to finish serving his 22 year sentence. He is one of 55 former members of Saddam Hussein's government turned over.

The handover was announced one day before Iraqi authorities take control of Camp Cropper, the last US-run detention facility in Iraq. Ibrahim said several more detainees would be turned over in the next 24 hours. The formal transfer of the last U.S. detention centre in Iraq -- Camp Cropper near Baghdad airport -- takes place on Thursday.

But the US military says it will keep control of roughly 200 prisoners even after the handover. US authorities will continue to oversee some operations at the prison until the end of the year.

According to Reuters,

The handover was part of a security pact signed in 2008 under which the U.S. military agreed to stop making arrests, hand over its remaining detention centres and withdraw completely from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Two weeks ago, the Florida Supreme Court ordered the formation of an official Innocence Commission. From the Administrative Order:

NOW, THEREFORE, the Florida Innocence Commission is hereby established to conduct a comprehensive study of the causes of wrongful conviction and of measures to prevent such convictions. In conducting its work, the Commission may review individual cases involving a wrongful conviction where innocence has already been officially acknowledged, to determine the cause of these wrongful convictions. Such review may include the examination of documents and the interview of individuals involved in the cases. However, unproven innocence claims will not be reviewed.

[More...]

Colorado Repubublican gubernatorial hopeful Scott McInnis, a former Congressman, yesterday blamed a plagiarism faux-pas on an engineer/researcher.

What about today's new and second allegation? The Washington Post says he plagiarized a column that appeared in its paper in 1994 in a column he wrote for the Rocky Mountain News and orally in a speech on the House Floor.

Allen and Plunk's piece was published Nov. 9, 1994. McInnis' was published Dec. 21, 1994, and he made the speech on Jan. 25, 1995. In one passage, Allen and Plunk wrote, "There is a growing popular belief in South Korea that the North has outmaneuvered Washington and marginalized the South's role."

McInnis column said, "There is growing South Korean sentiment that North Korea has outmaneuvered Washington and marginalized the South's input into this issue." In his speech, McInnis said, "There is growing popular South Korean sentiment that North Korea has outmaneuvered Washington and marginalized the South's input into this issue."

McInnis: Run along now, it was just staffers. [More...]

The Obama Adminisration may be serious about ramping up the civil rights division.

Six New Orleans police officers have been charged in the post-Kaatrina deaths of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge on September 4, 2005.

The 27 count Indictment alleges some ugly facts. Five other former police officers have pleaded guilty and admitted that they participated in a conspiracy to obstruct justice and cover up what happened that date.

The four officers charged with killing civilians face maximum penalties of life in prison or the death penalty. The officers face additional penalties for the remaining counts, which include charges related to a conspiracy to cover up what had happened on the bridge, and conspiracies to file charges against two of the victims, Lance Madison and Jose Holmes, on the basis of false evidence.

The other two face 70 and 120 years.

The New York Times reports eight other incidents of alleged police misconduct are still under investigation.

Looks like it might be curtains for Scott McInnis who's been caught plagiarizing while serving as a $300,000 fellow in 2005 to 2006 for the Hasan Foundation. McInnis' explanation: he blames his research assistant.

McInnis said he paid Rolly Fischer, a Glenwood Springs engineer, to help him with the articles and Fischer was responsible for the content that was plagiarized.

The Hasan foundation responds, refuting his "rough draft" explanation and expressing surprise at the research assistant disclosure, since McInnis' wasn't supposed to be using one [More...]:

We're headed to 100 degrees today and I have to go to the dentist.

The Barefoot Bandit is deported after pleading guilty to illegally landing a plane and paying a $300 fine. (Updated, original version of CNN article said he was sentenced to three months in prison or fined $300.) The NY Times has more on the deportation.

John Wyma, whose information led to the Blagojevich wiretaps, is testifying today. The prosecution seems close to resting and the judge may delay the trial a week for Blago to begin his defense. His lawyers say they will argue lack of criminal intent and reliance upon advice of counsel and others.[More...]

A federal judge in New York has denied former Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Ghailani's motion to dismiss and ruled the case can proceed to trial in federal criminal court. The opinion is here.

Ghailani is charged with complicity in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings. He was captured in 2004, transferred to a CIA secret prison overseas, where he allegedly was tortured. He was then transferred to Guantanamo, where he stayed for almost three years. In 2009, he was charged in federal court in New York and transferred. He argued that the five years he was held in custody violated his right to a speedy trial. [More...]

In Brooklyn, the cops are using a program called "Stop, Question, Frisk." They made 52,000 arrests last year. The ACLU today says Brooklyn Women Knew Their Rights and You Should Too.

The NYCLU offers this updated palm card (or iPhone app) walking you through what to do if you’re stopped by the police.

The palm card not only apprises people of their rights, it helps them defend those rights. For instance, it informs people how to proceed if they are unjustly arrested.

A word to the wise: learn the laws in your state. In New York, police can't make you identify yourself if they don't reasonably suspect you of a crime, but that is not the case in some other places. So check out the ACLU’s national know-your-rights card...

An iPhone App -- what could be simpler? If you don't need it, e-mail it to your kids or someone who might. [More...]

Former child soldier, Canadian Omar Khadr, told the judge at his Guantanamo military proceeding he wanted to fire his lawyers. His request was refused. Now, he will boycott the proceedings.

“The unfairness of the rules will make a person so depressed that he will admit to any allegations or take a plea offer that will satisfy the U.S. government.”

...I will not willingly let the U.S. government use me to fulfill its goal,” Mr. Khadr said. “I have been used too many times when I was a child, and that's why I'm here – taking blame for things I didn't have a choice in doing, but was forced to do by elders.”

He called the process a "sham" and denounced the plea bargain that had been offered to him. The deal was:[More...]

(Above: Kid Rock (another favorite of mine)joins Bon Jovi in March in Detroit.)

Sending good thoughts to Jon Bon Jovi, who tore a calf muscle while performing at the Meadlowlands Friday night, and gives new meaning to "the show must go on." Video below:

Lindsay Lohan has been lawyer shopping since her attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, said she's done. The Judge reportedly told Shawn she can't withdraw until Lindsay gets a new lawyer.

This morning's news said Stuart Goldberg of Chicago had taken the case. Now, Goldberg has bowed out, giving this interview to People.

"My impression of Lindsay is that she's a fragile lost child – a sleeping beauty with her head in the sand. I found her not fully forewarned of the consequence of her actions," Stuart V. Goldberg, who was contacted by Lohan after her attorney resigned, tells PEOPLE.

"I'm concerned that she's not disciplined or tethered enough to the reality of adult consequences," he says. "She doesn't seem to have the awareness of what's going to befall her."

Goldberg makes a good point about her having multiple legal problems: one is the imminent jail sentence, the other is how is she going to get through a lengthier period of probation afterwards?

The National Geographic has a new series for TV, Drugs, Inc. Tonight there's a meth episode, followed by one on heroin and one on medical marijuana.

The description of the meth and heroin episodes sound like they were produced by the DEA. I'd rather watch The Bachelorette.

As for the marijuana episode , we'll have to wait and see. The fact page is a little less slanted. Although I don't think the statement "cannabis polarizes public opinion" is demonstrated by the two examples given: "cannabis revolutionaries trying to legitimize the plant" vs "law enforcement is trying to wipe it off the planet." Public opinion doesn't appear to be polarized, and I don't think the views of law enforcement or activists qualify as "public opinion." Public opinion can be affected by the views of both groups, but neither constitute "public opinion" let alone a major segment of it.