The third miner has just surfaced. If you aren't watching, turn it on. It's heartwarming and real. Everyone is calm and joyous.

The President and First Lady of Chile are right there, they seem so down to earth and connected to the relatives, the workers and the miners. Watching the President physically bear-hug the miners as they emerge is amazing. His smile is a mile wide.

The emotion on everyone's faces is palpable. It's rare to see such expressions of pure joy these days.

A lot of expertise and planning went into this rescue and it shows. Congratulations, Chile (and those from other countries who helped.) You've done yourselves proud. The world is watching and we are all impressed and smiling with you.

Love the Goo Goo Dolls who were on DWTS tonight. (I'm just starting to watch, having DVR'd it earlier.) Bristol is in the bottom three, where she belongs. I doubt she'll be leaving tonight. Not when her mom was in the studio audience last night. (All the tea partiers will call in to vote for her.) Mike "the Situation" is the more likely choice. Neither one can dance, but since the Situation has a lot of personality, I hope it's not him.

After DWTS, it's the Good Wife.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Mexican authorities say the killing of Mexican police investigator Rolando Flores (Commander of state investigators in Ciudad Miguel Aleman) who was part of the team investigating the disappearance of Texan David Hartley while vacationing with his wife on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake, is not related to the investigation. Hartley's wife said they were attacked by pirates who shot and killed him.

Mexican authorities say Flores "was making further inquiries in New Ciudad Guerrero, which have nothing to do with the death of David Hartley, when he was killed."

Nor has Mexico confirmed the Flores "decapitation" story. That information stems from Zapata County, TX Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez (who gave it to the state congressman who tweeted it.) Mexican authorities will only say he was assassinated, and they don't know how.

According to a Texas local ABC News station, over the weekend, Flores met with them, gave them documents identifying two potential suspects, brothers who allegedly are with the Zetas drug cartel, and said the hunt for the pair was stepping up. [More...]

Update: Federal judge enjoins DADT The full three page order is here.

The White House announced today it was lifting the moratorium on deepwater drilling for oil and gas.

The Chilean miners are about to begin the rescue process.

Has debtor's prison returned? A report from the Brennan Center: Criminal Justice Debt: A Barrier to Reentry examines practices in 15 states.

Many states are imposing new and often onerous “user fees” on individuals with criminal convic­tions. Yet far from being easy money, these fees impose severe – and often hidden – costs on com­munities, taxpayers, and indigent people convicted of crimes. They create new paths to prison for those unable to pay their debts and make it harder to find employment and housing as well to meet child support obligations.

I'll be at the jail the remainder of the day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Prop. 102 is on the Colorado ballot and it's a terrible idea. It would require many defendants to pay to get out of jail.

[Prop]102 prohibits the release of a defendant on an unsecured bond to supervision by a pretrial-services program unless that defendant was arrested for a first-offense nonviolent misdemeanor.

Law enforcement officers, prosecutors and defense lawyers have formed a coalition to oppose the measure. Who is in favor of the bill? The bail bond industry. [More...]

Remember the "Denver Three" who were kicked out of a Colorado campaign event for George Bush? The Tenth Circuit ruled the officials had qualified immunity. They petitioned for cert and the Supreme Court denied their request today. The question presented:

Whether clearly established First Amendment law prohibits government officials who are speaking at events that are open to the public and paid for by taxpayers from excluding people from the audience on the basis of viewpoint

Justice Ginsburg dissented, joined by Justice Sotomayor:

I cannot see how reasonable public officials, or any staff or volunteers under their direction, could have viewed the bumper sticker as a permissible reason for depriving Weise and Young of access to the event. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeals held respondents entitled to qualified immunity because “no specific authority instructs this court . . . how to treat the ejection of a silent attendee from an official speech based on the attendee’s protected ex-pression outside the speech area.” 593 F. 3d 1163, 1170 (CA10 2010).

[More...]

Via the National Journal: Captured on video in March (about 1:50 in):

Questioner: "If you were the chief executive of New York, what would your response be to the attorney general of the United States deciding to hold terrorist trials in New York?"

Paladino: "F*** him. F*** him."

His audience laughed.

Carl Paladino steps in more dog poop. He says:

"That's not how God created us," Paladino said of being gay, "and that's not the example that we should be showing our children." ....."I don't want [children] to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option," he said.

On the other hand, Paladino says:

"My feelings on homosexuality are unequivocal; I have absolutely no problem with it whatsoever. My only reservation is marriage."

And, Paladino insists, "he would recruit gays to serve in his administration and currently has homosexual staffers working on his campaign."

Just what New York needs, another politician who talks out of both sides of his mouth. If his views don't sink him, this pathetic attempt to two-step will.

Take your pick. He's a homophobe or a lying, two-faced politician with a trust factor of zero. 30 days until this clown fades into oblivion.

Update: From the Daily Beast: Ten Fun Facts About Paladino

Dancing With the Stars: Bristol Palin says she's going sexy tonight. I'm getting used to her being on the show. So long as there are no more live interviews with her mother, I'll stop complaining about her having been cast and try to focus on on her dancing.

There's also a new episode of "Weeds." On the cop show side, there's Hawaii Five-O, which isn't that bad.

Comcast/Xfinity's "Manage My DVR" went live in Denver this week. I set it up today and it actually works and is fast. I can now set recordings on my three DVR's online in one place, see what's on each at any given time and do mass deletions -- all online. I can also watch on up to three computers instead of tv if I want. If you watch a lot of TV, Xfinity has definitely stepped up its game, in a good way.

BTD is in depositions this week, but may stop by at night. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Kansas has a problem. It's running out of prison beds to house male inmates:

No more. Kansas is officially out of beds for male prisoners, with a population last week of 8,411 — above the system’s capacity of 8,259. In 10 years, the state is projected to be nearly 2,000 beds short.

So Kansas corrections leaders have started talking seriously about two options: Either find millions of dollars to house more prisoners — at a time when the state is struggling to pay for schools and social services — or start letting them go.

One possibility: Follow the lead of Mississippi and grant earlier parole to non-violent offenders. Mississippi now offers parole after serving 25% of a non-violent sentence. This option might have public support:

In a project poll, 91 percent agreed with this statement: “It does not matter whether a nonviolent offender is in prison for 21 or 24 or 27 months. What really matters is the system does a better job of making sure that when an offender does get out, he is less likely to commit another crime.”

Missouri also has advocated less prison time. The Chair of the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission notes:

“People who go to prison learn things in prison,” he said. “It’s time to talk rationally about how much punishment we can afford.”

[More...]

Via the Crime Report:

Violent crime in California dropped dramatically during the same period of intense immigration to the state, found a new study by Barry Krisberg of the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice, which is based at the School of Law. The study, which disputes the link between violent crime and immigration, also found that the increase in state prison populations is not related to the influx of immigrants.

Here's the full study, Where Is The Fire?

Data obtained from the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice reveal that during a long period of new immigration, crime has shown a large and steady decline in California.

[More...]

BTD is in depositions most of the week. I'll be around sporadically today.

In the meantime, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The 33 miners trapped in Chile are set to be "extracted" and freed on Wednesday.

Here's how the wives, mothers and sisters are preparing. Movie productions are already in the works.

The Chilean government is providing each miner with six months of psychological support to deal with the media attention. They've already had a day of media training.

Only in Texas? Or just more proof probation is no walk in the park? Daniel Mirales and his wife Eloise stole from a crime victims fund. She was a 16 year employee of the District Attorney's office. Is this shaming punishment really going to make a difference? And to whom besides the Mireles?

Daniel Mireles walked back and forth on Westheimer in front of the Galleria holding a sign. It read, "I am a thief. I stole $250,000 from the Harris County crime victim's fund. Daniel Mireles."

Mirales will have to do this for five hours every weekend for the next six years. (The spot is outside the Galleria mall in Houston.) This was his first weekend.[More...]

Both Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton will be coming to Colorado to campaign for Sen. Michael Bennet. No one's saying if President Obama will also be coming to town. after Clinton

Clinton supported Bennet's opponent, Andrew Romanoff, in the primary. But Romanoff has also been campaigning for Bennet since then.

The Ken Buck misconduct charge ad has played three times in primetime tonight that I've seen. I hope it's having a good effect for Sen. Bennet.

In other local news, Prop. 62, the Personhood Amendment seems destined for defeat.