Rainy day reading for the holiday weekend

Kathy and my afternoon plans were rained out so I was surfing around while she's doing some Christmas shopping and ran across these interesting articles. No time to blog my own thoughts right now - I'm supposed to have dinner ready when she returns - but be sure to tell me yours in the comments. More next week.

• No party has lock on Dallas jail healthcare woes, Sherry Jacobson, Dallas News

• Prison detrimental to nonviolent offenders and taxpayers, Ronald Fraser, Amarillo Globe-News

• Citizens denounce Hutto jail before county commissioners, Greg Moses, Texas Civil Rights Review

• Pot smoking got him life, Rick Casey, Houston Chronicle

• Driving drunk arrest costs $9-24K on first offense, Mark Agee, Fort Worth Star Telegram

• Former Texas AG Dan Morales out of prison and into SA halfway house, AP

• Genetically engineered, herbicide resistant marijuana found in Michoacan, UK Guardian (Remember Roundup-resistant coca?)
  

• The Ghost of Christmas Past returns to the House of Death, Bill Conroy, Narco News

• How the war on terror impacts the politics of crime, Sentencing Law and Policy

• UTMB and TDCJ Stiles Unit named in federal lawsuit, The Back Gate
  

• A stunning Fifth Circuit decision, Capital Defense Weekly
  

The Statesman's Uncovering Mexico blog has coverage of President Calderon's troop surge in Michoacan and recent assassinations of narcocorrido singers.

There are also several good blog posts up at the Wretched of the Earth, including his recent Texas Court of Criminal Appeals case updates.

Merry Christmas, everybody.