Around the web

Surfing around on the laptop while watching football this afternoon I saw a nmber of MSM articles that might interest Grits readers:

• Big score holy grail for drug officers, Atlanta Journal Constitution

• Wanted: Historic county jails and courthouses, Austin Statesman

• High court cases a coup for UT law school, Austin Statesman

• Texas cop caught with nearly $1 million in cash, The Newspaper.com

• Questions linger about HPD Taser use, Houston Chronicle

• DEA wants three new offices on the border, San Antonio Express News

I thought the Atlanta Journal Constitution article was particularly interesting. In the wake of the Kathryn Johnston killing, their reporters did open records research about the quantities of drugs sent to Georgia crime labs from the Atlanta PD to find that the vast majority of cases were for tiny amounts of drugs - most of them for less than the weight of a raisin. That same open records research could be replicated by journalists or researchers elsewhere, including Texas. I thought the results were quite revealing.