Let's clear the decks of a few items that, but for the holidays, probably each deserve more discussion than these brief blurbs. Feel feel to provide some in the comments.
Interviewing Anthony Graves
Via Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, check out this extended interview with exoneree Anthony Graves and his attorney Nicole Caearez on a local show, Reasonable Doubt, by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association.
Terrific blog coverage of Houston DA's race
Pat-Lykos supporter David Jennings at Big Jolly Politics parses an open records request in an an attempt to separate fact from campaign-driven fiction regarding the Harris County District Attorney's DIVERT program. In another post he commented on the "freaking mess" that is the grand jury inquiry into retaliation via county contracting on DWI breath testing, questioning the political motivations of the "runaway grand jury" and providing primary documents. Yet another post earlier this month offered up a respectful, loyal-opposition type interview with Lykos' opponent in the GOP primary, Mike Anderson. Dave's takeaway: " I wish he hadn’t filed. And he told me last night that he wished he hadn’t been convinced that he had to file." First rate blog work, Dave. MORE: Soon after I posted this, Dave put up another item in the series in which he interviewed Lykos face-to-face, along with one of her lieutenants, Rodger Bridgewater. This primary battle is getting far more discussion and substantive coverage in the blogosphere than in the MSM.
Reentry volunteers work from personal motives
Nice story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a coupla volunteers at Tarrant County reentry programs, one an ex-prisoner in a faith-based program and another whose daughter was murdered in a domestic dispute who now counsels ex-offenders on domestic violence.
Private prison company has 10,000+ beds in extra capacity
In a recent conference call with investors, reports Texas Prison Bidness, Corrections Corporation of America reported increased short-term revenue but also revealed they have an excess bed capacity of 10,500, confirming Grits' intuition that the "incarceration bubble" may be bursting and that private prisons in the near term will have increasing trouble filling beds. The company's stock (CXW) dropped just before Christmas when the state of Arizona announced it would not go ahead with privatization plans.
'Drug violence kept Texas families apart on Christmas'
Reports KWTX.com. Also, Reuters has an excellent if depressing report on the organized crime wars in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city across the river from El Paso..
Police disbanded in Veracruz, MX
In Veracruz, Mexico, the entire municipal police force has been disbanded and the military has taken over security as Los Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel vie for supremacy. "The government in Veracruz state reportedly said on Wednesday that 800 police officers and 300 administrative employees had been laid off in an effort to root out corruption." This is sad: I love Veracruz, the city, the capital of Xalapa, and the rest of the state. For a while it was spared this kind of violence, but as the killing receded somewhat this year in Juarez, it escalated in Veracruz and other parts of the country. What a disaster!
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Tens of thousands more people have abandoned Ciudad Juarez, a city wrecked by Mexico's drug violence. Although official figures vary, the city this month likely surpassed 10,000 homicides in the past four years.
10,000 homicides!
Reuters has an interesting article about the homocide rates en MX.
DF (Mexico City) = 8-10/100,000
Sinaloa (Mazatlan) = 80/100,000
Juarez = 270/100,000
Some of the more violent US cities top 20/100,000
Those are the facts. The point of the article is violence is growing en DF.
In Mexico, the police drive stolen American cars.
Stolen American vehicles end up in possession of Mexican officers and can be seen parked outside the headquarters of the federal, state and municipal forces.
In and around different agencies in Mexico you will see vehicles that still have their California, Texas and Arizona license plates. These cars were stolen across the border and never recovered. It’s a form of foreign aide.
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