Indigent defense, civil commitment and the Texas surveillance state

No time to delve into these issues in-depth, but fyi:

• The Texas Public Policy Foundation has a new white paper out on pretrial proceedings for indigent defendants.
• The judge overseeing Texas' sex-offender civil commitment program was reprimanded for bias by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
• From the Dallas News, see "How Rick Perry set up a surveillance state in Texas." I'm not sure why they didn't credit Wired magazine, which broke the Trapwire story a while ago. See related Grits coverage.
• Judges and the local criminal defense bar oppose a public defender office in Fort Bend County.