Great news from New Mexico. Governor Bill Richardson today signed the bill passed by the legislature abolishing the death penalty. He called it "the "most difficult decision in my political life."

"Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe," the Democratic governor said at a news conference in the Capitol.

The death penalty will be replaced by life without the possibility of parole. New Mexico becomes the second state to end the death penalty since the Supreme Court restored it in 1976.

Total number of states now without a death penalty? 15. And hopefully rising.

CNN and the Associated Press have confirmed Natasha Richardson has died. The family has now issued a statement through her husband's publicist:

Alan Nierob of Rogers & Cowan said in a statement Wednesday night: "Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."

Earlier, internet sites and sources reported she had been removed from life support at Lennox Hill Hospital in Manhattan due to the brain injury she sustained following a fall Monday during a ski lesson in Canada. [More...]

Via FAMM, Rep. Maxine Waters has introduced a bill to end mandatory minimum sentencing in all drug cases. The bill has 15 co-sponsors.

H.R. 1466, the Major Drug Trafficking Prosecution Act of 2009, seeks to repeal mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders and to give courts the ability to determine sentences based on all the facts, not just drug weight. It would also refocus federal resources on major drug traffickers instead of low-level offenders. There is currently no companion bill in the Senate.

The full text of the bill is here. We need a Senator to step up to the plate. Ideas? [More...]

Attorney General Eric Holder today announced the Government will provide $1 billion in grants to local law enforcment.

The announcement was made at the National League of Cities' (NLC) Congressional City Conference.

In announcing the funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the $1 billion is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and is intended to create jobs as well as enhance public safety.

According to the DOJ COPS website, this is in addition to the $550 million the program got for fiscal year 2009 in the Omnibus Appropriations Act that President Obama signed into law on March 11.

Here's the next furor:

Fannie Mae is due to pay retention bonuses of as much $470,000 to $611,000 this year to some executives despite enormous losses at the government-backed mortgage company. Fannie's main rival, Freddie Mac, also plans to pay such bonuses but hasn't yet provided details.

A federal magistrate judge today denied bail to accused al Qaeda detainee Ali al-Marri. Al-Marri was the third person designated as an enemy combatant by the Bush Administration.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Carr turned down Ali al-Marri's bid to be released on bond, despite the defense's offer of collateral worth more than $1 million and its proposal to keep him guarded in a safe house. Carr said he would issue an order requiring al-Marri be transported to Illinois, where he's scheduled to be arraigned Monday on federal charges of providing material support to terror and conspiracy.

Cheryl Savage, wife of al-Marri's lawyer Andy Savage, wife offered to secure a bond with a commercial property worth at least $1 million, but the Judge rejected the offer.[More...]

Digby points out that while some Goopers are trying to pin the AIG bonuses on Democrats (not without merit, it is pretty clear the Obama Administration fought to remove any restrictions on bonuses), Rush and the GOP Media hordes are fighting for the AIG bonuses. Says Rush:

Via Greg Sargent, President Obama accepts the responsibility for the AIG bonus fiasco:

Asked if he wished he’d known about the bonuses sooner, Obama said, in the course of answering: “Ultimately, I’m responsible. I’m the President of the United States…The buck stops with me.”

President Obama will be held responsible (or will get the credit) for what is done with the financial crisis in any event come 2012. That is why he should not worry about the short term politics but instead focus on what he thinks will work. My own view is that the policies he has implemented so far are much too timid and will not work.

Speaking for me only

Bernie Madoff's accountant David Friehling surrendered today to face charges of securities fraud and other offenses in a criminal complaint (pdf). Friehling served as Madoff's auditor.

In a statement, the SEC said Friehling "merely pretended to conduct minimal audit procedures of certain accounts to make it seem like he was conducting an audit."

Accurate financial statements would have shown that Madoff's securities firm "owed tens of billions of dollars in additional liabilities to its customers and was therefore insolvent," the SEC said.

The Government does not allege Friehling knew of Madoff's illegal Ponzi scheme: [More...]

As opposed to politicians, progressives should care about issues, not elections. Of course one follows the other. But pols are pols and do what they do. Matt Yglesias writes a confusing post, but he gets it right in the end:

If we succeed in achieving major progressive reforms in 2009 and 2010, we’re going to create a situation in which the existence of a workable national health care system deprives the Democrats of a winning electoral issue. A certain number of voters who have conservative views on some other topics but who liked progressive ideas on health care will vote for more Republicans. If progressives succeed in increasing economic mobility and decreasing inequality, that will probably increase the number of middle- and upper-class Hispanics who decide they want tax cuts. The goal, however, is to achieve the goal of a more just society, not to win a bunch of elections.

(Emphasis supplied.) Correct. It is why I wrote:

I've been listening in the background to the AIG hearing and I am not hearing enough questions like the ones Steven Pearlstein poses in the WaPo today (see also this NYTimes story on criticisms of AIG's payments to counterparties):

I suspect that when confronted with the prospect of a bankruptcy and a prolonged and public investigation, the sharpies in London and Connecticut might have been receptive to the idea of renegotiating those bonuses in favor of new contracts -- contracts that increased their base pay but tied their bonuses to success in reducing future taxpayer liabilities at AIG.

. . . A more hard-knuckled executive would have gone to the counterparties of those derivatives contracts and suggested that it would be a real shame if AIG were forced to file for bankruptcy, and offered some sort of workout.

[AIG] certainly could have been more upfront with [its] new owners -- the taxpayers -- about not only the bonuses but also the identity of the counterparties to those derivative contracts, who were the indirect beneficiaries of the government's bailout.

More . . .

Tonight I'll be unveiling my March Madness picks. I am sure you await with bated breath (I use the Shakespearean spelling of "bated.")

This is an Open Thread.