I wrote about the new GAO report (pdf)on juvenile boot camp deaths, but this Times (London) article is really a must read.

Selected quotes:

The Government Accountability Office, the US Congress investigative arm, identified 1,619 incidents of child abuse in 33 states in 2005. It selected ten deaths since 1990 for special investigation in boot camps and “wilderness programmes”.

What they found:

Examples of abuse include youths being forced to eat their own vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or faeces, being kicked, beaten and thrown to the ground,” Gregory Kutz, a GAO investigator, told a congressional committee.

One teenager, Mr Kutz said, was “forced to use a toothbrush to clean a toilet, then forced to use that toothbrush on their own teeth”. The abuse that preceded the deaths of the ten teenagers was particularly shocking. “If you walked in partway through my presentation you might have assumed I was talking about human rights violations in a Third World country,” Mr Kutz said.

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Jena Six defendant Mychal Bell was sentenced to 18 months in jail today on a prior juvenile charge. His parents were ordered to pay court costs and witness fees. The prior case involved two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property.

Bell was on probation and had incurred new charges prior to the December 4 incident which resulted in six defendants being charged with felonies.

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I praised Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in my last post, now I'm criticizing him.

The California courts are weighing challenges to residency restrictions imposed by Jessica's Law and have blocked state parole officers from arresting sex offenders for residency violations.

The Governor doesn't care. He's started a new crackdown of arresting sex offenders.

On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court agreed to block state parole agents from revoking the parole of four sex offenders who are illegally living too close to schools or parks. In a one-paragraph order, the court said it will consider whether Jessica's Law violates the parolees' constitutional rights. The law approved by voters last November prohibits offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park where children gather. The law pertains to sex offender parolees released from prison on or after November 8, 2006.

The ruling applies only to the four offenders who filed suit. So Arnie says he'll continue to pursue the rest:

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I'm going to praise Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in this post, but take it away in the next.

The praise is due for his signing into law a bill that prohibits local governments from requiring landlords to check on and report the immigration status of tenants.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed landmark legislation Thursday prohibiting local governments from requiring landlords to inquire or report on the immigration status of tenants.

...."Landlords are not deputies of the federal immigration program, it's not our job," said Nancy Ahlswede, CEO of the nonprofit Apartment Association of California Southern Cities. "We can't and shouldn't get in the middle of immigration issues."

Laws requiring landlords to act as immigration cops regarding their tenants were tried but struck down by the courts in Irving, TX and Hazleton, PA.

The Illinois House today joined the Senate and overrode Gov. Rod Blagojevich's veto of the mandated moment of silence at the start of the school day.

Students from kindergarten through high school will be allowed to silently pray in whatever faith they practice or simply sit and reflect quietly. Illinois teachers and students have had the option of doing so since 2002, but it wasn't mandated.

The Illinois House voted to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich's late August veto of the silent-moment measure. The governor cited concerns about the separation of church and state.

This is ridiculous. Let the kids pray at home if it's so important to their parents. Prayer does not belong in our schools. These bills are succeeding, even in the courts, because of the "forced silence" alternative. They're not fooling anyone though, they are prayer bills designed to instill religion.

Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), who is often at odds with the governor, said he supported Blagojevich's veto because the legislation is really about prayer in schools. "Why we must mandate this is way beyond me," Lang said. "It's wrong from so many points of view."

Cuba is no longer a safe haven for those on the lam from the U.S., particularly if they are wanted for fraud or drugs.

Now that Raul Castro is in charge, and in what is viewed as a new indicator of cooperation with U.S. law enforcement, Cuba has been handing over wanted Americans.

The most recent is John Bradley Egan who was wanted in Utah for fraud. Egan is the third American turned over this year. Cuba also sent an accused Columbian drug lord back to Bogota.

According to the U.S., there are 60 Americans in Cuba who are wanted here on criminal charges.

Not all fugitives are being turned over though.

The highest profile fugitive that Cuba has refused to hand over is former Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur -- also known as Joanne Chesimard -- who was convicted in the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper.

Cuba has also refused to turn over fugitive financier Robert Vesco, who evaded U.S. authorities during decades on the run from charges he defrauded mutual fund investors of more than $200 million.

Looks like it's time for a trip to the courthouse tomorrow. The Judge in the insider trading trial of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio has unsealed documents related to his classified information defense which he was not allowed to present at trial. This is coming up now because yesterday Joe Nacchio filed his appeal brief and one of the grounds alleges the Judge erred in refusing him to raise his classfied secrets defense.

The Rocky Mountain News reports:

The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.

The documents indicate that likely would have been at the heart of former CEO Joe Nacchio's so-called "classified information" defense at his insider trading trial, had he been allowed to present it.

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Barack Obama has an oped today criticizing Hillary Clinton for her vote for the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment which designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization.

Obama today also penned an op-ed in The Manchester Union-Leader warning that Congress -- including, notably, rival Hillary Clinton -- has given Bush the pretense to invade Iran by approving a recent Senate amendment. "When you give this president a blank check, you can't be surprised when he cashes it," Obama writes. "I strongly differ with Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was the only Democratic presidential candidate to support this reckless amendment."

But Obama didn't vote against the Amendment, which was a non-binding resolution. He didn't show for the vote. His supporter, Sen. Dick Durbin, voted for the Amendment also. (Roll call vote here.)

If Obama so strongly opposed the Amendment, why didn't he show up, argue against it and cast a "no" vote, instead of staying on the campaign trail?

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So now we know why CNN got the Frost family story wrong. They were taking dictation frpm the GOP:

On Monday morning, Don Stewart sent an email with the following text to reporters:

Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there’s more to the story on the kid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems’ radio response on SCHIP. . . . Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?

CNN dutifully regurgitated this line:

A CNN political analyst then placed the blame squarely on the Democrats’ shoulders: “I think in this instance what happened was the Democrats didn’t do as much of a vetting as they could have done on this young man . . .

Maybe CNN should be worried about its own vetting thank you very much. It is clear that they counted on the GOP to do the vetting for them.

The ACLU of Colorado has threatened to sue a Colorado school district for its practice of searching student cellphone text messages, according to its press release issued yesterday:

According to the ACLU's letter [to the school district], the searching and transcribing of students' text messages violates a Colorado statute that was enacted to protect the privacy of telephone and electronic communications. That statute makes it a felony to read, copy, or record a telephone or electronic communication without the consent of the sender or receiver. The letter also explains that searches of cell phones at Monarch High School also violate state and federal constitutional provisions that forbid unreasonable searches and seizures.

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Glenn Greenwald takes apart Joe Klein on the FISA Amendment:

. . . [M]anifestly, Klein also has no idea what he is talking about when he claims the administration is engaged in "data mining." The excuse that the administration's violations of FISA were necessitated by "data mining" programs has even been expressly rejected by both Gen. Hayden . . . and Mike McConnell . . . If Klein really does know what the NSA is doing -- rather than throwing around the phrase "data mining" because it seems complicated and smart -- then he ought to write about it, since that would be a major scoop.

Of course he does not know what he is talking about Glenn, but, as he was in February 2006, he is SURE he knows more about it than you:

People like me who favor this program don't yet know enough about it [Bush Domestic Surveillance program] yet," he says, "Those opposed to it know even less- and certainly less than I do." -Joe Klein

Come on Glenn, you got to keep up . . .

Steve Benen catches CNN doing what it does best, getting a story wrong:

[T]here was CNN this morning, blaming Democrats for this fiasco.

CNN’s John Roberts reported: “Some of the accusations [against the Frosts] may be exaggerated or false. But did the Democrats make a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child?” . . .

This was CNN’s first and only coverage of the right-wing smear — and it was breathtakingly stupid.

. . . [W]e know, and CNN should know, that the attacks on the Frost family are false. CNN reported that the accusations “may be exaggerated.” One wonders what more proof the network needs.

The Media really is terrible.