New York has settled a lawsuit brought by advocates for mentally ill prisoners. Among the practices the state has agreed to stop: 23 hour a day isolation and feeding them a diet of bread and cabbage.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan in 2002 by several prisoners’ rights groups against the administration of Gov. George E. Pataki, claimed that the state had failed to provide the treatment the prisoners needed and that solitary confinement had led to severe psychiatric deterioration, self-mutilation and suicide.

The agreement with the administration of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, which still requires court approval, means that the mentally ill who are confined to special housing units will get at least two hours of treatment outside their cells each day and as many as four hours’ additional recreation time. As attorney general, Mr. Spitzer represented the Pataki administration in the case, but he said last year that he would not hesitate to change course as governor.

Bread and cabbage? Shameful.

Charges against one of the Marines in the Haditha killings have been dropped, but it's not because he wasn't involved.

Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, 24, had been charged with premeditated murder and making a false report in the November 19, 2005, deaths, which damaged U.S. prestige and led to international condemnation.

``Charges against him were dismissed on April 2 after the government balanced his low level of culpability in the alleged crime against the potential value of his testimony,'' a Marine Corps statement said.

Two dozen Iraqi men, women and children were killed in this raid.

Three Marines remain charged with murder and four others are charged with dereliction of duty for failing to properly report and investigate the shooting deaths of the two dozen Iraqi men, women and children.

Was this deal really necessary? Why not make Dela Cruz plead to the dereliction of duty count? Why reward him with a complete dismissal? How trustworthy will his testimony be?

TalkLeft's prior coverage of the Haditha killings is accessible here.

The Washington Post has some new details on Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter, including statements by Nikki Giovanni, a poet and teacher who warned others about him when he became a problematic student that scared others in the class.

Days later, seven of Giovanni's 70 or so students showed up for a class. She asked students why the others didn't show up and was told that they were afraid of Cho. "Once I realized my class was scared, I knew I had to do something," she said.

She approached Cho and told him that he needed to change the type of poems he was writing or drop her class. Giovanni said Cho declined to leave and said, "You can't make me." Giovanni said she appealed to [Professor] Roy, who then taught Cho one-on-one.

...Roy said she warned school officials. "I was determined that people were going to take notice," Roy said. "I felt I'd said to so many people, 'Please, will you look at this young man?' "

The Smoking Gun has posted one of his "plays." It's predictably ugly.

Defense Secretary Bob Gates must be on thin ice with the President tonight. Via Kevin Drum:

...."The debate in Congress ... has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited," Gates told Pentagon reporters traveling with him in Jordan. "The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact ... in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment."

So if you are against the Dems' Congressional pressure on Bush over the Iraq Debacle you are for the terrorists right?

Don't miss this amusing comment on Dr. Phil's assertion that video games are responsible for the violence at Virginia Tech.

Predictably, the networks are still milking the gun control debate for all its worth. At least Sen. Harry Reid isn't buying it.

Guns effected, but did not cause the killings. They were the means by which an unbalanced, disturbed individual carried out his rage.

I also think the arguments to increase guns on college campuses are a bad idea.

We should never enact laws as an emotional response to a single tragedy, no matter how horrific. Cooler heads are needed.

Rather than playing the blame game, look to what made Cho Seung-Hui want to kill people and himself. Maybe there's a lesson in there.

If he couldn't buy a gun, he would have stolen one. Or used explosives, in which case the death toll might have been higher.

This was an isolated event that was neither predictable nor preventable.

We elected a Democratic Congress to get us out of Iraq, provide universal health care and preserve Social Security. I hope they don't get diverted by a simplistic non-cure.

In a Matt Yglesias post discussing John Edwards strong "netroots support", Dave Weigel provides a comment that intrigues me:

I'm intrigued by the fact that Edwards is so much stronger among the netroots than among Democrats at large.

The netroots like to be stroked, and he strokes them. Examples: The netroots don't think the elected Democrats are doing enough to end the war, and Edwards says as much.

. . . A favorite theme on the right-wing blogs (and among some pundits, like Barone) is that the netroots are issuing commands to Edwards et al. That's mostly bulls**t. The netroots are VERY VERY CLEAR about what they want, and the candidates that notice this and feed them red meat reap immediate rewards.

Posted by: David Weigel on April 17, 2007 02:46 PM

My first question, is there anyone or any group that does NOT like to be stroked? What does that mean exactly? Does Labor NOT support candidates who "Stroke" them by supporting policies they prefer? Does NOW and NARAL not support candidates that support the policies they prefer? Why is the Netroots unique in wanting to be "stroked?"

My second question, if "doing something on Iraq" is the Netroots' signature issue, why did Chris Dodd not skyrocket in suppport when he came out for Reid-Feingold? It's my number one issue and Dodd's sponsorship of Reid-Feingold is THE REASON I am supporting him. There is not one other person on the blogs that I know of that has made the choice I have on this. So is Iraq really the Netroots' signature issue? I've argued it should be but it clearly is not. So then why is the Netroots for Edwards? My theory on the flip.

The Virginia Tech shootings overlapped with tax day, which is today. The I.R.S. has shown compassion.

The IRS said the extension until Oct. 15 applies to victims, their families, emergency responders and university students and employees.

"Taxes are the last thing the Virginia Tech family should be worried about at this time," IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said in a statement. Midnight Tuesday was the deadline for most taxpayers to file their taxes for 2006.

True, anyone can get an extension with minimal paperwork. But it's a nice gesture not to have to think about it.

Too much crime news today, time for a change of topic. Via Rolling Stone, 25 Rock Songs with a Secret. Number One: Louie, Louie.

[hat tip Althouse.]

Which ones did they forget?

Happy 5th Blogiversary to Eschaton/Atrios. Many congrats to Duncan. And yes, as far as I know, I coined that phrase.

Atrios has good posts up today on the Virginia Tech shootings.

The Fulton County District Attorney is investigating a police shooting of two unarmed brothers in Fulton, Georgia on Sunday. Yes, this is the same District Attorney who chalked up a police shooting of a 92 year old woman as "another tragedy involving drugs."

One brother died and the other was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The facts surrounding the shooting remain murky, in part because the police are revealing little information.

Ron Pettaway, [family members] said, was shot in the back of the head and his brother in the back. A police report, however, said Roy was hit in the stomach. The officers arrived on the scene, they added, well after the altercation that drew them there was over.

Rev. Markel Hutchins, speaking for the family, complains about a climate in which "police officers are now shooting first and asking questions later."

Hutchins said the Pettaway shootings are another example of excessive police force by metro Atlanta police. Twelve people were shot by police in DeKalb County last year alone.

From the Norman Transcript:

The Norman campus of the University of Oklahoma briefly experienced a lockdown this morning after officials received a report of an unidentified Caucasian male of student age carrying a “suspicious object.”

According to a campus-wide email issued at 9:32 a.m., university deans, directors and chairs were ordered to “Immediately take action to keep all individuals within their current buildings into further notice.” A second email was sent by President David L. Boren’s office at 9:50 a.m. to students, faculty and staff. The note stated, “students, faculty and staff should stay in their buildings or dorms until further notice.”

Shortly after 10 a.m. the lockdown was lifted and Boren issued a statement attributing the action to a yoga mat mistaken for a weapon. Later, officials said it was an umbrella.

Are we now in the paranoia stage?

[hat tip to my cousin Miles, brother of Max, who was on campus and received word someone was on campus with a rifle.