This is how the Tampa police treated a woman who reported being raped.

Polife officers helping the 21-year-old woman search for her attacker jailed her after finding that she failed to pay back money she owed after a 2003 theft arrest. A jail worker later refused to give her a second dose of a morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy because of religious convictions, said Vic Moore, the college student's attorney.

Moral: don't report a rape if you've ever failed to pay a court obligation. Second moral: if the jailer won't let you take your emergency contraception, call the press.

[T]he woman was allowed to take the second emergency contraceptive pill Monday afternoon, a day late, and then only after reporters started calling police and jail officials. Authorities then arranged a special emergency bond hearing on Monday afternoon.

A public school that wants to search a student's urine for evidence of alcohol consumption should seek a warrant based on probable cause. The shortcut taken by Pequannock Township (NJ) High School is offensive: random urinalysis using a dubious screening test.

Urine screenings look for ethyl glucuronide, produced by the body after it metabolizes alcohol. School officials acknowledge the test is sensitive, and false positive readings can be the result of using products containing ethanol, including mouthwash and Balsamic vinegar.

The test claims to detect alcohol consumption up to 80 hours before the urine is collected. Accuracy issues notwithstanding, whether students consume alcohol when they aren't at school, perhaps with a parent's permission, should be addressed by parents, not schools.

"Medical care and treatment are issues between parents and children," said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

Residents of New York City should question whether the NYPD is spending their tax dollars wisely. A woman who had been severely beaten was discovered outside a Hell's Angels Clubhouse in the East Village. Witnesses said she was thrown out of the building, so the police obtained a warrant to search for evidence of an assault. So far, so good, but before knocking and seeking entry, the police assembled a "heavily armed Emergency Service Unit."

Police helicopters circled overhead, sharpshooters were stationed on nearby roofs and officers were armed for a siege ... After several hours, as police prepared to raid the club, a Hells Angels official arrived, examined the warrant and invited them inside.

An attorney for the Hells Angels said police overreacted. "The helicopters, the SWAT teams, the boys and all the toys, the armored personnel carrier -- I think it's a little much," said Ron Kuby, the attorney.

Robert Stein, the former comptroller and funding officer for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, was sentenced to 9 years in prison after pleading guilty to bribery and money laundering charges.

He admitted conspiring with Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen with businesses in Romania, Bruce D. Hopfengardner, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, and others including several high-ranking Army officers. Bloom, who controlled companies in Iraq and Romania, bid on projects using dummy corporations and Stein ensured that one of the firms was awarded the contract, according to court documents. ...

The businessman allegedly showered Hopfengardner and Stein with luxury gifts such as cash, premium airline seats, jewelry and sexual favors from women at his Baghdad villa.

Bloom and Hopfengardner await sentencing.

Opponents of the president's desire to keep a substantial number of troops in harm's way in Iraq (much less to increase their numbers) have differed in their proposals to bring the troops home. Sen. Russ Feingold began a hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, entitled "Exercising Congress’s Constitutional Power to End a War," with this statement, in which he calls upon the legislature to exercise its power to defund the war.

Excerts:

Tomorrow, I will introduce legislation that will prohibit the use of funds to continue the deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq six months after enactment. By prohibiting funds after a specific deadline, Congress can force the President to bring our forces out of Iraq and out of harm’s way. ...

We are here to find out from [expert witnesses] not what Congress should do, but what Congress can do. Ultimately, it rests with Congress to decide whether to use its constitutional powers to end the war.

The answer should be clear. Since the President is adamant about pursuing his failed policies in Iraq, Congress has the duty to stand up and use its power to stop him. If Congress doesn’t stop this war, it’s not because it doesn’t have the power. It’s because it doesn’t have the will.

I'm sitting in the media room at the courthouse in D.C., laptop set up on the table in front of me, my Starbucks in hand. Judith Miller is today's big witness, but first we have to finish David Addington, Cheney's former counsel and current chief of staff. I'm going to watch Addington from here, and then go in the courtroom for Miller.

Marcy will be live-blogging the testimony at Firedoglake.

Here's a place for you to discuss the news of day or whatever else is on your mindws.

It's week two in the Scooter Libby trial. Marcy has done a great job of live-blogging todays testimony. Today was my first day at the trial. I spent most of it in the courtroom, seated behind Mrs. Libby, and some in the media room. There were a lot of veteran PlameGate reporters on hand: David Corn of the Nation, David Schuster of MSNBC, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, Byron York of the National Review and John Dickerson of Time, to name a few. Also following the action: Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News, David Stout of the New York Times, Nina Totenberg of NPR.

Being in the courtroom has advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, you get the big picture, being able to watch the interaction between the prosecution and defense teams, Scooter Libby and his lawyers, the jury and the Judge. You also get to see what seems of interest to the jurors, what they smile and laugh at and what doesn't faze them.

On the minus side, it was stifling hot, many of us (including the Judge at one point) were using paper to fan ourselves and if you leave while court is in session, you can't get back in. Also, you are reduced to handwritten notes since no laptops are allowed in the courtroom.  This is not a high-tech trial. The lawyers aren't tapping away at computers. The exhibits aren't fancy. There are a lot of assistants on both sides.

Now for the substance. Cathie Martin, Cheney's former press secretary, was the first witness of the day, where she underwent cross-examination by Libby lawyer Ted Wells. He took her through a chronological version of her testimony from last week.

If there was anything new, I didn't learn it. If he had a point, I didn't get it.

Law Prof. Karl Tobias argues that Congress must investigate the NSA's warrantless surveillance program, despite the Attorney General's belated assurance that the administration will cooperate with FISA courts in the future.

Congress must expeditiously acquire all of the applicable data that lawmakers need to make the most informed determinations. Once Congress systematically assembles and evaluates pertinent material, it should guarantee that the program appropriately balances national security and civil liberties.

Those who point to exonerations of the wrongfully convicted -- often after years or decades of incarceration -- as evidence that "the system works" are missing the point: the system often doesn't work, and the belated correction of some mistakes only serves to highlight all the errors that our criminal justice system never corrects.

With this reality in mind, the NY Times calls upon New York and Texas--

to join the half-dozen pioneering states that have created what are termed innocence commissions. These are independent investigative bodies of judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, police officers and forensic scientists who re-examine case facts after prisoners are exonerated using DNA evidence.

These respected authorities try to identify the causes of the wrongful convictions and propose changes to improve the state of justice. Calls to create commissions in New York and Texas are bogged down in statehouse politics, even as a half-dozen other states are poised to create their own monitors.

Creating an innocence commission in every state would be a useful first step toward a meaningful solution to a problem of epidemic proportions. But it is only one step among many that need to be taken.

No one knows the depth of injustice hinted at by DNA exonerations. But it is clear that they demand organized oversight and serious reforms of the criminal justice system.

Don't change that dial. Marcy and I are at the Plame House in D.C., getting ready to head to the courthouse for the Scooter Libby trial.

Marcy will be live-blogging the testimony at Firedoglake from the media courtroom while I will be in the actual courtroom, taking hand-written notes (no laptops allowed there.) I'll have a wrap-up of the day's coverage tonight at Firedoglake and Huffpo, and eventually here.

If I get online at lunch, I'll post some snippets as an update here. Also check out MediaBloggers for some live coverage.

Cheney former press aide Cathie Martin will be first up today, finishing her testimony from last week. Then it's Ari Fleischer's turn. The Judge hasn't yet ruled on whether he will allow Fitz to ask him why he sought immunity.

I'm really looking forward to this. A big thanks to TChris who has been posting other news here while I've been traveling and settling in.

The Supreme Court is a lonely place for women ... or the woman, now that Justice O'Connor has been replaced by Justice Alito.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Friday that she dislikes being "all alone on the court" nearly a year after the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor. Ginsburg, who spoke to an assembly at Suffolk University Law School, said she sees more women in law school, arguing before the court and sitting as federal judges.

"My consolation is that if you look at the federal courts altogether, you get a much different picture than you do if you look only at the U.S. Supreme Court," she said.

Justice Ginsburg noted that her male colleagues lack "certain sensitivities." Would anyone care to guess what they might be?

Who could blame John McCain for napping during the president's State of the Union address, as a video seemed to show? It may be that the "the video brouhaha" was "short-lived and misguided ... considering that he wasn’t sleeping after all," but whether he was "simply glancing down at his copy of the speech and reading along" or catching a few winks between lackluster applause lines, a demonstrated lack of interest in the president's remarks might help McCain promote his independence from the president. Siding with the unpopular Bush hasn't helped McCain convince voters that he's a better option than a Democratic candidate in 2008.