Here is Jill Carroll's statement. Those who accused her of being a "Taliban Jane" should be ashamed.

As Crooks and Liars says, "Welcome home Jill and take the time you need to recover."

A new Time poll shows 79% support a guest worker program while only 47% support the Republican House bill.

There's also this discouraging news:

A substantial majority, 75%, say they should not be allowed to have government services, such as health care or food stamps, and 69% say they shouldn't be able to get a driver's license. A slight majority, 51%, think public schools ought to be off-limits.

And this encouraging news: Bush's favorable rating has sunk to 37%, it's lowest level yet.

• Nora Ephron at Huffpo

• Bush Twins to Enlist in High Tech Air Force Unit

First daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush will be assigned to a high-tech unit in Iraq, the Air Force Human Resources Command has confirmed. Having finished basic training at the Officer Training School (OTS) at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, they are scheduled to receive advanced training in telecommunications at the School of Information Technology before deployment overseas with the USAF Information Operations Squadron. For security reasons, the exact dates have been withheld.

• Students for A Sensible Drug Policy: Congress Forces People with Drug Convictions to Attend College - Law that Stripped Aid from 200,000 Students Reversed

In a stunning reversal of federal policy, Congress passed a law yesterday that not only repeals the Higher Education Act Aid Elimination Penalty that has denied financial aid to nearly 200,000 students with drug convictions, but actually mandates that people with drug convictions attend college and that the federal government foot the bill.

For more information on the new law, have a HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!!! If you would like to find out more about the real campaign to repeal the HEA Aid Elimination Penalty, please visit here.

There's a new filing in the Lewis "Scooter" Libby case. Tom Maguire has posted it here (pdf). It's a reply to Fitz's response to Libby's Motion to Dismiss the case on the grounds that (shorter version) Fitz' appointment as special counsel violated the federal appointment statute and the Constitution because he was not being supervised by the Attorney General. Pete Yost of the AP has more on the filing here.

The most interesting statement in the filing is the one that states Fitzgerald only recently disclosed that two months after his appointment, around February, 2004, he learned the identity of Robert Novak's source for his July, 2003 column outing Valerie Plame. However, the citation provided by Libby's lawyers is page 17 of Libby's Memorandum brief (pdf) in support of his original Motion to Dismiss.

I have searched through Fitzgerald's pleadings and affidavits and cannot find anything disclosing that Fitz knew Novak's source that early. I'm hoping some other Plame-a-holics will have better luck. One other reference may be contained in Exhibit E, a heavily redacted affidavit of Patrick Fitzgerald (although not explicitly.)

If it's true, which I assume it is, because Libby has quality, ethical lawyers, is it something that was disclosed to them in discovery that hasn't been made public? Why are they disclosing it? What does it mean in terms of the overall investigation?

The best coverage of the story so far: There was a party at a house rented by three Duke lacrosse team members. They hired two exotic dancers. The dancers were black and 46 of the 47 team members are white. Later, one of the dancers alleges she was raped by three white males at the party. Both allege racial epithets were hurled at them.

The 46 white players go in for DNA tests and deny any sexual activity occurred. Duke cancels team games until more is known. Many in the media are convinced the players are guilty and have elevated the story into one about "classism, racism and sexual violence." Even charges of a "blue wall of silence" among team players have been bandied about.

Bloggers are lining up to castigate the players. The latter is so hot to convict she even mistates the most basic fact of the case in the description of her blog.

Reporter Jill Caroll is kidnapped, held for months and then released. This is the kind of trash the being spewed at her (via Think Progress.) Watch this clip from the Don Imus show.

MCCORD: Put on 20 pounds while in captivity, yeah.
MCGUIRK: And why do we suspect?
IMUS: Well, why do you suspect?
MCGUIRK: She's carrying Zarqawi's baby. No doubt about it.
IMUS: Man, you are a such a, you're a...
MCGUIRK: Did you hear her comments yesterday? She's wearing the terrorist headgear. And everything points to that.
...
MCGUIRK: She's Taliban Janie, this girl. Taliban Jill or whatever.
IMUS: That's a little strong don't you think.
MCGUIRK: I don't think so. Well except for the fact that she seems overly sympathetic. There's something wrong. Something stinks.

Simply disgusting.

by TChris

Kenneth Junious was the only eyewitness who (supposedly) placed Surgio Johnson at the scene of Melvin Jackson Jr.'s murder. That made Junious a vital witness. When Junious expressed reservations about testifying, prosecutor Barry Disney crossed a line:

The judge said Disney made a false threat of criminal charges and additional jail time to coerce Junious into testifying.

That attempt to coerce a witness prompted Sedgwick County District Judge David Kaufman to exclude Junious' testimony. The district attorney's office appealed the ruling, but its appellate office abandoned the appeal, undoubtedly concluding that it was fighting a losing battle. Perhaps the DA's office worried that an appellate court might ask unpleasant questions about its failiure to charge one of its own with intimidating a witness.

The jurors have recessed for the weekend. There's no verdict and there were no questions today. They've only been deliberating 12.5 hours total, so this is not unusual.

Update: I am still not finding the final jury instructions. The Court's website has only those proposed by both sides, and objections each filed to the other's submissions.

Even if the instructions were delivered orally by the Judge, you would think at least one news outlet who purchased the trial transcripts from Exemplaris would post them on their website. If any reporters out there have the transcript of closing arguments and jury instructions, please don't hesitate to e-mail them to me.

The Wall Street Journal today published article by Brody Mullins on Michael Scanlon and his former fiance Emily Miller. It fails to credit investigative journalist Jason Leopold who broke the story in January.

I did a Lexis search and found that Jason's article was the first to report the Scanlon-Miller story. Jason is understandably miffed. He writes by e-mail:

Bump and Update: Crooks and Liars has a video of Feingold, in which he mentions this post by blogger Glenn Greenwald. Christy has some after-hearing thoughts. Raw Story has transcripts from the hearing.

******
Original Post:

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Senator Russ Feingold's motion to censure President Bush. Christy (Reddhedd) at Firedoglake is live-blogging via C-Span. Crooks and Liars will have some video. Glenn Greenwald is covering there as well.

Via NORML:

NORML regrets to inform you that earlier this week the House and Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 8, Ohio's proposed per se "drugged driving" bill. While some of our allies on the House Criminal Justice Committee valiantly tried to address some of our concerns by introducing several amendments to the bill, SB 8 - as approved by both chambers - would still potentially punish marijuana smokers for "drugged driving," even if the individual is neither under the influence nor impaired to drive.

The bill is expected to be signed into law by the Governor, whose administration lobbied for its passage, and will take effect 90 days after his approval.

When one person does it, it's interesting. When two people do it, it's noteworthy. When three people do it, it may be the beginning of a movement.

Grant Urry

Of Winchester on January 04, 2006. Husband of Lillian (Alibertini) Urry. Father of Lisa Urry of El Cerrito, CA, Meg Urry of Guilford, CT, Serena Urry of Detroit, MI and Anthony Urry of Livonia, MI. Grandfather of Amelia, Lily, Sophia, Alex, Grant and Evan. Brother of Zada Christiansen of Salt Lake City, UT and Daniel Urry of Birmingham, AL. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Ph.D. from University of Chicago 1953. Professor of Chemistry (retired) at Tufts University. There will be no Funeral Services. Friends are asked to remember him by voting Democratic.

[Hat tip to Grant Urry's son Anthony who sent this in to TalkLeft.]