Facing ever-increasing recruiting problems, and a death toll of U.S. soldiers of more than 1,900, the Army announced a big change today. It will now accept high-school dropouts who don't have GEDs:

Army recruiters now have a wider pool to find future soldiers in. The Army is reaching out to a slice of America’s youth long ineligible to serve: non-high school graduates who don’t have a General Equivalency Diploma. Recruiters can now go after that demographic through the “Army Educations Plus” option, the Army announced Tuesday.

The Army will pay for the cost of the GED. Of course, at the heart of the matter is the recruiters' failure to meet its goals:

by TChris

When the government builds a case on the word of thugs turned snitches, it shouldn't be surprised at an outcome like this one:

In a startling setback to federal prosecutors, John A. Gotti, the Gambino crime family prince who said he wanted to leave the mob life behind and drive a minivan with his family, avoided conviction today in his racketeering trial, as the jury returned hung verdicts on three charges against him and voted to acquit him on a fourth.

The government says it will bring Gotti to trial again, but there's no reason to think its witnesses will become more trustworthy in the interim. Judge Shira A. Scheindlin rejected the government's request to detain Gotti until the second trial. That ruling only makes sense: having exposed the weaknesses in the government's case, Gotti has little reason to flee.

Sentencing Law and Policy has a thoughtful response to Jonathan Turley's op-ed in the Washington Post on shaming punishments as an alternative to incarceration. Professor Berman says:

....given the questionable efficacy of our traditional approaches to punishment and our over-reliance on incarceration (background here), I am quite open to greater use of alternative punishments, including mild shaming sanctions, especially when they are imposed in lieu of an extended imprisonment term.

Turley, in constrast, opined:

by Last Night in Little Rock

UK citizens sent hundreds of tons of food to Katrina victims, but it languished in a warehouse, became unusable or was quarantined because it was from overseas, and was being transported to an FDA warehouse to be incinerated as reported here, written by a UK free lance writer.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says he will vote against the nomination of John Roberts for Chief Justice of the United States.

Reid scheduled a speech on the Senate floor for mid-afternoon, at which he was expected to make his announcement public.

I suspect several other Democrats will also vote against Roberts. He didn't answer their direct questions about his views on abortion, civil rights and other important issues, sticking to his script about respecting precedent. His hearings were more like a law school class at which he was lecturer-in-chief.

As big as the abortion issue is to many folks, civil liberties in the broader context (Patriot Act, increased governmental snooping, etc.) the death penalty and criminal justice are my primary areas of concern. Roberts just about got a pass on all those issues from the Senators, and I'm not happy about that. Still, Roberts will be confirmed, and the real fight is yet to come - over Justice O'Connor's replacement. I'm holding my big guns for that one.

Say Hello to the first official Daily Kos spin-off site, Street Prophets, about faith and politics. Markos of Daily Kos explains more about the site.

Legendary Nazi-hunter and fighter of anti-Semitism Simon Wiesenthal has passed away in Austria. He was 96.

From Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles:

"I think he'll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust. In a way he became the permanent representative of the victims of the Holocaust, determined to bring the perpetrators of the greatest crime to justice," Hier told The Associated Press. A survivor of five Nazi death camps, Wiesenthal changed his life's mission after the war, dedicating himself to tracking down Nazi war criminals and to being a voice for the 6 million Jews who died during the onslaught. He himself lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust.

by TChris

As TalkLeft reported here, the Commission on Federal Election Reform presented Congress yesterday with a series of proposals, including the sensible idea that voting machines should produce paper copies of votes to permit an audit that would assure a machine is recording votes accurately. A NY Times editorial today addresses a more troubling proposal: "a voter identification requirement that would prevent large numbers of poor, black and elderly people from voting."

by TChris

The nation's largest retailer is facing about 40 lawsuits alleging workplace violations. The first of those to go to trial alleges that Wal-Mart systematically denied its California workers the right to take a lunch break.

The case concerns a 2001 state law, which is among the nation's most worker friendly. Employees who work at least six hours must have a 30-minute, unpaid lunch break. If they do not get that, the law requires they are paid for an additional hour of pay.

Wal-Mart settled a similar suit in Colorado for $50 million.

by TChris

Chicago police claimed that two boys, ages 7 and 8, confessed to the murder and sexual abuse of Ryan Harris in 1998. A month after they were arrested, DNA testing established that the kids didn't commit the crime. One of the Chicago detectives who extracted the confessions has a history of persuading children to confess to crimes they didn't commit.

As TalkLeft reported here, one of the kids settled his wrongful arrest lawsuit in January for $2 million. On Monday, several weeks after the start of a trial that wasn't going well for the City, the other boy settled for $6.2 million. Some of the settlement proceeds will be used to pay for the boy's therapy.

Update (TL): Crooks and Liars has the video. More from the Village Voice and New York Times.

by TChris

New York City police prevented Cindy Sheehan from finishing a speech she was delivering at Union Square yesterday. They also arrested a rally organizer for failing to obtain a permit before allowing Cindy to use a "sound device" to criticize the president.

"This is what's been happening for the last couple of years," said the co-chairman of the Green Party's Manhattan chapter, Daniel Starling, who attended the rally. "Every time we try to hold a demonstration, they arrest us."

Free speech in New York: you're free to speak when, where, and how the City permits you to speak.

Update: Cindy describes what happened:

Bump and Update (TL): Law Prof Ellen Podgor of White Collar Crime Blog weighs in:

Unlike Bernard Ebbers, but like Jamie Olis, the defendants were sent off to jail immediately. They were not released pending the appeal. .... Unlike those sentenced in the federal system (e.g. Rigas, Ebbers, and Olis), both Kozlowski and Swartz have the opportunity to present their case and circumstances for parole after they have served 8 1/3 years. But some will argue that the prisons awaiting Kozlowski and Swartz will be harsher than those facing the federal offenders (although it should be noted that Jamie Olis does not exactly have luxury quarters).

Is this sentence necessary? No. The minimum would have been 1-3 years and perhaps the sentence should have been closer to that time frame. Closer not because the crime was not wrong and should be punished, but closer because these individuals are first offenders who are unlikely to commit a crime again in the future. Their positions of power have been stripped from them and they are unlikely to have the ability or power to ever be a menace to society again. Are the fines and restitution appropriate? Yes. Make them pay back every dime that was taken and more.