In Houston, former felon Darrell Bruines has been granted a full scholarship at Texas Southern University. Bruines served 34 months in prison on drug charges, after losing one of his legs in a shootout. After jail, he went on to graduate from Community College with a 4.0 average.

Bruines wasn't always so focused. As a youth, he joined the wrong crowd, started dealing drugs and quit high school. He went to prison in 1994, a year after he was shot when someone tried to steal the rims from his tires; his right leg had to be amputated. Today, he considers that experience, including his 34 months in prison, a blessing.

"I feel this way because it took me off the streets and eventually led me to where I am now," he said. "Once I decided to change, I found out people were willing to help me."

Rehabilitation works.

When we last checked in with Texas Panhandle District Attorney Rick Roach, elected following a get-tough-on drugs campaign, he had pleaded guilty in federal court to a being a drug addict in possession of a firearm in exchange for the dismissal of several more firearms and cocaine and methamphetamine charges. Among the sordid details:

Alleged illegal drug use, pornography on a work computer, 2 pounds of missing methamphetamine, and a syringe found floating in a staff-only courthouse toilet - all of that and more came forth Tuesday as part of the developing case against 31st District Attorney Rick Roach of Pampa.

Today he was sentenced to five years in prison. He still faces state drug charges, and 10 to 99 years or life on those charges.

SK Bubba is traveling and just got to Monterey. He has some gorgeous photos of views from the Pacific Coast Highway, the seals - and San Luis Obispo. Scroll through. Or click here and here for examples. Or here and here. I wish I could take pictures like that.

Update: Already they backtrack. Now it turns out the substance wasn't dangerous the the Prime Minister is reduced to "but we don't know it wasn't sent by a Schapelle supporter. Why can't he just admit he made an irresponsible comment and apologize?

***********
Schapelle Corby supporters are being blamed for a delivery of an Anthrax type material to the Indonesian Embassy.

Prime Minister John Howard....identified the substance as bacillus - a genus of bacteria that are mostly benign but include bacillus anthracis, which causes anthrax.

Although there was no claim of responsibility, Howard said the timing pointed to a likely link with the Corby case. She was convicted Friday of smuggling nine pounds of marijuana onto the Indonesian island of Bali and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The timing? That's enough to bring such a serious allegation against those protesting the draconian sentence meted out to Schapelle Corby?

A federal judge in California is considering appointing a receiver to take over the state's prison medical system:

Saying "I can see myself appointing a receiver to stop 60-some people a year from dying," a judge indicated Tuesday that he's inclined to order a federal takeover of California's prison medical system.

The remark by Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson came in response to expert testimony that poor health care is causing probably one to two preventable deaths per site per year" at the state's 32 penal institutions.

The Revealer:

Blogger Too Beautiful catches an important omission in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram profile of controversial Bush judicial nominee Priscilla Owen. In what appears to be an attempt to humanize the widely-feared nominee, reporter Dave Montgomery notes Owens' involvement in her church's Sunday school. Fine. But should Montgomery have also noted that the church is as much in the fray as Owens? Too Beautiful did his homework and discovered that Owens' congregation left the Episcopal Church last year in protest of homosexual ordination. Seems like a salient detail, and one that the paper overlooked not because they were whitewashing it, but because reporters and editors likely file "church" under one catchall, feel-good category.

by TChris

Today brought the latest of Jeb Bush's many denials that he's interested in running for the presidency. Even Jeb's father thinks Jeb is a liar.

The elder Bush said "the timing's wrong" because Jeb Bush has said "he doesn't want to do it." But the former president then added: "Nobody believes that."

by TChris

Beth LaBatte, who was convicted of murdering two sisters, may benefit from DNA tests that suggest her innocence.

"The DNA excludes the person they convicted," said Keith Findley of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. "It shows that her DNA was not on the murder weapon, or on the pair of socks she used to wipe up blood."

DNA from an unidentified person was detected during the testing.

True to form, the prosecutors who handled the case don't want to admit the possibility of error. They claim the strongest evidence consists of admissions LaBatte allegedly made to other prison inmates. It's amazing that prosecutors view prisoners as unimpeachable witnesses whenever they testify for the prosecution. When they testify for the defense, of course, they're criminals who are unworthy of belief.

Lots of new blogs are debuting this week:

• Progressive Patriot Fund (Sen. Russ Feingold's new site "dedicated to promoting a progressive reform agenda and supporting candidates across the country.")

• The Presidential Wire (Patrick Ruffini's up to the minute news of 2008 Presidential Candidates

• Oddjack (Nick Denton's New Gambling Blog)

• TPM Cafe (Josh Marshall's new community blog we wrote about yesterday)

• Big Brass Blog (group liberal politics blog)

Also of note,

• The Wal-Mart Movie Site (more over at Crooks and Liars)

I'm done here for today, if you'd like to take over the conversation, be my guest.

Coincidence? Last week it was reported that Iraq will resume the use of the death penalty.

In a show of force the Iraqi government hopes will help quell the insurgency, Iraq will soon carry out its first judicial executions since the fall of Saddam Hussein. And despite objections raised by some other countries and international human-rights groups, the Iraqi public, by most accounts, is welcoming their return.

.... After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, suspended capital punishment, declaring that "the former regime used certain provisions of the penal code as a means of oppression, in violation of internationally acknowledged human rights." Iraq's interim government revived the death penalty in August for a smaller set of violent crimes, as well as drug trafficking. The decision is believed to have been motivated by the desire to execute Hussein.

Kevin Zeese at Democracy Rising asks, Who to Believe? when it comes to the Iraq War and treatment of Guantanamo prisoners? His conclusion is one that most human rights groups and members of Congress have been advocating for some time. We need more people to listen.

The truth in this matter could be resolved merely by having a truly independent commission investigate the allegations. Or, even more appropriately having a special prosecutor investigate abuses as senior Republicans in the Senate promised -- John Warner, Lindsay Graham and John McCain stated that everyone culpable would be held accountable, no matter how senior when the torture photos were released but have taken no action to live up to their promise.

The state of Washington is proposing to change its ethical rules for lawyers to require defense lawyers to tell the court if they later learn their client told a lie.

Some lawyers say the proposed rule would not only crush the whole idea of attorney-client confidentiality, but it would force them to reveal things that could get the very people they're supposed to defend put in jail, convicted or charged with perjury.

"I think it's terrible," said lawyer David Trieweiler, co-chairman of Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' rules committee. "It profoundly alters the traditional role of defense attorneys by making us into tools of the prosecution, instead of defenders of our clients."

Several states already have enacted the rule, based on an ABA model rule. I think Washington's current rule is much better.