Pfc. Lynndie England has reached a plea bargain. Reportedly, she will receive no more than 30 months in jail. Had she been convicted on all 17 counts at trial, she could have received 38 years. Her boyfriend and the chief Abu Ghraib prisoner abuser, Charles Graner, got ten years. And here's a bit of news:

Mr. Graner has since married another of the accused, Megan Ambuhl, who pleaded guilty in exchange for dismissal from the military. Mr. Graner has given statements to investigators in the hope of reducing his sentence and is scheduled to testify on behalf of Private England at her sentencing hearing, Captain Crisp said.

by TChris

Manhattan Judge Jeffrey Atlas thought there was barely enough evidence to justify jury deliberations in a bribery prosecution of two union officials. But when he learned that the jurors weren't following the rules, he set aside their guilty verdict.

Jurors are instructed not to discuss the evidence until it's time to deliberate. They're also told not to read media accounts of the case. Judge Atlas wasn't happy when an alternate juror revealed that jurors disregarded both of those admonitions.

Atlas said he was troubled by numerous episodes of misconduct in the jury room while the trial was under way, including instances of jurors voicing opinions about the credibility of witnesses and sarcastic comments about the defendants. He also was troubled by the presence in the jury room of a Village Voice article about the trial.

The sarcastic comments included comparisons between the defendants and "The Sopranos." Defense attorney Dino Lombardi thinks some of the jurors had an anti-union bias that they failed to disclose during jury selection.

"You have these one-dimensional cartoonish impressions of trade union guys," Lombardi said of the juror bias.

by TChris

According to students at Santa Monica High School, the school administration has done little to address persistent racism within the school district. A coalition of students of color has decided to tackle the problem by creating a ten point plan to attack the root causes of racial violence.

The document calls for a variety of reforms that include more people of color in faculty and administrative positions, teaching conflict resolution and role modeling, using discipline in ways that “focus less on punishment and more on transformation” and instituting “culturally relevant teaching practices in every course” to “de-colonialize the curriculum.”

The plan comes "two weeks after inter-racial strife erupted into a lunchtime melee" at the school. The students contend that the school administration has long ignored the racial tension that underlies incidents of violence within the school district.

Tonight at 9 p.m. on PBS you can watch the first in-depth American television interview with Haj Ali, a former prisoner who says he was the man under the black hood in the infamous photo from Abu Ghraib.

"Abu Ghraib is a breeding ground for insurgents," says Ali, who describes his experience in detail. "99% of the people brought in are innocent, but with all the insults and torture, it makes them ready to do just about anything."

....Before the Iraq war Haj Ali was the mayor of the Al Madifai district, near Baghdad. After the U.S. took control of the area he was removed from his position. As an official, he was required to join the ruling Baath Party. Haj Ali then worked as an administrator for a mosque, until he was picked up off the street one day in October 2003. Today Haj Ali works for a prisoner's association. He says he has no part in the insurgency.

[link via Cursor.]

In the "you can't make this stuff up" department: The toad story is like a real-life twilight zone. They're still in Germany, but may be moving into Denmark.

Dave Cullen of Conclusive Evidence can't look away and is following the gruesome story. And Instapundit makes a connection between the toads and the Salazar/Dobson feud. Question though: Who's the toad and who's the crow?

If you haven't read about the toads yet, go now. You won't be sorry, maybe just a little sick to your stomach.

Update: On a much more pleasant note, Defenders of Wildlife has a plea to save the ivory-billed woodpecker.

The evidence was he is legally sane because he understood the consequences of his actions, but he is mentally ill, suffering from schizophrenia and paranoia. He apologized to the jury.

I want to apologize for the attack that occurred. I felt that my life was in jeopardy, and I had no other options. I also want to ask you for forgiveness," Akbar told the jury before it deliberated in the sentencing phase.

The jury rejected life without the possibility of parole, and sentenced Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death. The media's principal comment: His apology wasn't under oath. Only in America. And people wonder why our international image has lost its luster.

Did you watch? What did you think?

Update: Shorter version:

Listen Up, said the President
We are programmed to deceive.
We will spin out any lie we like,
'cause money you won't receive"

[hat tip to the Eagles and Hotel California]

Update: The Washington Post article on the speech (not an oped, but a news article) bears the headline, "Bush Social Security Plan Would Cut Future Benefits"

And another illiterate Bush line that makes no sense: "Bush said. "I don't ascribe a person's opposing my nominations to an issue of faith."

The Pentagon today announced the end of the CIA's ghost detainee practice, where it hides imprisoned terror suspects in foreign prisons while it interrogates them.

Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, assured the U.S. Senate that new interim rules on military interrogations eliminate the CIA's practice at Abu Ghraib of hiding detainees and subjecting them to separate interrogation methods that critics say were harsher than those employed by the military.

Does this mean Ghost Air is grounded? Or will it continue to fly the unfriendly skies because the detainees are housed in prisons under the control of a foreign government rather than in a U.S. Military prison? Background on Ghost Air is here.

Can Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed now be transferred to a U.S. prison? If they are no longer to be held in secret, can Moussaoui now depose them for his death penalty trial?

Rush Limbaugh lost his medical records appeal. This isn't just a blow for Rush Limbaugh's privacy, but for all citizens of Florida.

In October, Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the state did not violate Limbaugh's privacy rights when it seized his medical records with a search warrant. Limbaugh's lawyer, Roy Black, has argued that using a warrant gave Limbaugh no opportunity to challenge the seizure.

Here's Roy Black's statement:

Jackson Trial Update
Thursday, April 28

Ex-wife Debbie Rowe continues to buck the prosecution. Her second day of testimony supported Jackson. In addition to calling Jackson a great father,

"Jackson's ex-wife Deborah Rowe also depicted the entertainer as a victim of "opportunistic vultures" in his inner circle who sought to make millions from his troubles."

"By portraying Jackson as a victim of his associates, Rowe may have undermined the prosecution's child molestation case. That is because she was called to bolster a charge that the singer and the associates conspired to hold the accuser's family captive to make a video praising him."

Now the prosecution says it won't rest until Tuesday. The case sounds like its sputtering to a close.....

Why is there so little media coverage of a Gallup poll in early April that shows 50% of Americans believe Bush lied to the public about WMD's in Iraq? Via Cursor:

Uncritical Mass. According to a Google News search, about the only mainstream media citations for a finding from an early April CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll that 50% of respondents now believe the Bush administration
deliberately misled the American public about whether Iraq had WMD, is a column. by Paul Krugman.

OK, so Editor and Publisher.com carried it. And Rich Lewis in the Sun Sentinel. Where's everyone else?

There's a new law in Houston, banning offensive odors in libraries, that critics say target the homeless:

Library officials said people have been using the libraries as temporary shelters, restaurants and changing stations. The new ordinance prohibits sleeping on tables, eating, using restrooms for bathing and "offensive bodily hygiene that constitutes a nuisance to others." Two council members voted against the ordinance, saying it was a direct attack on the homeless.