Rolling Stone has published a 35 year commemorative issue dedicated to gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson.

Great photos, great articles, with excerpts of several online for free.

Here's some background on how the issue was put together. Don't tell Mayor Bloomberg.

by TChris

Pot smokers in the Vancouver area are growing so much weed that Canadian police can't keep up. Last year alone, the police received "more than 4,500 reports ... of illegal indoor pot-growing operations."

Police are less likely to investigate marijuana growers, prosecutors are less likely to lay charges against them, and judges are less likely to send them to jail than they were in the late 1990s, according to a groundbreaking study to be released today.

Moreover, using the criminal law to address marijuana smoking has had the counterproductive effect of wasting scarce resources while creating more serious crime.

[S]uccessive governments have spent billions of dollars enforcing the law, and organized crime has reaped billions of dollars in profits from trade in marijuana and other illicit drugs. Marijuana laws have made criminals out of pot smokers, and have allowed organized crime, and its attendant violence, to flourish.

The answer, according to a series of editorials over the last four days in the Vancouver Sun, is to stop fighting an unwinnable battle. Today's editorial, while warning that the U.S. is likely to remain intransigent, explains why Canada should become a world leader in creating more effective drug strategies -- strategies that seek "to minimize the harms caused not only by drugs, but by drug laws."

Bump and Update: Some jurors are interviewed about why they convicted the Sheik, and the Sheik and associate cry out in Arabic after the verdict, saying the jury didn't get to see all the evidence.

**************
original post

Yemeni Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his assistant have been convicted by a jury in federal court in New York of charges that he helped finance Hamas and conspired to provide support to al Qaeda. The jury has been deliberating since March 4.

Here's a breakdown of the verdicts.

Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 56, was convicted of conspiring to support and attempting to support Palestinian suicide bombers and the international terrorism network of Osama bin Laden....Al-Moayad was acquitted of actually supporting al-Qaida but convicted of supporting Hamas.

Al-Moayad's assistant, 31-year-old Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, was convicted of the Hamas conspiracy and attempt charges, and conspiring to support al-Qaida. He was acquitted of attempting to support al-Qaida.

According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, the CIA and Army secretly agreed to ship some detainees to Abu Ghraiband keep their names off the official lists, holding them as "ghost detainees." The practice of holding "ghost detainees" violates international law.

Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who was second in command of the intelligence gathering effort at Abu Ghraib while the abuse was occurring, told military investigators that "other government agencies" and a secretive elite task force "routinely brought in detainees for a short period of time" and that the detainees were held without an internment number, and their names were kept off the books.

Now that everyone knows about the CIA's rendition program that sends detainees to foreign countries for interrogation--including countries that are known to practice torture--the Administration decides not only to acknowledge it, but to announce it intends to conduct more such transfers.

The Pentagon is seeking to enlist help from the State Department and other agencies in a plan to cut by more than half the population at its detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in part by transferring hundreds of suspected terrorists to prisons in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen, according to senior administration officials.

President Bush is in Memphis, staying at the Peabody Hotel. He's there to present his speech, "Conversation on Strengthening Social Security" at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. We received word there's been some trouble, including shootings, in the area. (Note: this is unverified.)

“We're just getting local news reports of a shooter in the area of the Peabody Hotel where Bush is spending the night. From the TV reports and visuals, it looks like most of the police cruisers in Memphis are on the site! They've caught the man with the gun and there's an ambulance across the street from the hotel, but the reporters don't know the extent of the injuries of a police officer. This is probably not connected to the Bush visit because no secret service men appear to be at the scene (probably snoozing away in their rooms). If anything significant materializes, I'll let you all know. The rally tomorrow seems to be building momentum - I just got an email notice about it from MoveOn.”

Protests have been scheduled by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.

by TChris

John Grisham, famed for novels about lawyers, may prove that truth can be more compelling than fiction when he tackles his first work of nonfiction: the account of an innocent man sent to death row.

Ron Williamson, who died of liver disease in December at age 51, at one point came within five days of being executed for the 1982 murder of a 21-year-old woman. He was freed in April 1999.

Grisham bought the rights to the story from Williamson's sisters.

If the story has a hero, says Grisham, it will probably be the lawyers who saved Williamson from imminent death. Grisham hopes to finish the book in about ten months.

by TChris

Two New York City police detectives, now retired, have been charged with participating in or attempting to commit eleven murders. At least five of those crimes, and a host of others, allegedly occurred during their tenure as police officers.

In one of the most shocking accusations of police corruption ever in New York, Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito were arrested on Wednesday evening for undertaking a series of Mafia murders, attempted murders, a kidnapping and various other crimes. The two were arrested in Las Vegas, where they now live.

Eppolito apparently took advantage of his work as cop-turned-hit man to prepare himself for a movie role. He played "Fat Andy" in "Goodfellas."

Via AmericaBlog:

A federal judge in Washington, DC just granted the gay couple's request for a Temporary Restraining Order against USA Next, requiring the organization to cease and desist from further use of the couple's photos for any purpose. This is a big deal because it means the judge has found that the guys have a very good chance of winning their case, and he also said he could see how they could get damages.

The couple depicted in the ad sued over having their wedding photo used without their consent. At the tro hearing yesterday,

A consultant hired by USA Next, Mark Montini, took the photo from the Portland Tribune's Web site. He said Wednesday that ``it looks like we made a mistake'' in not first getting permission from the Tribune. ``At the end of the day the worst case scenario was something fell through the cracks in our office,'' he said in an interview.

Are reporters' shield law protections weakening? It does seem that more reporters are being held in contempt lately.

In a trend that is making the news media nervous, a small but growing number of reporters are ensnared in the legal system for defying judicial demands to disclose where they got their information. At least 16 reporters and 14 news organizations are involved in legal fights in courthouses from New York and Washington to San Francisco.

Fighting the good fight for reporters is Reporters Committee for a Free Press. They keep an updated page on reporters receiving federal subpoenas here. If you want to get involved, sign the Petition. The organization also tracks pending legislation to create a federal shield law.

A man in Wisconsin killed himself and left behind notes confessing to killing Judge Lefkow's husband and mother. She had ruled against him in a medical malpractice suit.

Update: Article about the suspect here.

He would come to court and sit quietly in the front row, an angry man with a disfigured face, a tormented mind - and an all-consuming grudge against the doctors he claimed had botched his cancer treatment and ruined his life.

Bart A. Ross, the 57-year-old Polish emigre who killed himself in a Milwaukee suburb Thursday, left a suicide note in his van saying that he had killed the husband and mother of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow, Chicago police said.

Jackson Trial Update
Thursday March 10

Michael Jackson didn't show for court this morning. His lawyer, Tom Mesereau, says he is at a hospital getting treatment for a back problem. The judge has issued an arrest warrant and given Jackson one hour to appear or he will forfeit the $3 million bail. Jackson's accuser was set to continue his testimony today.

Additional news I've heard: Jackson woke up at 5:30 with a sharp shooting back pain. He felt paralyzed. He went to the hospital thinking he would get a muscle relaxer and ended up staying a few hours.

Officers are on their way to meet his car at the highway and bring him to court.

The hour is up, Jackson just arrived at the courthouse. He's walking out of his own accord. Stiffly. He looks shaken. There's a crowd outside shouting "Innocent." He's wearing blue hospital pants. Will the Judge put him in custody? He's five minutes late.