A verdict has been reached in the Scott Peterson case. It will be announced at 4 pm. I will be doing a live chat for the Washington Post immediately following the verdict. You can submit questions now. [Update: Transcript here.]

I'm also scheduled to be debating the verdict tonight on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes. Details and chat links to follow when available, this post will be updated and periodically bumped.

Now that it's a done deal, feel free to post your verdict predictions here. I'm still mulling mine over. The speed with which the jury returned its verdict after gaining its latest new alternate as a member may not bode well for the defense. Keep your eye on the background of the new foreman. I think he will be key.

Update: The cable news channels will carry a live audio feed of the verdict. There are no cameras in the courtroom.

Some enterprising inmates at the Walla Walla Prison in Washington State, fearing Martha Stewart would get a cookbook out first, stepped up plans for their own. "The Convict Cookbook" has been released, and is filled with recipes with names like "Po' Mans Burritos, Cell Block Fudge, Dope Fiend Sandwich and Prizzon Po Carcass Casserole."

The twist: The recpipes are all prepared without the use of a stove. Their only heat utensil is an immerser coil that they put in water to make it boil.

The book has 163 pages of recipes. The book includes short facts and insights into prison life. There is also an essay "Why Do We Cook in Our Cells? or Bad Guys, Good Taste?" by Rick Webb, one of the authors. He explains that while prison food is OK, it becomes monotonous over time, and cell cooking provides some variety and creativity for inmates.

Cooking food in a prison cell isn't easy. Some recipes can be cooked on radiator pipes. Others require the prison kitchen. Many of the recipes involve plastic bags standing in as mixing bowls.

All involve some ingenuity.These cookies are so named because heroin addicts often come to prison craving sweets," Dunn wrote.

Boulder high school students get a surprise visit from the feds. What a colossal waste of resources.

[Note to commenters. Please be clever and find words other than those that are in themselves words of violence. There are robots and spiders and censors all around and it does TL no good to be linked to the words without the context.]

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) is hosting its 6th Annual National Conference at the University of Maryland at College Park on November 18-20. The conference includes a lobby day on Capitol Hill on Thursday and a DARE Generation Dance Party on Saturday night.

SSDP represents the young men and women whose names the government uses to justify a war that destroys lives, a war that attempts to attain the unattainable objective of an America free of drugs. We want answers from those that wage war in our name.

Details here.

Congress did not pass a federal courts budget before it recessed. A continuing resolution provides funding only until November 20. A crisis looms.

...what is particularly worrisome this year is that Congress is considering a hard freeze: appropriations for all nondefense, nonhomeland security operations would be frozen at fiscal year 2004 levels. If that happens, wrote Chief Judge John W. Sedwick of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska in a letter to the Senate's Appropriation Committee chairman, the courts, which already stand "on the brink of a fiscal abyss" will "plunge over the precipice."

Under a hard freeze, the judiciary estimates it would have to fire or furlough 2,200 to 5,000 full-time employees-almost 20 percent of probation officers and clerks' office staff-and make a 50 percent cut in court operations costs. Money to pay attorneys who represent indigent criminal defendants under the Criminal Justice Act would run out next June, and money for jury fees would be exhausted in July.

Caseloads are increasing. There is a shortage of judges. Staff reductions will morph into salary cuts and reduced hours. Not a pretty picture, and there is no relief on the horizen.

Many people think the role of Attorney General is simply to be the nation's "top cop," the chief criminal law enforcer. But it is much more. The role of the Attorney General is to serve as America's lawyer, in civil as well as criminal matters. He is not the President's lawyer. He is our lawyer.

It is critical that the Senate evaluate the past record of a nominee for Attorney General in its "advise and consent" role. While Senators prefer to give deference to a President's choice in cabinet positions, they cannot merely serve as a rubber stamp.

John Ashcroft was the most controversial nominee for Attorney General ever. All but one Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee (Russ Feingold, of all people) voted against Ashcroft. Their arguments are worth re-reading for a sense of to expect when Alberto Gonzales faces the same test.

Here are some selected quotes I've put together from the 59-page FDCH transcript of the Senate Judiciary committee hearing held on January 30, 2001, at which the vote was 10 to 8 to send Ashcroft's nomination on to the full Senate (transcript available at Lexis.com,) followed by some thoughts as to what likely will happen with Alberto Gonzales:

Encouraging news...New York defense lawyer Lynne Stewart, on trial for providing material support to terrorists by passing along messages from her imprisoned client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, finished nine days on the witness stand, and earns high marks.

Throughout her time on the witness stand, Stewart largely kept her composure, becoming emotional on only one occasion. Her final day of cross-examination was similar to previous days. Stewart appeared largely unruffled and answered the prosecutor's questions directly, although she made a point of interjecting comments to score points along the way.

Overall, Stewart was a strong witness who came across as fairly direct and open, despite the prosecution's continued implication that she was being disingenuous and stretching her interpretation of the law to cover damaging facts.

Stewart's lawyer, Michael Tigar, on redirect, diffused much of the prosecution's argument:

The Ohio House has passed a bill, sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats, to conduct an in-depth review of the state's death penalty system. Law Prof Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy has the details, including links to a Cincinnati Inquirer article and one in the Toledo Blade discussing the bill.

The governor and legislature would appoint an 18-member commission to look at whether those on death row received adequate legal counsel, whether capital cases are resolved fairly, and how delays in the system can be overcome.

TalkLeft has noted a few times the hypocrisy of pro-lifers who don't oppose the death penalty. So this comment by the Republican sponsor was particlularly heartening to read:

"I am 100 percent pro-life," Brinkman said, noting that applies to abortion and the death penalty. "I told my wife that the first time I get a sentencing bill, I'm going to move this. I'd like to abolish (the death penalty) or have a moratorium, but you've got to start somewhere."

Maybe soon we'll finally see a license plate that says, "Choose Life. End the Death Penalty."

The text of the Ohio bill is here. It now moves to the Ohio Senate. From there, let's hope it goes to Texas, California, Florida, Pennyslvania, North Carolina, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma, to name a few.

For up to date death penalty news, check out the blog Abolish the Death Penalty by David Elliott. It is the official blog of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) .

The U.S. is sending Assistant Secretary of State William Burns to Cairo to attend Arafat's funeral. Here's a list by country of who's attending on behalf of their government. It's interesting to see who is sending "foreign ministers" and who is sending Prime Ministers and Presidents.

The Pentagon announced that 18 U.S. troops have been killed and 69 wounded in the battle for Fallujah.

A spokeswoman at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the usual destination for seriously wounded U.S. troops stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan, said 102 Americans arrived from Iraq in two plane loads on Thursday. They joined 125 wounded troops who arrived there from Monday to Wednesday.

The U.S. also said today that winning at Fallujah won't end the war against insurgents.

Check out this congratulatory letter from Bob Jones, the head of Bob Jones University to President Bush on winning re-election. It's absolutely scary.

Between Jones, Dobson and Jerry Falwell, we have our work cut out for us the next four years.

Many are opposed to Bush's nomination of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. Some are skeptical. I'm on the fence, only because I fear that the alternatives would be worse.

• Center for Constitutional Rights

• People for the American Way

• Human Rights First

• Boston Globe Editorial

• New York Times (90% is about Ashcroft, Gonzales seems to get the benefit of any doubts.)

Here is Alberto Gonzales' much critized memo to President Bush (pdf)

Here is Colin Powell's response to the memo. (pdf)

And some news articles: