8:45 pm ET--if you're by a tv, Kerry is about to come on and claim victory. We're watching CNN tonight.

Kos of Daily Kos, who has been a Dean supporter, on the meaning of Kerry's win:

Dean has enough money to limp on, but by all indications, he's through. If there's something we should all take from this election cycle, it's that the unexpected can and does happen. But for now, Dean would have to pull a miracle to survive.

As I wrote way back when, Feb 3 will determine the anti-Kerry. And I stand by that analysis. Lieberman and Clark are on life support.

So if anyone will stop Kerry, it's up to Edwards. Watch the establishment rally around Kerry to end this thing as quickly as possible.

Edwards is on Larry King now, following Howard Dean. Edwards says he's very pleased and optimistic. He's off to South Carolina tonight. He agrees he has to win South Carolina, but refuses to answer the question about whether he'd run as VP to Kerry. He repeats South Carolina is a "must win" for him. In the next round of questions, Edwards says he's not interested in being VP and he's going to be the nominee.

Update: Kerry was terrific in his victory speech. He hit all the right target groups, particularly the veterans. Smart move to discuss the issues, not just his win or the primaries.

Update: Edwards is really good too--and he has such a winsome personality. Looks like a Kerry-Edwards race. We wish they'd end up together on the ticket. One wants to help the vets, the other wants to help the poor. They really could beat Bush.

Clark is talking about Al Qaeda and Osama. He's giving a passionate speech. We like him too. Maybe it will be a Kerry-Clark ticket. That could be a winning combo too.

Bush may really be in trouble here.

Update: Dave Cullen has a rant on behalf of Howard Dean.

CNN projects John Kerry the winner at 8:22 pm. He has 38% right now to Dean's 24%.

8:00 pm Polls closed. CNN says exit polls show it's Kerry in the lead, followed by Dean, and Edwards and Clark almost tied. First returns at 8pm are in line with the exit polls. Dean is very much still in the game.

Updates on results here. These are updated every 15 minutes. CNN seems to be reporting faster here.

Oliver Willis is blogging live. Go on over.

The Detroit terror convictions that Attorney General Ashcroft was so proud of are spriraling further into treacherous waters. Background here.

The news today is that the government's confidential informant in the case, Marwan Farhat, says that the FBI told him to break the law during the investigation.

In a Jan. 21 letter, written at the airport as he left for an undisclosed foreign country, informant Marwan Farhat said he was asked by FBI Special Agent Robert Pertuso to steal mail from Arab Muslims whom the federal government had identified as terror suspects.

Farhat, of Dearborn, claimed in a six-page letter to Pertuso that the FBI failed to deliver on a promise to give Farhat 25 percent of any money confiscated from the terror suspects. In his letter, Farhat said he received nothing.

“I worked around the clock helping and assisting the government of the United States to put Muslims in jail,” wrote Farhat, who said he assisted the FBI in giving information on scores of Arabs. “My life has been destroyed, abused and used to benefit your interests.”

He handed the letter, which was obtained by The Detroit News, to a U.S. immigration agent as he caught a flight from Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Wednesday. Fearful for his safety, and with the government’s approval, Farhat left the United States days after his identity was publicly revealed.

Diane Sawyer gets very low marks from this LA Times journalist for the The Punch and Judy Dean Show that aired last night:

Out of the 96 questions that Sawyer asked, 90 were about personality and temperament and only six were even vaguely about issues; virtually all 96 were hostile and negative.

When Dean tried to move the discussion to matters of substance, Sawyer inevitably pushed it back to negative fluff. ("I just want to make sure that I come back on a couple of things --” one thing, you said that --” that you decided that you've got to be yourself. That you've got to return to being what you really aren't. What were you that was not who you really were?")

Dean's natural response should have been, at some point, to have cut Sawyer off: "Excuse me, I'm tired of answering these superficial questions. Can't we talk about issues that matter to the American people?" Had he done so, however, it would have appeared to confirm the rap on him as a hothead. So the Deans were forced into the frame supplied by Sawyer -- as a father who gets excited at his son's hockey game can't be trusted; a woman doctor who doesn't watch much TV isn't really a normal American.

[link via Atrios.]

In better news for Dean, a government employees' union is spending $1.6 million to help him get the nomination.

We wrote yesterday about the Supreme Court's decision to reconsider the juvenile death penalty. The ruling could affect 26 on death row in Texas. Can you imagine? Texas has 26 persons on death row who were under 18 at the time of their crimes? Shameful.

More analysis of the implication of the Court's review of the issue is here and here.

This is truly a bad idea. In an effort to rein in liberal professors at Colorado colleges and universities, a conservative legislator will introduce an Academic Bill of Rights this week.

The proposed academic bill of rights is aimed at protecting conservative students who say they are targets of harassment and discrimination by left-leaning faculty because of their political beliefs.

Student leaders at the University of Colorado at Boulder reacted with fear. This whole bill is scary to me," said Sergio Gonzales, one of three student body leaders. Gonzales said the measure could affect what is taught in the classroom and the type of outside speakers invited to address students.

"Having the legislature say that controversial material not covered in the course syllabus should not be introduced is extremely dangerous. Higher education is meant to expand people's minds and challenge their ways of thinking," Gonzales said. "This isn't K-12. We're talking about adults who go to college who should be talking about controversial topics. Besides, who is to decide what is controversial?"

....Ryan Miccio, head of legislative affairs for the Associated Students of Colorado State University in Fort Collins,...said he is worried. "I would be concerned about any legislation that could potentially alter university curriculum, and it sounds like this could," Miccio said.

Rumblings about the bill, to be introduced Wednesday, made the news in September. Denver Post columnist Diane Carman called it " another goofy lesson in politics." Jesse Walker at Reason had this to say. [links to September articles via Walter in Denver .] RMPN says "Not So Fast."

[comments now closed]

Colorado has become the first state in the nation to impose term limits on elected prosecutors. 13 of Colorado's elected District Attorneys will be leaving office in January, 2005 after a ruling yesterday by the Colorado Supreme Court upholding results of a 2002 election referendum that rejected prosecutors' requests to be excluded from a 1994 state Constitutional Amendment limiting all "non-judicial" officeholders to two terms in office.

We voted against the referendum. Colorado, particularly the Denver area, has some excellent, career prosecutors, most notably in our view, Bill Ritter in Denver, Bob Grant in Adams and Jim Thomas in Jefferson County. Unlike the federal prosecutor's office, where the President appoints U.S. Attorneys from his political party after being elected, the office has never been a political one in the sense of Democrat vs. Republican. We sense that will change.

On election night in 2002, we were at Tom Strickland's headquarters watching the results. Bill Ritter was standing next to us when the first results came in on the referendum and it looked bad. It was like being at a funeral, we offered our condolences, and although Ritter expressed mild optimism that the Court would reverse it, we could see he was reading the writing on the wall. We know he'll land with his feet up, and probably get a job making a lot more money, but we also know his heart is in public service and think that the public is the loser with this decision.

Bump and Update: The voting won't go on much longer, so if you haven't voted on your favorite blogs, please take a minute now.

Update: We don't stand a chance in the best blog category, so no need to vote for us there. There's an outside chance for best single issue and best expert. You can vote at the site or by sending an email. Email Mary Beth or Email Dwight.

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Bump and Update: If you haven't voted, please do. In all the categories.

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The 2003 Koufax Awards. Made possible by Wampum Blog--Dwight Meredith and Mary Beth Williams. The semi-finalists have been winnowed down. The finalists have been announced. Thanks to your votes, TalkLeft is a finalist for three awards:

• Best Blog
• Best Single Issues Blog: Criminal Law Issues
• Best Expert Blog: Expertise in Criminal Law

Last year TalkLeft won for Best Single Issue blog. The competition is fiercer this year, with so many great blogs nominated. But that's the category we'd most like to win again. We hope you'll take a minute and go over and vote for your favorites in all the categories.

You can vote by leaving a comment at the above award category links--or by sending an email. Email Mary Beth or Email Dwight.

A huge thanks to Dwight and Mary Beth for devoting so many hours to make this project come together once again. Truly, it's an honor just to be nominated when all of the nominated blogs are winners.

Update: The links to the site and comments where you vote seem to be loading very slowly--probably due to the response. We suggest voting by e-mail.

CrimeLynx is still down, so our newsfeed cannot appear as it usually does on the left side of TalkLeft. We'll put it here instead:

Tuesday January 27, 2004

Primary Day Arrives in New Hampshire
CNN

Citing Free Speech, Judge Voids Part of Antiterror Act
New York Times

Limbaugh's Lawyer: Pill Use Not Extraordinary
Miami Herald

Charge Is Seen Against Officer in Roof Killing
New York Times

U.S. to Start Airline Background Checks
Associated Press

Lionel Tate Freed from Prison
Palm Beach Post

Working Women Dominate Martha Stewart's Jury
New York Times

Supreme Court to Revisit Juvenile Execution Issue
Legal Times

Former U.S. Judges Enter Fray Over Guantanamo Detentions
New Jersey Law Journal

Chief Justice Balks at Ethical Questions
Associated Press

Granted Asylum, Nun Held in Va. Jail
Washington Post

Consultant Works His Magic on Kerry
Washington Post

Free Heroin May Be Coming to Canada
Edmonton Journal

Opinion

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes announced Monday he will seek an Indictment against the police officer who killed unarmed 19 year old Timothy Stansbury this weekend. The officer is white and Mr. Stansbury was black.

The teenager, Timothy Stansbury Jr., 19, had no weapons, and witnesses have said that no words were exchanged before the officer, Richard S. Neri Jr., fired his gun. Officer Neri has made statements suggesting he was startled to see Mr. Stansbury as the officer and his partner opened the roof door on a routine patrol of the Louis Armstrong Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to a person who was briefed about his account.

DA Hynes said he would seek a charge of criminally negligent homicide, and perhaps the more serious one of second-degree manslaughter.

Criminally negligent homicide is a Class E felony in which the guilty party need not be aware of the potential risk of his actions. It carries a maximum sentence of four years. The more serious charge being weighed, second-degree manslaughter, is a Class C felony in which the guilty party is aware of the risk but recklessly disregards it. It carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.

The officer's lawyer says he may have his client testify before the grand jury. Investigators speculate the officer was startled and pulled the trigger by accident.

Still, several police officials said that officers were trained to keep their finger away from the trigger, even if their gun is drawn.

Then there's that familiar blue wall of silence:

One senior investigator said Officer Neri's partner has told investigators that at the critical moments of the shooting, his view of Officer Neri was blocked.

You Go, Roy!

Rush Limbaugh's attorney went on the offensive Monday:

Rush Limbaugh's attorney mounted an offensive Monday, accusing Palm Beach County prosecutors of smear tactics and likening his client to any ordinary American with chronic pain.

''This nation is full of people who take medication every day and will do so for the rest of their lives,'' said Roy Black, speaking in a news conference in Miami.

Discussing the prescription-drug abuse allegations in unprecedented detail, Black reasoned that the quantity of medicine Limbaugh is accused of ingesting -- 1,800 pills in 210 days -- works out to roughly 8.5 pills a day, ``certainly not an outrageous amount.''

The State prosecutor's office released confidential plea negotiation documents pursuant to a public records request by the conservative Landmark Legal Foundation, headed up by the ultra-conservative Mark Levin. (We used to debate Levin on cable during the Clinton impeachment days. We find his views insufferable.)

Michael Edmondson, spokesman for the Palm Beach County state attorney, said prosecutors were confident they'd done the right thing. Prosecutors consulted the Attorney General's Office and the Florida Bar in response to the Jan. 15 public records request by the Landmark Legal Foundation, which sought all available documents in the case. They concluded the state public records law required releasing the plea dealings, even though doing so violates ethical rules for lawyers.

'The way the Florida public records law works is, anything that is not specifically exempted under the law is permitted,'' Edmondson said. State law trumps any ethical concerns, he said.

But he offered nothing in writing to back up that account. And Limbaugh's legal team produced documents Monday that seemed to contradict it.

No matter how you feel about Rush, Roy is right. And we're kind of curious as to why Landmark is going after Rush--it's like eating one's own.

Our hearty congratulations to New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg who got married this weekend at the age of 81.

I was quite surprised to learn in reading the article that the new Mrs. Lautenberg is Bonnie S. Englebardt who is "in her 50's." I spent a week at a health spa with Bonnie, and her mother and sister Carol, in the early 1980's. I saw her a few times after, and remember when her husband Hank died of an unexpected heart attack at the young age of 40. I remember Bonnie's mother being appalled at my career, particularly my defense of persons accused of drug crimes. She thought drug dealers deserved the death penalty. I stayed good friends with Bonnie's sister Carol for a number of years, but lost touch a long time ago.

Bonnie was pretty, vivacious and fun.

Mr. Lautenberg, back at work in his Newark office on Monday, recalled in an interview that he and Ms. Englebardt first met in the late 80's when she traveled to Washington with a citizens group to lobby members of the Senate for support for Israel. She followed up that visit with a thank-you card and a note telling the senator that she was recently widowed and asking if he knew of any "interesting'' men who might be nice dinner dates.

"I put that card in my pocket, and about five months later, I called her,'' he recalled. "We went out, and I don't know whether she found me interesting, but here we are 16 years later.''

I'm glad for the newly married couple and wish them much happiness.