Dave Cullen of Conclusive Evidence has been following the Air Force Academy rape scandal for over six months, writing about it for Salon, Slate and others. With the news today that a report shows that 12% of the female cadets have reported being raped, Cullen says as horrible as that is, it's really only one of three scandals. The second scandal:

Send your daughter--or yourself--to another university, and your chances for rape are probably even worse. Much worse.

The third scandal? The press has known about scandal #2 and not reported it.

The least-necessary scandal: The press knew about this all through the Air Force Academy scandal all spring. They focused on the horror of dozens of women reporting sexual assault (last I checked the number was up to 56 reported over ten years, including sexual harassment). We should be so lucky that it is only 56. That's a BS number and the press knows it. The number across the country is in the millions.

Dave says:

Watch the press on this story. Watch them fixate on the Air Force Academy, ignoring Harvard, Princeton and everywhere else. Just watch.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is slipping--in the polls and in the eyes of conservative Republicans in Congress.

New Harris Poll numbers released this week also show Ashcroft's overall popularity slipping below 50 percent for the first time this year, while the percentage of those who disapprove of his performance has climbed to nearly 40 percent.

....Ashcroft has drawn the left's ire for the reach of the government's war on terrorism; for overruling local prosecutors in death penalty cases; for altering the government's decades-old interpretation of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms; and for overseeing continued raids on facilities that provide marijuana for medical purposes. Now some conservatives, concerned that the war on terrorism has eroded civil liberties, are joining the criticism of Ashcroft's policies for the first time.

The Republicans' chief concern with Ashcroft centers on the Patriot Act. Ashcroft's visit to Idaho this week brought the critics out front:

More news regarding the Massachussetts prison system's handling of defrocked Priest John Geoghan:

The protective custody prison unit where defrocked priest John J. Geoghan was sent for committing nonviolent offenses four months before being slain was designed for inmates with records of extremely aggressive behavior, according to a written summary of a correction officials' meeting last year.

....Lawyers who represented Geoghan in prison said yesterday that they pushed hard for his transfer out of MCI-Concord -- but only because he was desperate to escape harassment by prison guards and fellow inmates, which the lawyers said included people urinating and defecating on Geoghan's bed, fouling his food, and verbally taunting him, sometimes after guards intentionally left his cell door open.

The Houston Chronicle reports that indicted former Enron Treasurer Ben Glisan, Jr. is negotiating a plea bargain and cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors.

Glisan, one of the highest ranking Enron officials before he was fired for his involvement in a side-deal, is charged with two dozen counts of money laundering, fraud and conspiracy. His charges are part of a 109-count indictment against Glisan, former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and former Enron executive Dan Boyle.

"When Glisan flips, this could be a bloodbath," said one lawyer familiar with the Enron investigation. Glisan was installed as Enron treasurer in 2000 and was known as a protege of both Fastow and ex-CEO Jeff Skilling.

The Enron case appears to be heating up. More indictments are expected to be handed down regarding a "side deal" by Enron concerning a Nigerian barge. A superseding Indictment is expected on the portion of the case regarding Enron's broadband internet business, although that could just involve a fine-tuning of the charges rather than the addition of new defendants.

Good for Arnold....for not denying it now.

Asked about the comments in an interview on a Sacramento radio station Wednesday night, Schwarzenegger, who in recent days has been courting conservative voters in California, did not dispute the remarks. He said: "I never lived my life to be a politician. I never lived my life to be the governor of California. Obviously, I've made statements that were ludicrous and crazy and outrageous and all those things, because that's the way I always was."

We don't think California voters will care one bit. We saw a clip of Arnold tonight on an old Geraldo Rivera daytime show from the Pumping Iron days. it was very, very funny. Arnold reminded us of the old Saturday Night Live "Wild and Crazy Guy" played by Steve Martin.

If you want to read the 1977 interview with Arnold that's causing all the ruckus, you can find it at Smoking Gun . [ed. link fixed]

Again, we're against the recall, but we have no beef with Arnold. If Californians want the Dems to stay in power, they should vote no on the recall, not pin their hopes on Bustamante. If they want a change, Arnold's a lot better than the other Republicans running.

The Humanitarian Law Project of Los Angeles and the World Tamil Coordinating Committee of New York, along with other groups, have filed a lawsuit challenging the Patriot Act.

The lawsuit is brought on behalf of the "lawful humanitarian and political activities" of the Kurdistan Workers Party and Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, which are listed as terrorist organizations by the State Department.

A coalition of legal groups and backers of Sri Lanka's Tamil community have filed a challenge to a section of the USA Patriot Act that makes it illegal to provide "expert advice and assistance" to groups with alleged links to terrorists.

The five organizations and two individuals are seeking an injunction to prevent the government from enforcing the section, arguing it violates constitutional rights of free speech and against self-incrimination.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of State Colin Powell are named defendants in the federal court suit.

Ardmore, PA defense attorney Peter Goldberger (a frequent commenter on TalkLeft) has been working for ten years to overturn a death sentence in Pennyslvania through DNA testing. Finally, success! A Judge has ordered the death sentence to be vacated. A final order officially vacating the sentence should be forthcoming.

A man who has been on death row since 1983 for rape and murder was formally granted the right to a new trial, one week after DNA tests on key evidence showed no link to him.

Prosecutors would not say whether Nicholas James Yarris, 42, should be completely free from charges, but acknowledged they might not have enough evidence for a new trial.

If exonerated, Yarris will be the first person on Pennsylvania's death row to be cleared by DNA testing.

Congratulations, Peter--and Mr. Yarris.

This is major. The FBI has begun a new probe into the testimony of former FBI crime lab director Steven Burmeister at the OKC bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh. New documents, undisclosed to the defense, show Burmeister may have lied about the results of critical lab tests at the trial.

The FBI internal affairs office is investigating the crime lab's chief of scientific analysis about his conduct in the Oklahoma City bombing case, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The Associated Press reported last spring that a transcript of a Justice Department interview showed that FBI scientific analysis unit chief Steven Burmeister initially had alleged in 1995 that his lab colleagues performed shoddy work in Timothy McVeigh's case, but then retracted several statements before appearing as a prosecution witness at the trial.

AP also reported that lawyers for some FBI lab employees sent a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001, just days before McVeigh was executed for the April 1995 bombing, alleging Burmeister may have been pressured to give false testimony in the case. No action was taken and the allegation was never divulged to McVeigh's lawyers.

Read the whole thing.

People for the American Way (PFAW) has released a comprehensive report in opposition to Bush judicial nominee Janice Rogers Brown.

Currently, Rogers Brown is a very conservative Justice on the California Supreme Court. Bush nominated her for a seat on the powerful D.C. Court of Appeals. A seat on this court is regarded by many as a stepping stone to the U.S. Supreme Court.

PFAW's press release on the report states, in part:

A new report by the Justice Policy Institute says states spend too much money on prisons and not enough on education. The statistics tell the story.

African-American men who drop out of high school are four times more likely to be imprisoned than white males who fail to graduate, according a study by a Washington-based think tank on criminal justice. The report, which will be released today by the Justice Policy Institute, shows that 52 percent of black male dropouts will have been incarcerated by their early 30s compared with 13 percent of white men who do not complete high school.

The authors of the report draw the conclusion that state governments, including Maryland's, are devoting too much money to prisons and not enough to education.

"States can find the money they need to reinvest in education and communities by reducing prison populations and creating alternatives to cut incarceration costs," the report states.

The full report, Education and Incarceration, is available for free download.

Is this the beginning of a domino effect? A recall effort is underway in Nevada against Republican Governor Kenny Guinn.

Emboldened by recall efforts in California, a group of Nevada conservatives upset about the largest tax increase in state history began recall proceedings Wednesday against the popular Republican governor.

The group filed a notice of intent with the Nevada Secretary of State's Office in Las Vegas to seek a recall election against Gov. Kenny Guinn. Organizers have 90 days to collect 128,109 signatures, or 25 percent of those who cast ballots in the 2002 general election.

If this means Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman can run for Governor sooner, we're all for it. Doubtful, though, as state Democratic leaders are calling the recall "stupid" and say they'd be surprised if any Democrats signed the petition.

The newest Zogby poll has Howard Dean with a 38%-17% lead over John Kerry in New Hampshire.

Jerome of MyDD who is posting over at Daily Kos since Kos is still on the road with the Dean campaign has this to say:

Dean's increase of 16% over the amount he recieved in Zogby's last poll comes half from Kerry, a quarter from the other candidates, and a quarter from those undecided voters. There still remain 23% who are unsure of who they will support, but it's clear that Dean is the frontrunner.

Oh, and Kos' luggage got lost.