The Department of Justice has officially spoken about state marijuana laws. It has advised the Governors of Colorado and Washington that provided it enacts robust regulations that do not not interfere with 8 DOJ priorities, it will "defer its right to challenge their legalization laws at this time."

AG Eric Holder has issued a memorandum to federal prosecutors (available here) on the new policy and the 8 priorities in enforcing federal marijuana laws.

The key point: The major sea change is not with respect to possession for personal use, which the feds don't normally charge anyway, but in its willingness to allow some private production and distribution of marijuana. [More...]

Christi O'Connor, the reporter who conducted the ABC Shellie Zimmerman interview, does not work for ABC. She is a freelance investigative journalist.

She says she is writing a book about the trial. I don't recall her reporting on the case prior to now, and with the exception of a reference to her in a video clip on CNN the night on July 13, Lexis.com has no record of articles or media transcripts with her about the case.

She says her book will reveal new information that could have resulted in a different verdict. Here's what she is peddling: A story about a white Sanford police officer's alleged misconduct in tasering an African American male which she is self-publishing on her weblog. On her blog, she writes: [More...]

College football is back!

My picks (all picks 2 units unless otherwise indicated) for the first night of college football: Utah -3 over Utah State, Fresno State -11 over Rutgers, Tulsa +165 over Bowling Green, Vanderbilt +140 over Mississippi, USC -24 over Hawaii, Akron +23 over Central Florida, South Carolina -13 over North Carolina (3 units), UNLV +14 over Minnesota.

Also too, John Amato of Crooks and Liars and yours truly talking sports - Link.

Open Thread.

It's a jail day for me. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome, including Zimmerman. (Shelley Zimmerman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor perjury today.).

Here are some details of the planned military strike on Syria. The UK is expected to assist the U.S. Tomahawk missiles are likely.

The blitz may last 48 hours.

The missiles would be unleashed to destroy Syrian President Bashar Assad’s command and control facilities, weapons delivery centres, intelligence bases and military training camps.

A former Syrian military official who has since defected says chemical weapons stockpiles are unlikely to be targeted. [More...]

Sen. Patrick Leahy has scheduled a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on September 10th on the conflict between state and federal marijuana laws. Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole have been invited to testify.

“It is important, especially at a time of budget constraints, to determine whether it is the best use of federal resources to prosecute the personal or medicinal use of marijuana in states that have made such consumption legal,” Leahy said. “I believe that these state laws should be respected. At a minimum, there should be guidance about enforcement from the federal government.”

Reuters reported yesterday that several Congresspersons and Senators have written Attorney General Holder seeking answers to questions about the report that the DEA used information collected by the National Security Agency (NSA) in criminal investigations unrelated to terrorism and the collection of foreign intelligence.

It appears the first letter was from Congressman John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler and Bobby Scott on August 9. It asked these questions and requested an answer by August 26:

1. Which components of the U.S. Department of Justice have access to information collected by the government under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act?

2. Does the Drug Enforcement Administration, or any other component of the Department of Justice, use or give to any other federal, state, or local agency foreign intelligence surveillance information collected under FISA for the purpose of criminal investigation or criminal prosecution? If so, with what frequency? Under which authorities is such information collected?

[More...]

Boston Magazine, which first published the leaked arrest photos of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has published another 48 images from the arrest scene. Like the earlier photos, these were taken by Sergeant Sean Murphy.

In this photo, an injured Dzhokhar lifts his sweatshirt. Presumably, this was in response to a request by law enforcement to show he did not have a bomb strapped to his chest. In this photo, you can see the number of agents with guns trained on him as he descended from the boat. This photo shows injuries to his face and hand while still on the boat.

Here's a video in which you can hear the barrage of shots fired at Tsarnaev, who was unarmed.

Facebook has released the numbers of requests it received for user account information during the first half of 2013.

The United States sought data from between 20,000 – 21,000 accounts. Facebook said the data included “criminal and national security requests to the maximum extent permitted by law.” It said it was prohibited from detailing exact numbers or types of national security related requests, which would include National Security Letters and FISA court orders.

...The data, the social-networking giant said, concern basic subscriber information, such as name and length of service. “Other requests may also seek IP address logs or actual account content,” Facebook said.

Facebook's report is here. Take a look at FB's Data Privacy page and see how much information it stores about you. You need to check three places, the Activities Log, Expanded Archives and Downloaded Info and Activity Logs.

To save you some time, I combined them in this slideshow. The complete data use policy is here. For more on what information Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies store, see here. For stored metadata, see here.

Breaking Bad: Walter's "confession" tape was a terrific plot twist I didn't see coming. I still think the final showdown will be between Todd/Uncle Jack's people and Walt, but it will be interesting to see who else gets killed along the way.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome (except Zimmerman.)

Thinking good thoughts for Linda Ronstadt, who in an interview with AARP this week, says she can no longer sing due to Parkinson's Disease.

Picking just one of her songs is so difficult. Other favorites: Love is a Rose, Desperado, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Tumbling Dice, Silver Threads and Golden Needles, Love Has no Pride, When Will I Be Loved, and on and on.

It may be Sequester time for the rest of us, but not the DEA. It's moved on from Africa to the South Pacific. Why? To catch cocaine going from South America to Vanuatu in the South Pacific with a final destination of Australia.

U.S.-Australian cooperation with authorities in Vanuatu, Tonga, the Cook Islands, and New Caledonia have resulted in almost 2 tons of cocaine destined for Australia being seized from five vessels since 2010.