Denise Brown, sister of OJ's murdered wife Nicole Brown Simpson, has announced she may run for the U.S. Senate the next time there's an open seat.

"Brown has never run for office but said she developed an interest in national politics while lobbying in Washington for victims' rights in the wake of her sister's 1994 death and the sensational O.J. Simpson murder trial...."I think it's just the next step to where I've been the last eight years," Brown said. I don't know, I just like Washington D.C., I think Washington D.C. and I get along, I think it's a good mix there," she said."

Dream on, Denise.

The New York Times reports today that infections in newly released inmates are a rising concern.

....jails and prisons have become giant incubators for some of the worst infectious diseases.

According to a study released today at a conference sponsored by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 1.3 million inmates released from jail or prison in 1996 were infected with hepatitis C. That was 29 percent of the 4.5 million cases nationwide.

Similarly, newly released inmates accounted for 35 percent of the 34,000 Americans with tuberculosis in 1996, the study found. And newly released inmates accounted for 13 to 17 percent of Americans infected with H.I.V. or AIDS, the study estimated.

The problem has become so acute that health care officials and prisoner rights groups are calling for widespread testing of prison populations for hepatitis C and faster treatment of prisoners.

This is a problem for everyone. Most inmates are not serving life sentences for murder. Most will be released at some point.

...experts say the high rate of communicable diseases among inmates is a critical issue for two reasons: the danger inmates pose of infecting others when they are released, and the opportunity to treat them that is largely being wasted. Dr. Greifinger said that Americans tended to forget that most inmates eventually return home. In 2000, about nine million people were released from jail and prison, according to Allen J. Beck, of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistical arm of the Justice Department.

Bumped with Update:

On Christmas Eve in Uniontown, PA, near Pittsburgh, 12 year old Michael Ellerbe, an African American boy, was shot in the back by police and killed during a police chase. Prominent lawyer Jeffrey Feiger is representing the family and has promised a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Ellerbe "was shot through the heart from behind while being pursued on foot by two state troopers. He was allegedly running from a stolen, wrecked sport-utility vehicle. "To shoot someone in the back requires as deliberate an act as I can possibly imagine," said Fieger, who has also represented Jack Kevorkian. "There is no excuse for shooting a 12-year-old in the back...."

Ellerbe's family has said that the boy was neither armed nor driving the vehicle.

The inquest hearing was today. Our source tells us there appears to be a "white-washing" of the incident. We don't know, but we're bringing it up in case someone wants to look into it further.

Update: The coronor's inquest jury has ruled that the police shooting was justified. One of Ellerbe's lawyers, Joel Sansone, says there's a coverup and that a ten year old witness said three shots were fired, not two--and that both troopers fired at Ellerbe. However, during the inquest, the youth was not asked about how many shots were fired.

Update: More news coverage, including CNN:

And the Guardian:

Here and here are some local reports, and not press pool clippings:

And this perhaps telling quote :
No cameras or recording equipment will be permitted into a Monday inquest set to investigate the death of 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe.

The NAACP is also speaking up, see here and here.

"If his office's budget is cut again, Kentucky's top public defender plans to tell his lawyers to refuse to take new cases of poor people charged with crimes. "I think innocent people will end up being convicted of crimes," said Ernie Lewis, head of the Public Advocacy Department."

"His decision means impoverished criminal defendants might go to trial, and face potentially lengthy terms in prison, with no attorney -- or they could be released without their case being heard, Lewis said. Without lawyers, some defendants might feel pressured to plead guilty, he said."

[link via Instapundit]

Tune in Monday, January 27th, 7 PM eastern standard time, as Gary Hart joins hosts Paul Begala and Robert Novak on CNN's Crossfire.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley took President Bush and the Republican Party to task Saturday for failing to provide cities with funds to protect against terrorist attacks.

"Your neglect of homeland defense funding has relegated 'the common defense' to yet another unfunded federal mandate for already cash-strapped cities cities that are still reeling from federal and state tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy," O'Malley said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.

O'Malley, who was chosen by Senate minority leader Tom Daschle to give the Democratic rebuttal, said Baltimore, "like every city and town in America, has been left virtually defenseless by a federal government's failure to fund homeland defense."

Fire, police and health workers are the "front-line soldiers of our homeland defense," yet they are still "without the necessary equipment, training and communication systems that they need," he said.

The mayor urged Bush, as he prepares for next week's State of the Union address, not to make "teary tributes to our fallen police and fire heroes until you back up our living first responders with the tools and equipment they need to protect our nation."

Via Atrios, Hillary Clinton spoke at a national security conference at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. She blasted Bush on national security.

"We have relied on a myth of homeland security - a myth written in rhetoric, inadequate resources and a new bureaucracy instead of relying on good, old-fashioned American ingenuity, might and muscle," Clinton said. "The truth is we are not prepared, we are not supporting our first responders, and our approach to securing our nation is haphazard at best," Clinton said. "Somewhere along the line, we lost our edge. We let our guard down."

We're struck by the similarity between her comments and those of Gary Hart in his recent national security speech.

As recently as three months ago the Council on Foreign Relations task force that I co-chaired reported that we are woefully unprepared for, and still at risk of, future terrorist attacks. It is imprudent in the extreme to attack a nation in a region seething with hostile suicidal forces when we are vulnerable to their retaliation."

Hillary promoted her "Provide for the Common Defense Act," "which she argues will force the federal government to give much-needed assistance to states and cities to protect citizens from terror threats. Her legislation calls for spending to develop anti-terror technologies, to create a task force to set minimum security standards, and to add federal security personnel in areas with large populations, including New York City."

Hart also spoke at the John Jay conference, but we haven't seen a news account of his speech yet. Like Atrios, we find the Republican criticism of her speech as "inviting" terrorist attacks to be baseless political rhetoric. We believe, like Clinton and Hart, this nation is not prepared for the consequences that a premptive war in Iraq will have here in the United States.

We're bumping Activism Job Openings up from Friday -- and note, it pays real money:

"From time to time, we read blogs whose authors mention they are looking for work. This was in our inbox today, and we thought we'd share it. But for the fact that we already have a quite demanding day job, we'd be tempted.

Currently, there are two full-time job openings at the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.:

* Director of State Policies, who will develop and manage all of MPP's state-based campaigns, including overseeing all lobbying activities, hiring and managing campaign managers for state ballot initiatives, coordinating public education campaigns, including press strategies, and managing MPP's State Policies Department staff and interns.

* Legislative Analyst, who will monitor marijuana-related legislation in the states, maintain MPP's state Web pages, write and e-mail legislative alerts to MPP members, and assist the Director of State Policies with research and analysis.

Please do not reply to this message with questions, and no phone calls, please. Instead, please go here for complete job descriptions and application guidelines. We are accepting resumes until February 7, and we will interview selected applicants from February 3 to 14. Positions will begin on approximately March 3 (but this is flexible).

Both positions are in our Capitol Hill office in Washington, D.C., which is conveniently located near the Union Station Metro stop on the Red Line. Both positions require exceptional written and oral communication skills, professional appearance, and political/policy experience.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

We (TalkLeft) have no further information, so no need to email us rather than going directly to the MPP's website. We can say that we have known and worked on issues with Mr. Kampia for many years and we are very impressed with his dedication and talent."

The Supreme Court today refused to accept a case that would have allowed them to reopen the issue of juvenile executions.

"The action, taken without comment, seemed to put off for now speculation that the justices would soon bar states from executing juvenile death row inmates."

"A policeman and a farmer were killed in clashes between coca farmers and security forces in Bolivia, where the United States is backing a drive to eradicate illegal crops of the plant used to make cocaine, a government official said Sunday. Thousands of coca farmers, led by leftist former presidential candidate Evo Morales, have set up roadblocks on highways in central Bolivia to protest the anti-coca plan."

This is another place and another war we don't belong in.

Left-leaning groups are opposing Bush's nomination of Carolyn Kuhl to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"On Friday, a coalition of left-leaning groups met to urge public opposition to Kuhl....saying she was among President Bush's most conservative nominees. She was called anti-consumer, anti-labor, anti-abortion, anti-environment and more."

"Kuhl has been criticized for work she did while a Justice Department lawyer, including arguing for a return to nonprofit status for segregationist Bob Jones University and signing a brief that questioned Roe v. Wade. She was also criticized Friday as being against whistleblower laws and for having represented Shell Oil in a dispute for which Shell was ordered to pay $5 million to clean contaminated land."

"Judge Kuhl's record on women's health and Roe v. Wade are out of step with commonly held views and well-established legal principles," said Carole Joffe of the Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy in San Francisco. "

"Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, prefaced the first meeting of this Congress' Senate Judiciary Committee by announcing a change in the handling of "blue slips," the traditional consent forms requested of a judicial nominee's home state senators. The move could give Kuhl a hearing even if Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., declines to return her blue slip, a signal of opposition."

We learned something new about Instapundit tonight. If he's not careful, we're going to blow his cover as being a conservative.

In responding to a post by Atrios on the connection between Reverand Moon and the conservative Washington Times, which post included criticism of Instapundit for writing articles for the paper, Instapundit responds:

"I think the only thing I ever wrote for the Wash. Times was a piece entitled "Greasing the Skids at the Start of Death Row," condemning the Habeas Corpus provision of the 1996 antiterrorism bill, which oped I coauthored with GWU professor Bob Cottrol and which was placed there through the efforts of that noted Moonie front group, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers."

We don't know much about Reverand Moon, although if Atrios says he's bad, he probably is, so we'll try and learn something about him, but in the meantime, we are very impressed that Instapundit opposed the Habeas provision of AEDPA (Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996--brought in by Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing)--

The Habeas provision in that act is what makes it so difficult for those who are wrongfully convicted to get into court. It places a one year time limit on filing the claim. It can take years for inmates to get someone to review their case and try and track down DNA evidence to prove their innocence.

We are hereby extending Instapundit an offer to become a law professor member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. If he accepts, we'll pay his dues the first year.

We won't extend the same offer to Rev. Moon, the Bushes, Richard Mellon Scaife, Ted Olson, John Ashcroft, Judicial Watch, or any of the true conservatives.