The New York Times reports the Dominique Strauss-Kahn prosecution may be falling apart due to problems with the accuser's credibility. Prosecutors are going to agree to a reduction in his bail conditions on Friday -- to a personal recognizance bond without monitoring conditions -- and charges may ultimately be dropped.

The Times reports the accuser has lied repeatedly to law enforcement since reporting the sexual assault allegation. The lies weren't about the incident with DSK, but about her asylum application and possible ties to drugs and money laundering. Keep reading, you won't believe it.

She's on tape the day after the incident talking on the phone to a jail inmate accused of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana about the benefits of pursuing charges against DSK. This same man is "one of several individuals" in several states who made multiple cash deposits into her bank account totaling $100,000. She denied knowing about the deposits, saying her fiance [who apparently is the jail inmate]and friends must have made them. She's paid hundreds of dollars a month in phone bills to five different phone companies, but told investigators she only had one phone. [More...]

The Department of Justice issued a new memo (available here) to federal prosecutors yesterday further "clarifying" its 2009 Ogden Memorandum. The Odgen memorandum (available here) said federal resources should not be used to prosecute those in "clear and unambiguous" compliance with state medical marijuana laws.

Sorry, the new memo says, that's not what we meant. We only meant federal resources shouldn't be used to prosecute cancer patients and other seriously ill people who used marijuana in compliance with state law. We never meant to provide a shield for those who supply medical marijuana to those in full compliance with state law.[More...]

The defense has rested in the trial of Casey Anthony. While the trial seems to have captured the media's attention, I have not been interested in it or following it. Apparently, the state didn't put on any direct evidence the child was murdered (as opposed to the victim of an accidental drowning.) Casey Anthony didn't testify and the defense didn't call witnesses to support the theory it laid out in opening arguments that her grandfather moved or hid the child's body and that Casey's lies after the fact were the result of sexual abuse by her father and brother. [More...]

Let's hope this rumor is true:

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is considering leaving the Obama administration after a deal is reached to reduce the federal deficit, two officials familiar with his thinking said Wednesday. If Mr. Geithner does exit later this year, he would be the last member of Mr. Obama’s economic brain trust to leave the administration, after two-and-a-half years of turmoil, during which the White House confronted a financial crisis, a historic recession, near double-digit unemployment, and a recovery that has yet to gain traction.

Geithner's record of disastrous service, first as head of the New York Fed, and then as the worst Treasury Secretary since Mellon, should leave him a disgraced man. But one name floated would make Geithner look better:

A federal judge in Virginia sentenced former mortgage executive Lee Farkas to 30 years in prison today, and ordered him to $38.5 million. He was convicted of a fraud scheme involving $2 billion.

The government, aiming to send a message to the financial industry, asked Judge Brinkema to impose the maximum 385-year sentence on Mr. Farkas. As an alternative, the government recommended a penalty of at least 50 years to ensure he will “spend the remainder of his life in prison.”

Farkas was convicted of 14 counts of securities, bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud after a ten day trial in which he testified in his own defense. What did his co-conspirators get? Those who pleaded guilty and cooperated got between 3 months and 8 years.

I'm surprised they didn't also ask the judge to chop off his hands.

Attorney General Eric Holder today announced there will be a full criminal investigation into the deaths of two overseas detainees in U.S. custody who were interrogated by the CIA. There will be no criminal investigation into the cases of 99 other detainees. The ACLU responds here.

A federal judge ruled this week the U.S. cannot forfeit the logo of the Mongols' motorcycle club. More here.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Great news from the U.S. Sentencing Commission today for the 12,000 plus federal inmates serving draconian prison sentences for crack cocaine. The Commission voted unanimously to make the new crack cocaine penalty reduction retroactive.

The United States Sentencing Commission voted unanimously today to give retroactive effect to its proposed permanent amendment to the federal sentencing guidelines that implements the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. Retroactivity of the amendment will become effective on November 1, 2011― the same day that the proposed permanent amendment would take effect― unless Congress acts to disapprove the amendment.

Quentin Tarantino. Here is my favorite reaction:

Am I the only one who takes more offense at the blurted phrase "Oh my God" (by Joe Scarborough) than the use of the word "dick" to explain the President's behavior? I think insulting the President is rough political discourse, but saying "Oh my God" is taking the Lord's name in vain.

What a world.

Open Thread.

Booman writes:

On this whole debt limit deal, the White House seems to be supremely confident that they'll get something done and that it will be the Republicans who will blink. [. . .] The thing I am still worried about is that Boehner won't be able to figure out how to get this done. It's basically a suicide mission, as I can't imagine him surviving in a leadership position if he passes a Democratic-majority debt limit bill. But it doesn't appear he has any other choice. The White House just isn't buying his threats. They know his masters expect a deal, and soon.

I'm not seeing that. Instead, I see the White House resigned to $2 trillion in spending cuts (over 10 years) and no tax increases as the deal to raise the debt ceiling. The GOP demanded bigger cuts it is true, and in that sense they will not have delivered, but now Boehner can trumpet his "no tax increases" win. Of course the problem here is that the GOP won on taxes in December - yes, The Deal. Andrew Leonard of Salon writes:

CNN Money :

The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits slipped only slightly last week, falling short of economists' expectations for a bigger drop. There were 428,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended June 25 -- 1,000 fewer than the week before, the Labor Department said. It marked the 12th straight week initial claims have stayed above the 400,000 mark -- and was worse than the 420,000 claims economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected.

Congrats to Javier Colon, who won The Voice tonight. (He was my second choice after Beverly McClellan, who didn't make the final two.)

How Dia Frampton even made the final four with her whispery voice and her lack of stage presence (despite her very pretty face) was a mystery to me. But when she made it to the top two tonight over Beverly and Vicci Martinez, both of whom outshone and outsang Dia by miles, I figured it out. Carson Daley said last night, Dia's performance on the live show made it to number 1 on iTunes (Javier made it to number 2 of iTunes last night.) Every purchase on iTunes counted as a vote for that artist. So the votes were not just determined, like other shows, by those phoning, texting or the web, but by purchases on iTunes. [More...]

I am on a plane! (not a plain.) (Not yet.)

Open thread.