Update: LA coroner on CNN: At 2:26pm PT Michael Jackson was declared dead. He's evasive but it sounds like he was dead on arrival at the LA Medical Center. (Update: They tried to resuscitate him at the hospital for an hour and failed. His brother Jermaine said his personal physician was with him at his home when he went into cardiac arrest.)

Update: LA Times, CBS and all media outlets except CNN confirms Jackson has died. The hospital reportedly is on lock down as crowds swell around it. (Added: CNN confirms too.)

R.I.P. Michael Jackson. What a sad day. First Farrah, now Michael. Herre's Billie Jean, Live. From the best selling album of all time.

TMZ reports Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest at his home today. While others are reporting he was taken to the hospital, TMZ says he was dead when paramedics arrived and attempts at resusitation failed.

Actress Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer today. She was 62.

It's hard to describe what was so special about her to people who weren't around in the 70's. As this writer says, she was more than a pinup on a poster, but that poster just may be the most memorable one of the era.

She was an All-American Girl at a time when a country clawed bloody by scandal and war really needed one, and The Farrah Fawcett Poster became to late 20th century America what Betty Grable was to GIs in World War II. Half the boys in the country had it on the wall and the other half didn't need to, because they'd memorized it.

My review of Farrah's Story, her documentary about her battle with cancer is here.

She had such grace and beauty and a smile that lit up the world. At least her suffering is over. R.I.P. Farrah, and condolences to her family and friends.

Sorry to have been AWOL from the blog the past few days, but J and TChris have been filling the page with great stuff.

I should be back tomorrow blogging on things politics and SCOTUS.

This is an Open Thread.

The Supreme Court today decided Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (opinion here.) It ruled for the defense, which had objected to the state's reliance on an affidavit to prove a substance was cocaine. The defense said it was entitled to the live testimony of the chemist so it could cross-examine him or her. The Court agreed with the defense that live testimony was required under the Sixth Amendment's right to confront witnesses.

At petitioner’s state-court drug trial, the prosecution introduced certificates of state laboratory analysts stating that material seized by police and connected to petitioner was cocaine of a certain quantity. As required by Massachusetts law, the certificates were sworn to before a notary public and were submitted as prima facie evidence of what they asserted.

Petitioner objected, asserting that Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36, required the analysts to testify in person. The trial court disagreed, the certificates were admitted, and petitioner was convicted. ....

Held: The admission of the certificates violated petitioner’s Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him.

In my view, too many defense lawyers stipulate to the chemical evidence rather than take on a chemist. Maybe this decision will encourage more of them to challenge the evidence. [More...]

In an eight-to-one decision, the Supreme Court ruled this morning thaat “a school’s strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal.”

Who dissented? Clarence Thomas.

Writing for the majority, and finding there was a Fourth Amendment violation, Justice David Souter said:

"Savana's subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening, and humiliating. … Here, the content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion."

The Court also ruled, however, that the school officials are immune from personal liability for the strip search.

Reporter Murray Waas has a long and meaty article today on the Bush Justice Department and alleged improprieties in the criminal investigation of corruption allegations against former AZ Republican congressman Rick Renzi.

The alleged impropriety: Leaking a wiretap on Renzi. The reason, according to Waas:

In the fall of 2006, one day after the Justice Department granted permission to a U.S. attorney to place a wiretap on a Republican congressman suspected of corruption, existence of the investigation was leaked to the press — not only compromising the sensitive criminal probe but tipping the lawmaker off to the wiretap.

Career federal law enforcement officials who worked directly on a probe of former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) said they believe that word of the investigation was leaked by senior Bush administration political appointees in the Justice Department in an improper and perhaps illegal effort to affect the outcome of an election.

Renzi, who did not seek re-election in 2008, ultimately was indicted on "36 felony counts of money laundering, extortion, insurance fraud and various other alleged crimes" and is scheduled for trial in September. [More...]

I've been writing mostly about crime issues here today. In case there are other things you'd like to discuss, here's an open thread for you.

All topics welcome.

Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA) told Huffington Post today he is introducing a companion bill to Sen. Jim Webb's bill to create a commission to study criminal justice and sentencing reform.

Delahunt, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said that reform of the American justice system should begin with a broad look at drug policy.

"I think it's really time to do an absolute overview of the issue of drugs and come at it with an open mind," he said.

[More...]

Update: At the press conference today, Tom Angell of LEAP asked Gil Kerlikowske if in light of the report and others calling for consideration of legalization, whether discussion about it might not be a good thing. His answer:

"As regards legalization, it is not in the President's vocabulary and it's not in mine."

***

Via Huffington Post, the U.N. today released its 2009 World Drug Report report and reversed course. The report endorses drug decriminalization. [More...]

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has returned from Argentina and admits he has been having an affair (that began by e-mail) with a woman who lives there. He says his wife has known about the affair. His wife said today she asked him to leave the family home two weeks ago.

Sanford has submitted his resignation as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Here's the transcript of his press conference remarks. Another paper is printing Sanford's romantic e-mails to the woman. How embarrassing for all of them.

Bottom line: He's a Republican whom we now don't have to worry about being on a future national ticket. Other than that, it's his business and I have no interest in reporting more details of his affair, making fun of him or castigating him for his behavior. It's between him, his family and the people of South Carolina who elected him.

Via Sentencing Lsw and Policy, Attorney General Eric Holder today spoke at the event "“Rethinking Federal Sentencing Policy: 25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Reform Act." His remarks are here.

The AP reports he is soliciting cocaine sentencing reform.

"This administration firmly believes that the disparity in crack and powdered cocaine sentences is unwarranted," Holder said. "It must be eliminated."

As I noted a few days ago, Holder spoke to judges about sentencing last week at the D.C. Judicial Conference. I opined he was trying, but needed to try harder to light a fire under Congress to revise both cocaine penalties and mandatory minimums. Today he clearly called for a 1:1 sentencing ratio for crack and powder, instead of saying "if" a 1:1 ratio "is our goal." I'm glad to see him stepping up the pressure. [More...]

There are reports of brutal assaults on protesters in Tehran. There are eyewitness reports of people being thrown off bridges.

At least two trusted sources described wild and violent conditions at a part of Tehran where protesters had planned to demonstrate. “They were waiting for us,” the source said. “They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap.”

“I see many people with broken arms, legs, heads — blood everywhere — pepper gas like war,” the source said. Around “500 thugs” with clubs came out of a mosque and attacked people in the square, another source said. The security forces were “”beating women madly” and “killing people like hell,” the source said.

Best way to follow the updates live is on Twitter. Try #Tehran, #IranElection. HuffPo is live-blogging information. and CNN is on it as well.