A review written by me of The Thin Black Line: published in the Washington Post’s Book World. It’s a collection of stories told by black law-enforcement officers. Not a great book, unfortunately. But the review is well worth reading: THE THIN BLACK LINE: True Stories by Black Law Enforcement Officers Policing America’s Meanest Streets. By…
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Here’s a very nicely produced little video against the war on drugs:
A Sheriff in Alabama was jailed for “blatant” violation of past court agreements that prisoners be properly cared for. It seems he had been, legally mind you, profiting from the leftover money allocated for prisoners’ food (all of $1.75 per person per day!). Here’s the story in the Times.
Traffic tickets go up when local government revenue falls. Is that a surprise? Not really. Here’s the story in St. Louis Today. The study, by Thomas Garrett and Gary Wagner, quantifies it: “Controlling for other factors, a 1 percentage point drop in local government revenue leads to a roughly .32 percentage point increase in the…
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I think the most amazing thing is that he kept the cigarette in his mouth the whole time! Pictures are here.
After a pleasant tour of Santa Cruz, San Francisco, a long and nice train ride to Chicago. 55 hours, but in a sleeper car. After all, what could be finer than dinner in the diner (actually 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, and 3 lunches)? The train through Colorado is beautiful. But rural Illinois makes me the…
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Justin Fenton writes in the Sun. This is great news. But one thing is very curious: The city’s Western District, for example, where nearly 90 people were killed in 1992, recorded 23 homicides in 2008. It has not recorded fewer than 32 homicides in a year since at least 1970. But the Western District is…
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No. But still, read this piece by John H. Richardson from Esquire.com.