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POLICE ISSUES’ OINK-OINKS FOR 2011
As our fifth year of pontificating about criminal justice comes to a close we’ve endeavored to bring you some of the most noteworthy events of 2011. Or at least a few of the most amusing. Ready that grin and enjoy the ride!
Clueless in La-La Land. Only hours after the L.A. Times revealed that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department mistakenly jailed nearly 200 persons in 2011 on warrants issued for someone else, Sheriff Lee Baca formed a task force to fix things. It will presumably be working alongside another “task force” that’s investigating explosive allegations about abuses in the jails, including the presence of gang-like deputy cliques. Baca, who blames commanders for keeping him in the dark, hadn’t known about that one either...
Crime-fighting with a delete key. How did Nashville, Cleveland and Baltimore drive down the number of sex crimes? By unfounding complaints, making reports noncriminal “matters of record” and designating them as “exceptionally cleared.” How does New York City keep beating its crime stat’s? Easy – by not taking reports in the first place...
So tell us again why you chose the Border Patrol. Just one month short of completing his probationary period, Border Patrol agent Bryan Gonzalez was out of a job. Gonzalez was fired because he told other agents that he opposed marijuana laws and that the drug wars in Mexico would end if drugs were legalized. Such comments, said the agency, went against agents’ “core characteristics”...
Look, if the green uniform doesn’t work out, there’s always TSA blue! Suspicions about a protuberance led TSA agents at JFK Airport to strip-search an 85-year old woman who declined to be scanned because she wears a defibrillator. So what did they find under her pants? Like she said, an insulin pump. Not to play favorites, they also made an 88-year old woman strip. This time the dangerous object was a colostomy bag...
Honesty is not always the best policy. “I am looking forward to seeing you and taking all of Bell’s money?!” That’s what newly hired police chief Randy Adams wrote in an e-mail to the former city administrator of Bell, a working-class community of 40,000 near Los Angeles. His salary was set at $457,000; with perks, $770,000. Hers was $850,000. She, the former city manager (salary package, $1.5 million) and several other former city officials await trial for misappropriating city funds. Adams, who had been promised a disability retirement in advance, has not been charged...
So what would a death verdict be worth? Assistant D.A.’s in Colorado’s Eighteenth Judicial District can earn an $1,100 yearly bonus by going to trial on felonies at least five times a year and winning at least seventy percent of the time. Plea-bargains don’t count, leading some nay-sayers to worry that prosecutorial decisions might be influenced by a lawyer’s lust for loot...
Pick up hammer. Smash keyboard. Repeat. Social networking is great – until it isn’t. In Albuquerque a cop who shot and killed a suspect had described his job as “human waste disposal” on Facebook. In Arkansas, a Federal appeals court cited an officer’s Facebook profile as “the PUNISHER” as evidence of his (lack of) character. In the Big Apple, cops used Facebook to criticize the participants of a trouble-prone yearly parade. “Let them kill each other,” one wrote. That’s when another warned that “rats” from internal affairs might be reading...
Who wants to be a millionaire, LAPD Edition. During the past decade seventeen LAPD officers have won a million bucks or more in lawsuits against the city. Among their complaints were sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation by superiors. In April a Los Angeles civil jury awarded a total of $2 million to two LAPD motorcycle cops who said their careers suffered after they refused to write at least 18 tickets per shift...
Say, what could you get with a “Platinum”? During a two-year period top Los Angeles city officials, including the mayor and council members, got 1,000 parking tickets dismissed on behalf of constituents. An audit critical of the practice noted that the requests were handled by a now-defunct “Gold Card” desk at the city Department of Transportation...
Next thing you know they’ll be reporting a profit. “Every industry has them,” said an assistant Cincinnati police chief about new productivity “guidelines” requiring patrol officers to make at least two felony and ten misdemeanor arrests each month...
If CPD really wants to emulate the private sector, here’s an idea. Federal agents raided the home of a 91-year old California woman who was selling mail-order suicide kits comprised of a plastic bag (goes over the head) and tubing (connects to a helium tank supplied by the user.) At least one death has been attributed to the product, which is intended to cause death by asphyxiation...
Heads, the cops go, tails the town goes. Maricopa, a dusty central California town of 1,154, has two-full time cops. It also has twenty-five volunteers who help keep the town afloat by impounding vehicles driven by unlicensed farm workers, presumably illegals who are in no position to complain. A Grand Jury has recommended that the town be dissolved...
Are we feeling safer now? Seventy-five billion dollars. That’s what Federal and state governments have spent each year on domestic security since 9/11. It’s made manufacturers happy and filled police garages with armored vehicles and other neat toys. Much of the stuff has dual uses, such as for SWAT teams. But the value of the goodies against terrorists has yet to be demonstrated...
What about the citizen who filmed the arrest of a citizen for filming the arrest of a...? The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals let stand a civil suit against Boston officers who arrested a citizen who was filming someone else’s arrest, supposedly because audio was recorded without the cops’ consent. That charge was later dropped. But the Court took a broad view, ruling that recording public governmental activities is protected by the First Amendment...
Catch-22! Acting under pressure, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered officers to not make physical arrests for openly possessing marijuana when the only reason it comes into view is because officers order a suspect to empty their pockets (wink, wink.) Merely having the evil weed, you see, is only a citable offense...
Liars figure. Pittsburgh’s mayor and police chief boast that crime is at historic lows. But that’s only true if one ignores that the city’s population has declined by half since 1960. In fact, the 2010 murder rate, 17.6/100,000 population, is nearly four times higher than in 1960, when it was 4.6...
More love from the State that made pill-mills a household word. Philadelphia police denied Rafiq Williams a CCW permit because of his alleged drug connections and involvement in shootings. No problem. Williams is one of nine-hundred Philadelphians who have been issued CCW licenses by mail-order from easy-going Florida, with whom Pennsylvania has a reciprocal agreement to honor gun permits...
Yet another reason to raise the eligibility age for social security. FBI agents arrested four retired Georgia men, all in their 60’s and 70’s, who were trying to buy ingredients to make ricin and bombs so they could wage a campaign of terror against ATF and other government agencies...
No, son, the real world isn’t like “Let’s Make a Deal.” A Florida judge sentenced Daniel Vilca, a 26-year old man with no criminal record to 152 years in prison after a jury convicted him of storing 454 pornographic images of children on his home computer. Vilca had turned down a plea deal that carried a 20-year sentence...
Forgetful crook department. After buying a used minivan, a California man had a mechanic try to fix a window that wouldn’t roll down all the way. That’s when they found $500,000 worth of cocaine stuffed in the door panels...
 Stupid crook department. A hapless Detroit bank robber pulled a stickup wearing the same duds that appeared in his Facebook photo. Snap, went the bank camera. And yes, the FBI noticed...
Very stupid crook department. Four years after responding to a murder as a station sergeant, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective was flipping through booking photos when he ran across a gang member whose torso was tattooed with an elaborate reproduction of that very same crime scene. Until that moment the killing had gone unsolved...
It’s not money laundering when the DEA does it. DEA undercover agents launder hundreds of millions of drug money for the Mexican cartels each year. The practice helps identify top-echelon members, but it’s not without controversy...
It’s not gun trafficking when ATF does it. Under pressure to catch the big guys, ATF let straw buyers take about 1,500 guns to Mexico for delivery to the Mexican cartels. Many were used in crimes in Mexico, and two were recovered at the scene of the killing of a Border Patrol agent in the U.S....
It’s not entrapment when the FBI does it. “The essence of what occurred here was that a government [zealously] created acts of terrorism out of [fantasies] and then made these fantasies come true.” So said a reluctant judge as she sentenced Laguerre Payen, the last of the alleged domestic terrorists known as the Newburgh Four. “Only the government could have made a ‘terrorist’ out of Mr. Cromitie.” So said a reluctant judge as she sentenced James Cromitie, Onta Williams and David Williams IV to minimum 25-year terms for trying to bomb a synagogue and conspiring to down military aircraft...
It’s not giving the Church what it paid for when John Jay does it. A study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice that was largely financed by the Catholic Church attributes the epidemic of sexual abuse by priests to the sexual revolution of the 1960’s and 70’s, not to the Church’s failure to screen out deviates. But critics complained that the authors’ restrictive definition of pre-pubescence vastly understates the problem of pedophiliac clergy...
It’s not giving the son of a buddy a break when the Guvernator does it. Outgoing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger commuted the sentence of Esteban Nunez, son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, for complicity in a stabbing death, shaving a term of sixteen years to seven. San Diego D.A. Bonnie Dumanis challenged the commutation, saying that it “greatly diminishes justice”...
Now if it could only zap that pesky car alarm. An unarmed U.S. Customs drone helped North Dakota police swoop in on a cabal of right-wing extremists who had been stealing livestock. Federal agencies with drones use them to help police when they’re not otherwise busy. But civil libertarians say that use of these aircraft raises serious privacy concerns...
Well, that’s it for 2011. And have no fear, we’ll resume our regular, boring posts next year!
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POLICE ISSUES’ OINK-OINKS FOR 2010
Continuing a long-standing tradition (well, since 2007) we again distill for our loyal readers the most “noteworthy” criminal justice events of the year. In ascending order, from the moderately ridiculous to the just plain bizarre, here are Police Issues’ top ten stories of 2010.
10. A gun hater gets his just reward. Here’s an extract from a televised debate between the three Republican Primary contenders for the Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
Moderator to panelists: Should people on the no-fly watch list be able to purchase a gun? Mr. Campbell?
Tom Campbell: No!
Moderator: Mr. DeVore?
Chuck DeVore: Yes, if they haven’t been convicted of a felony.
Moderator: Ms. Fiorina?
Carly Fiorina: Yes.
Campbell, a former House member, was initially ahead. By far the most centrist, he was outmaneuvered by Carly Fiorina, who spent more than $5 million of her own money to take the nomination. She then got trounced...
9. Who needs truth when you have statistics? Current and former cops have accused NYPD brass of suppressing crime reports and reducing felonies to misdemeanors to keep Part I crimes down. One squealer actually taped his bosses, leaving the department little choice but to file internal charges against five officers and a Deputy Inspector...
8. I’ve made up what little mind I have. Concerns that L.A.’s fun-loving Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may not be the brightest star in the sky aren’t going away. Only hours after a cop shot and killed a knife-wielding drunk, Hizzoner declared that the four bicycle cops who confronted the man were “heroes who acted with bravery.” It was left to Chief Charlie Beck to reassure an embittered Central-American community that, yes, there will be an impartial investigation...
7. Oopsie, I forgot that we don’t have a First Amendment. Poor Aleksei Aleksandrovich Dymovsky. A decorated police major with a once-promising career, he posted a plea for reforming the hopelessly corrupt Russian police on YouTube. It was addressed to “Vladimir Vladimirovich.” That, in case you’re wondering, is Premier Putin. And no, the good Major is no longer a cop...
6. We spit on your – I mean, our – Constitution. Concerns about NYPD’s massive stop-and-frisk campaign prompted the Governor to sign a state law that keeps the department from entering information about those stopped but not arrested into its computerized “data warehouse.” Officers did more than 500,000 (yes, five-hundred thousand) “Terry” stops last year; one area thick with low-cost housing got 13,200, about one per resident...
5. I dare you. I double-dare you. That, sadly, is what happens when America’s nerdiest criminal justice official collides with the planet’s nerdiest evildoer. Will Attorney General Eric Holder nail WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with an indictment? Will Assange reciprocate with more leaks? Stay tuned...
4. No need to pack a lunch, but be sure to bring a ballistic vest. L.A. Gang Tours offers guided luxury coach tours of gang-infested South Los Angeles. Its owner, former Florencia gang member Alfred Lomas, says that gangs have agreed not to harass the buses. The $65 fare includes lunch. Bon appetit!
3. Does that include cost-of-living increases? Bell, California, a working-class community of 36,000, was paying its police chief a whopping $437,000 a year. His contract guaranteed that when he retired it would be on disability, making half of it tax free. He resigned after the D.A. busted eight present and former city officials for corruption...
2. Father really knows best. Despite personal warnings from an anguished father that his son was a Jihadist intent on murder, State Department and CIA representatives saw no reason to place Christmas Day bomber Umar Abdulmutallab on a terrorist watchlist. And, yes, he boarded an airliner wearing a bomb. Fortunately it fizzled...
And here’s the top story of 2010:
1. Slow learners of the decade. What do James Cromitie, Onta Williams, David Williams IV, Laguerre Payen, Farooque Ahmed, Mohamed Mohamud and Antonio Martinez have in common? If you guessed that they accepted “bombs” from the FBI and planted them in vehicles furnished by the FBI, you’re right! And they’re just the ones who did it in 2010. Go back to 2009 and you have six more. Geez, you’d think that at some point...
That’s a wrap for this year. Have a great holiday season, and see you in 2011!
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POLICE ISSUES’ OINK-OINKS FOR 2009
Our wild and wacky world of criminal justice has again offered up an embarrassment of riches. Indeed, there was so much to choose from that we simply had to expand the list. Without further ado here are this year’s honorees; except for the very last entry, which is a real doozy, they appear in no particular order...
Let ‘em Eat Corn Dogs trophy goes to...Morgan County, Alabama Sheriff Greg Bartlett, who nearly doubled his salary by skimping on prisoner meals and slipping what wasn’t spent into his pockets (yes, that’s permitted in Alabama). The lawman finally changed his tune when an exasperated judge locked him up overnight to give him a taste of his own cuisine.
Whorl, Shmerl certificate of non-recognition goes to...the LAPD latent fingerprint section, whose inability to tell a ridge ending from a bifurcation became apparent after two mistaken arrests were traced to its work. As many as 1,000 past cases have been brought into question. Hey, think of the overtime!
Optimist of the Decade award goes to...ex-Orange County, California Sheriff Mike Carona, who bragged to reporters that the jury’s decision to convict him on only one count of corruption left him feeling “beyond vindicated.” Carona’s joy greatly annoyed the judge, who gave him 5½ years to celebrate the victory in the big house.
Rookie of the Year medal goes to...a 14-year old Chicago boy who showed up at the precinct house in a police uniform, checked out a radio and partnered up with a real officer in a traffic car for five hours, even writing a few tickets along the way.
One Man’s Art is Another’s Probable Cause trophy goes to...the Boston Police Department for arresting Shepard Fairey, the street artist who crafted the famous Obama poster. Officers collared Fairey on – yes – graffiti warrants while he was on his way to an exhibit showcasing his work.
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction prize goes to...Los Angeles County Sheriff “Hollywood” Lee Baca, who was already negotiating a sixth reality show, “Tech Force USA,” before the ink dried on an Inspector General’s report severely chastising him for involving his agency in another series, “The Academy.”
Trump Entrepreneurship trophy goes to...two Pennsylvania judges, the equally dishonorable Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, who pled guilty for sentencing more than six-thousand youths to private prisons in exchange for kickbacks. Runner-up was Tenaha, Texas, whose cops forced black motorists passing through the town to sign away cash and valuables on pain of being prosecuted for money laundering.
Tone Deaf award of merit goes to...former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, whose public endorsements of Mayor Villaraigosa (he was re-elected) and City Attorney candidate Jack Weiss (he lost) ran counter to warnings by the Christopher Commission that police chiefs should steer clear of politics.
Which Brother Art Thou prize goes to...a pair of identical German twins for depositing identical DNA and fingerprints at the scene of a huge jewelry robbery, leaving authorities perplexed as to whom to charge (neither was). And don’t ask about the video...
Andrei Vyshinsky memorial trophy goes to...the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, whose meticulously crafted opinions authorizing physical strikes, sleep deprivation and waterboarding would have done the Procurator-General of the Soviet Union proud. An Honorable Mention goes to CIA operatives who waterboarded a suspect 183 times in a single month (no, not for doing it: for keeping records about it.)
Never Say Die medal with two oak leaf clusters goes to...Federal prosecutors who managed on their third try to convict five men for conspiring to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower. In a key bit of evidence, the accused were surreptitiously taped while an informer led them through a pledge of allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
Preventing Crime With the “Delete” Key award goes to...the cities of Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans and Dallas for sweetening their year-end stat’s by downgrading felonies to misdemeanors, writing off murders as self-defense and, in the most direct approach, ignoring crime reports altogether. An honorable mention goes to Miami for achieving equally sterling results by hammering officers with Compstat, thus discouraging crime reporting from the very start.
Pry My Cold, Dead Fingers grand prize goes to...the twenty-three State Attorneys General who sent a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder warning that renewing the Federal assault weapons ban would deprive citizens of their Constitutional rights. Runner-up is Louisville pastor Ken Pagano, whose religious service that honored open carry laws featured aisles of patriotic parishioners wearing guns.
Molehill Into a Mountain trophy goes to...Cambridge Police Department Sergeant James Crowley, who arrested a self-righteous Harvard professor for disturbing the peace after the incensed academic accused the sergeant of racially stereotyping him as a burglar.
New Math certificate of achievement goes to...the U.S. Justice Department and the State of Nevada for letting go after only eleven years a convicted kidnapper/rapist who got fifty years in the Federal slammer and a concurrent five to life in Nevada. The man then went on to kidnap another teen and hold her as a sex slave for more than a decade.
Alfred E. Neuman What, Me Worry? prize goes to...the Securities and Exchange Commission for ignoring sixteen years’ worth of warnings that Bernie Madoff was a fraudster. Runner-up is the Cleveland Police Department, which didn’t investigate registered sex offender Anthony Sowell even after a naked woman fell from his second-story window. Sowell now stands charged with murdering eleven women whose decomposed remains were found in and around the home.
Silence is Really, Really Golden certificate goes to...three LAPD officers who were charged with perjury after testifying that a drug defendant threw down a bindle of cocaine. A security camera recorded one officer telling another to be “creative” on his report.
Don Quixote de la Mancha trophy goes to...Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who has vowed to prosecute each and every of the estimated 800 pot clinics in Los Angeles for selling over-the-counter instead of acting as nonprofit collectives as State law requires.
And last, but certainly not least, the Speak Spanish, go to Jail certificate of incomprehension goes to...twenty Dallas police officers who used an obscure Federal trucking regulation to give motorists $204 tickets for not speaking English.
Whew, that’s it for this year. See you in January!
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POLICE ISSUES’ OINK-OINKS FOR 2008
 As the season of red carpets approaches we scoured the Police Issues news site for the year’s ten most distinguished accomplishments in the wild and wacky world of criminal justice. The finalists are...
10. “So that’s what ‘conflict of interest’ means!” trophy to Alex Kozinsky, Chief Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, who stepped down from an obscenity trial when word leaked that he kept “funny pictures” and videos of bestial and degrading sex on a personal website to share with his friends.
9. “Um, that’s not exactly the kind of experience we had in mind” prize, jointly awarded to the cities of Atlanta and Chicago for dealing with a shortage of applicants by hiring cops with criminal records and those that other agencies turned away as unfit. (Special consolation prize to the City of Los Angeles for hiring applicants who have used hard drugs.)
8. “A whole new meaning to undercover” certificate of recognition to a certain middle-aged mother. Convinced that her adult son had been wrongfully convicted of murder, she got a makeover, hid a recorder in her...and with her husband’s blessing dated a male juror to gather evidence of misconduct during deliberations. Her secret tapes are now at the center of an appeal.
7. “Who wants to be a millionaire, LAPD edition” award to the City of Los Angeles for assuring that its cops are adequately compensated. This year’s winners include a female officer who was penalized for complaining about sexual harassment (she settled for $2.25 million,) and a male officer, $3.1 million richer after a civil jury agreed that he was transferred for turning in a superior who allegedly used racial epithets and skimmed funds.
6. “Morons with technology are still morons” trophy to the Mongols motorcycle gang, busted on Federal racketeering charges after ATF undercover agents passed polygraphs, joined the gang and over a two-year period collected evidence of crimes ranging from drugs to murder. This was the second time in eight years that the gang was stung this way; before, though, the screening mechanism was an old-fashioned background check. That didn’t work so hot, either...
5. “De-regulator of the year” award to the Securities and Exchange Commission, recently disparaged by its own Chairman for ignoring more than a decade’s worth of credible signs that Bernie Madoff, Wall Street’s former Golden Boy, was running a Ponzi scheme. (And an Honorable Mention to the FBI for sleeping through the $50 billion fiasco.)
4. “Keep it zipped doesn’t just mean your fly” trophy to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Once the State’s hard-charging Attorney General, he was overheard in a Federal wiretap making arrangements to have a high-dollar prostitute sent to his Washington D.C. hotel so that he could be nice and relaxed for his appearance before a Congressional committee.
3. “Duh!” certificate of achievement to the Pomona (Calif.) Police Department, for calling the family of a missing woman to demand that they remove her illegally parked van from a police slot. When the family arrived they found the woman inside, dead from a knife wound to the neck.
2. “Sportsman of the Year” award to Pelham (Mass.) Police Chief Edward Fleury, who organized a for-profit public machinegun shoot and invited children to participate. Chief Fleury now faces trial for involuntary manslaughter after an 8-year old boy brought to the event by his physician father accidentally shot himself to death.
1. And in the top slot, the “If all you have is lemons, make lemonade” grand prize goes to Phil Spector’s long-suffering lawyer, Doron Weinberg. During opening arguments at his client’s trial for murdering actress Lana Clarkson, the attorney conceded that Spector had “exhibited” and even “waved” guns. “But,” he added, “he has never fired a gun at a living being.”
Well, that’s it for this year. A very special thanks to the distinguished selection committee (Linda, Mary and Jennifer) for holding their noses while combing through the prospects!
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POLICE ISSUES’ OINK-OINKS FOR 2007
As the season of red carpets descends upon us, we can’t help but offer its own illustrious awards recognizing the year’s most distinguished accomplishments in criminal justice. Here are the top ten, in no particular order:
- “Just say YES to drugs” trophy goes to...Major League Baseball, for its inspired, long-running and highly profitable alliance with the illegal pharmaceuticals industry. Inject, then play ball!
- “Failure is not AN option, it’s the ONLY option” trophy goes to...the L.A. County District Attorney for continuing a remarkable streak of celebrity no-hitters. P.S. doesn’t just mean “postscript,” baby!
- “Persistence is the key to success” trophy goes to...Orenthal James Simpson, renowned author and so-far successful defendant, for managing to get himself and his entourage arrested by the notoriously laid-back Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, thus nearly doubling their felony arrest totals. Good work, O.J.!
- “Walk softly and carry an itty-bitty stick” trophy goes to...the Orange County Board of Supervisors, for respecting Federally-indicted Sheriff Mike Carona’s right to work -- or not -- as he sees fit. E Pluribus, guys!
- “That’s our story and he’ll stick to it” trophy goes to...Presidential contender Rudy Giuliani, for his unabashed support of former New York City Police Commissioner, Giuliani Partners board member and one-breath-from-becoming Homeland Security chief Bernard Kerik, despite (or because of) the latter’s Federal indictment. Is there something that your good bud knows, Rudy?
- “Don’t make the monkeys angry, dear” trophy goes to...every Presidential candidate, for tippy-toeing around the problem of firearms lethality so as not to arouse the enmity of the all-powerful NRA. Remember that guns don’t kill people...guns don’t kill people...guns don’t kill people...
- “When WE do it it’s NOT voodoo” trophy goes to...the CIA, FBI and nearly every other intelligence and law enforcement organization in America for continuing to use lie detectors to screen applicants and employees despite a report by the National Academy of Sciences calling polygraphs useless for that purpose. Hey, no problem: Americans just love make-believe!
- “Whichever way the wind blows” trophy goes to...the Riverside County Sheriff and District Attorney (joint prize) for letting public opinion pressure them into arresting and criminally charging a scared Deputy who mistakenly shot the passenger of a fleeing car. Don’t fret -- maybe next time jurors will leave their brains at home!
- “There’s no wagon like a bandwagon” trophy goes to...the Southern California news media for its abysmal coverage of the same incident, recklessly inflaming the atmosphere by repeatedly showing an indistinct video with bad sound and inferring that the Deputy was completely unprovoked. Say, where were all the cameras when the acquittal was announced? We were dying to chat!
- ...and lest we forget, the “Shameless Pig” trophy goes to...the California Department of Corrections, for gobbling up resources at such a rate that taxpayers will soon be spending more on the Golden State’s prisons than on its once-vaunted system of higher education. Bon appétit, CDC!
Well, so much for raking last year’s muck. We’re certain that there will be another slew of excellent candidates in 2008. Should you at be seized by an impulse to make a recommendation, don’t hesitate to oink back!
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