Today’s edition of quick hits:
* DOJ: “Attorney General Eric Holder directed federal prosecutors on Monday to change the way they file charges for some drug crimes, to reduce the number of convictions for offenses that carry inflexible, mandatory minimum sentences. The nation’s top law enforcement official called for a ‘fundamentally new approach’ to enforcing drug laws in order to help alleviate prison overcrowding and reduce race-based disparities in drug prosecutions.”
* More on this from Dylan Matthews, Aliyah Frumin, and Greg Sargent.
* Stop and frisk: “The New York Police Department’s ‘stop and frisk’ tactic, under which millions of mostly black and Hispanic people have been questioned by police over the past decade, has violated constitutional rights, a federal judge ruled Monday.”
* Adam Serwer’s piece on this included a nice catch: “The judge who ruled that New York’s ‘stop-and-frisk’ practice violated the Constitutional rights of the city’s citizens seemed to have had Trayvon Martin on her mind.”
* Guilty: “Whitey Bulger was convicted Monday of racketeering and conspiracy by a Boston jury that found he was involved in 11 murders and a raft of other crimes during his long reign as a blood thirsty crime boss in bed with rogue FBI agents.”
* Everywhere but Yemen: “Eighteen of the 19 U.S. embassies and consulates closed this month due to worries about potential terrorist attacks will reopen on Sunday, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.”
* NLRB: “For the first time in a decade, there are five Senate-confirmed members on the National Labor Relations Board.”
* Presidential road trip: “President Obama will hit the road after his vacation for a two-day bus tour on the economy, the White House said Monday.” * I suppose we’re supposed to think he’s cured now? “San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s chief of staff confirmed to 10News that the mayor began his therapy a week early and has already completed the program, but a statement from his attorneys said he will finish his therapy Saturday.” * And though the right remains hostile to alternative energy innovation, the wind industry in the United States has made some pretty remarkable strides. Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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