GOP SOLON TO SWITCH PARTIES
"Two-term Republican Rep. Rodney Tom of Bellevue Washington is quitting the Republican Party to run for the state Senate as a Democrat. 'I realized the far right has complete control of the party and for me to be effective for my constituents I need to be a Democrat,' Tom said."
(SEATTLE TIMES)

SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR BLASTS FAR RIGHT
"Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary."
(COMMON DREAMS, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

GENE MIGHT PREDISPOSE YOU TO ADDICTION
The Institute of Psychiatry has identified a gene variation where cocaine would more markedly inhibit a protein that controls removal of key mood chemical dopamine in the brain leading them to the conclusion that the chances of becoming addicted to cocaine could depend on genes."
(BBC NEWS, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

JUSTICE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR
"The Columbian newspaper "Cambio" reports that the U.S. Justice Department received the last $1.3 million of an $83 million payment from the family of slain Colombian paramilitary boss and narco-trafficker Gonzalo "The Mexican" Rodriguez Gacha. In return for the massive payment, the family - Rodriguez' widow and seven of his "heirs" - received immunity from prosecution, which they were facing due to a federal indictment in Florida."
(NARCOSPHERE, unearthed by Skip Brutkiewicz)

HIGHWAY PATROL'S EVIDENCE GOES UP IN SMOKE
"Three 17-year-old boys, one of them the son of a Utah Highway Patrol trooper, have been arrested for investigation into the thefts of more than 23 pounds of marijuana from the UHP's evidence locker in Cedar City. The youth who was the son of a trooper purportedly filched his father's keys to get access to the building."
(KUTV, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

CANNIBAL UPSET ABOUT MOVIE
"For more than three years, the man known as the Cannibal of Rotenburg has held Germans in grisly thrall, with his lurid tale of killing and eating a willing victim he found through the Internet.
Now, as he stands trial for a second time on murder charges, the man, Armin Meiwes, has persuaded a German court to ban a horror film based on the notorious case, in part because it is, if possible, too lurid."
(NEW YORK TIMES)

HOW HIGH TIMES WOULD DESIGN A GROW ROOM
"This is how they grow it in Tennessee. This growroom was underneath a house in a cave. The entrance was through a secret hydraulic door in the garage that led to a concrete ramp that went about 50 yards into the ground. Inside the cave was living quarters and a secret escape hatch that led you through a tunnel that exited via another hydraulic door that opened up a rock on the outside. It was very elaborate. The set up allowed them to harvest every 60 days which resulted in multi-million dollar sales."
(PHISHHOOK, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

PHOTOS OF MOBILE'S MARDI GRAS 2006 POSTED
Just click on the red hyperlink to see some photos from this year's Mardi Gras in Mobile.

BILL WOULD BAN GOP PARENTS
"If an Ohio lawmaker's proposal becomes state law, Republicans would be barred from being adoptive parents.
The bill's proponent said his “tongue was planted firmly in cheek” when he drafted the proposed legislation. However, Hagan said that the point he is trying to make is nonetheless very serious.
(Lawrence Journal World, unearthed by Patti Martin)

MISSING LAWYER FOUND AFTER 7 MONTH HIATUS
A homeless man has been ID'd as Raymond Power Jr., 57, a New York lawyer who had been missing for almost seven months after suffering amnesia. Power somehow ended up at a Chicago homeless shelter and was assisted in finding out his identity by another shelter resident.
(AMERICA'S MOST WANTED, unearthed by Bill Messick)

USE OF HALLUCINOGENIC TEA UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT
In Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, No. 04-1084, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. delivered the opinion on behalf of a unanimous Court affirming the Tenth Circuit's ruling that the federal government failed to demonstrate, at the preliminary injunction stage, a compelling interest in barring respondent's sacramental use of the hallucinogenic tea known as hoasca.
(SCOTUS, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

AGREE WITH US OR WE'LL PUT YOU IN PRISON
"British historian David Irving was sentenced in Austria to three years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to charges of denying the Holocaust, saying he erred in contending there were no Nazi gas chambers during the Second World War.
Irving could have received a 10-year prison term. Under Austrian law, it is a crime to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust."
(CBC)

INTERROGATION POLICY CAUSED INTERNAL CONFLICTS AT PENTAGON
"One of the military's top civilian lawyers, one of many dissenters inside the Pentagon,repeatedly challenged the Bush administration's policy on the coercive interrogation of terror suspects, arguing that such practices violated the law, verged on torture and could ultimately expose senior officials to prosecution, a newly disclosed document shows.
But Mr. Mora's campaign against what he viewed as an official policy of cruel treatment, detailed in a memorandum he wrote in July 2004 and recounted in an article in the Feb. 27 issue of The New Yorker magazine, made public yesterday, underscored again how contrary views were often brushed aside in administration debates on the subject.
(NEW YORK TIMES)

IN CHINA INTERNET HOLDS PROMISE OF BREAKING GOVERNMENT STRANGLEHOLD
"Eleven years after young Chinese returning from graduate study in the United States persuaded the party to offer Internet access to the public, China is home to one of the largest, fastest-growing and most active populations of Internet users in the world, according to several surveys. With more than 111 million people connected to the Web, China ranks second to the United States."
(WASHINGTON POST)

DOPEY LEGISLATORS PROPOSE DOPEY LAW
"Some Geogia lawmakers want "Potsuckers" - sweets being marketed with marijuana-themed names like Purple Erkle, Blue Haze and Rasta lollipops - off the shelves and away from kids. Bill 511, a measure that would ban the sale of marijuana- or hemp-flavored candy in Georgia. The Bill's sponsor argues that "dope candy" may lead to future marijuana and drug use by young people.
(ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION)