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By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer
State prisons have been a dynamic growth industry over the past four decades, with the number of inmates exploding by more than 700 percent amid tough sentencing laws and a prison-building boom.
No longer. A survey released Wednesday (March 17) by the Pew Center on the States, the parent organization of Stateline.org, finds that the total number of prisoners in state custody declined last year for the first time since 1972. Some states, including California, New York and Texas, shed thousands of prisoners.
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By The Associated Press, Montgomery Advertiser
Huntsville shooting suspect Amy Bishop will appear in court next week. A March 23 preliminary hearing has been set for the former University of Alabama in Huntsville professor who's accused of shooting six colleagues and killing three.
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AR: 3 in state care join challenge of foster ban
By John Lynch, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
Three teenagers in state custody were allowed to join a lawsuit contesting a voter approved law that bars unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children, a Pulaski County Circuit judge ruled on Tuesday, making them the only children directly challenging the law.
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AR: Court denies request to lift execution stay
By Rob Moritz, Arkansas News Bureau
Gov. Mike Beebe today ordered a halt to execution preparations for Jack Harold Jones Jr. after a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis decided not to take any action on a request to dissolve a stay of execution issued last week.
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AZ: Petition signatures still public in Arizona
By Michael Clancy, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
A U.S. Supreme Court case that will be argued next month could end up restricting the public's right to see who has signed initiative petitions in Arizona and other states.
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CA: State corrections panel, facing scrutiny, set to launch inquiry
By Michael Gardner, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Two San Diego County lawmakers are questioning whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has picked the right vehicle for reform in asking for an investigation into how parole agents handled the 2000 molestation case of John Albert Gardner III, now charged in the death of Chelsea King.
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CA: Alameda land-use ruling could reshape state
By John King, San Francisco Chronicle
When an Alameda County judge this month ruled that Pleasanton must loosen its development rules to allow large amounts of new housing for all income levels, he sent a message that could ricochet around the state.
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DE: Gaming agency chief named
By Ginger Gibson, The News Journal (New Castle-Wilmington)
A retired New Jersey state police officer will head Delaware's new gambling oversight agency, which is responsible for licensing casino employees and investigating gambling-related crime.
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FL: Florida joins House debate on voting rights for felons
By Lesley Clark, The Miami Herald
WASHINGTON -- A Florida elections supervisor raised the state's botched 2000 election Tuesday to argue for a controversial bill that would let convicted felons vote in federal elections after their release from prison -- regardless of state law.
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FL: Judge shows impatience over Glades cleanup
By Curtis Morgan, The Miami Herald
Eighteen months ago, the federal judge overseeing Everglades cleanup progress tentatively endorsed a state bid to buy sugar fields for restoration projects, calling the opportunity to ``buy out the polluters'' a logical solution to long-standing problems.
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FL: Florida Senate president backs reform to CFO post
By Marc Caputo, The Miami Herald
If Jeff Atwater's Senate has its way, the higher office he seeks will have unprecedented power over privatized prisons, billions of dollars in purchasing authority and the power to investigate Medicaid and food-stamp fraud.
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FL: Police on trail of zapped city files
By Charles Rabin, The Miami Herald
Just after dark two Sundays ago, someone stepped into the office of Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux and deleted a series of computer files central to a federal probe of the city's finances, Miami officials say.
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FL: Amid 2 worlds, a `Godfather' plot unravels
By Jay Weaver, The Miami Herald
It was a meeting straight out of a Mario Puzo novel: The Miami wine peddler and the New York meat wholesaler gathering in a Pompano Beach social club in July with other Italians, purportedly to settle a turf war between the Gambinos and the Colombos -- two of the mafia's main families.
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IA: Senate closes Internet-pervert loophole
By Tony Leys, The Des Moines Register
Senators voted Tuesday to ensure that would-be child molesters could not escape prosecution if the person they talk dirty to via the Internet turns out to be an undercover police officer pretending to be a child.
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MD: Arundel Mills casino foes seek to intervene in Cordish lawsuit
By Nicole Fuller, The Sun (Baltimore)
Opponents of a casino at Arundel Mills mall who are on track to force a referendum filed court papers Tuesday to intervene in a lawsuit by the Cordish Cos., which contends that the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections ignored alleged fraud in the referendum effort.
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MD: Responsibility unclear on mail security
By Tricia Bishop, The Sun (Baltimore)
The U.S. Postal Service, which is charged with screening mail for safety, failed to detect bullets that were sent with threatening letters to at least two Baltimore judges in the past week. And it's unclear if it could. There appears to be no technology in place to identify the ammunition sent in the mail.
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MI: Mich., Calif. help U.S. prison population fall
By David Crary, The Associated Press, The Detroit News
NEW YORK -- Spurred by budget crises, California and Michigan together reduced their prison populations by more than 7,500 last year, contributing to what a new report says is the first nationwide decline in the number of state inmates since 1972.
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MN: Justice warns of crisis in courts
By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Speaking outside the court for the first time since he announced his resignation, Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson said Tuesday that the state's justice system is strained nearly to the point of breaking down.
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NC: Poole lawyer seeks dismissal
By Lynn Bonner, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A lawyer representing Ruffin Poole, a onetime aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, asked a federal judge to dismiss the case against Poole because the indictments fail to show that he did favors for a developer for financial gain and because he cannot be charged with accepting bribes because he was not a public official.
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NJ: Court puts N.J. recall effort on hold
By Angela Delli Santi, The Associated Press, The Philadelphia Inquirer
A New Jersey appeals court ruled yesterday that a conservative tea-party group should have the right to try to throw a U.S. senator out of office, but also said the group may have to wait for a final decision by a higher court before proceeding.
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NY: Paterson aide is said to ignore subpoena
By Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times
A senior aide to Gov. David A. Paterson failed to respond to a subpoena from a state ethics commission requiring him to testify about his role in obtaining World Series tickets last year from the Yankees for Mr. Paterson and others who attended a game with the governor, the commission's chairman said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
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NY: Voters reject Monserrate bid
By The Associated Press, Times Union (Albany)
A state senator who was expelled after a domestic violence conviction has lost his long-shot bid to get his seat back in a special election.
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NY: Prober -- E-mails don't clear gov in Tixgate
By Fredric U. Dicker, New York Post
The head of the state Commission on Public Integrity last night rejected a claim by Gov. Paterson that e-mails between him and the Yankees prove he didn't break the law by soliciting $6,000 worth of World Series tickets and then allegedly lying under oath about it.
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NY: Domestic violence bills gain
By Rick Karlin, Times Union (Albany)
Forget the budget, a legislative crackdown on domestic violence is top-of-mind for many lawmakers this week in the Senate and Assembly.
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OH: Murderer's last words -- 'Stop the madness'
By Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch
LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- When it was time for Lawrence Reynolds to speak his last words, he could have expressed remorse for snuffing out the life of a family friend, an elderly widow who had been his siblings' baby sitter.
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OH: New Ohio statute to safeguard teens
By Jim Provance, Toledo Blade
Shynerra Grant did what she was supposed to do after her ex-boyfriend broke her jaw. Fearing for her life, she turned to juvenile court and received a no-contact order that prohibited Antonio Bryant Rogers from coming into physical contact with her.
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PA: 4 school districts to go less than 180 days
By Staff Reports, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The state Department of Education has given permission for four school districts -- Canon-McMillan, East Allegheny, Penn-Trafford and Philadelphia -- to hold classes for fewer than 180 days this year because of the snow.
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PA: Hoeffel's petitions challenged
By Mike Wereschagin, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato has challenged the nominating petitions of Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, one of his competitors in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
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TX: Nursing a habit
By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune
Texas nurses with substance abuse problems — including showing up to work drunk or high, stealing narcotics meant for patients, and forging doctor signatures on prescriptions for pain-killers — are often not punished for their acts for months or even years and continue to practice in the meantime, according to a Texas Tribune review of state nursing disciplinary records.
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TX: Homeland Security tepid on Rick Perry's request for more border enforcements
By Todd J. Gillman, The Dallas Morning News
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano this afternoon brushed off Texas Gov. Rick Perry's request for surveillance planes and 1,000 fresh troops along the Mexican border. That drew swift denunciation from the governor, who put state police and other assets on standby, citing the heightened risk of spillover violence from Mexico's drug war.
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US: State prisoner count drops across country
By The Associated Press, The Des Moines Register
Spurred by budget crises, California and Michigan together reduced their prison populations by more than 7,500 last year, contributing to what a new report says is the first nationwide decline in the number of state inmates since 1972.
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VT: Vt. is sued over phone tracking
By The Associated Press, The Boston Globe
The ACLU of Vermont is suing the state after unsuccessfully seeking to find out whether police agencies are using cellphone tracking technology to keep tabs on people's whereabouts.
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WA: Medical-pot grower plans to sue over shootout fallout
By Mark Rahner and Sara Jean Green, The Seattle Times
The medical-marijuana activist who survived a pre-dawn shootout at his Kirkland-area home says he plans to sue the King County Sheriff's Office after the subsequent investigation turned into what he called a prolonged marijuana raid, resulting in the seizure of hundreds of marijuana plants.
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WA: Campaign for bail measure opens
By Jordan Schrader, The Olympian
With a tough-on-crime mission and sympathetic supporters – the families of fallen police officers – it could have the ingredients to score with voters.
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WA: Violence prompts debate over medical marijuana
By William Yardley, The New York Times
SEATTLE — A shooting and a beating death linked to medical marijuana have prompted new calls by law enforcement officials and marijuana advocates for Washington State to change how it regulates the drug and protects those who grow and use it.
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WY: Wyoming Supreme Court reverses sex case convictions
By Ben Neary, The Associated Press, Casper Star-Tribune
The Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a Cheyenne man's convictions of child sexual assault, saying a trial judge should have allowed the man to attend a court hearing about whether a boy was competent to testify against him.
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Not your grandma's bingo
By Pamela M. Prah, Stateline.org Staff Writer
It has the drama and suspense of a John Grisham novel: pre-dawn gambling raids by state troopers, rumors of political payoffs, rowdy demonstrations at the State Capitol and a fly-over at this year’s Rose Bowl in California with a banner that read, “Impeach Corrupt Alabama Gov. Bob Riley.” All this fuss over bingo? While many other cash-strapped states are trying to expand gaming as a way to get more revenue, Alabama's outgoing governor is on a mission to stamp out illegal gambling in the Heart of Dixie.
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