What if a state prison department built an execution chamber and told no one about it? Last April, a group of California legislative policy analysts on a research visit to San Quentin State Prison discovered that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was building just such a room without the requisite prior approval from statehouse lawmakers, who were furious when they found out about it. Welcome to the California state prison system, the country's largest and one of its ...

As the defenders of a besieged Bosnian town prepared to retreat, the prisoners of war held captive in the local jail feared the worst. "The prisoners were saying, 'If the town falls they will shoot us before they leave,'" recalls Charlotte Lindsey, a Red Cross field worker in the Balkans during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. "We went to the prison authorities and we said, "Look, you cannot let this happen. You are responsible for these prisoners." Forty-eight hours ...

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the medical ethicist and oncologist who advises President Obama, does not own a television, and if you catch him in a typically energized moment, when his mind speeds even faster than his mouth, he is likely to blurt out something like, "I hate the Internet." So it took him several days in late July to discover he had been singled out by opponents of health-care reform as a "deadly doctor," who, according to an opinion column ...

There are two big schools of thought about what the U.S. should do next in Iraq, and both schools are almost certainly wrong. The first, represented by many congressional Democrats, argues that it is past the time for America to leave. The best thing that could happen now is for the U.S. to pull out as quickly as possible, force the Iraqis to take control of their destinies and compel the oil-rich gulf states in the neighborhood to get ...

Luci Baines Johnson was just 16 years old when she approached her father, President Johnson, with what she considered a reasonable request. "I asked my father if we could have the Beatles come to play at the White House," she recalled. "I was very excited about it." His response A decisive no, "without even any moment of trying to soften the blow," Johnson said in a recent phone interview. The president thought the move would be viewed as self-serving. His ...

Though the reclusive Erik Prince stepped down as CEO of the private security company Blackwater in March, some explosive new headlines have put him back in the spotlight. According to a report in The Nation, an ex-Blackwater employee has alleged in federal testimony that Prince may have been involved in the murder of unnamed individuals assisting a federal investigation into Blackwater's actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The individual also claims Blackwater's culture encouraged killings in Iraq as part ...

Xabi Alonso completed his medical at Real Madrid on Wednesday as club director general Jorge Valdano said their close season transfer spending spree was over. Liverpool and Real have agreed a fee believed to be in the region of $50 million for the Spanish international, who has also agreed personal terms with the Madrid giants. It will take Real's spending to an estimated €254 million ($365 million) and Valdano told Radio Cadena Sur that their work was done ahead of ...

In detective dramas, a dog's powerful sense of smell has become a predictable crime solver: the trusty canine takes a sniff of a suspect object and follows the scent, eventually coming to the perpetrator of the evil deed. But in real life, is this reliable evidence — or is it junk science that has helped put away innocent people? In mid-August, the Innocence Project of Texas plans to unveil a detailed study focusing primarily on the extensive work of ...

Every morning, Sangin Mohammed Rahmani says goodbye to his wife, gets on his bicycle, and sets out alone on a bumpy, unpaved Kabul road that he hopes will lead him to the presidency. "This is going to be my vehicle to success," he says, patting his bicycle, as he pushes it down a rutted, garbage-strewn street. "With my bicycle and my mobile phone, I can solve all the problems of the people." In a crowded field of 41 Afghan men ...

When Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon 40 years ago, it was a triumph of American scientific skill. It was also the result of the government's willingness to spend over $125 billion, in today's dollars, to take the country to the moon. The need to remake our energy economy and to replace fossil fuels with renewables like wind and solar is often referred to as the new Apollo Project, a challenge to our scientists ...