Unlikely Advocates For Teen Killers: Victims' Families
The Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the fate of 2,500 offenders who were sentenced as teenagers to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Seventy-nine of them were 13 or 14...
View ArticleReturn To Alcatraz: Will A Legend End After 50 Years?
Fifty years ago, three men set out into the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay in a raft made out of raincoats. It was one of the most daring prison escapes in U.S. history. As one newsreel put it:...
View Article50 Years Later, Mystery Of Alcatraz Escape Endures
The legend of the escape from Alcatraz has always held that Frank Morris and Clarence and John Anglin would return for the 50th anniversary of their famed 1962 prison breakout. Tuesday was that...
View Article50 Years Later, Mystery Of Alcatraz Escape Endures
Fifty years ago three men set out into the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay in a raft made out of raincoats. It was one of the most daring prison escapes in U.S. history from what was billed as...
View ArticleTribal Coalition Report Finds South Dakota 'Willfully' Violated Child Welfare...
South Dakota's foster care system "systematically violated the spirit and the letter" of a law meant to protect Native American children, a coalition of tribal directors from the state's nine Sioux...
View ArticleWithout Reviews, Inmates Can Get Lost In U.S. Prison System
Every year 10 million people funnel in and out of America's jails and prisons. And every year some of them get lost. Recently there have been two high-profile cases of such inmates — one who got out...
View ArticleExonerations On The Rise, And Not Just Because Of DNA
2013 was a record-breaking year for exonerations in the United States, according to statistics compiled by the National Registry of Exonerations.At least 87 people were set free for crimes they did not...
View ArticleTo Rent Or Buy? For The Federal Government, It's Complicated
The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been in the hot seat in recent weeks for mishandling the leases for some of its office space.
View ArticleMissouri Execution Stalled Over Lethal Drugs In Short Supply
A few years ago, Missouri, like other states, was having trouble finding lethal execution drugs. Europe was balking, and U.S. drug manufacturers didn't want a part of it.So Missouri turned to a place...
View ArticleGovernment's Empty Buildings Are Costing Taxpayers Billions
On a street corner in downtown Washington, D.C., David Wise is opening a century-old iron gate in front of an old, boarded-up brick building.Wise is an investigator for the Government Accountability...
View ArticleLawmakers Seek To Lay Roadblock To Powerful Painkiller
Sen. Joe Manchin is introducing a bill to force the Food and Drug Administration to ban potent new painkiller Zohydro, backed by a bipartisan effort to get the FDA to remove its approval of the drug.
View ArticleEnforcing Prison Rape Elimination Standards Proves Tricky
On a recent day at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, inmates in jumpsuits peek out of their cells to see three men with clipboards walk into the housing unit. These men are auditors...
View ArticleThe Executioner's Lament
In 1977, death row inmate Gary Mark Gilmore chose to be executed by a firing squad. Gilmore was strapped to a chair at the Utah State Prison, and five officers shot him.The media circus that ensued...
View ArticleFrom The Border To The Hill, Influx Of Immigrant Kids Draws Concern
Transcript MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: The issue of immigration has heated up in recent weeks - not just in Eric Cantor's campaign but also along the border. There is a flood of unaccompanied immigrant...
View ArticleVA Bill Was An Easy Sell, But Some Senators Still Feel Sticker Shock
Transcript ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: No politician wants to be seen voting against veterans. A recent bill to increase veterans' benefits and overhaul much of the VA sailed through the Senate, and now the...
View ArticleLawmakers' Step Back Toward Disclosure Driven By Optics
Transcript ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: The House Ethics Committee is undoing a recent change it made to lawmakers' annual financial disclosure forms. The committee had deleted a line asking what free trips...
View ArticleLawmakers Unearth Failures To Investigate Campus Sex Crimes
Transcript MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: U.S. colleges are failing to investigate sex crimes on their campuses. That's the conclusion of a new national survey commissioned by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill. The...
View ArticleSenate Re-Authorizes Government's Role In Terrorism Insurance
Transcript AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Today the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize a bill first passed after 9/11. It allows the government to act as a financial backstop in the event of a large...
View ArticleInsurance For Fake Identities The Latest Skirmish Over Obamacare
House Republicans went on the attack Wednesday over what they say is the latest bungling of the Affordable Care Act: fake identities used to get insurance.Undercover investigators were able to get...
View ArticleGhost Cats And Musket Balls: Stories Told By Capitol Interns
Every summer thousands of interns flood the offices of Capitol Hill. One of their primary duties is to give constituents tours of the famous buildings. They parade visitors from the rotunda to statuary...
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