Judicial Activism. Ed Whelan reviews The Myth of Judicial Activism by Kermit Roosevelt in the Weekly Standard.

Prisons Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters discusses the overcrowding problem in California's prison system in a piece published in Saturday's paper. He fixes responsibility where it belongs, with a legislature which refuses to act, and the state's new Attorney General, who as Governor set in motion the forces which have prevented rational reform for three decades.

Death Penalty In a recent radio interview, a former member of Britain's House of Lords admitted that while a majority of the English support the death penalty for the worst murderers, Parliament has no intention of enacting such a law. Perhaps a change is in the wind. A story in today's issue of The Evening Standard reports that a 34-year-old political novice has defeated several experienced politicians and "is now set to become Britain's first woman Asian PM (Parliment member)." Central to her campaign was her interest in restoring capital punishment.

Woman missing 10+ days found dead in own home. Mariesa Weber’s mother was the last to see her daughter alive after she had returned home on October 28. After searching the home for clues, her family members suspected she had been kidnapped and contacted the sheriff’s office. On November 9, Weber’s sister found Mariesa’s lifeless body in her own room behind a bookcase. According to the Associated Press story, the woman died after leaning over a bookcase to adjust a television plug and falling behind it head first. Authorities believe she couldn’t breathe in the position she was in and died as a result of it.