DNA Testing Cut in Los Angeles County as Sheriff Lee Baca deals with a budget shortfall caused by the state's worsening economy.  An AP story reports that the Sheriff told the LA County Board of Supervisors last week that his department had suspended shipping rape kits, and other DNA samples, to crime labs last month due to a shortage of cash and staff.  Last November, it was reported that a ten year backlog of over 4,000 rape kits sat untested in county storage.

AG Holder Could Cut Funding to State Prisons if he accepts the standards presented in a report from the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission according to a story by AP writer Jennifer C. Kerr.  The report requires states to adopt standards to reduce rape in prisons and jails, or lose 5% of their federal funding for prisons. Among the Commission's key findings was that inmates who were short, gay or female were more likely to be victimized than other inmates.  This finding overlooks transgender inmates.  A UC Irvine study we reported on last April found that nearly 60% of male inmates who dress and present themselves as women in California prisons reported being sexually assaulted by other inmates.  Unfortunately, the study also found that the same 60% of transgender inmates opposed being segregated in women's prisons.  

Federal Death Penalty. Josh Gerstein at Politico had this story on Sunday regarding the federal death penalty. He says President Obama may be faced with execution decisions in the next few months. Unlike the two previous presidents, who were former governors, this will be a first for him.