Illinois Ponders Inmate Release:  In what one candidate for Governor is calling "fear-mongering" to get the public to support a tax increase, current Illinois Governor Pat Quinn proposes releasing up to 10,000 criminals from prison to save money during the state's budget crisis.  CBS newsman Mike Flannery reports that an estimated $125 million could be saved by giving early releases to so-called non-violent inmates and laying off about 1,000 corrections officers.  Other states, including California, have also proposed abandoning government's primary obligation to protect the public by releasing criminals to save money. Question: Is a non-violent criminal someone who had not yet been convicted of a violent crime?  By that reckoning, until he murdered five innocent people in South Carolina two weeks ago, Patrick Burris was a non-violent offender.  

Challenge to Breathalyzer Upheld:  LA Times writer Maura Dolan reports that today, a unanimous California Supreme Court ruled that a DUI defendant may present evidence showing that the results of a breathalyzer test may not accurately reflect his blood/alcohol level.  The Court's decision in People v. McNeal noted that "Evidence casting doubt on the accuracy of the breath-to-blood conversion ratio is just as relevant as other evidence rebutting the presumption of intoxication from a breath test result, such as evidence that the defendant had a high tolerance for alcohol or performed well in field sobriety testing."  The decision also cited holdings from appellate courts in Vermont and Arizona which had reached the same conclusion.