NY Bomb Suspect Pleads:  The man arrested for attempting to detonate a car bomb in Times Square last month pleaded guilty today to federal terrorism and weapons charges.  An AP story by Tom Hayes reports that Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, called himself a Muslim soldier in a statement presented before a U.S. District Judge in New York.  He noted that he had picked a warm Saturday for the bombing because it would be crowded with people he could injure or kill in retaliation for the U.S. "terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people."   Sentencing is scheduled for October 5.  

Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders Expensive:  The 20 states that use civil commitment laws to hold the worst sex offenders beyond their sentences pay an average of $96,000 a year per offender according to this story by AP reporter Martiga Lohn.  With many states running large deficits, politicians find themselves stuck between the public's desire to keep sex predators confined and the need to cut expenditures.  Because civil commitment programs must provide treatment, rather than just incarceration, the costs are far higher than had the offender received a longer or indeterminate prison term.  One Maryland expert said that the psychological treatment sex offenders receive is of dubious value, lowering an offender's risk of committing more sex crimes only slightly.