Anti-Sentencing Group Launched:  Another sentencing reform (read sentencing reduction) think tank announced its launch this week.  The Associated Press reports that the new Council on Criminal Justice will be headed by a bipartisan group of sentencing reformers including former California Governor Jerry Brown, Cal Supreme's Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and Black Lives Matter organizer DeRay Mckesson among others.  The group is co-chaired by Koch industries Vice President  Marc Holden and Sally Yates, the Obama Deputy Attorney General fired for refusing to enforce President Trump's travel ban.  While there are some Republicans involved with this group, the suggestion that there is diversity of opinion is an illusion. No one associated with this group supports tough sentencing for repeat offenders.  Koch Industries is an advocate for reduced sentences and a big supporter of the First Step Act.  Jerry Brown's record is extreme on this issue.  The group, which will be well funded by liberal donors including the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation, will join the Marshall Project, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, the Sentencing Project and the ACLU and a dozen others to advocate for reduced consequences for criminals. 

Black Market Pot Flooding CA:  The State of California, where recreational marijuana became legal last year, is home to thousands of illegal pot shops and growers, which voters were told would die off if the drug were legalized and sales were regulated.  Patrick McGreevy of the Los Angeles Times reports that while law enforcement has seized roughly $30 million over the past year in illegal pot and hundreds of thousands in cash, the state is barely scratching the surface according to the California Cannabis Industry Association.  Research by New Frontier Data indicates that the black market for pot was worth $3.7 billion last year. In spite of this, the head of the Bureau of Cannabis Control thinks that her agency is doing "tremendous work" in regulating the sale of marijuana.  Governor Gavin Newsom is insisting that it will take several years for the state to take control of the market, but with pot use now legal, why would consumers pay high prices for the drug at a taxed and regulated pot shop, when they can get it much cheaper anywhere in the state on the black market.  The Associated Press reports that the promises made to voters about a windfall in tax revenues appear to have also been false.  The state has reduced its revenue projections twice in two years as it collected $288 million last year and estimates $359 million this year.  During the 2016 campaign advocates estimate $1 billion in annual tax revenues after legalization.