Word: states
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...says she may make up her mind in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, she is carefully planning the curriculum for her Wayne State classes and working on a book exploring Detroit's history and future. "I'm not interested in this sort of blind optimism," she said recently when asked to consider what's needed to revive Detroit. Government's fundamental functions must be reconsidered, she said, so citizens can regain confidence that it will provide basic services. She added, "There's huge potential here...
...chocolate milk opponents lobby state and federal officials, the dairy industry has responded with an estimated $1 million campaign dubbed "Raise Your Hand for Chocolate Milk." Launched in early November, the YouTube-intensive strategy is designed to highlight the drink's health benefits (vitamin D, calcium, potassium) and to counter the critics who have pegged it as nothing more than a sugar-laden snack drink...
This year's annual report of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) shows how dramatically the issue has faded in recent years. Fewer death sentences were imposed in 2009 in the U.S. than in any year since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. In the 1980s and '90s, states consistently sent more than 300 prisoners per year to death row. The total this year, according to DPIC, will be 106. This continues a steady trend going back most of the decade, and it extends even to Texas, the leading death-penalty state, where juries reliably sent 30 or more convicted...
Many factors play a part in the fading importance of capital punishment. The drop in the number of death sentences reflects a drop in the murder rate. Many states have adopted life-without-parole terms as alternative sentencing, and both prosecutors and juries have embraced the option. Also, DPIC executive director Richard Dieter theorizes that in tough economic times, states are reluctant to take on the high costs of capital cases - the special sentencing hearings, the mandatory reviews and the nearly inevitable years of appeals. The DPIC report cites the example of California, where death sentences were up this year...
...Supreme Court cleared away a group of legal challenges to lethal injection. Fifty-two inmates were put to death in 2009 - up from 37 in 2008, but far fewer than the 98 prisoners executed in 1999. As usual, Texas put more inmates to death than any other state, with 24 executions, followed by Alabama with six and Ohio with five...