If you are looking for a long depressing read today, look no further than Human Rights Watch's new report on bail and the pretrail treatment of low income nonfelony defendants in the city (i.e. people caught smoking dope in public or jumping turnstiles). The problem, as HRW sees it, is that almost a quarter of jail admissions in 2008 were pretrail detainees charged with misdemeanors who hadn't made bail. They remained incarcerated for an average of 15.7 days. And these are not insignificant numbers—they calculate at a cost of $161 per inmate per day "the city could have saved at least $42 million if it had not incarcerated the 16,649 nonfelony defendants arrested in 2008 who were unable to make bail of $1,000 or less." And let's face it, if you are strapped for cash, even a $500 bail can be as unachievable as at quarter-million dollar one. more ›

The announcement that six detainees in Guantanamo would be charged and tried for the September 11, 2001 attacks was welcomed by a number of parties, including the families of people who died on September 11. However, some would like to see a trial in New York and not in Gitmo. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at a United Nations conference in Indonesia, but he made a stop in Beijing first. He said to the audience at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "Some people believe that by mid-century, as [much] as 75 percent of China's population may be city dwellers. Even an occasional visitor to China, like me, is struck by this rapid urbanization. It is one of the largest internal migrations by people in... more ›

Aaron Lubarsky,
co-director/editor,
Seoul Train more ›

The weekend is here, and unfortunately our run of nice weather has run out. The rains will be coming. Luckily the city is prepared with plenty of indoor activities to enjoy, and if you're not scared of getting a little wet there is some outdoor fun to be had as well. more ›

Some lawmakers didn't think the reforms went far enough (NY State Senator Thomas Duane said "Rockefeller drug reform - ha! - I don't think so") but the NY Times reports that Russell Simmons, who campaigned for the repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws, is happy with the State's decision and credits the hip-hop community for helping "raise awareness" of the issue. more ›