A few weeks ago, I posted a "Nightline" segment featuring an interview with John Jackson, the prosecutor in the death penalty case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Willingham, who was almost certainly innocent, was nonetheless found guilty and executed by the state of Texas in 2004. The basis for the conviction was evidence given by arson investigators that was subsequently shown to be entirely unscientific.

For any interested in witnessing the willfully slipshod and malevolent manner in which the state of Texas applies the death penalty, "Nightline" has done a follow-up segment to David Grann's New Yorker piece on the wrongful execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. The segment (in two clips, below) contains a variety of outrageous revelations, but perhaps none more shocking than this exchange between correspondent Terry Moran and John Jackson, the prosecutor in the case, who has since become a Texas judge:

Jim Jones's stern words for General McChrystal on the Sunday shows have gotten plenty of attention, but less noticed were Jones's comments about John McCain, who'd accused Jones of not "want[ing] to alienate the left base of the Democrat Party” on Afghanistan:

When California's effort at health reform fell apart two years ago, Jordan Rau saw it first-hand, as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Now Rau is in Washington, following the reform debate for Kaiser Health News. And the plot line is starting to seem awfully familiar:

Or would that be a lagging indicator?

Whatever the case, John Harwood reports in his NYT "Caucus" column that:

[S]igns that economic growth is resuming have eased the sense of crisis surrounding Mr. Geithner’s work. The economic 'message' meetings in Mr. Emanuel’s office have slowed from daily to weekly [emphasis added].

Ben Bernanke has a great opportunity to lead the reform of our financial system. His standing in Washington and on Wall Street is at an all-time high, as a result of his bailout/rescue efforts. He is about to be reappointed with acclaim for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. And he has a lot to answer for.

Pinch yourself, Washingtonians. Looks like Joe "the plumber" Wurzelbacher, in addition to his post-campaign career as a foreign correspondent, pundit, author, motivational speaker, aspiring singer, and all-around philosopher, also harbors dreams of comedic greatness. At the very least, he is the very first name listed in the press release I just received touting this year's "star-studded line-up" for the 16th Annual Funniest Celebrity in Washington contest. (Sept. 30, 7 p.m.

The good news is that the Chinese have decided to try to resolve the dispute between our two countries over their tire exports at the World Trade Organization, meaning "the disagreement may be containable," as the Journal puts it today. (For those just tuning in, the administration announced Friday it was imposing a tariff of up to 35 percent on imports of Chinese tires after the U.S. International Trade Commission found that the tires "disrupted" the domestic market.)

The bad news is that the financial relationship between our countries has created a stubborn underlying tension--driven largely by domestic politics--which the tire back-and-forth has highlighted. The Times Hong Kong correspondent, Keith Bradsher, got at this nicely in his piece yesterday:

Decades ago, my brother-in-law Vincent participated in a local Special Olympic race. He took off at the starter’s gun, only to see a panicked fellow contestant overwhelmed by the moment, standing motionless at the starting line. Over the screaming protests of his own mother, he ran back to the starting line, took the girl’s hand, and the two ran hand-in-hand, to finish the race.

Harold Pollack is a professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and Special Correspondent for The Treatment.    

Greg Mankiw writes that the gas tax is not an issue that divides liberals and conservatives, but rather one that divides political consultants and policy wonks. I would put comparative effectiveness research (CER) in the same category.

On the evening of January 22, a few hours after his administration's debut news conference, Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the cramped quarters of the White House press corps. It was meant to be a friendly event, and Obama glad-handed his way through reporters and cameramen, exchanging light banter as he went.

Earlier this month, Joe the Plumber Wurzelbacher--last seen serving as the third wheel on John McCain and Sarah Palin's increasingly disastrous blind date--traded in his toilet jack for a handheld microphone and traveled to the Middle East to become a foreign correspondent covering the Israel-Hamas war for the conservative website Pajamas Media. Alas, he wasn't terribly impressed with his new colleagues. "I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting," Wurzelbacher said in the Israeli city of Sderot, where he was, from all appearances, reporting. "You know, war is hell. And if you're gonna sit there and say, 'Well, look at this atrocity,' well you don't know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it."

Around midnight on July 16, New York Times chief political correspondent Adam Nagourney received a terse e-mail from Barack Obama’s press office. The campaign was irked by the Times’ latest poll and Nagourney and Megan Thee’s accompanying front-page piece titled “Poll Finds Obama Isn’t Closing Divide on Race,” which was running in the morning’s paper. Nagourney answered the query, the substance of which he says was minor, and went to bed, thinking the matter resolved.

Here's our election day correspondent Michael Idov speaking (on camera!) about Dmitry Medvedev's victory in Russia's presidential race--reflecting on the great apathy it inspired and on what you should expect going forward. Check it out.

It's not an easy thing to balance jocular irony and geopolitical earnestness in a film, and it's harder still when it's a film about war. David O. Russell somehow managed the feat in his 1999 Three Kings; Andrew Niccol fell somewhat short in his 2005 Nicholas Cage vehicle Lord of War; and now Richard Shepard has missed the mark altogether in The Hunting Party.