California's Legislative Analyst's Office released a status report on Aug. 5 concluding that California is unlikely to meet the US Supreme Court's two-year deadline to reduce the state's prison population by 34,000 inmates. California's prisoner realignment plan, which entails shifting thousands of low-level offenders to county jails, could reduce the prison population by 32,000 inmates—still a few thousand inmates short of decreasing the 180% prison capacity to the mandated 137.5% capacity, by June 27, 2013. The report states that despite statutory sentencing changes, out-of-state transfers, the construction of new prisons, and the realignment of certain adult offenders and parolees, California is urged to request additional time to comply with the order. The number of inmates currently in California prisons is approximately 143,500, about a 19,000 inmate reduction from 2006.

The convicted ringleader of abuses committed at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad was released Aug. 6 after serving more than six-and-a-half years of his 10-year sentence. Army Spc. Charles Graner, who was being held at the US Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, was released early as a result of earning days off for good behavior. Graner was convicted in 2005 of conspiracy, assault, maltreating prisoners, dereliction of duty, and committing indecent acts and received the longest sentence of the six others involved in the abuses. In May 2010, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces heard arguments in the appeal of his 10-year sentence and affirmed his conviction the following month. Graner will remain under military supervision until 2014.

A woman and seven young children were killed in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province when a NATO patrol called in an airstrike against insurgents firing on them from a mud compound, local Afghan officials said Aug. 6. Habibullah Shamlani, the governor of Nad-Ali district, said the foot patrol came under fire from the compound the previous day. One soldier was killed, and an Afghan interpreter was wounded. The home belonged to Mullah Abdul Hadi, a local imam who Afghan officials say was assisting the Taliban. He was killed along with one of his two wives and his seven children, all younger than seven years old, Shamlani said. "People from the area said the imam was involved in making IEDs," or improvised explosive devices, Shamlani said. "We found three hand grenades in his house." NATO would not confirm whether any civilians were killed, but did say in a statement that "shortly following the engagement, coalition forces received reports that civilians were being held captive by the insurgents and may have been present during the airstrike." (NYT, Aug. 6)

We recently noted that militant West Bank settlers have joined the Tel Aviv tent town protest, pitching a line that aggressive settlement of the West Bank is the solution to the crisis—a fascistic pseudo-solution predicated on expropriating others of their lands. We asked whether the protest movement will take the bait. Here, fortunately, is a statement from the opposite tendency—linking the expropriation of the Israeli working class to that of the Palestinians, and building unity rather than sowing further division. A "Letter from Tel Aviv," Aug. 4:

The Supreme Court of Israel on Aug. 2 issued for the first time an order for the Israeli government to dismantle an illegal outpost in the West Bank. The order calls for Migron, the largest "illegal" outpost in the West Bank, to be razed by the end of March 2012. The action came as the result of a petition filed by Peace Now in 2006 calling for the court to order Migron to be dismantled. In response the government had decided to remove the flagship settlement outpost (established by the Binyamin Regional Council) by August 2008, but later reached a compromise with settlers that delayed the razing until the state could build them a new neighborhood in a nearby settlement. However, the delay only allowed more houses to be built, and the Court noted during deliberations that the intended two-year postponement had actually turned into an indefinite delay.

Moisés Montero Álvarez AKA "El Coreano" (The Korean), alleged to be a top leader of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (CIDA), was captured by Mexican federal police in the wee hours of Aug. 1 in a raid of a high-end restaurant in the resort city in southern state of Guerrero. Three others were arrested with him, including José Arturo Lareta Álvarez AKA "El Pulpo" (The Octopus) and a 16-year-old boy. Álvarez was wanted in the kidnapping and killing last year of 20 Mexican tourists who were vacationing in Acapulco. The victims worked in a mechanic shop in Michoacán state and traveled together annually to Acapulco. Last year, 22 of the men, driving cars with Michoacán plates, arrived in the city, where they were apparently assumed to be members of the Michoacán Family, a rival of the CIDA. Two of the 22 survived because they were not with the group at the time of the mass abduction. The disappearance of the rest provoked marches by their friends and relatives in Michoacán, who demanded justice. (CNN, Aug. 2; Milenio, Aug. 1)

The supreme court of Cuba (officially, the Supreme Popular Tribunal) on Aug. 5 upheld a 15-year sentence for Alan Gross, a US citizen accused of "acts against the independence or integrity of the state." Gross was arrested in 2009 and has served 20 months of his sentence for his work as a consultant for Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI), a business that contracts with the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Gross claims that he was aiding the Cuban Jewish community to achieve unfiltered Internet access by distributing various communications devices, while the Cuban government alleges that he was creating internal networks to foment protests on behalf of the US government.

Two developments in the news this week that advance the privatization of life and portend the bifurcation of humanity into sub-humans and uber-humans. First, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a case brought by the ACLU and others that the company Myriad Genetics is entitled to patents it has claimed for two natural human gene mutations, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. (PHG Foundation, Aug. 5; GEN, July 29) The idea is ostensibly finding ways to fight cancer, but it beats us why a private company should have the right to patent something created by nature—much less a part of the human genetic code! Days earlier, the Daily Mail revealed that scientists in the UK "have created more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos," which has left critics "warning of a 'Planet of the Apes' scenario."