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Tim Carney’s column today is about the career of Dan Coats, the senator turned lobbyist who now wants Indiana voters to return him to the Senate. Here’s the lede: Republicans in 2010 have an opportunity to capitalize politically on popular anger with elites in Washington and Wall Street and with an exploding government that tramples on the little guy in service of the well-connected.

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The Bipartisan Corporate State

The Drug War Chronicle cites more reasons to worry about President Obama’s appointment of Michele Leonhart to head the DEA (a role she has been filling on an temporary basis since November 2007).

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Sure, He Lies, but He’s ‘an Outstanding Testifier’

Last night, I appeared on John Stossel’s eponymous Fox Business channel show , as part of a program discussing nanny statism and the food police who have already come for your salt shakers, trans fats, and more. The YouTuber therightscoop has clipped the relevant portion below: The whole program is well worth watching , as it features former fattie and former Gov

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Reason Staffers on Tube: Nick Gillespie on Stossel, Talking Food Police

Bootlylicious celebrity personality Kim Kardashian is reportedly padding her wallet these days via sorta-secret paid endorsements on the brain-blip micro-blogging service, Twitter. Kardashian supposedly rakes in an astounding $10,000 per sponsored Tweet. Thanks to new disclosure rules on paid Internet endorsements, those undisclosed sponsors could get Ka rdashian in trouble with the FTC, which could fine her up to $11,000 per infringement.

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Will the FTC Start Keeping Up With Kim Kardashian’s Twitter Sponsorships?

In the 1980s and 90s, Kearn County, California District Attorney Ed Jagels wrongly sent at least least 25 people to prison for molesting children. Since then, he’s been at the fore of nearly every bad crime policy of the last 30 years, positioning himself as the poster boy for the law and order movement

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New at Reason: Radley Balko on the Retirement of Ed Jagels, Kern Couny, California’s Monstrous District Attorney

This week , New York State’s inspector general issued a blistering critique of the state’s crime lab. The report came after a private accrediting organization found significant problems with one particular lab worker who had so little training that he couldn’t operate the microscope he was supposed to be using for hair and fiber analysis. Armed with a cheat sheet from a former supervisor, Gary Veeder managed to fake lab reports in criminal cases for 15 years

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Report: New York State Crime Lab Tainted by Incompetence, Corruption, Indifference

Sometime Reason magazine contributor William L.

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Deposit the “Wrong” Amount of Cash in Your Bank, Go to Jail

Criminal defense attorney Matt Eichelberger has found an fascinating little document I haven’t yet seen in my reporting on Steven Hayne , Mississippi’s controversial, fallen , and possibly rising again , medical examiner. To set up the document, a quick recap: By law, Mississippi is required to have an official state medical examiner. Hayne briefly held the position on an interim basis in the late 1980s, but was forced to step down when it was discovered that he wasn’t board certified in forensic pathology.

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Update in Mississippi: Titles Are Free!

Here’s a fairly dramatic encounter from this afternoon’s Suze Orman Show . "Mike" works as a credit manager selling consolidation loans for a "major banking institution." A 22-year-old MBA, Mike calls people with substantial credit card debt (owed both to his own employer and to other lenders), and tries to get them to move their unsecured debt into car or home loans with lower interest rates. Mike had written into the show because he had ethical qualms about selling people potentially disadvantageous products

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Suze Orman’s Personal Finance Advice: Quit Your Job