DNA analysis finds huge rate of wrong convictions in Virginia.

The Washington Institute for Public and International Affairs Research has analyzed the DNA from a sample of men convicted of sexual assault from 1973–1987 and found that somewhere between 8–15% of them were wrongly convicted (depending on how you count). This should result in some serious soul-searching about how the Virginia justice system works. →

Michigan representative barred from speaking on the floor for saying “vagina.”

This should sound familiar to those who followed the debate in the Virginia General Assembly over forcible vaginal probes. Republicans are deeply uncomfortable with the word “vagina,” and once Democratic legislators started tossing that word around, Republicans basically gave up the debate. So go for it, elected Democrats—vagina vagina vagina. If you can’t say it, …

Finish VDOT contract work quickly, get laid off quickly.

A bridge on a major road outside of Charlottesville had to be replaced, shutting down that road for weeks. VDOT offered an incentive to finish ahead of schedule, and the full-time employees of that contractor worked their asses off to make that happen. They’ll wrap up tomorrow, way ahead of schedule. Their reward? They’re getting …

Tracy Thorne-Begland appointed to the bench.

How did he manage to be appointed by the circuit court, instead of via the legislature? Why, there was a vacancy left unfilled by the General Assembly. It seems that they failed to fill a judgeship. One of the candidates was turned down. His name is Tracy Thorne-Begland. You might have heard of him. Oh, …

2012 is the hottest year ever.

In the history of record keeping, so far 2012 is the hottest year in U.S. history. Spring was 5.2° warmer than the 20th century average, and fully 2° warmer than the prior record, in 1910. (That’s a huge difference. We’re not talking about tenths of a degree here.) Even more alarming is the resulting increase …

PolitiFact fact-checks Bob Marshall. (Hint: He does poorly.)

I’m amazed that they even bothered to fact-check Marshall’s claim that being gay “cuts your life by about 20 years,” since it’s obviously false. To their credit, they contacted the author of the study that constitutes Marshall’s evidence, who said that Marshall is guilty of a “gross misrepresentation” of his research, and that he is …