Congress

Dead kids, dead dogs, broken doors, broken windows... what can we do to rein in those SWAT teams? There are answers.

Ding-dong, the witch is dead! Congress's most prolific and energetic drug warrior has gone down in flames, and reformers are not missing him.

We're already $1.2 billion into helping Mexico try to wage prohibition on its powerful and violent drug trafficking cartels. Now, border congressmen want another $500 million in an emergency appropriation this year.

The drug czar was in the hot seat at a Wednesday congressional hearing, and activists and academics got a chance to weigh in on the flaws of US drug policy as well.

Efforts to further reform the Higher Education Act's anti-drug provision came frustratingly close before becoming an accidental casualty of the last minute negotiations over the health care budget reconciliation bill. But it isn't dead yet -- advocates will continue to try to get it passed during this session of Congress.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has unanimously approved a bill that would reduce -- but not eliminate -- the infamous sentencing disparity between federal crack and powder cocaine offenses. The House Judiciary Committee has already passed a similar measure that would completely eliminate the disparity. Now it is up to the House and Senate leadership to get those bills to a floor vote, and advocates say it is the House bill that should move.

The DEA's efforts to subvert administration policy favoring state medical marijuana laws is not winning it any friends, and is gaining it some powerful new opponents.

President Obama has vowed to slash discretionary federal spending, but it isn't going be done on the back of the drug war. Federal drug control spending is up 3.5% in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget. Mostly it's the same old, same old drug war, but there are some interesting surprises.

Nearly nine years after the fact, the CIA has completed its internal investigation of the shooting down of a civilian aircraft over Peru that left an American missionary and her infant daughter dead. The agency found little wrong with its behavior, but not everyone agrees.

The Obama administration has nominated the acting DEA administrator to be permanent DEA administrator. But this veteran DEA agent carries some baggage with her, and drug reformers are looking for ways to challenge the nomination.