DNA Testing in Criminal Justice, and More from CRS
“Increasing awareness of the power of DNA to solve crimes has resulted in increased demand for DNA analysis,” according to a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service, “which has resulted in a backlog of casework.”
“Some jurisdictions have started to use their DNA databases for familial searching, which involves using offender profiles to identify relatives who might be perpetrators of crimes,” the report said See “DNA Testing in Criminal Justice: Background, Current Law, Grants, and Issues,” May 2, 2011.
Other new CRS reports include “The Global Challenge of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria” (pdf), May 3, 2011, and “U.S. Global Food Security Funding, FY2010-FY2012” (pdf), April 28, 2011.
January saw us watching whether the government would fund science. February has been about how that funding will be distributed, regulated, and contested.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.