It’s been awhile since I got down with Steve Earle on the player. His powerful song, “Over Yonder” closed out a documentary I watched late last night called, Deadline.

It was about Illinois Governor George Ryan’s controversial and historic decision to commute the death sentences of 167 condemned inmates in 2003. A flawed justice system. Racial inequality. Overzealous prosecutors. Coerced confessions. Political pressures.

And he overturned their death sentences.

I remember the controversy, and, a couple years later, I still have so much respect for Ryan’s decision. It just seemed, “right” and “just” and “humane” and “oddly progressive” and a step in the right direction, for a change. Bravo.

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A courageous organization: The Innocence Project.

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REQUIRED READING: Lab talks to Reading Frenzy Chloe and Office PDX Kelly Coller. My two favorite deals going, in the city out west that I call home.

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Man, for the life of me, I can’t remember if I posted this thing before, but, if so, fuck it, it’s so good it should have its own special page. “Diamond Dan Connor” picked my brain about it late last night and we got down and dirty and scoured that internet and found it: New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual (1970)

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Field Notes on Uncrate: “These soft-covered notebooks are filled with 48 pages of crisp graph paper, perfect for your to-do list or any of the “Practical Applications” suggested inside the back cover — such as Treasure Maps, Gambling Debts, and Half-Ass Calculations.”

Facts are stubborn things.