More welcome skepticism of junk science in the court room.

Lawsuits filed in Victoria, Texas, allege that Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Pikett and his team of hounds — James Bond, Quincy and Clue — failed controversial sniff tests known as “scent lineups.”

Much like in traditional lineups, the dogs link human scents left at crime scenes to samples from suspects.

In each case, the suits allege, Pikett’s dogs called attention to the wrong person. Both former suspects have been cleared.

This part is fun:

Ken Sparks, county attorney in Colorado County, Texas, an enthusiastic supporter of Pikett’s work, says he understands some of the skepticism.

“Everybody who encounters it the first time says, ‘Yeah, right,’ ” Sparks says. “That’s what I said before I first saw it work.”

Pikett says the lawsuits are just attempts to win large awards. “It’s all about money,” he says.

One of the men wrongly identified by the police dog was jailed for three months before being exonerated by DNA testing. The greedy bastard actually thinks he should compensated for that.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about another police dog in Orlando whose “testimony” has come under fire.

…why FoxNews.com scaled down its opinion section, killing off my column and several others. They had to create room on the front page for the important stuff.

Beale Street, Memphis.

….there may be some unanticipated flaws in the monkey butler plan.

Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco.

Agitator pal Ryan Grim’s new book This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America goes on sale today.

You, Agitator readers, are thanked in the acknowledgments, due to your editing suggestions when Ryan was guest blogging here last summer.

Here are a couple nice early reviews for the book.

And here’s Ryan’s Facebook page where he’ll be announcing upcoming events related to the book.

Momma mutt, Mississippi.

Sort of appropriate, I think:

…while the five-month old Obama White House Web site has drawn rave reviews for its fresh design and innovation, several experts say it has not moved the White House toward being “the most open and transparent [administration] in history,” as new media director Macon Phillips promised on day one.

Information is harder to find on the Obama Web site than it was on the site created and run by the Bush administration, according to Web site experts.

“It doesn’t seem to be quite in line with the notion of the pillars of government 2.0 being openness and transparency. It seems just the opposite,” said Mark Drapeau, a columnist for Federal Computer Week who writes frequently on the ways that new technologies can be used by the government…

“It’s lots of PR and not a lot of data,” said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, who called the site “brochureware.”

My favorite part:

One of the most noteworthy marks of the site has been its use as a distribution point, and showcase, for the thousands of exclusive photos taken by Mr. Obama’s personal photographers. The main page of Mr. Obama’s Web site revolves around a large window that rotates between four photos, which are often flattering portraits of the president.

The White House has also created a Flickr.com account on the privately run, commercial Web site, and has posted hundreds of photos of the president, often showing him behind the scenes of his official events or during his private moments.

“Once we got here and saw … what [chief White House photographer] Pete Souza and his team were producing it was a no-brainer to see how we could make that more accessible,” Mr. Phillips said.

Good to know they’re at least working hard to make flattering photographs of the president “more accessible” to the public. Who says Obama has dropped the ball on transparency?

Tulips in Boston.

Shawn Macomber had a terrific piece in the July print edition of Reason about a town’s efforts to shut down a woman’s pole dancing exercise studio.

It’s now online.

We’ll obviously be taking a break from the Dylan countdown this week. Jackson lived one of the strangest, most fantastical lives a human being could possibly live. But he was damned talented. I’m a huge fan of the Jackson 5, and I think I’ve already posted “Going Back to Indiana,” so let’s start with the perfectly-crafted pop song, “ABC.”

And from his solo career, “Want To Be Starting Something.” Help me sing it: Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa.

The Supreme Court ruled today that the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause gives criminal defendants the right to cross examine the scientists who issue forensics reports that are entered into evidence. The breakdown of the 5-4 ruling was interesting, with Justice Scalia’s majority opinion joined by Justices Thomas, Ginsberg, Souter and Stevens. Alito, Roberts, Kennedy, and Breyer dissented.

Most interesting is that both the majority and dissenting opinions noted recent reports exposing the disturbingly high rate of error in areas of forensic science once thought to be foolproof. Scalia’s majority opinion states pretty matter-of-factly that the Confrontation Clause preserves the right to question forensic experts, and that the Court’s decision would have been the same even “if all analysts possessed the scientific acumen of Mme. Curie and the veracity of Mother Theresa.”

But there’s a pretty good chance that in the coming years we’ll see more challenges to the reliability and admissibility of various types of forensic testimony. So it’s encouraging to see that the justices are both aware of and have specifically taken note of the problems with the system.

My prior writing on the forensics issue here.

Good, succinct video from the Independence Institute. Health insurance should be more like car insurance. You’re covered when things go very wrong, but when a third party is paying for things like check-ups and routine visits to the doctor’s office, you get some major pricing distortions.

Just a reminder to stop by tonight with your questions for 20/20 co-anchor, Reason reader, and prominent libertarian, John Stossel.

Over at Reason, I have a piece up looking at the lessons we can draw from a British artist’s attempt to build a common toaster from scratch.

First Christian Church and Large Arch, Columbus, Indiana. I’m working on a piece for Reason on Columbus, which believe it or not is actually one of the more architecturally interesting cities in the country. It’s also the birthplace of your humble Agitator.

A bit self-pitying for my taste, but the gist is spot-on.

So as I mentioned over the weekend I had the privilege of speaking at the Denver-based Independence Institute’s annual “Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms” party. It was every bit as fun as it sounds. The event consisted of panel discussions followed by drinks and top-notch cigars on Friday, and a trip to a local firing range on Saturday, where I discovered to my surprise that I’m a not-terrible shot.

As part of the festivities, I participated with a number of panelists in a discussion of the Nanny State on Denver’s PBS television station. Video of that discussion below, broken into three parts.