Eric H Holder

Citing recent killings in Arkansas, Kansas and the nation's capital, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said new hate-crime laws were needed to stop "violence masquerading as political activism." The attorney general's call came as a civil rights coalition said there had been a surge in white supremacist activity since the economic downturn and the election of the first African American president. Holder cited attacks that killed a young soldier in Little Rock, Ark., an abortion provider in Wichita, Kan., and a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

District of Columbia prosecutors told the State Department that if Gueorgui Makharadze were not a diplomat, they could charge him with negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter or second-degree murder in the accident that killed a 16-year-old Kensington, Md., girl. U.S. Atty. Eric H. Holder Jr. asked State Department officials to request that the Republic of Georgia waive diplomatic immunity for Makharadze, 35, so he can be charged in the death of Joviane Waltrick.

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. called for more talk about race, and New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas obliged with an ill-conceived metaphor about President Obama's stimulus plan and the sad story of Travis the chimp, shot by Connecticut police. Fellow Big Apple inkslinger Justin Bilicki immediately gunned for the Post, but Signe Wilkinson's perspective was more tolerant.

The Justice Department's inspector general today released its long-awaited report on the failed Fast and Furiousgun-trafficking program and asked Atty. Gen.  Eric H. Holder Jr. to determine whether disciplinary or other administrative punishment should be meted out to 14 people, including Kenneth Mellson, the former acting director of the Bureau of  Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.   The inspector general found no evidence  that Holder knew about Fast and Furious until after U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010.

Federal officials brought their war on medical marijuana dispensaries to Los Angeles on Tuesday, raiding several shops and issuing warning letters to dozens more. Officials at the U.S. attorney's office said it was the first large-scale federal action taken against cannabis shops in the city, and said more will probably follow. "We couldn't do all of L.A. at once," said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the office. "There's just too many stores. " The crackdown adds a dramatic element to the already tense fight over the fate of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.

U.S. Atty. Eric H. Holder Jr. has sent to the Justice Department an outline of proposed charges against House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) in the House post office investigation, sources said Thursday night. Holder may seek a grand jury indictment of Rostenkowski as early as the end of this month, the sources said.