Calm before the storm?

It is a relatively quiet morning for sentencing news, though I am eagerly waiting to see which court will be the first to issue a noteworthy Blakely ruling in 2005.  Moreover, as suggested here and here, there is little question that we just have some calm before a January sentencing storm.

In the meantime, the blogsphere provides a few sentencing items of interest:

• Grits for Breakfast has links and coverage of recent editorials from Texas about the state's prison system and a proposal to lower marijuana sentences.

• CrimLaw has this interesting post discussing a Virginia sentencing hearing.

• How Appealing notes here that the Houston Chronicle has not kept up with the latest developments in the alien smuggling conspiracy case in which US District Judge Vanessa Gilmore demanded the government to explain why it sought the death penalty only against on defendant (background here).  Grits adds related commentary on media/blog dynamics here.