1. Feature: Obama Seeks Increase in Drug War Spending in a Drug Budget on Autopilot

President Obama has vowed to slash discretionary federal spending, but it isn't going be done on the back of the drug war. Federal drug control spending is up 3.5% in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget. Mostly it's the same old, same old drug war, but there are some interesting surprises.

2. Feature: CIA Misled Congress, Dragged Feet on Disciplining Employees in Killings of US Citizens in Peru Drug War Plane Shootdown

Nearly nine years after the fact, the CIA has completed its internal investigation of the shooting down of a civilian aircraft over Peru that left an American missionary and her infant daughter dead. The agency found little wrong with its behavior, but not everyone agrees.

3. Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Rogue narcs in Camden, cops dealing weed out of police cars, a crooked DARE officer, cops helping dealers, and, of course, another prison guard goes down, more jail and prison guards go down.

4. Latin America: Mexico Drug War Update

Nearly a thousand people were killed in Mexico's unrelenting plague of prohibition-related violence last month alone. At this rate, another 10,000 will die by year's end.

5. Marijuana: It's Pot Week in Providence as Rhode Island Solons Introduce Decrim Bill, Ponder Prohibition

It's a marijuana news trifecta in Rhode Island this week: A decrim bill is introduced, the Senate Commission on Marijuana Prohibition holds its final hearing, and the Health Department holds what is likely its final hearing on regulating for the state's embryonic "compassion center" program for pot patients.

6. Medical Marijuana: Colorado Senate Passes Bill to Restrict Physicians' Recommending

Stunned by the proliferation of medical marijuana patients and dispensaries, the Colorado Senate voted Monday to impose restrictions on "pot docs."

7. Methamphetamine: Cold Sufferers Caught in the Crosshairs

Millions of innocent Americans suffering from colds may soon be paying for the sins of meth cooks, for whom that medicine that relieves your symptoms is the key ingredient in the recipe.

8. Drug Testing: Missouri Senate Committee Passes Bill to Drug Test Welfare Recipients

A Missouri Senate committee with more moralistic wrath toward the poor than common sense has passed a bill that would require welfare applicants and recipients to be drug tested under "reasonable suspicion" and thrown off the rolls for three years if they test positive -- even though the legislature's own analysts say the bill would cost far more than it would save.

9. Law Enforcement: Massachusetts Family Sues, Claims Man Beaten to Death by Police after Caught Smoking Joint at Sobriety Checkpoint

Kenneth How rolled up to a Massachusetts sobriety checkpoint sitting in the passenger seat and smoking a joint. Shortly later, he was dead. The medical examiner has called his death a homicide. Now, his family has filed a federal lawsuit alleging police beat him to death.

10. Europe: Anthrax-Tainted Heroin Death Toll Up to Ten

Although Scottish authorities have yet to find any dirty dope, they have found another heroin user dead of anthrax.

11. Did You Know? FDA Stats on Deaths Related to Marijuana vs. Other Drugs, on ProCon.org

MedicalMarijuana.ProCon.org, part of the ProCon.org family, is an in-depth web site presenting information and views from a variety of perspectives on the medical marijuana issue. The Chronicle is running a series of info items from ProCon.org over the next several weeks, and we encourage you to check it out.

12. Weekly: This Week in History

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

13. Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy

"Obama's Drug War Budget Destroys the Myth of Change," "Obama, YouTube, and Marijuana Legalization," "Legalize Willie Nelson's Tour Bus," "Obama Avoids Questions About Legalizing Marijuana (Again)."

14. Students: Intern at StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) and Help Stop the Drug War!

Apply for an internship at DRCNet and you could spend a semester fighting the good fight!

15. Job Opportunity: Harm Reduction Counselor/Outreach Worker/Driver, FROST'D at Harlem United, New York, NY

The Foundation for Research on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Inc. (FROST'D) seeks a full-time Harm Reduction Counselor/Outreach Worker/Driver to work with their Integrated Harm Reduction Program.

16. Job Opportunity: Regional Coordinator, Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD), Bangkok, Thailand

The Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD), an issues-based membership network with a focus on representing and reflecting the voices and needs of people who use drugs in Asia, seeks a Regional Coordinator for their office in Bangkok, Thailand.