Hillary Clinton thinks that in the increasingly crowded field of potential presidential candidates, she's the one who can best confront the nation's challenges.

"I am worried about the future of our country and I want to help put it back on the right course, and I believe that I am best positioned to be able to do that," Clinton said.

Former San Antonio Police Officer Dean Gutierrez was sentenced today in federal court to 24 years and four months in prison for violating the civil rights of a citizen whom Gutierrez detained while on duty, the Justice Department announced today.

Gutierrez was previously found guilty of sexually and physically assaulting a transgendered individual, who was 21 years-old at the time of the assault. On the night of June 10, 2005, Gutierrez detained and then drove the victim to a secluded location. Gutierrez then proceeded to beat and rape the victim.

“Officers of the law bear the special responsibility of upholding justice and protecting the rights of all citizens,” said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The defendant in this case brutally violated that responsibility. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute these cases.”

The Civil Rights Division is committed to the vigorous enforcement of every federal criminal civil rights statute, such as those laws that prohibit the willful use of excessive force or other acts of misconduct by law enforcement officials. In fact, the Division has compiled a significant record on criminal civil rights prosecutions in the last six years. In fiscal year 2006, nearly 50 percent of the cases brought by the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division involved such prosecutions. Since fiscal year 2001, the Division has convicted 50 percent more defendants for excessive force and official misconduct than in the preceding six years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Baumann and Civil Rights Division attorney Jim Felte prosecuted this case for the government.

In the consolidated cases of Jones v. Bock and Williams v. Overton, the Court rejected rules established by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit as to when a prisoner can file a lawsuit contesting prison conditions under the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA). According to the Court, the PLRA "requires prisoners to exhaust prison grievance procedures before filing suit," but Sixth Circuit rules concerning when a prisoner has exhausted other administrative procedures go too far:

The Sixth Circuit, along with some other lower courts, adopted several procedural rules designed to implement this exhaustion requirement and facilitate early judicial screening. These rules require a prisoner to allege and demonstrate exhaustion in his complaint, permit suit only against defendants who were identified by the prisoner in his grievance, and require courts to dismiss the entire action if the prisoner fails to satisfy the exhaustion requirement as to any single claim in his complaint. Other lower courts declined to adopt such rules. We granted certiorari to resolve the conflict and now conclude that these rules are not required by the PLRA, and that crafting and imposing them exceeds the proper limits on the judicial role.

Christopher J. Steskal, a lead prosecutor of a federal task force investigating the backdating of stock options at Apple Inc. and other companies, is leaving his San Francisco post to join a law firm, the United State Attorney’s office in San Francisco confirmed late Friday.

Mr. Steskal’s decision follows the recent resignation of his boss, United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan.

Mr. Steskal also was the lead prosecutor in the government’s case against Gregory L. Reyes, the former chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems.

Mr. Steskal, who was to try Mr. Reyes’s case in June in San Francisco, is the second of five assistant United States attorneys on the task force to leave since its formation in July. He said he would join the San Francisco office of Fenwick & West within 30 days.

William J. Portanova, a criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said that he believed that the Brocade case would not suffer, no matter who is picked to succeed Mr. Steskal.

“The government has people stacked up ready to pick up the case and run with it,” he said.

Luke Macaulay, a spokesman for the United States Attorney’s office in San Francisco, said that one of two prosecutors the office is planning to hire would replace Mr. Steskal on the task force.

An Iraqi cabinet-level committee proposed a draft law Friday that would allow the national government in Iraq to control oil revenues. Negotiations concerning the draft law have been a source of tension in Iraq for months as most Kurds and many Shiites want to retain control of the country's oil resources. On the other hand, Sunni Arabs, who do not dominate the oil-rich regions of the country, insist on central oversight.

Recent debate has centered on the establishment of a federal committee, called the Federal Oil and Gas Council, to review oil contracts. Kurds did not want to give the committee the power to "approve" contracts, so the draft law instead allows regions to initiate and guide the process of awarding oil contracts and gives the committee the power to review and reject contracts. The Iraqi cabinet and the country's parliament must approve the draft before it becomes law. If the draft passes, enforcement might prove difficult in Iraq's wartime environment.