Connecting the Dots: Top news stories for Thursday, July 14

A glass cage for juvenile suspects? Talk about dehumanizing. The Marin County Superior Court has issued a plan that will enclose young defendants in a box equipped with speakers and microphones during court proceedings, regardless of their alleged offense. Defense lawyers are furious. The court’s executive officer, Kim Turner, did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but some see it as a cost-saving measure, since it provides a way to do without a bailiff in the courtroom...

The prison cell might not be made of glass, but it’s still dehumanizing, according to the hundreds of California’s incarcerated who just finished their second week of a statewide hunger strike. Prison officials claim the strikers were able to organize through gang networks, while the strikers (and activists supporting them) maintain that the movement is a natural uprising in support of the original 150 inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison protesting inhumane conditions in their high-security isolation wing...

In the marijuana production community, the discussion is no longer about potential imprisonment – it’s about the environment. The Tea House Collective, a new association of pot farmers in southern Humboldt County, are trying to link the medical marijuana industry with the green movement. Despite hippie stereotypes, most of the state’s marijuana is produced in the most non-ecofriendly ways, using massive indoor light systems...

Speaking of energy-sucking, hydraulic fracturing (also known as “fracking,” or extracting natural gas by drilling massive amounts of toxic chemicals and water deep into the earth) is coming to the Bay Area. PG&E is joining in an effort to build the $3.5 billion Ruby Pipeline that will help power the Bay at the potential expense of groundwater, air, and human health...

Groundwater in general may be at risk in California, say researchers at Stanford University, who found that since the use of groundwater lacks state oversight, it can be overused. Thirty to forty percent of the state’s drinking and irrigation water comes from underground aquifers, and if tapped to critically low levels, they can cause major water shortages and even “subsidence,” or ground sinking. Regulation is being left up to local organizations and conservation groups...

Groups in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood are also taking matters into their own hands with the launch of “Bernal Bucks,” a point system that members of a local credit union can use to get discounts at participating Bernal businesses...

And to address the smelliest matter on our hands (or rather, our shoes), Redwood City landlord Mary Michaels is joining the dog-poop DNA detective movement. She’ll swab dog cheeks for DNA, enter them into the Tennessee-based Bio Vet Tech Labs database, and have her facts at the ready when it comes time to accuse negligent pet owners of abandoning excrement in common areas. Punishment, however, will fit the crime: the fine’s only $60, which is the cost of the DNA test.

Connecting the Dots brings the day's news together.