A Commission in Washington has voted to reduce sentences for inmates jailed for crack cocaine offences, in a decision that could affect about 12,000 prisoners. As many as 2,000 prisoners will be able to seek a reduced sentence within the year, provided they can show they are not likely to be risks to public safety.

"You are, at present, the de facto authorities in this city," reads an op-ed appealing to Chihuahua drug cartels in the Mexican newspaper El Diario. In recent weeks, two El Diario journalists have been killed by drug-related violence, most recently a 21 year old photographer. Now, the editors of the paper are publicly calling on the cartels to stop killing journalists.

Earlier this summer, four Mexican journalists were kidnapped by gang members who demanded national attention on television. Since being released, one of the captives, a television cameraman, is now in the U.S. and is seeking asylum. Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco says his country can no longer protect him, or journalists like him, from the increasing danger that comes with reporting on crimes in Mexico's drug wars.

A high level U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Mexico today. The diplomatic meeting's guest list reads more like a war council – Clinton is accompanied by the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and various intelligence officials and follows the death of three people associated with the U.S. Consulate in Mexico's Ciudad Juarez earlier this month.

Journalist Charles Bowden has been reporting on Juarez for fifteen years. He is the author of a new book "Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields."