Los Angeles Times on crime: California on Monday earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first state to face a federally imposed cap on its overflowing prison population. Combine this with an ongoing stalemate on the six-weeks-overdue budget, and it seems our lawmakers are setting new national standards of incompetence. Failed prison policies are a bipartisan phenomenon, but most of the blame for the current fiasco goes to Republicans in the Legislature, whose refusal to consider sentencing and parole reforms prompted Monday’s ruling. The minority party’s shortsighted obstructionism isn’t just contributing to the overcrowding problem, it’s a violation of the GOP’s (Grand Old Party) core principles.