`3 strikes' challenge makes ballot. PENALTIES TOO HARSH & RACIST

California voters will have a chance this fall to decide whether the ``third strike'' in the state's "three strikes, you're out" law takes punishment too far by locking up thousands of prisoners for decades for non-violent crimes such as shoplifting and petty theft. In an attempt to do what the U.S. Supreme Court would not, backers of reforming the nation's toughest sentencing scheme this week succeeded in getting enough signatures to put a measure on the November ballot that would soften the "three strikes" law. [more]