Science Thursday: A New Lab in Houston

An audit finds more errors in Indiana drug tests and an independent crime lab will be created in Texas.  Here’s a roundup of this week’s forensics news:

In addition to errors in marijuana testing, an audit of positive cocaine tests at the Indiana Department of Toxicology found that

32% of the results failed a quality review

.

Harris County, Texas,

plans to launch a new regional crime lab

, independent of law enforcement, and headed by the Chief Medical Examiner to serve the county and assist with the DNA backlog in Houston.

Accelerant sniffing dogs

are used at suspected arson scenes to screen evidence sent for testing at crime labs.