It is big news in Seattle that federal budget cuts have caused cancellation of the Blue Angels’ annual visit to Seafair. In a similar vein, state budget cuts may impact another local institution: the Washington State Library. In recent decades, the library has been moved off of the Capitol campus. Budget constraints threaten additional changes. Read the Seattle Times article describing the budget maneuvering that has accompanied the library’s travails.
Archive for the 'other' Category
Washington State Library to follow the Blue Angels?
Published April 23, 2013 other Leave a CommentTags: Budget cuts, libraries, Washington State Library
National Poetry Month was started in 1996 by the American Academy of Poets, to be celebrated in April. For more information, check out the American Academy of Poets, home of the “Poem of the Day.” Poetry often makes its way into legal opinions.
Here is an example:
No evidence had I taken
Sua sponte appeared forsaken.
Now my motion caused me terror
A dismissal would be error.
Upon consideration of § 707(b), in anguish, loud I cried
The court’s sua sponte motion to dismiss under § 707(b) is denied.
In re Robin E. Love, 61 B.R. 558, 559 (S.D. Florida, 1968), written by Judge Jay Cristol. This is an excerpt from a 48-line homage to The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe.
Something about Fools and the Legal World
Published April 1, 2013 other Leave a CommentTags: Foolscap, history, Legal paper
Sure there are plenty of foolish aspects to the law, but this April Fool’s posting is about foolscap. Foolscap is (among more obvious things) a type of paper used in writing and printing. It’s longer dimensions made it antiquity’s equivalent to today’s legal paper. Read the first paragraph of chapter 10 in Charles Dickens’s Bleak House for a reference. Read all of Bleak House for a commentary on the drawn out, circuitous and expensive nature of judicial proceedings 150 years ago. Then read A Civil Action to see what has changed.
Who is Paying Taxes and How Much?
Published March 27, 2013 other Leave a CommentTags: Income, Statistics, taxes
There are many claims about who is paying taxes and how much they pay. As far as individuals and federal income tax, you can look at the statistics yourself. You can sort by state, tax rate and other characteristics. Judge for yourself rather than relying on the talking heads at Fox News or the Huffington Post.
In honor of President’s Day, we look at the Presidential $1 Coin Program. Initiated by the Presidential Coin Act of 2005, minting and distribution was suspended in 2011 due to excessive inventory. So if you want you McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Taft or Wilson coin, you will need to work directly with the U.S. Mint.
“Jailbreaking” No Longer Legal
Published January 31, 2013 other Leave a CommentTags: Cell Phones, jailbreaking, law
January 26, 2013, was the deadline for legally unlocking your cellphone without the permission of the carrier. Although “jailbreaking” or unlocking cell phones was outlawed by the enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, there has been a temporary exemption that allowed users to unlock phones owned or purchased prior to January 26, 2013. Now failure to request permission from the carrier is a violation of federal copyright law. But, all is not lost, under certain circumstances carriers will unlock phones. For instance, AT&T has posted its own “Device Unlock Portal”. So, if you want to unlock your phone, check with the carrier first to avoid voiding your contract and violating the DMCA.
Roe v. Wade 40 Years Later
Published January 22, 2013 other 1 CommentTags: law, religion, roe v. wade, supreme court
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court published its decision in Roe v. Wade, making most early term abortions a constitutional right. Although abortion rights issues continue to divide Americans over forty years after the decision, a report published this month by the Pew Research Center concludes that the public remains opposed to overturning the Supreme Court’s decision.
According to the data gathered in 2011 and 2012, slightly more than half (54%) of Americans think abortion should be legal. In looking at views by religious affiliation, the survey reports that nearly 2/3 of white evangelical Protestants and Mormons, and roughly half of Hispanic Catholics think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. On the other hand, the majority of Jews, Americans with no religious affiliation, white mainline Protestants, Black Protestants and White Catholics say abortion should be legal in most cases.
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