Delaware corporate law under siege
Only two publicly traded companies are incorporated in North Dakota, notes The Wall Street Journal, but last year North Dakota lawmakers —prodded by out-of-state activists including Carl Icahn—enacted the nation’s most shareholder-friendly corporate-governance law. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/12/08/north-dakota-sends-delaware-a-wake-up-call-on-corporate-governance/

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich (pronounced bluh-GOY-uh-vich) of Illinois was arrested by federal authorities on December 9 and charged with corruption, including an allegation that he conspired to profit from his authority to appoint President-elect Barack Obama’s successor in the United States Senate, prosecutors said. As Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, mulled the Senate appointment, prosecutors say, he discussed gaining “a substantial salary” at a nonprofit foundation or organization connected to labor unions, placing his wife on corporate boards where she might earn as much as $150,000 a year and trying to gain promises of campaign money, or even a cabinet post or ambassadorship, for himself. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/politics/10Illinois.html?_r=1&hp
As officials in Illinois struggle to cope with an unusual situation following the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in a federal political corruption case, the state's attorney general is suggesting that the Illinois Supreme Court could play a key role in determining whether he should continue in office. Lisa Madigan, who called yesterday for Blagojevich to resign, is now discussing possible options to pursue if he won't, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. http://www.abajournal.com/

The $14 billion bailout bill currently making its way through the halls of Congress stands mostly to benefit the U.S. auto industry. But it also, oddly, stands to benefit federal district judges. Here’s why: The bill attaches an annual cost-of-living adjustment—or COLA—for federal judges, which, when implemented, will bring them in line with members of Congress, who get a $5,000 boost at the start of the year. District judges and members of Congress make $169,300. Here’s the AP story. Click here, here and here for other LB posts on the topic of judicial pay, which has been raging for years.
WSJ Law Blog December 10, 2008

The New York Times has a list of Notable Books from 2008 , and a list of list of Notable Books for Children from 2008.

The Neglected Books page. Here you'll find lists of thousands of books that have been neglected, overlooked, forgotten, or stranded by changing tides in critical or popular taste.

Hidden away in the tiny town of Ellisville, population 86, is one great big treasure: 3,500 books packed into 336 square feet, probably the smallest public library in the state of Illinois. The tiny library, however, has actually grown over the last five years.
In 1966, Ellisville native Helen Myers rented the town’s old telephone office, a space consisting of just 140 square feet, and started the library. For the next 37 years, Helen single-handedly maintained the library through donations and her own money. By 2002, with the telephone building falling apart and the owner of the building refusing to sell, Helen decided it was time to move. Using donations she had built up in a savings account and some of her own money, she spent $8,000 to have a new library constructed on a piece of land she already owned, just down the street from the telephone office.
Word of Helen’s work spread, and First Lady Laura Bush sent seven books and a letter, which is framed on the library’s back wall. Television celebrity Monty Hall sent her a check for $100, and the widow of author Louis L’Amour sent $300. Five years after the new library’s opening, Helen, now 82, still opens up the library from 9 to 11 a.m. every Saturday and hopes that people will come discover a great book.
http://www.cantondailyledger.com/articles/2008/12/06/news/news07.txt
One of the library’s missing books is Edgar Lee Masters’ ‘‘Spoon River Anthology,’’ which made the river that Ellisville sits next to famous. http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismsites/dickson/spoon.htm

Counties of the United States: county officials, courthouse addresses, county seats, cities within a county as well as various statistical and geographical information
http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_County