'Usonian' is a term usually referring to a group of approximately sixty middle-income family homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright beginning in 1936 with the Jacobs House.  The "Usonian Homes" were typically small, single-story dwellings without a garage or much storage, L-shaped to fit around a garden terrace on odd (and cheap) lots, with native materials, flat roofs and large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating and natural cooling, natural lighting with clerestory windows, and radiant-floor heating.  A strong visual connection between the interior and exterior spaces is an important characteristic of all Usonian homes.  The word carport was coined by Wright to describe an overhang for a vehicle to park under.  Variants of the Jacobs House design are still in existence today and do not look overly dated.  The Usonian design is considered among the aesthetic origins of the popular "ranch" tract home popular in the American west of the 1950s.  The word Usonian appears to have been coined by James Duff Law, an American writer born in 1865.  In a miscellaneous collection titled Here and There in Two Hemispheres (1903), Law quoted a letter of his own (dated 18 June 1903) that begins "We of the United States, in justice to Canadians and Mexicans, have no right to use the title 'Americans' when referring to matters pertaining exclusively to ourselves."  He went on to acknowledge that some author had proposed "Usona", but that he preferred "Usonia."  Perhaps the earliest published use by Wright was in 1927:  But why this term "America" has become representative as the name of these United States at home and abroad is past recall.  Samuel Butler fitted us with a good name.  He called us Usonians, and our Nation of combined States, Usonia.  –Frank Lloyd Wright on Architecture: Selected Writings 1894–1940, p. 100.

The word is clearly cognate with the Esperanto name for the United States, Usono.  The creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof, used this name in his speech at the 1910 World Congress of Esperanto in Washington, D.C., coincidentally the same year Wright was in Europe.  However, the Esperanto online dictionary Reta Vortaro attributes the word to Wright.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usonia   

Supreme Court opinions

ARIZONA ET AL. v. UNITED STATES

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
No. 11–182.  Argued April 25, 2012—Decided June 25, 2012
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-182b5e1.pdf

MILLER v. ALABAMA

CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF ALABAMA
No. 10–9646.  Argued March 20, 2012—Decided June 25, 2012*
 *Together with No. 10–9647, Jackson v. Hobbs, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction, on certiorari to the Supreme Court of Arkan­sas.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-9646g2i8.pdf   

The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t rule on President Barack Obama’s health-care law on June 25, pushing the decision to June 28, when the justices plan to complete their nine-month term.  The health-care ruling will determine the fate of Obama’s signature domestic achievement and promises to be one of the court’s most significant decisions in decades.  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the biggest overhaul of the U.S. health-care system since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, is designed to extend coverage to at least 30 million uninsured Americans and would reshape an industry that makes up about 18 percent of the economy.  http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2012/06/25/supreme-court-set-issue-health-care-decision-june/OpeEX0Zr1FKhUbAAaT2AoJ/story.html   

U.S. Supreme Court on June 25 ruled against a century-old law in Montana that set limits on business spending for political campaigns in the state.  By a 5-4 vote, the country's highest court ruled for three corporations - the American Tradition Partnership Inc political advocacy group, a nonprofit group that promotes shooting sports, and a small family-owned painting business - all of which challenged the law as violating their free-speech rights.  The ruling effectively applies to state and local elections and said there was "no serious doubt" the Montana law was covered by same legal reasoning as the U.S. Supreme Court's January 2010 ruling in the federal campaign finance case known as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. 

http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/06_-_June/Supreme_Court_rejects_Montana_campaign_money_limits/

Thursday June 28 will be the last day of the Term. We expect to the Court to issue an opinion in the health care cases that day.  We will begin live blogging at 9:00 EDT.  We will Live Blog at an internet address that has its own dedicated server.  The goal is to minimize the chance the site crashes.  You can come to scotusblog.com to be redirected to the new liveblog address.  But you will avoid delays by going to the new address directly.  It is scotusblog.wpengine.com.  See opinions from October 2011-June 2012 at:  http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/terms/ot2011/

AUTHENTIC MUSICAL WASHBOARD USIC VENDORS AND PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT BUYERS. "We have the perfect percussion instrument for you"

The Columbus Washboard Company has been making washboards since 1895 and is the only manufacturer still operating in the United States of America today.  This site features our products, our traditional construction methods and history, washboard uses and our Annual Washboard Music Festival on Father's Day Weekend in downtown Logan, Ohio.  http://www.columbuswashboard.com/