According to this story a magistrate judge in Los Lunas, N.M., sent a 6-year-old to a modified version of traffic school after the boy's mother received a traffic ticket for refusing to restrain the child. Before you send off angry letters to the magistrate judge, John “Buddy” Sanchez, consider a few things: First, the mother reportedly asked for the punishment. The boy always took his seat belt off despite her pleas, the mother said, and asked Sanchez to help her discipline the child. “He took off his seat belt, I pulled over again and put it on and he took it off right in front of the cop,” said Jessica who did not release her full name to reporter Maria Medina at KQRE.com. Jessica agreed to take her son to a seat-belt safety class, which is expected to start in a month. They'll attend together and also learn other traffic safety measures. WSJ Law Blog April 10, 2009

Interior & FERC Sign Agreement to Spur Renewable Energy on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf
News release: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff has signed an agreement that clarifies their agencies’ jurisdictional responsibilities for leasing and licensing renewable energy projects on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The Memorandum of Understanding clears the way for developing wind, solar, wave, tidal and ocean current energy sources.

CEA Notes on Refinancing Activity and Mortgage Rates
Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) Notes on Refinancing Activity and Mortgage Rates: "The Administration’s homeownership plan, along with actions taken by the Federal Reserve, has had a notable impact on mortgage rates and refinancing activity. This fact sheet summarizes mortgage rate and refinancing activity since the plan was announced on February 18." Related postings on financial system

Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of technological thrillers like “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park” who died of cancer in November, left behind at least one finished novel and about one-third of a second. Both will be released over the next year and a half, his publisher said. HarperCollins, Mr. Crichton’s publisher for his previous three books, will release “Pirate Latitudes,” an adventure story set in Jamaica in the 17th century, on Nov. 24. The company also plans to publish a technological thriller in the fall of 2010, a novel that Mr. Crichton was working on when he died. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/books/06crichton.html?hpw

The verb hobnob originally meant “to drink together” and occurred as a varying phrase, hob or nob, hob-a-nob, or hob and nob, the first of which is recorded in 1763. Used in the drinking phrase, hob or nob probably meant “give or take”; from a drinking situation hob nob spread to other forms of chumminess. http://www.bartleby.com/61/84/H0228400.html

April 13 is the birthday of writer Eudora Welty, (books by this author) born in Jackson, Mississippi (1909). She wrote several novels, including The Optimist's Daughter (1972), but she's best known for her short stories. She wrote and rewrote, revising her stories by cutting them apart with scissors at the dining-room table and reassembling them with straight pins. The Writer’s Almanac

Favorite local bookstores suggested by law librarians (Thanks, Julie.)
Book Corner (Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia)
311 North 20th St., Philadelphia, PA http://www.libraryfriends.info/book-corner
submitted by Janet Moore, Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP
The Book Store
Christopher Street & Houston, New York, NY
submitted by Anthony Burgalassi, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, New York, NY
Joseph Fox Bookshop
1724 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA http://www.foxbookshop.com
submitted by Robyn Beyer, Pepper Hamilton LLP
John K. King Used & Rare Books
901 W. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit, MI http://www.rarebooklink.com/cgibin/
kingbooks/index.html
submitted by Mark Heinrich, Dickinson Wright PLLC, Detroit, MI
Penn Books
New York, NY (Penn Station) http://www.pennbooksny.com
submitted by Joe Lanz, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Posman's
9 Grand Central Terminal, New York, NY http://www.posmanbooks.com
submitted by Joe Lanz, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Real Eyes Bookstore
3306 N. Davidson Street Suite A, Charlotte, NC http://www.realeyesbookstore.com
submitted by Stephanie Dooley, K&L Gates
Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers New York, NY http://www.shakeandco.com
submitted by Greg Weyant, Obermayer Redmann Maxwell
& Hippel LLP, Philadelphia, PA Six locations
St. Marks Books
31 3rd Ave. New York, NY http://www.stmarksbookshop.com
submitted by Joe Lanz, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Strand
828 Broadway (at 12th St.), New York, NY http://www.strandbooks.com
submitted by Karen Provost, Proskauer Rose LLP, New
York, NY
submitted by Greg Weyant, Obermayer Redmann Maxwell
& Hippel LLP, Philadelphia, PA
Three Lives Booksellers
154 West 10th St., New York, NY http://www.threelives.com
submitted by Karen Provost, Proskauer Rose LLP, New York, NY
http://www.aallnet.org/sis/pllsis/newslett/Spring09.pdf