There could be trouble in U.S.-Swiss relations, judging from an article in today's WSJ by Carrick Mollenkamp. The issue concerns the U.S. government's recent court filing asking UBS AG to turn over the identities of 52,000 private accountholders. The filing was made on Thursday, a day after UBS agreed to settle a parallel criminal inquiry and cough up information on 250 U.S. citizens who used the bank to evade taxes.
On Friday, UBS responded (click here), arguing that the U.S. government's filing puts it in a pickle. Swiss law, UBS argued, “strictly prohibits UBS and its employees from disclosing to the [IRS] the account information located in Switzerland.” The bank said the U.S. government's petition “simply ignores the existence of Swiss law and sovereignty.” UBS also argued in the filing that the IRS's demand would require the rewriting of tax treaties between the two countries
WSJ Law Blog February 23, 2009
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a fascinating case called Salazar v. Buono, on appeal from the Ninth Circuit. Initially, the lower courts--first a federal judge in San Francisco and then the Ninth Circuit--had ordered the federal government to take down an 8-foot cross mounted on federal land in California as part of a war memorial because, they held, the maintenance of the cross violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. This opinion was handed down by the Ninth Circuit in 2004. However, while the first appeal was pending, Congress passed a law transferring the land into private hands. The lower court ruled the maneuver violated its original ruling, and in a 2007 opinion penned by Judge Margaret McKeown, the Ninth Circuit ruled: That land exchange . . . would leave a little donut hole of land with a cross in the midst of a vast federal preserve. The issue we address today is whether the land exchange violates the district court's permanent injunction. We conclude that it does, and affirm the district court's order permanently enjoining the government from effectuating the land exchange and ordering the government to comply with the original injunction. Click here for the Bloomberg story; here for the AP's take; here for the Ninth Circuit's 2007 opinion.
WSJ Law Blog February 23, 2009
If we had it to do all over again, would we appoint Supreme Court justices for life? Allow the chief justice to keep the job forever? Let the court have the final word on which cases it hears and those it declines? That's the lead to an interesting article out today in the Washington Post. A group of prominent law professors and jurists thinks 'no' is the answer to all of the above questions, and in a letter to congressional leaders says that Congress could rethink the way the Court does its job.
WSJ Law Blog February 23, 2009
Will electronic legal information be permanently available? Will online information be removed and some libraries not have its print equivalent?
http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202428344754
Interesting words from novels:
snowlight, starshine, starglasses, starburn (think sun for star)
Authors whose nonfiction works read like fiction: Tracy Kidder and John McPhee. Can you think of others?
UNESCO designates Iowa City as the world's third City of Literature
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Iowa City joins Edinburgh, Scotland, and Melbourne, Australia, as UNESCO Cities of Literature. Other cities in the Creative Cities Network--honoring and connecting cultural centers for cinema, music, crafts and folk arts, design, media arts and gastronomy, as well as literature--include Aswan, Egypt; Santa Fe, N.M.; Berlin, Germany; Montreal, Canada; Popayan, Colombia; Bologna, Italy; Shenzhen, China; and Seville, Spain. Since 1955 graduates and faculty of the University of Iowa have won more than 25 Pulitzer Prizes in literature.
More than 1,200 emerging and established writers from more than 120 countries have been in residence at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, which has enjoyed long-standing support from the U.S. Department of State. Iowa City is home to 11 literary presses as well as several literary blogs. The highly respected Center for the Book preserves and extends the art of bookmaking.
http://www.news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/November/112008unesco.html
The Writing University: http://writinguniversity.uiowa.edu/
UI Pulitzer Prize winners: http://www.iowalum.com/pulitzerPrize/winnerTimeline.htm
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Comet Lulin pairs up with Saturn
Comet Lulin probably won’t be high enough in the east for decent viewing until 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. on February 23. Later at night is even better. At mid-evening, two respectively bright starlike points of light bedeck the eastern sky. The higher of these two lights is the star Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. Saturn is to the lower left of Regulus, its golden color contrasting to that of sparkling blue-white Regulus. Comet Lulin and Saturn will remain within each other’s vicinity all night long, until morning dawn finally washes them from the sky. Look for Comet Lulin and Saturn to swing highest up for the night around 1 a.m. on February 24, at which time they’ll be due south. f you’re up before dawn on February 24, look for Comet Lulin and Saturn in your western sky. Astronomers believe this is Comet Lulin’s first trip into the inner solar system. If you miss Comet Lulin by Saturn on February 23-24, try again on the night of February 27-28. See sky map at:
http://www.earthsky.org/article/comet-lulin-saturn-pair-up-on-february-23-24
Government Information, OGR
OpenTheGovernment.org and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) recently launched a new Web site (http://www.showusthedata.org/) to allow the public to decide what government information is not available on the Internet that should be.
Show Us the Data gives the public the opportunity to share what documents they think should be made available and to vote on the documents that others have submitted. The deadline to participate is March 9, 2009. http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=1954
NOAA: Seventh Warmest January for Global NOAA: Seventh Warmest January for Global Temperatures News release : "The combined global land and ocean surface average temperature for January 2009 was the seventh warmest since records began in 1880, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
Annex – U.S.- Canada clean energy dialogue, 19 February 2009, Ottawa, Ontario: "...The United States and Canada are collaborating on energy research related to advanced biofuels, clean engines, and energy efficiency. In order to address the energy and environmental challenges that we face together, the two nations agreed to expand collaboration in these and other key areas of energy science and technology...The United States will draw from the $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstrations in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Canada’s Economic Action Plan establishes a $1 billion Clean Energy Fund which builds on Canada’s previous investments in carbon capture and sequestration."
Collisions in sky and sea
On February 10 at approximately 1656 GMT, the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 communications satellites collided over northern Siberia. The impact between the Iridium Satellite LLC-owned satellite and the 16-year-old satellite launched by the Russian government occurred at a closing speed of well over 15,000 mph at approximately 490 miles above the face of the Earth. The low-earth orbit (LEO) location of the collision contains many other active satellites that could be at risk from the resulting orbital debris. http://www.stk.com/corporate/mediaCenter/news/iridium-cosmos/
In the Atlantic Ocean, on the night of February 3-4, nuclear submarines HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant collided. The submarines are equipped with sonar to detect other vessels nearby but our correspondent said it might be the case that the anti-sonar devices, meant to hide the submarines from enemies, were "too effective". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7892294.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/4640673/British-and-French-nuclear-submarine-collision-as-serious-as-sinking-of-Kursk.html
sword of Damocles (sord uhv DAM-uh-kleez)
noun: an ever-present threat; an impending disaster
After Damocles of Greek legend. Damocles was a courtier who flattered the ruler Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, to excess. The fulsome praise so annoyed the king that he decided to teach him a lesson. He held a banquet in honor of Damocles but when Damocles saw the sword hanging by a single horse-hair over his head, he lost all taste for the lavish feast. He realized that even those who appear to enjoy great fortune face fears and worries. By the way, the word impending literally means hanging over.
A.Word.A.Day
To your health: encyclopedia, finder, personal health tools, news
http://healthfinder.gov/
Scholastic Inc., the children’s publisher of favorites like the Harry Potter, Goosebumps and Clifford series, may be best known for its books, but a consumer watchdog group accuses the company of using its classroom book clubs to push video games, jewelry kits and toy cars. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/books/10scho.html?_r=1
Comet Lulin probably won’t be high enough in the east for decent viewing until 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. on February 23. Later at night is even better. At mid-evening, two respectively bright starlike points of light bedeck the eastern sky. The higher of these two lights is the star Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. Saturn is to the lower left of Regulus, its golden color contrasting to that of sparkling blue-white Regulus. Comet Lulin and Saturn will remain within each other’s vicinity all night long, until morning dawn finally washes them from the sky. Look for Comet Lulin and Saturn to swing highest up for the night around 1 a.m. on February 24, at which time they’ll be due south. f you’re up before dawn on February 24, look for Comet Lulin and Saturn in your western sky. Astronomers believe this is Comet Lulin’s first trip into the inner solar system. If you miss Comet Lulin by Saturn on February 23-24, try again on the night of February 27-28. See sky map at:
http://www.earthsky.org/article/comet-lulin-saturn-pair-up-on-february-23-24
Government Information, OGR
OpenTheGovernment.org and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) recently launched a new Web site (http://www.showusthedata.org/) to allow the public to decide what government information is not available on the Internet that should be.
Show Us the Data gives the public the opportunity to share what documents they think should be made available and to vote on the documents that others have submitted. The deadline to participate is March 9, 2009. http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=1954
NOAA: Seventh Warmest January for Global NOAA: Seventh Warmest January for Global Temperatures News release
Annex – U.S.- Canada clean energy dialogue, 19 February 2009, Ottawa, Ontario: "...The United States and Canada are collaborating on energy research related to advanced biofuels, clean engines, and energy efficiency. In order to address the energy and environmental challenges that we face together, the two nations agreed to expand collaboration in these and other key areas of energy science and technology...The United States will draw from the $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstrations in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Canada’s Economic Action Plan establishes a $1 billion Clean Energy Fund which builds on Canada’s previous investments in carbon capture and sequestration."
Collisions in sky and sea
On February 10 at approximately 1656 GMT, the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 communications satellites collided over northern Siberia. The impact between the Iridium Satellite LLC-owned satellite and the 16-year-old satellite launched by the Russian government occurred at a closing speed of well over 15,000 mph at approximately 490 miles above the face of the Earth. The low-earth orbit (LEO) location of the collision contains many other active satellites that could be at risk from the resulting orbital debris. http://www.stk.com/corporate/mediaCenter/news/iridium-cosmos/
In the Atlantic Ocean, on the night of February 3-4, nuclear submarines HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant collided. The submarines are equipped with sonar to detect other vessels nearby but our correspondent said it might be the case that the anti-sonar devices, meant to hide the submarines from enemies, were "too effective". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7892294.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/4640673/British-and-French-nuclear-submarine-collision-as-serious-as-sinking-of-Kursk.html
sword of Damocles (sord uhv DAM-uh-kleez)
noun: an ever-present threat; an impending disaster
After Damocles of Greek legend. Damocles was a courtier who flattered the ruler Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, to excess. The fulsome praise so annoyed the king that he decided to teach him a lesson. He held a banquet in honor of Damocles but when Damocles saw the sword hanging by a single horse-hair over his head, he lost all taste for the lavish feast. He realized that even those who appear to enjoy great fortune face fears and worries. By the way, the word impending literally means hanging over.
A.Word.A.Day
To your health: encyclopedia, finder, personal health tools, news
http://healthfinder.gov/
Scholastic Inc., the children’s publisher of favorites like the Harry Potter, Goosebumps and Clifford series, may be best known for its books, but a consumer watchdog group accuses the company of using its classroom book clubs to push video games, jewelry kits and toy cars. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/books/10scho.html?_r=1
Friday, February 20, 2009
A WSJ piece cites recent studies that show discrimination plaintiffs lose at a higher rate in federal court than other plaintiffs and more often get tossed out of court on summary judgments. But the fact that more workers have standing to sue doesn't mean they will be warmly received in court, if previous patterns hold steady. From 1979 through 2006, federal plaintiffs won 15% of job-discrimination cases. By comparison, plaintiffs in other cases not involving alleged job discrimination enjoyed a 51% win rate, according to this study due to be published later this month by the Harvard Law & Policy Review, the official journal of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. Defense lawyers say that companies are quick to settle discrimination suits that appear credible. Cases that aren't settled, they claim, often are frivolous and should be dismissed. Says Lawrence Lorber, a partner at Proskauer Rose: "If it's a real case, they settle. Employers aren't dumb."
Many companies, looking to avoid costly and drawn-out litigation battles in this era of economic uncertainty, are looking to get rid of their litigation portfolios through any means possible. And that largely means settling. But this doesn't appear to be the case out at Google, where the number of patent challenges against Google rose to 14 last year, from 11 in 2007 and three in 2006. According to this Bloomberg story (HT: AmLaw Lit Daily), the company is going on the offensive to fight patent claims, a strategy it hopes will deter frivolous lawsuits.
UBS has agreed to immediately provide the U.S. government with the identities and account information of some U.S. customers . The bank will pay $780 million. Click here for the WSJ story; click here for the NYT article. Click here for a copy of the deferred-prosecution agreement. WSJ Law Blog February 19, 2009
The New York Post apologized, sort of, for its controversial editorial cartoon that many saw as portraying President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee. The paper posted a statement on its Web site under the heading "That Cartoon" reiterating its support for the cartoon's content, while apologizing "to those who were offended by the image." http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-popost206042290feb20,0,4987794.story
Descendents of Geronimo are asking a secret society at Yale called Skull and Bones to give back Geronimo's, well, skull and bones. Here are stories from Fox News and the Yale Daily News. According to reports, the complaint (not yet available), filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., alleges that members of Skull and Bones long ago invaded Geronimo's grave to steal his skull for, as Fox puts it, “fraternal” (and, it seems, skull-related) “rituals.” A handful of others, including Yale, are reportedly named in the complaint. The descendents say they are investigating claims that in 1918, members of Skull and Bones, including Prescott Bush, the father of George H.W Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush, invaded Geronimo's grave at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and stole his skull, some bones and other items buried with him.
WSJ Law Blog February 18, 2009
The Internet Public Library (IPL) is maintained by students from a consortium of colleges and universities with programs in information science. http://www.ipl.org/
Example of information at IPL:
Q: Which Presidents lost the popular vote but still became President?
A: There have been four cases of this happening thus far. In 1824, John Quincy Adams was awarded the presidency by the House of Representatives, despite not having won the popular vote or the electoral college vote (neither he nor opponent Andrew Jackson had an electoral college majority). In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes became President despite losing the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden, because Hayes had a one vote advantage in the electoral college. In 1888, in a much more clear-cut example of a candidate losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college vote, Benjamin Harrison was elected President over Grover Cleveland. Finally, in 2000, George W. Bush became president after losing the popular vote to Al Gore, but winning the electoral vote.
http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/POTUSFARQ.html#question9b
1824: John Quincy Adams received more than 38,000 fewer votes than Andrew Jackson, but neither candidate won a majority of the Electoral College. Adams was awarded the presidency when the election was thrown to the House of Representatives.
1876: Nearly unanimous support from small states gave Rutherford B. Hayes a one-vote margin in the Electoral College, despite the fact that he lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden by 264,000 votes. Hayes carried five out of the six smallest states (excluding Delaware). These five states plus Colorado gave Hayes 22 electoral votes with only 109,000 popular votes. At the time, Colorado had been just been admitted to the Union and decided to appoint electors instead of holding elections. So, Hayes won Colorado's three electoral votes with zero popular votes. It was the only time in U.S. history that small state support has decided an election.
1888: Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote by 95,713 votes to Grover Cleveland, but won the electoral vote by 65. In this instance, some say the Electoral College worked the way it is designed to work by preventing a candidate from winning an election based on support from one region of the country. The South overwhelmingly supported Cleveland, and he won by more than 425,000 votes in six southern states. However, in the rest of the country he lost by more than 300,000 votes.
2000: Al Gore had over half a million votes more than George W. Bush, with 50,992,335 votes to Bush's 50,455,156. But after recount controversy in Florida and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Bush was awarded the state by 537 popular votes. Like most states, Florida has a "winner takes all" rule. This means that the candidate who wins the state by popular vote also gets all of the state's electoral votes. Bush became president with 271 electoral votes. http://people.howstuffworks.com/question4721.htm
Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, "All that glisters is not gold." Fool's gold is another name for pyrite, also known as iron pyrite or iron sulfide. Its shiny yellow luster has many fooled into believing they have struck gold while holding a mineral of little value. The name pyrite is from Greek pyrites (of fire), from pyr (fire) because it produces sparks when struck against a hard surface. Some related words are fire, pyre, pyrosis (heartburn), pyromania (an irresistible impulse to set things on fire), and empyreal (relating to the sky or heaven, believed to contain pure light or fire.). A.Word.A.Day
With a reported one third of the currency in circulation being counterfeit, the U.S. Secret Service was commissioned on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C. as the "Secret Service Division" of the Department of the Treasury and was originally tasked with the suppression of counterfeiting. The legislation creating the agency was on Abraham Lincoln's desk the night he was assassinated. At the time, the only other federal law enforcement agencies were the United States Park Police, U.S. Post Office Department - Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations, now known as the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Marshals Service. The Marshals did not have the manpower to investigate all crime under federal jurisdiction, so the Secret Service was used to investigate everything from murder to bank robbery to illegal gambling. After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested Secret Service presidential protection. A year later, the Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for protection of the President. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secret_Service
Keepers (books I would read again)
The Child Buyer by John Hersey
“All’s fair in love, war and free enterprise.”
Life: a User’s Manual by Georges Perec
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Many companies, looking to avoid costly and drawn-out litigation battles in this era of economic uncertainty, are looking to get rid of their litigation portfolios through any means possible. And that largely means settling. But this doesn't appear to be the case out at Google, where the number of patent challenges against Google rose to 14 last year, from 11 in 2007 and three in 2006. According to this Bloomberg story (HT: AmLaw Lit Daily), the company is going on the offensive to fight patent claims, a strategy it hopes will deter frivolous lawsuits.
UBS has agreed to immediately provide the U.S. government with the identities and account information of some U.S. customers . The bank will pay $780 million. Click here for the WSJ story; click here for the NYT article. Click here for a copy of the deferred-prosecution agreement. WSJ Law Blog February 19, 2009
The New York Post apologized, sort of, for its controversial editorial cartoon that many saw as portraying President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee. The paper posted a statement on its Web site under the heading "That Cartoon" reiterating its support for the cartoon's content, while apologizing "to those who were offended by the image." http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-popost206042290feb20,0,4987794.story
Descendents of Geronimo are asking a secret society at Yale called Skull and Bones to give back Geronimo's, well, skull and bones. Here are stories from Fox News and the Yale Daily News. According to reports, the complaint (not yet available), filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., alleges that members of Skull and Bones long ago invaded Geronimo's grave to steal his skull for, as Fox puts it, “fraternal” (and, it seems, skull-related) “rituals.” A handful of others, including Yale, are reportedly named in the complaint. The descendents say they are investigating claims that in 1918, members of Skull and Bones, including Prescott Bush, the father of George H.W Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush, invaded Geronimo's grave at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and stole his skull, some bones and other items buried with him.
WSJ Law Blog February 18, 2009
The Internet Public Library (IPL) is maintained by students from a consortium of colleges and universities with programs in information science. http://www.ipl.org/
Example of information at IPL:
Q: Which Presidents lost the popular vote but still became President?
A: There have been four cases of this happening thus far. In 1824, John Quincy Adams was awarded the presidency by the House of Representatives, despite not having won the popular vote or the electoral college vote (neither he nor opponent Andrew Jackson had an electoral college majority). In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes became President despite losing the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden, because Hayes had a one vote advantage in the electoral college. In 1888, in a much more clear-cut example of a candidate losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college vote, Benjamin Harrison was elected President over Grover Cleveland. Finally, in 2000, George W. Bush became president after losing the popular vote to Al Gore, but winning the electoral vote.
http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/POTUSFARQ.html#question9b
1824: John Quincy Adams received more than 38,000 fewer votes than Andrew Jackson, but neither candidate won a majority of the Electoral College. Adams was awarded the presidency when the election was thrown to the House of Representatives.
1876: Nearly unanimous support from small states gave Rutherford B. Hayes a one-vote margin in the Electoral College, despite the fact that he lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden by 264,000 votes. Hayes carried five out of the six smallest states (excluding Delaware). These five states plus Colorado gave Hayes 22 electoral votes with only 109,000 popular votes. At the time, Colorado had been just been admitted to the Union and decided to appoint electors instead of holding elections. So, Hayes won Colorado's three electoral votes with zero popular votes. It was the only time in U.S. history that small state support has decided an election.
1888: Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote by 95,713 votes to Grover Cleveland, but won the electoral vote by 65. In this instance, some say the Electoral College worked the way it is designed to work by preventing a candidate from winning an election based on support from one region of the country. The South overwhelmingly supported Cleveland, and he won by more than 425,000 votes in six southern states. However, in the rest of the country he lost by more than 300,000 votes.
2000: Al Gore had over half a million votes more than George W. Bush, with 50,992,335 votes to Bush's 50,455,156. But after recount controversy in Florida and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Bush was awarded the state by 537 popular votes. Like most states, Florida has a "winner takes all" rule. This means that the candidate who wins the state by popular vote also gets all of the state's electoral votes. Bush became president with 271 electoral votes. http://people.howstuffworks.com/question4721.htm
Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, "All that glisters is not gold." Fool's gold is another name for pyrite, also known as iron pyrite or iron sulfide. Its shiny yellow luster has many fooled into believing they have struck gold while holding a mineral of little value. The name pyrite is from Greek pyrites (of fire), from pyr (fire) because it produces sparks when struck against a hard surface. Some related words are fire, pyre, pyrosis (heartburn), pyromania (an irresistible impulse to set things on fire), and empyreal (relating to the sky or heaven, believed to contain pure light or fire.). A.Word.A.Day
With a reported one third of the currency in circulation being counterfeit, the U.S. Secret Service was commissioned on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C. as the "Secret Service Division" of the Department of the Treasury and was originally tasked with the suppression of counterfeiting. The legislation creating the agency was on Abraham Lincoln's desk the night he was assassinated. At the time, the only other federal law enforcement agencies were the United States Park Police, U.S. Post Office Department - Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations, now known as the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Marshals Service. The Marshals did not have the manpower to investigate all crime under federal jurisdiction, so the Secret Service was used to investigate everything from murder to bank robbery to illegal gambling. After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested Secret Service presidential protection. A year later, the Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for protection of the President. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secret_Service
Keepers (books I would read again)
The Child Buyer by John Hersey
“All’s fair in love, war and free enterprise.”
Life: a User’s Manual by Georges Perec
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Thursday, February 19, 2009
New GAO Reports: Embassy Construction, Clean Air Act
Embassy Construction: Additional Actions Are Needed to Address Contractor Participation, GAO-09-48, January 16, 2009: "To provide safe and secure workplaces for overseas posts, the Department of State (State) has built 64 new embassy compounds (NEC) and other facilities since 1999, has 31 ongoing projects, and plans to build at least 90 more. In 2007, State reported the U.S. contractor pool for building NECs had reached its limit and proposed legislation to amend the criteria to qualify for NEC awards."
Clean Air Act: Historical Information on EPA's Process for Reviewing California Waiver Requests and Making Waiver Determinations, GAO-09-249R, January 16, 2009: "Emissions from mobile sources, such as automobiles and trucks, contribute to air quality degradation and can threaten public health and the environment. Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates these emissions. The act generally allows one set of federal standards for new motor vehicle emissions and pre-empts states from adopting or enforcing their own standards. However, it also authorizes the EPA Administrator to waive this provision to allow the state of California1 to enact and enforce emission standards for new motor vehicles that are as protective, in the aggregate, as federal government standards. Other states may also adopt California's standards if they choose."
Another New Obama Administration Website: Recovery.gov Goes Live
"Recovery.gov is a website that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. There are going to be a few different ways to search for information. The money is being distributed by Federal agencies, and soon you'll be able to see where it's going- to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors. As soon as we are able to, we'll display that information visually in maps, charts, and graphics."
C-SPAN Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership
News release: C-SPAN has released the results of its second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, in which a cross-section of 65 presidential historians ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership. As in C-SPAN's first such survey, released in 2000, Abraham Lincoln received top billing among the historians, just as the nation marks the bicentennial of his birth. George Washington placed second, while spots three through five were held by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman, in that order. Based on the results of historians surveyed, George W. Bush received an overall ranking of 36. Among other recent Presidents, Bill Clinton who was ranked 21 in the 2000 survey, advanced six spots in 2009 to an overall ranking of 15; Ronald Reagan moved from 11 to 10; George H.W. Bush went from 20 to 18, and Jimmy Carter's ranking declined from 22 to 25."
White House Posts American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
This White House Web page links to the final version, published in the Congressional Record version (PDF) - The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, inclusive of an online "form on the right to leave your comments, thoughts, and ideas." Required data: email address and name. Comments are limited to 5,000 characters.
Q. Who was the first president to visit the West Coast while in office, first to graduate from law school, lost the popular vote but became president, signed the act that permitted women to plead before the Supreme Court, has the first presidential library, and was nicknamed “Dark-Horse President”?
A. Rutherford B. Hayes, member of U.S. House of Representatives, 1865-1867, governor of Ohio, 1868-1872 and 1876-1877, 19th president of the United States. http://www.potus.com/rbhayes.html
E-Discovery Update: Revisiting ESI Agreements and Court Orders - Conrad J. Jacoby focuses on the new requirement that litigants must meet early in a dispute to discuss the scope of discovery work to reach agreement on how best to proceed with the discovery of potentially relevant electronically stored information (“ESI”).
Oscars will be announced February 22 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and will be televised in the United States by the ABC network.
To your health There are actually different kinds of fat—unsaturated, saturated, and trans fats. In general, avoid saturated and trans fats. While unsaturated fats are high in calories, they are considered "good" fats because they are important to your health. Not all fat is bad for you. Some fat is very good for you. The trick is to choose healthy fats and eat in moderation. healthyroads.com
Journal of Legal Analysis: New Open-Access Law Journal Launched
"...the Journal of Legal Analysis (JLA) is a new open-access law journal co-published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business at Harvard Law School. For the record, this is the first new journal we've published in thirty years...articles will be posted, for free, as soon as they are ready for publication. In addition, we're hoping the journal fills a gap in the legal publishing landscape by providing a peer-reviewed, faculty-edited journal that covers the entire academy."
Quote
You should eat to live, not live to eat.
You should work to live, not live to work.
Embassy Construction: Additional Actions Are Needed to Address Contractor Participation, GAO-09-48, January 16, 2009: "To provide safe and secure workplaces for overseas posts, the Department of State (State) has built 64 new embassy compounds (NEC) and other facilities since 1999, has 31 ongoing projects, and plans to build at least 90 more. In 2007, State reported the U.S. contractor pool for building NECs had reached its limit and proposed legislation to amend the criteria to qualify for NEC awards."
Clean Air Act: Historical Information on EPA's Process for Reviewing California Waiver Requests and Making Waiver Determinations, GAO-09-249R, January 16, 2009: "Emissions from mobile sources, such as automobiles and trucks, contribute to air quality degradation and can threaten public health and the environment. Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates these emissions. The act generally allows one set of federal standards for new motor vehicle emissions and pre-empts states from adopting or enforcing their own standards. However, it also authorizes the EPA Administrator to waive this provision to allow the state of California1 to enact and enforce emission standards for new motor vehicles that are as protective, in the aggregate, as federal government standards. Other states may also adopt California's standards if they choose."
Another New Obama Administration Website: Recovery.gov Goes Live
"Recovery.gov is a website that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. There are going to be a few different ways to search for information. The money is being distributed by Federal agencies, and soon you'll be able to see where it's going- to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors. As soon as we are able to, we'll display that information visually in maps, charts, and graphics."
C-SPAN Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership
News release: C-SPAN has released the results of its second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, in which a cross-section of 65 presidential historians ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership. As in C-SPAN's first such survey, released in 2000, Abraham Lincoln received top billing among the historians, just as the nation marks the bicentennial of his birth. George Washington placed second, while spots three through five were held by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman, in that order. Based on the results of historians surveyed, George W. Bush received an overall ranking of 36. Among other recent Presidents, Bill Clinton who was ranked 21 in the 2000 survey, advanced six spots in 2009 to an overall ranking of 15; Ronald Reagan moved from 11 to 10; George H.W. Bush went from 20 to 18, and Jimmy Carter's ranking declined from 22 to 25."
White House Posts American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
This White House Web page links to the final version, published in the Congressional Record version (PDF) - The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, inclusive of an online "form on the right to leave your comments, thoughts, and ideas." Required data: email address and name. Comments are limited to 5,000 characters.
Q. Who was the first president to visit the West Coast while in office, first to graduate from law school, lost the popular vote but became president, signed the act that permitted women to plead before the Supreme Court, has the first presidential library, and was nicknamed “Dark-Horse President”?
A. Rutherford B. Hayes, member of U.S. House of Representatives, 1865-1867, governor of Ohio, 1868-1872 and 1876-1877, 19th president of the United States. http://www.potus.com/rbhayes.html
E-Discovery Update: Revisiting ESI Agreements and Court Orders - Conrad J. Jacoby focuses on the new requirement that litigants must meet early in a dispute to discuss the scope of discovery work to reach agreement on how best to proceed with the discovery of potentially relevant electronically stored information (“ESI”).
Oscars will be announced February 22 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and will be televised in the United States by the ABC network.
To your health There are actually different kinds of fat—unsaturated, saturated, and trans fats. In general, avoid saturated and trans fats. While unsaturated fats are high in calories, they are considered "good" fats because they are important to your health. Not all fat is bad for you. Some fat is very good for you. The trick is to choose healthy fats and eat in moderation. healthyroads.com
Journal of Legal Analysis: New Open-Access Law Journal Launched
"...the Journal of Legal Analysis (JLA) is a new open-access law journal co-published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business at Harvard Law School. For the record, this is the first new journal we've published in thirty years...articles will be posted, for free, as soon as they are ready for publication. In addition, we're hoping the journal fills a gap in the legal publishing landscape by providing a peer-reviewed, faculty-edited journal that covers the entire academy."
Quote
You should eat to live, not live to eat.
You should work to live, not live to work.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Treasury Announces New Restrictions On Executive Compensation from ProPublica Stimulus Bill Limits TARP Exec Pay: "...tucked into the 1,071-page bill [H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009] is a twelve-page section that goes much further than any limits imposed by the Bush administration or even contemplated by the Obama administration" [on executive compensation and corporate governance].
Free WSJ chart: Where the Money Goes | Selected programs from the $789.2 billion bill: Spending - 24% | Aid 38% | Tax Cuts 38%
Pacer, the government-run Public Access to Court Electronic Records is a system designed in the bygone days of screechy telephone modems. Cumbersome, arcane and not free, it is everything that Google is not. Recently, however, a small group of open-government activists teamed up to push the court records system into the 21st century—by simply grabbing enormous chunks of the database and giving the documents away, to the great annoyance of the government. “Pacer is just so awful,” said Carl Malamud, the leader of the effort and founder of a nonprofit group, Public.Resource.org. “The system is 15 to 20 years out of date.” Worse, Mr. Malamud said, Pacer takes information that he believes should be free—government-produced documents are not covered by copyright—and charges 8 cents a page. Most of the private services that make searching easier, like Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis, charge far more, while relative newcomers like AltLaw.org, Fastcase.com and Justia.com, offer some records cheaply or even free. But even the seemingly cheap cost of Pacer adds up, when court records can run to thousands of pages. Fees get plowed back to the courts to finance technology, but the system runs a budget surplus of some $150 million, according to recent court reports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13records.html?_r=1&ref=technology
Alfred Whital Stern (1881-1960) of Chicago presented his collection of Lincolniana, to the Library of Congress in 1953. His collection, which he began to assemble in the 1920s, documents the life of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) both through writings by and about Lincoln as well as a large body of publications concerning the issues of the times including slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and related topics. The collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern’s contemporary newspapers, Lincoln’s law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date. Direct to Digitized Collection via American Memory
Source: Library of Congress
Feedback from A.Word.A.Day
From: Hanns Ewald (hanns.ewald verizon.net)
Subject: columbarium
The name of the town Colmar in Alsace, France derives its name from this word. The place is popular with tourists for the regional food and wine, architecture and art (Isenheim altar). Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the statue of liberty, was born there in 1834.
From: Meredith McQuoid (mcquoidm si.edu)
Subject: pied
In the vocabulary of equine lovers, a horse that has a coat of large patches of black and white is referred to as piebald (can be a noun or adjective); correspondingly, if the patches are white and any other color but black, it is called skewbald.
From: Kitty Rieske (kitrieske aol.com)
Subject: pied
I love the word "pied". I first met the word in regard to horses, but the very best memory I have of the word is Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, Pied Beauty. The descriptions of nature and the world make me happy to have experienced this world in all its many colors.
From: Bill Barker (billb11 alltel.net)
Subject: pied
This word back in the days of hand set type meant different fonts of movable type that were mixed. At the school I attended in California vandals pied all the type in the school print shop. As a student learning the trade I spent about a week unpieing it.
February 17 is the birthday of the Queen of Crime, novelist Ruth Rendell, (books by this author) born in London, England (1930). Her career as a writer did not start out on a promising note—she was fired from her first job as a journalist after she wrote a story about a Tennis League dinner without actually attending it, which was obvious since she failed to mention in the story that the keynote speaker had died in the middle of the speech. But she went on to become a best-selling author of more than 50 books, many of them under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Her novels include A Judgment in Stone (1977), King Solomon's Carpet (1991), and her most recent, Portobello (2008). Every morning she writes for four hours, and then she eats the exact same lunch: bread, cheese, salad, and fruit.
February 17 is the birthday of the poet, journalist, and songwriter Banjo Paterson, (books by this author) born Andrew Paterson in Narrambla, Australia (1864). He was a lawyer who wrote poetry on the side—his family and friends called him "Barty," and his readers knew him as "the Banjo." For a while, he was the second-most popular poet writing in English in the world, after Rudyard Kipling. But we remember him best for writing the lyrics to "Waltzing Matilda." The words have changed slightly in the years since he wrote these original lyrics:
Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabong,
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree,
And he sang as he looked at the old billy boiling,
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda my darling,
Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water bag,
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
A "swagman" is someone who travels around the countryside, looking for work—the name comes from "swag," the big bundle of cloth or blanket a swagman would keep his belongings in. To "waltz Matilda" meant to travel around with a swag.
The Writer’s Almanac
Free WSJ chart: Where the Money Goes | Selected programs from the $789.2 billion bill: Spending - 24% | Aid 38% | Tax Cuts 38%
Pacer, the government-run Public Access to Court Electronic Records is a system designed in the bygone days of screechy telephone modems. Cumbersome, arcane and not free, it is everything that Google is not. Recently, however, a small group of open-government activists teamed up to push the court records system into the 21st century—by simply grabbing enormous chunks of the database and giving the documents away, to the great annoyance of the government. “Pacer is just so awful,” said Carl Malamud, the leader of the effort and founder of a nonprofit group, Public.Resource.org. “The system is 15 to 20 years out of date.” Worse, Mr. Malamud said, Pacer takes information that he believes should be free—government-produced documents are not covered by copyright—and charges 8 cents a page. Most of the private services that make searching easier, like Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis, charge far more, while relative newcomers like AltLaw.org, Fastcase.com and Justia.com, offer some records cheaply or even free. But even the seemingly cheap cost of Pacer adds up, when court records can run to thousands of pages. Fees get plowed back to the courts to finance technology, but the system runs a budget surplus of some $150 million, according to recent court reports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13records.html?_r=1&ref=technology
Alfred Whital Stern (1881-1960) of Chicago presented his collection of Lincolniana, to the Library of Congress in 1953. His collection, which he began to assemble in the 1920s, documents the life of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) both through writings by and about Lincoln as well as a large body of publications concerning the issues of the times including slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and related topics. The collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern’s contemporary newspapers, Lincoln’s law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date. Direct to Digitized Collection via American Memory
Source: Library of Congress
Feedback from A.Word.A.Day
From: Hanns Ewald (hanns.ewald verizon.net)
Subject: columbarium
The name of the town Colmar in Alsace, France derives its name from this word. The place is popular with tourists for the regional food and wine, architecture and art (Isenheim altar). Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the statue of liberty, was born there in 1834.
From: Meredith McQuoid (mcquoidm si.edu)
Subject: pied
In the vocabulary of equine lovers, a horse that has a coat of large patches of black and white is referred to as piebald (can be a noun or adjective); correspondingly, if the patches are white and any other color but black, it is called skewbald.
From: Kitty Rieske (kitrieske aol.com)
Subject: pied
I love the word "pied". I first met the word in regard to horses, but the very best memory I have of the word is Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, Pied Beauty. The descriptions of nature and the world make me happy to have experienced this world in all its many colors.
From: Bill Barker (billb11 alltel.net)
Subject: pied
This word back in the days of hand set type meant different fonts of movable type that were mixed. At the school I attended in California vandals pied all the type in the school print shop. As a student learning the trade I spent about a week unpieing it.
February 17 is the birthday of the Queen of Crime, novelist Ruth Rendell, (books by this author) born in London, England (1930). Her career as a writer did not start out on a promising note—she was fired from her first job as a journalist after she wrote a story about a Tennis League dinner without actually attending it, which was obvious since she failed to mention in the story that the keynote speaker had died in the middle of the speech. But she went on to become a best-selling author of more than 50 books, many of them under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Her novels include A Judgment in Stone (1977), King Solomon's Carpet (1991), and her most recent, Portobello (2008). Every morning she writes for four hours, and then she eats the exact same lunch: bread, cheese, salad, and fruit.
February 17 is the birthday of the poet, journalist, and songwriter Banjo Paterson, (books by this author) born Andrew Paterson in Narrambla, Australia (1864). He was a lawyer who wrote poetry on the side—his family and friends called him "Barty," and his readers knew him as "the Banjo." For a while, he was the second-most popular poet writing in English in the world, after Rudyard Kipling. But we remember him best for writing the lyrics to "Waltzing Matilda." The words have changed slightly in the years since he wrote these original lyrics:
Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabong,
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree,
And he sang as he looked at the old billy boiling,
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda my darling,
Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water bag,
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
A "swagman" is someone who travels around the countryside, looking for work—the name comes from "swag," the big bundle of cloth or blanket a swagman would keep his belongings in. To "waltz Matilda" meant to travel around with a swag.
The Writer’s Almanac
Monday, February 16, 2009
Today, February 16, is Presidents' Day, a holiday that began as a tribute to the first U.S. president, George Washington. In fact, in some places it is still called Washington's Birthday, and that is the official name still recognized by the federal government. The day became a government holiday in 1885. It was celebrated on Feb. 22, which is Washington's actual birthday. In 1971, the holiday was moved to the third Monday in February. Though it's still officially Washington's Birthday, the day has become known as Presidents' Day to recognize both Washington and Lincoln. Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States (though he is the 43rd man to be president, because Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th). See suggestions for learning names of presidents in order at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/15/AR2009021501546.html
Obama will sign ARRA, the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, on Tuesday in Denver.
Free Searchable Database of Barack Obama Speeches - 2002-2009
askSam: "Search the full text transcripts of more than 200 speeches by United States President and former Senator, Barack Obama. Search keywords and phrases, search by speech title, speech date, or speech location in more than 200 Obama speeches."
The librarian who operates The Wall Street Journal's news research library--which is set to close with the elimination of her job and another staffer's--said in a memo to other librarians that the shutdown is both a personal difficulty and a hit to news coverage.
"When I asked who will do research for the reporters, I was told, 'No one,'" the memo from Leslie A. Norman, posted on a librarian list serve last week, stated. "The reporters will probably be using a Lexis product called Due Diligence Dashboard . . .
lisnews.org February 11, 2009
The word "lexicon" can be used as a synonym of "dictionary," and the word "lexicography" refers to the practice of dictionary making. Both of these words, as well as "lexical," derive from the Greek word "lexis," meaning "word" or "speech." A fourth descendant of "lexis" is "lexiphonic," an adjective describing one who uses pretentious words for effect. "Lexis" should not be confused with the Latin "lex," or "law," which is used in legal phrases such as "lex non scripta," meaning "unwritten law." http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl
Definitions of lexis: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:lexis&ei=SL-SSZzZCaH4NL_ozPkL&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
In order for some small birds to survive and maintain a core temperature far exceeding the 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit of humans, they must consume about three times their body weight, on a daily basis. http://www.wgbh.org/cainan/article?item_id=2625828
To your health
Red beans, berries, and vegetables are in the high antioxidant ranking of a 2004 USDA study. The researchers found that Russet potatoes, pecans and even cinnamon are all excellent, although lesser-known, sources of antioxidants, which are thought to fight cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's. See chart at http://hdlighthouse.org/treatment-care/care/hdltriad/diet/updates/1116antioxidant.php
crestfallen (KREST-fo-luhn)
adjective: Dispirited or disappointed by having one's hopes dashed
From allusion to the drooping crest or comb of a bird, such as a rooster
From Latin crista (tuft) A.Word.A.Day
February 16 is the birthday of historian and philosopher Henry Adams, (books by this author) born in Boston, Massachusetts (1838). His grandfather was John Quincy Adams, and his great-grandfather was John Adams. He did a lot of writing about politics and history, but he's most famous as the author of The Education of Henry Adams, one of the first modern American memoirs. It was privately printed in 1907, and no one paid attention to it. But when it was republished in 1918, after Adams' death, it won the Pulitzer Prize. The Writer’s Almanac
Obama will sign ARRA, the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, on Tuesday in Denver.
Free Searchable Database of Barack Obama Speeches - 2002-2009
askSam: "Search the full text transcripts of more than 200 speeches by United States President and former Senator, Barack Obama. Search keywords and phrases, search by speech title, speech date, or speech location in more than 200 Obama speeches."
The librarian who operates The Wall Street Journal's news research library--which is set to close with the elimination of her job and another staffer's--said in a memo to other librarians that the shutdown is both a personal difficulty and a hit to news coverage.
"When I asked who will do research for the reporters, I was told, 'No one,'" the memo from Leslie A. Norman, posted on a librarian list serve last week, stated. "The reporters will probably be using a Lexis product called Due Diligence Dashboard . . .
lisnews.org February 11, 2009
The word "lexicon" can be used as a synonym of "dictionary," and the word "lexicography" refers to the practice of dictionary making. Both of these words, as well as "lexical," derive from the Greek word "lexis," meaning "word" or "speech." A fourth descendant of "lexis" is "lexiphonic," an adjective describing one who uses pretentious words for effect. "Lexis" should not be confused with the Latin "lex," or "law," which is used in legal phrases such as "lex non scripta," meaning "unwritten law." http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl
Definitions of lexis: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:lexis&ei=SL-SSZzZCaH4NL_ozPkL&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
In order for some small birds to survive and maintain a core temperature far exceeding the 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit of humans, they must consume about three times their body weight, on a daily basis. http://www.wgbh.org/cainan/article?item_id=2625828
To your health
Red beans, berries, and vegetables are in the high antioxidant ranking of a 2004 USDA study. The researchers found that Russet potatoes, pecans and even cinnamon are all excellent, although lesser-known, sources of antioxidants, which are thought to fight cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's. See chart at http://hdlighthouse.org/treatment-care/care/hdltriad/diet/updates/1116antioxidant.php
crestfallen (KREST-fo-luhn)
adjective: Dispirited or disappointed by having one's hopes dashed
From allusion to the drooping crest or comb of a bird, such as a rooster
From Latin crista (tuft) A.Word.A.Day
February 16 is the birthday of historian and philosopher Henry Adams, (books by this author) born in Boston, Massachusetts (1838). His grandfather was John Quincy Adams, and his great-grandfather was John Adams. He did a lot of writing about politics and history, but he's most famous as the author of The Education of Henry Adams, one of the first modern American memoirs. It was privately printed in 1907, and no one paid attention to it. But when it was republished in 1918, after Adams' death, it won the Pulitzer Prize. The Writer’s Almanac
Friday, February 13, 2009
Librarian’s Muse is just over a year old
The first issue was called News, but a reader suggested Librarian’s Muse, and that’s what it has been since the second issue. A few months after the start, I noticed that a reader had a blog on blogspot, and then placed the muse on blogspot as well. The list is up to 73 readers in 8 states now. Remember, if you want to be removed—just reply with remove on the subject line.
Will the $789 Billion Stimulus Plan Bring Economic Recovery?
New York Times: Deal Reached in Congress on $789 Billion Stimulus Plan - "The package of spending increases and tax relief, intended to spur an economic recovery and create jobs by putting money back in the pockets of consumers and companies, ended up smaller than either the House or Senate had proposed."
Will the $800 Billion-Plus Stimulus Plan Bring Economic Recovery? National Center for Policy Analysis, February 10, 2009, by Gerald W. Scully: "Banker greed and Wall Street are blamed, but government policies over the last 25 years are the root cause of the current financial crisis."
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka ARRA or economic stimulus bill)
The House version of the ARRA would provide $14 billion for K-12 construction and $6 billion for higher education construction and specifically mention libraries as an allowable use of funds. The K-12 construction funds would create 300,000 jobs. The education construction funds are eliminated from the Senate version of the ARRA.
If you support libraries and would like the House version to prevail, please contact conferees on this legislation who control what stays in and what will be taken out. If you have other opinions, such as retaining funding for the arts and eliminating it for casinos and golf courses, this is the time to make your thoughts known. Find contact information for elected officials at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Appropriations Chairman Obey (D-WI)
Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY)
Commerce Chairman Waxman (D-CA)
Appropriations Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI)
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT)
Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Finance Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Appropriations Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Wikileaks Posts Database of 6,780 Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
"Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation...Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices." [As noted by Michael Ravnitzky, "there are additional reports and briefings prepared for specific offices that are not included in that electronic output."]
Alphabetical list of reports
Chronological list of reports
These reports have also been merged into OpenCRS.
Torrent: WikiLeaks Document Release: CRS Reports, Feb 2009 (full pack, incl. metadata for indexing). Where applicable we have also categorized the reports according to country and attached them to our general country index.
Note: See also the FAS directory of links to topical CRS Reports
Oakland, Calif., attorney Dana Sack is glad he didn't deposit that $360,400 check he got in the mail Jan. 30. Since the start of the year, the real estate attorney has been contacted "out of nowhere" by eight companies, most from East Asia, asking for help collecting money they claimed to be owed by U.S. businesses. About a week after signing those fee agreements, "Tomen" and "Matila" separately let him know by e-mail that Eagle Power Equipment had agreed to pay each of them through his firm, and though he had done no work, Sack should expect a check in the mail, from which he could deduct his retainer. One $360,400 check arrived by UPS from Ontario, "looking absolutely genuine." But when a call to Citibank proved this check was invalid, Sack called Eagle Power Equipment. He said he got a laugh from that company's controller, who said he was not only not paying any debts to Tomen, but that he'd been getting calls from small firm lawyers across the country.
Maryland attorney Jerome Feldman, of four-lawyer Bernstein & Feldman, said his firm was also contacted and retained via e-mail and received a real-looking check from Eagle Power for more than $300,000 made payable to the attorneys. He presumes that his firm was meant to put the money into an escrow account, after which the client in Asia would give the go-ahead for Feldman's firm to subtract its fee and send the balance on. Feldman said he went only so far as to contact Eagle then sent the matter to the Internet fraud division of the FBI.
In Alabama, solo Steven Brom said he was solicited by an individual claiming to represent Japan's Nippon Industries. A week after he received his retainer agreement, he, too, got the great news that the debtor had decided to pay. "It's usually a long drawn-out process, not based on one phone call," Brom said. The client told him that he could expect a check from Eagle Power. When he received the package--delivered by UPS--from Canada, Brom said the check for $348,540 was "highly professional looking."
In Brom's case, the scammers went so far as to fake an "800" phone number claiming to be Citibank's. Out of curiosity, he dialed it and got an automated phone system that asked for the account number and check amount, then told him his check was confirmed. He's sent his fake check to Citibank to handle any potential investigation.
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202428041836
Harlequin is a large check pattern that is turned 45 degrees to form a diamond in two or more contrasting colors, set of chairs that are similar but do not match, pattern with patches, movie, fictional character, and athletic team. See these and other meanings at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:harlequin&ei=kLqSSZGGBJzgM6W3mfQL&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
Etymology: ultimately from Italian arlecchino, from Middle French Helquin, a demon
Date: 1590 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harlequin
Pied is two or more colors in blotches or wearing or having a parti-colored coat and dates from the 14th century. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pied
Etymology: 1382, as if it were the pp. of a verb form of M.E. noun pie "magpie" in ref. to the bird's black and white plumage. Earliest use is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=pied+&searchmode=none
The first issue was called News, but a reader suggested Librarian’s Muse, and that’s what it has been since the second issue. A few months after the start, I noticed that a reader had a blog on blogspot, and then placed the muse on blogspot as well. The list is up to 73 readers in 8 states now. Remember, if you want to be removed—just reply with remove on the subject line.
Will the $789 Billion Stimulus Plan Bring Economic Recovery?
New York Times: Deal Reached in Congress on $789 Billion Stimulus Plan - "The package of spending increases and tax relief, intended to spur an economic recovery and create jobs by putting money back in the pockets of consumers and companies, ended up smaller than either the House or Senate had proposed."
Will the $800 Billion-Plus Stimulus Plan Bring Economic Recovery? National Center for Policy Analysis, February 10, 2009, by Gerald W. Scully: "Banker greed and Wall Street are blamed, but government policies over the last 25 years are the root cause of the current financial crisis."
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka ARRA or economic stimulus bill)
The House version of the ARRA would provide $14 billion for K-12 construction and $6 billion for higher education construction and specifically mention libraries as an allowable use of funds. The K-12 construction funds would create 300,000 jobs. The education construction funds are eliminated from the Senate version of the ARRA.
If you support libraries and would like the House version to prevail, please contact conferees on this legislation who control what stays in and what will be taken out. If you have other opinions, such as retaining funding for the arts and eliminating it for casinos and golf courses, this is the time to make your thoughts known. Find contact information for elected officials at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Appropriations Chairman Obey (D-WI)
Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY)
Commerce Chairman Waxman (D-CA)
Appropriations Ranking Member Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI)
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT)
Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Finance Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Appropriations Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Wikileaks Posts Database of 6,780 Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
"Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation...Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices." [As noted by Michael Ravnitzky, "there are additional reports and briefings prepared for specific offices that are not included in that electronic output."]
Alphabetical list of reports
Chronological list of reports
These reports have also been merged into OpenCRS.
Torrent: WikiLeaks Document Release: CRS Reports, Feb 2009 (full pack, incl. metadata for indexing). Where applicable we have also categorized the reports according to country and attached them to our general country index.
Note: See also the FAS directory of links to topical CRS Reports
Oakland, Calif., attorney Dana Sack is glad he didn't deposit that $360,400 check he got in the mail Jan. 30. Since the start of the year, the real estate attorney has been contacted "out of nowhere" by eight companies, most from East Asia, asking for help collecting money they claimed to be owed by U.S. businesses. About a week after signing those fee agreements, "Tomen" and "Matila" separately let him know by e-mail that Eagle Power Equipment had agreed to pay each of them through his firm, and though he had done no work, Sack should expect a check in the mail, from which he could deduct his retainer. One $360,400 check arrived by UPS from Ontario, "looking absolutely genuine." But when a call to Citibank proved this check was invalid, Sack called Eagle Power Equipment. He said he got a laugh from that company's controller, who said he was not only not paying any debts to Tomen, but that he'd been getting calls from small firm lawyers across the country.
Maryland attorney Jerome Feldman, of four-lawyer Bernstein & Feldman, said his firm was also contacted and retained via e-mail and received a real-looking check from Eagle Power for more than $300,000 made payable to the attorneys. He presumes that his firm was meant to put the money into an escrow account, after which the client in Asia would give the go-ahead for Feldman's firm to subtract its fee and send the balance on. Feldman said he went only so far as to contact Eagle then sent the matter to the Internet fraud division of the FBI.
In Alabama, solo Steven Brom said he was solicited by an individual claiming to represent Japan's Nippon Industries. A week after he received his retainer agreement, he, too, got the great news that the debtor had decided to pay. "It's usually a long drawn-out process, not based on one phone call," Brom said. The client told him that he could expect a check from Eagle Power. When he received the package--delivered by UPS--from Canada, Brom said the check for $348,540 was "highly professional looking."
In Brom's case, the scammers went so far as to fake an "800" phone number claiming to be Citibank's. Out of curiosity, he dialed it and got an automated phone system that asked for the account number and check amount, then told him his check was confirmed. He's sent his fake check to Citibank to handle any potential investigation.
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202428041836
Harlequin is a large check pattern that is turned 45 degrees to form a diamond in two or more contrasting colors, set of chairs that are similar but do not match, pattern with patches, movie, fictional character, and athletic team. See these and other meanings at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:harlequin&ei=kLqSSZGGBJzgM6W3mfQL&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
Etymology: ultimately from Italian arlecchino, from Middle French Helquin, a demon
Date: 1590 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harlequin
Pied is two or more colors in blotches or wearing or having a parti-colored coat and dates from the 14th century. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pied
Etymology: 1382, as if it were the pp. of a verb form of M.E. noun pie "magpie" in ref. to the bird's black and white plumage. Earliest use is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=pied+&searchmode=none
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