May It Please The CourtMay It Please The CourtWeblog og legal news and observations Articles
MIPTC Announces Its Association With Newspapers; Dead Or Ali
2006-12-02 22:19:02 After yesterday's pronunciation that newspapers are dead, you may be wondering why why MIPTC is announcing today its association with two news services, News tex and BlogBurst. These two services take MIPTC's daily feed and channel it to various news services, including newspapers like the Washington Post and the Houston Chronicle. Other services include Xinhua, the state news agency of the People's Republic of China, AP, UPI, the BBC, the Korea Times and Al Bawaba, the news source for the Middle East. So why apparently concede to the success of newspapers despite my pronouncement that they're dead? Your own experience and a close reading of my post shows that while newspapers may have one foot in the grave, they're likely to go the way of radio - still on the air and the choice of many New York train commuters. Besides, why not proselytize to the Middle East? More About: Newspapers , With , Soci , Dead
Newspapers Are Dead; Internet Dispenses Expert News And Anal
2006-12-02 16:18:05 OK, maybe the headline is a bit overstated, but perhaps not by too much. Think about it this way - why are you reading a legal blog? Why do you turn to any number of other Inter net sources for specific types of information? You use the Internet for much more. Can you get the kind of legal analysis you get here in a newspaper? The law isn't the only search you've run on Google recently. And think about this ruling barring the San Francisco Chronicle and the Hearst Corporation from joining forces, with one federal judge issuing a temporary injunction to stop the merger. The two intended to offer joint distribution services and advertising to their clients, but are now barred from doing so, at least for the nearly foreseeable future. The case is far from over, but TROs are not issued unless there is a likelihood of success, which the government appears to have established. Communicating news to one another has bee... More About: News , Newspapers , Dead
Coast to Coast Internet Gets the Skinny on Compliance
2006-12-02 16:18:05 Corporate governance is one of the main concerns for American corporations. In this show, we will discuss the compliance issues that companies are facing and the General Counsel’s role. Is the GC the ‘guard-dog’ of corporate compliance? Join me and my co-hosts and fellow Law.com blogger Robert Ambrogi as we welcome this week's experts. Coast to Coast turns to Attorney Lanny J. Davis, partner from the Washington D.C. office of the global law firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Gary Levine, President and Founder of Two Step Software, Inc., which provides tools for compliance and finally Professor Charles Elson, Chair in Corporate Governance and the Director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. This show is of interest to general counsel and corporate compliance officers. More About: Internet , Skin , Inter , Comp , Skinny
Prevent Unauthorized Access To Your Computers Through Rules
2006-12-02 16:18:05 Fine. You've got hardware firewalls, software firewalls, spam filters, phishing filters and even antivirus programs running on your computers to keep out hackers. But do you have rules? What's that? Rules, you say? We don't need no stinkin' rules; nobody can get in our computer system from the outside. Perhaps true, but what about your employees on the inside? How do you protect your computer data from them and prevent unauthorized access? According to a spate of recent court decisions under the Comp uter Fraud and Abuse Act, you need rules if you intend to protect your data from access by your employees and former employees. That means a set of written rules specifically tailored to your industry and thoroughly communicated to your employees. Take, for example, a hospital. An employee in the hospital's IT department should not be allowed access to the actual content of patient files and records b... More About: Computers , Event , Your
Are You Listening, Orange County Sanitation District?
2006-12-02 16:18:05 MIPTC has always failed to understand why the government regulates private industry so heavily while at the same time ignoring the plank in its own eye. Take, for example, studies showing that Orange County beaches were closed 225 times nearly ten years ago due to storm water runoff, which hasn't gotten much better in the ensuing decade. Nearly 1.5 million swimmers each year are sickened by bacteria in near-shore ocean water across the country. How hard is it to take some of those tax dollars we pay and develop a system to treat runoff and non-point source pollution? It may have just gotten a bit easier, thanks to private industry. Abtech Industries will start in 2007 selling a filtration technology that fits like a sponge into sewer drains. It's made from recycled plastics, to boot, and according to the company, absorbs oil, PCBs and other toxins, but allows water to flow through. The latest version is also coated with an antimicrobial... More About: List , Orange County , District , Nita
Sure We Can Give Your Money Away; We're The Government
2006-12-02 16:18:05 Here's today's quiz: Can a City Council donate public monies to a non-profit corporation, such as a Chamber of Commerce, where a City Council member is also on the Board of the Chamber and his wife is an executive of the Chamber? If you guessed no, then you guessed wrong. Yes, I said "No" was wrong, believe it or not, despite the number of double negatives and double entendres in that sentence. That's right, according to lame duck California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a City Council can donate to the Chamber, even though a City Council member and his wife are involved with the Chamber. According to Mr. Lockyer, Esquire, the City can donate money to the Chamber under California Government Code section 1090. Just in case you're wondering, here's what the statute says (so you can ensure Mr. Lockyer, Esquire has it right): "Members of the Legislature, state, county, district, judicial district, and city officers or empl... More About: Money , Men , Your , Over
Squeeze In A Bit Of American History At The Dinner Table
2006-12-02 16:18:05 In between snippets of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, football, turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pies, more turkey and a second helping of pumpkin pie - this time without the whipped cream (I'm watching my girlish figure, thank you very much), you may give a moment or two of thought to the Pilgrims. Together with Massasoit and Wampanog America n Indians, they are after all the reason for the season. At least this season, that is. When your mind wanders to the feast they had in Plymouth, you may not have given much thought to America's first set of imported laws. That's right. We have our own Magna Carta, sort of. It's called the Mayflower Compact. MIPTC reproduces it's text here so you can give the kids a quiz on it at the dinner table and make sure they've earned their American History Points For The Day. "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King... More About: American History , Story , Dinner
Don't Call Your Legislator; They're Busy Correcting Typos
2006-12-02 16:18:05 Typo s. They 're the bane of lawyers, and now the bane of several state legislatures. For example, New Yorkers need to beware of one new law passed by that state's legislature. If you've got just the tiniest amount of alcohol in your body, say the weight of a liter of helium (about 0.18 grams), then you're legally drunk. New Yorkers, in fact, are all automatically in violation of the law because more than 0.18 grams of alcohol occurs naturally in most everyone's bloodstream. That result is thanks to a typo in a new law. That's right. Legi slators passed a get-tough, drunk-driving law intending to establish a new limit of 0.18 percent of your blood alcohol content to create an "aggravated driving while intoxicated" standard. But somehow in the rush to get the law on the books, someone stuck the word "gram" after the limit instead of "blood alcohol content." The law was intended to prevent prosecutors from all... More About: Your , Call
California Cities Step To Forefront To Slow Global Warming
2006-12-02 16:18:05 It's not often that politicians take a stand. That's why MIPTC read with some slight degree of shock that officials in Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, Riverside, Pasadena and Anaheim elected not to renew contracts with a coal-fired power plant in lieu of buying power based on solar and wind power. Wow. Now's the time to ask your City Council and County Board of Supervisors to get on the bandwagon started by Governor Schwarzenegger, who signed legislation back in September, which is the first-in-the-nation emissions cap on utilities, refineries and manufacturing plants. The goal is to cut greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020. Just call him Governor Terminator. More About: Global Warming , California , Cities , War , Global
Court Allows Long-winded City Meetings To Continue Late Into
2006-12-02 16:18:05 For as much as City Councils and Boards of Supervisors say they represent you and me, sometimes MITPC thinks that they really don't want to hear what we have to say. On the other hand, they may just be saying that if you're that interested, then you better stay as long as we have to. If you've ever been to a Council or Board meeting, then you know that they employ a common trick to either limit or prevent public comment: the time to comment is set at the end of the meeting, which frequently lasts past 11:00 p.m., and even then you will be limited to three minutes for your presentation, only to be gonged off with a red light or buzzer. Two City Council members in Santa Monica, Robert Holbrook and Bernard Katz apparently got fed up with the tactic, and tried to use the Constitution and the "open meetings" requirement of the Brown Act to put an end to it. They argued that "forcing the public to wait so long and stay so late to ad... More About: Wind , Long , Meetings , Late
Everyday Users, er, Distributors, Of The Internet Immune Fro
2006-12-02 16:18:05 Say what you will, if you're in California surfing the Inter net , that is. What do I mean? The California Supreme Court decided to insulate Internet "distributors" of statements defaming others, as long as that distributor did not originate the defamatory statement. Hold your horses, here. Let's get to the facts. In the case of Barrett v. Rosenthal, Dr. Stephen Barrett and Dr. Timothy Polevoy operated Internet sites, one named Quackwatch, aiming to expose health frauds. The two Doct ors claimed Ilena Rosenthal committed libel against them by maliciously distributing defamatory statements in e-mails and Internet postings, discrediting their efforts to eliminate this type of fraud. Ms. Rosenthal operates a site she's dubbed Quackwatchwatch. There's a long history of disputes involving both parties, and this post won't touch the merits of either. MIPTC wants to address the legal si... More About: User , Ever , The Internet
Liberty Dollar Coins Strike At Heart Of U.S. Mint
2006-09-18 02:00:01 Check out those coins in your pocket a little bit closer. If you have a Liberty Dollar coin and try to spend it, you could be going to jail. The United States Mint is none too happy with the manufacturers of the Liberty Dollar coin, and has issued a warning to those who try to use it as currency. Nonetheless, many people are more than pleased to use the coin as currency. The safe bet, obviously, is to collect the coins and treat them like collectibles. Alternatively, you could fill up your bunker with them. More About: Hear , Heart
Coast to Coast Internet Radio Remembers 9/11
2006-09-16 13:51:02 This week on Coast to Coast we would like to remember the victims of 9/11 and their families. It has been five years since the United States was attacked and the victims will never be forgotten. Join me and my fellow Law.com blogger and co-host Bob Ambrogi as we welcome Attorney Robert Haefele from the national firm of Motley Rice, to discuss the considerable amount of pro-bono work Motley Rice has done to help 9/11 families. In contrast, Coast to Coast touches upon a story about a law firm whose tactics are being criticized with respect to the recent Kentucky crash of Comair Flight 5191. In the second part of our show, Coast to Coast welcomes Attorney Ben Cowgill and Attorney Steve Frederick, both Kentucky attorneys, to discuss the crash and the actions of plaintiff attorneys. Don’t miss it! More About: Radio , Internet , Inter , Internet radio , Intern
Coast to Coast Internet Radio Takes on Vioxx
More articles from this author:2006-09-08 06:54:02 In an interesting development in Vioxx news, a New Orleans judge ruled that the $50M in compensatory damages were “grossly excessive.” The judge upheld the verdict, finding Merck liable in the case, but ordered a new trial to decide how much the manufacturer must pay a retired FBI agent who suffered a 2002 heart attack after taking the painkiller for 2½ years. Join me and my co-hosts and fellow Law.com blogger Bob Ambrogi as we turn to two expert attorneys representing Vioxx clients for the lowdown. Coast to Coast welcomes Attorney Tom Girardi of the well-known firm of Girardi Keese in Los Angeles and Attorney Paul Sizemore from the national firm of Beasley Allen located in Montgomery, Alabama. Don’t miss this latest interview. More About: Radio , Internet , Inter , Take , Internet radio 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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