Articles Posted in December, 2007

Here is the California companion to my Washington State post.

Good starting points for California legal research:

1) When in doubt about where to start your research, ask a public law librarian: Council of California County Law Libraries (see especially their Self-Help and Legal Links)

A local lawyer blawger (Insurance Coverage Blog), Portland attorney David Rossmiller, is profiled in the Wall Street Journal Online. Bet you wouldn’t have thought insurance law could be so interesting.

If you research local government law and haven’t yet explored the growing collection at the University of Oregon Scholars’ Bank, now is the time. The Cities collection is here and the Counties one here.

You will also find other treasures, such as this Oregon Practice Materials annotated bibliography. Click on the view/open option to see the PDF.

This is dry stuff, but maybe not if you are a party to a case and federal regulations rule. But how do you find the CFR Appendices online? See the Ross-Blakely Law Library blog post on Hidden Appendices and Supplements, for a handy research tip on searching CFR at GPO Access.

Thanks also to Tom Mighell for his Inter Alia Blawg of the Day service (priceless!), where I found this link and many others – fun ones too.

Conversion and coupon information from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), including Coupon Rules.

Your tax dollars at work: for a Countdown of the days, hours, minutes, and seconds to the conversion, visit the DTV Transition web page.

(And thanks to the Wisconsin State Law Librarians for the idea and links for this post. They have a terrific monthly newsletter, with information useful even for those of us who don’t live is beautiful Wisconsin.)

Law librarian listserves and websites are a never-ending source of valuable, entertaining, and illuminating information:

“How the sixth amendment guarantees you the right to a lawyer, a fair trial, and a chamber pot,” by Robert McWhirter and published in the Arizona Attorney, is all of those and more.

(Thanks to a federal circuit court librarian for the lead and to the Arizona Attorney for making the article publicly accessible!)

A new Bedsworth! Justice Bedsworth goes to Ashland, Oregon, and beyond to comment on the entertainment value of being an elected local government official.

Excerpt from the December 2007 issue of the OC Lawyer Magazine:

“… But for truly unique entertainment, nothing beats a city council. A city council meeting is what would have happened if Abbott and Costello had met not Frankenstein but Edward R. Murrow. Try to imagine a play written by Geoffrey Chaucer, Eddie Izzard and Jar Jar Binks alternating every third word and you’ll start to get the flavor.”

It’s early days yet, but here’s what we know so far …

Two tiny computers, two bibliophile computers, $200 difference:

Different origins/manufacturers, different target users, but same outcome: an electronic device for readers and students, who roam, explore, and perhaps discover Nirvana.

Do you need weather-related school, road, bridge closings? Here is one I have found fairly useful, though there are others no doubt. Portland Emergency Info (PDXInfo dot net) is back in action after a long lull. Welcome to Winter in the Northwest.

But don’t look for Trimet announcements at PDXInfo; they didn’t participate last year and we aren’t holding our breath this year. You will need to go here to find out if your bus or train has broken down, though you may know it before they do.