This story in the Statesman Journal is accompanied by a list of the bills “In the Pipeline,” “Still Brewing,” and “In Limbo or Dead”:
Measure 57 key to ending the 2009 session, Issue keeps budgets of public-safety agencies in limbo, by Peter Wong • Statesman Journal, June 21, 2009.
Landlord-Tenant Law and Legislation:
The U.S. Supreme Court case on special education in Forest Grove, Oregon, is:
Forest Grove School Dist. v. T.A., decided: 6/22/09, No. 08-305, which you can find at the Court’s opinion’s website, 2008 Term.
Sleepy radio listeners have long muttered “WHAT hour?” at radio announcers who say, “it is 10 minutes past the hour.” (Would it be so hard to say, it is 10 minutes past 7 a.m. in San Francisco? Public radio listeners are smart enough to figure out what time it is then in Indianapolis. Radio announcers also play this game with the stock market. “The Dow Jones went up 13 points today.” TO WHAT, pray tell?!)
And newspaper readers (especially lawyers and law librarians) have long muttered, “WHICH statute?” at newspaper reporters who write, “a 1999 statute ….” WHICH STATUTE?!
Recent stories in the newspapers keep saying, “a 1999 statute” changed the law in Oregon [about religion as a defense when parents withhold medical treatment from their child] without otherwise identifying WHICH statute. For the record: it is this statute:
From the Law Writing Prof Blog:
Northwest Regional Legal Writing Conference in Portland – August 28-29, 2009
“Lewis & Clark Law School and the University of Oregon School of Law are pleased to announce their joint sponsorship of the 2009 Northwest Regional Legal Writing Conference. Because of that sponsorship, the conference will have no registration fee.
As is the case for any vocation or avocation, the law is filled with Words that make us go huh! in the night (but not with this huh and surely not to be confused with d’oh, unless you use the Word incorrectly while speaking to a judge in a crowded courtroom).
We’re not talking about those legal Latin words and phrases that can make even (especially) legal writing gurus, who usually favor plain speaking and writing, roll their eyes.
There are many law dictionaries in the wide world of the web and there is a new edition of Black’s Law Dictionary on the horizon (the 9th, to be precise, though I sincerely doubt it will have the impact of Beethoven’s 9th symphony).
If you remember that Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book was about how to get Free Stuff, and stuff for free (beg, borrow, and steal), this blog post from the Beaverton (Oregon) City Library is better, much better – and you’ll stay on the side of the angels. No stealing, please. Scrounging, yes, but stealing, no.
I just saw that the print edition of the National Law Journal has a cover story about 18 USC 1346:
DOJ may rein in use of ‘honest services’ statute: Fraud statute up for review was key to many convictions, by Lynne Marek, June 15, 2009
I can write 18 USC 1346 without even looking at the article. In fact, you could nudge me awake in the 17th hour of an 18-hour flight and whisper “right to honest services” in my ear and I’d mumble 18 USC 1346 without hesitation – and then go right back to sleep. (I know. Very sad.)
This is Race for Justice weekend (Saturday, June 20, 2009), to raise money for the St. Andrew Legal Clinic (SALC), which serves low-income Oregonians in family law matters.
The Race for Justice really is a challenge! It’s a battle of Oregon law firms:
1) Bronze Sneaker Traveling Trophy!
2) Prevailing Parties!
3) The Markowitz Challenge: Bragging rights are on the line!
4) The Coulter Cup Family Law Challenge!
And more!
“Making a Difference: SALC helps bridge the gap for families who do not qualify for Legal Aid and can not afford to hire a private attorney. As a result of the legal representation that SALC provides, families have increased financial security, stay off of welfare and are overall more productive members of our society. And more children also grow up in positive and safe environments as a result of SALC’s intervention.
Cutting public sector budgets is a complex enterprise. Sometime cutting $$ out of a budget means cutting 2, 3, or 20 times the original $$ cut, e.g. when you cut a budget item and lose the matching funds or when you cut “officers of the state” positions (e.g. state police or state park rangers) and lose the revenue from licenses or law enforcement.
Sometimes it makes sense to spend money to make money, which can work in the public sector the same way this works in the private sector. For example:
Oregon has a variety of county, municipal, and justice courts. And now it has a new county justice court. Read the online Blue Book entry on justice court judges (or follow the OJD link). You can also read the state statutes on Justice Court: ORS, Chapter 51.010 et seq.
Clackamas County’s new Justice Court has a new Justice of the Peace: Oregon City attorney named Clackamas County judge, by Steve Mayes, The Oregonian, Monday June 15, 2009.
If you get your marriage license in one Oregon county and get married in another, where can you get a certified copy of your marriage license 30 years later?
This is a slightly different question from the one I answered a little while ago: How do I find out if someone in Oregon or Washington is married? But the research is similar – and the following information also applies to Domestic Partnership records.
1) Check the Oregon county where you got your marriage license (the issuing county), not the one where the ceremony was held. Or, preferably (assuming a certain passage of time), contact the Oregon Center for Health Statistics, where you will find the Oregon’s vital records office, the resting place for Oregon birth, marriage, divorce, and death records.
Oregon Legal Research Blog