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If you want an absorbing, fascinating, and fun book to read … if you want to sound (and possibly be even more) intelligent and well-informed when discussing health care systems around the world, and you don’t want to slog through zillions of pages in boring tomes, I highly recommend that you read:

T.R. Reid’s “The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care

This is a “I missed by bus stop!” sort of read (which is much better than saying, “whoops, I missed Minneapolis!”). Reid is a great researcher and storyteller (and very funny, at that – you might have enjoyed T.R. Reid’s other books or radio appearances.)

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The official start date for the 2010 Oregon Legislature’s Special Session will be posted on the Legislature’s webpage. The likely start date is Monday, February 1, 2010, but do check to make sure that isn’t changed.

On a related note, and at the risk of making the demand for their excellent reference service greater than the supply of Legislative Liaisons, I need to put another word of praise in for our Oregon Legislative Liaisons, who can be contacted at 503-986-1000 (phone number at bottom of the Legislature’s homepage).

If you need a quick (and even a not so quick) Legislative Question answered, they are your Go To People. For example, what about those questions you just can’t find quickly, or at all, on their website?

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There are lots of online home schooling resources and I’m highlighting only these two, both of which have good links to Oregon home schooling laws:

1) Oregon Department of Home Schooling

Home schooling is an alternative education option in Oregon. Parents who choose to home school their children must register at their local Education Service District (ESD). Curriculum and assignments are not provided by the state, however, testing is required at grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. Please review the guidelines, Q & A and laws and rules for more information on home schooling….” (link to full ODHS website)

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(The Law Librarian Blog has an interesting update to this story: What Would Professor Kingsfield Say? Conan O’Brien-NBC Contract Dispute Awakens Sleeping 1L Contract Students, posted, January 16, 2010.)

I read recently that “Conan’s Lawyers Screwed Up, Forgot To Specify “Tonight Show” Time Slot,” Henry Blodget, Jan. 11, 2010.

A lot of people exclaim “there ought to be a law,” but the reality is, in many instances, what people need is better contracts. From your condo/HOA bylaws, to your apartment lease, to employment contracts, to that CEO going-out-the-door sweetheart deal, to that prenuptial agreement, to your will, and on and on and on, it’s the words of the contract that matter.

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The January 13, 2010 Library Link of the Day featured this interesting story from the Center for the Study of the Public Domain:

What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2010? Under the law that existed until 1978 . . . Works from 1953

Excerpt: “…What might you be able to read or print online, quote as much as you want, or translate, republish or make a play or a movie from? How about Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel? Fleming published Casino Royale in 1953. If we were still under the copyright laws that were in effect until 1978, ….
….
Agatha Christie’s, A Pocket Full of Rye
Saul Bellow’s, The Adventures of Augie March
Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451
John Hunt’s, The Ascent of Everest
C.S. Lewis’s, The Silver Chair (the fourth book in The Chronicles of Narnia)
J.D. Salinger’s, Nine Stories
Leon Uris’s, Battle Cry
James Baldwin’s, Go Tell It On the Mountain
Ira Levin’s, A Kiss Before Dying ….” (link to full story and website)

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I too have a successful pro se litigant (in my public law library) who had these: “favorable facts, obsessive organization, and fearlessness.” As you’ll see from this Wall Street Journal article, it also takes a judge who is willing and able to see (and speak) when the emperor has no clothes. And in some cases with pro se litigants, it doesn’t hurt to have lawyers on the other side who rely more on muscle and tricks rather than on law. And of course, a little luck doesn’t hurt, either.

Nurse Outduels IRS Over M.B.A. Tuition: How One Woman Went to Tax Court and Won Deduction, by Laura Saunders, Wall Street Journal, Monday, January 11, 2010:

Excerpt: “A Maryland nurse accomplished two rare feats in her battle with the Internal Revenue Service: She defended herself against the agency’s lawyers and won, and she got a ruling that could help tens of thousands of students deduct the cost of an M.B.A. degree on their taxes….

Few taxpayers decide to go toe to toe with the IRS as Ms. Singleton-Clarke did, arguing her case without a lawyer. For good reason: In 2009, individuals won only about 10% of about 300 such cases, according to data from Tax Analysts. Ms. Singleton-Clarke fought her case in Tax Court, a venue where taxpayers don’t have to pay the contested tax before going to trial. The court has a special procedure for small cases….

Ms. Singleton-Clarke’s encounter with the tax system shows what it can take for one individual to prevail over the IRS against the long odds: favorable facts, obsessive organization, and fearlessness. She says she didn’t have a lawyer because she couldn’t afford one.

Both the IRS’s actions and her reactions are typical, says Christopher Bergin, president of Tax Analysts, a group that fights for tax-system transparency and since l972 has won a series of freedom-of-information cases against the IRS. “Without doing anything illegal, they muscled her. That’s what they do. The pressure can be terrifying,” he says….
(read full article)

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This could be a Traffic Week post, but it’s a new week and time to move on. That said, it’s hard to let go of the steering wheel:

Automobile Fraud and Unsafe Vehicles: How the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System Can Help You Protect Yourself, January 6th, 2010, by Tracy Russo:

Excerpt: “…[C]ar fraud can place unsuspecting consumers in unsafe vehicles….

Consumers can access critical nationwide total loss and salvage vehicle information on vehicles by visiting
www.vehiclehistory.gov. NMVTIS is the only publicly available system in the U.S. to which all insurance carriers, and auto recyclers, such as junk yards and salvage yards, are required, under federal law, to report to on a regular basis….” (link to full post)

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Welcome to the end of Traffic Week at the OLR Blog. Traffic law posts will appear throughout the year, but this is the end of my Traffic Week experiment.

Despite all efforts at smart driving, even the best amongst us will get a traffic ticket. I’m not sure I can do better than my Oregon Legal Research blog posts on Beat Your Ticket, Get Your Day in Court.

Happy Trails!

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From TACS, an Oregon organization that supports nonprofits:

We want to remind you of the deadline for an offer that may benefit your nonprofit:

Mobile Broadband offers Clear mobile and broadband internet service at a reduced price to nonprofits in their Portland and Salem coverage areas. Their offer includes unlimited usage for $10/month per account for up to 25 accounts and no implementation costs, with a one-year commitment and pre-payment. View the program brochure, calculate your cost (see link toward bottom left), or complete the simple online application.

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For my penultimate Traffic Week blog post, I give you these:

1) Transit musings: Try this transportation blog: Human Transit

2) Traffic law sometimes surprises: If you ever were in doubt about the truth of this statement, “if you read only what is written in the statutes and the constitutions you will be absolutely wrong about what the law is,” let the following be a wake-up call:

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