Articles Posted in March, 2010

Steve Duin had an interesting column in the March 30, 2010, Oregonian, (dated 3/29/10 on the website) about student internships and he makes a point few know, i.e. there are laws about such things. And one of the Commenters makes another important point, about the role of the educational institution that set up the internship, though sometimes there is no “middle-man” and the intern needs to do his or her own research.

“The insidious rise in unpaid internships can run afoul of federal guidelines,” by Steve Duin, The Oregonian, March 29, 2010

Excerpt: ‘A good friend of my daughter’s asked for my advice last week about an internship ….
The six-month internship required that this college grad spend 20 hours a week building the online issue of the monthly magazine, writing stories, editing video, cropping photographs, crafting headlines and formatting the events calendar….
…
Those internships abound when the economy is flat-lining because companies take advantage of young workers who decide an additional entry on the resume is better than another summer with the Xbox.

If the law is about anything, it is about revenge and forgiveness. It is, of course, about more than that, but underneath much of the law’s most intractable problems (not uncommonly found in areas of immigration, criminal law, and torts, to name only 3) you will usually find these two instincts, which may be more primal than you once thought:

Speaking of Faith guest Michael McCullough, author of “Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct” with host Krista Tippett, in their Sunday, March 28th, 2010, interview:

“Michael McCullough describes science that helps us comprehend how revenge came to have a purpose in human life. At the same time, he stresses, science is also revealing that human beings are more instinctively equipped for forgiveness than we’ve perhaps given ourselves credit for. Knowing this suggests ways to calm the revenge instinct in ourselves and others and embolden the forgiveness intuition.” (Link to full website.)

On the day that Richard Serrano will be sentenced to death by a judge and jury, March 16, 2010:

OPB’s Think Out Loud will broadcast the program “Oregon’s Death Row“: “A jury unanimously found that Ricardo Serrano should be put to death for murdering Melody Dang and her two sons. Washington County Circuit Court Judge Steven Price will formally sentence Serrano on Tuesday. Serrano is poised to become the 33rd man on Oregon’s death row. If history is any guide, he’ll be likely to stay there for a while….” (Link to Oregon’s Death Row.)

Think Out Loud programs are also aired weekday evening at 9 p.m. on OPB radio (and you can find their archives at their website).