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Sunday’s Oregonian, 5/27/07, had two stories about two prosecutors, Norman Frink, Jr., a Multnomah County prosecutor and Mark Lindquist, a Pierce County, Washington, prosecutor (who will discuss his new book (“The King of Methlahem”) at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, Thursday, May 31st, at 7:30 p.m.)

Will the two prosecutors (one who reads widely and has a picture in his office of Meg Ryan and the other who writes novels and has a picture in his office of Kurt Cobain (if we are to believe the Oregonian writers, Anne Saker and Jeff Baker)) meet?

There isn’t a legal or other researcher who hasn’t gnashed teeth over the quality of indexes, print and online. I think the only scholars who don’t complain about their own discipline’s indexes are theologians (but then they have access to higher indexing powers than we mere mortals do :-).

Professional indexers work really hard, but need to earn a living and there isn’t a whole lot of R&D money out there to support them while they play at indexing, which is the only way we’ll get some real creativity going. As long as publishers (print and online) give short shrift to the quality of their indexes, not much is going to change.

Those of us who use Westlaw and Lexis are aware how dated these databases look and function and how these phenomenal data repositories are in need of some brave new Indexing Models. A librarian friend sent me this example of an unusual and effective archive/index – so incredibly simple too as many good indexes are, e.g. here and here (and even Edward Tufte might like it). We really should be at the beginning of a Renaissance of Indexing. I should live so long – sigh.

Artists need to know about the law, but they also need money: The Westside Cultural Arts Center is offering this class.

Not all pro se litigants make it through to an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court, but some do, like Jim Lubischer and his neighbors in Orenco. The Oregonian has written about the story here and here. Pursuing a lawsuit is a lot of work (and that is a huge understatement), especially when the plaintiffs aren’t attorneys and have everything to learn about the legal research, the law, and legal procedure.

From the Oregonian, May 23rd story, “Opponent of Orenco plan tries high court:”

‘If the court declines to review the case, Lubischer said he might explore taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

f/k/a yesterday (May 21st) has a post worth reading on elder law issues. Here’s an excerpt:

‘In yesterday’s New York Times article “Bilking the Elderly, With a Corporate Assist” (May 20, 2007), Charles Duhigg tells the shameful tale of how “Large companies are selling vast databases of personal information to thieves, despite evidence their services are used for fraud.” More often than not, the fraud is aimed at the elderly, who tend to be easy to find (at home), too-trusting, lonely enough to actuall enjoy chatting with telemarketers, and a little bit too desirous of striking it rich. The NYT article deserves a full perusal. You’ll learn how information brokers like infoUSA make millions of dollars selling information about people like you and me to shady characters seeking lists of victims. Indeed:

“Telemarketing fraud, once limited to small-time thieves, has become a global criminal enterprise preying upon millions of elderly and other Americans every year, authorities say. Vast databases of names and personal information, sold to thieves by large publicly traded companies, have put almost anyone within reach of fraudulent telemarketers. And major banks have made it possible for criminals to dip into victims’ accounts without their authorization, according to court records.”

In case you think the information-sellers don’t know how the information is being used, consider this paragraph from the article: …’ posted from: f/k/a

Winkelman (05-983) has been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court (on May 21st). Opinion here. Previous OLR posts on Winkelman are here.

St. Andrew Legal Clinic (SALC) will be collaborating with the Columbia County Legal Aid office to offer additional family law and legal counsel to low-income residents of Columbia County. An article in last week’s Chronicle (not yet online) announced the collaboration.

The initial clinic will be held Thursday, May 24th, between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., at the Columbia County Legal Aid office, 270 S. 1st Street, in St. Helens. To register, call 503-397-1608. (The phone number for the Columbia County Legal Aid office is 503-397-1628.) The Washington County SALC staff will provide the legal service.

I sometimes ask my neighbor teenager friends how they might punish someone for a particular crime or wrongdoing (they keep up with the news almost as much as I do). We’ve had some interesting discussions, though it probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that teenage boys are a bit more bloodthirsty than the average middle-aged law librarian. (I have great neighbor kids 🙂

Here is one type of creative punishment that’s been in the news lately – the Portland police officer who gives speeders a choice: a fine or another form of repentence/rehabilitation.

And here’s one librarian’s view of punishment for overdue books.

One Charter Review door closes (though not quite completely) in Portland and another one opens in Washington County.

A May 15th Wilsonville Spokesman story reports that a new regional office of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) has been set up in Wilsonville:

“The group known as MADD — Mothers Against Drunk Driving – has moved into its new headquarters for northern Oregon, ….

The office in Wilsonville will serve Oregon from Astoria to Baker City and from Portland to Corvallis. A separate affiliate office in Eugene serves the rest of Oregon.”