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Consumer Law & Debit Cards: Consumer Reports, November 2006 issue, has an excellent article on Debit Cards. I keep up with a lot of this stuff, but I learned a couple of new things from this article. It’s on page, 57 in the paper edition (which I subscribe to and you can probably also see at your local public library online or in print). You can also read it free (thank you Consumer Reports!) on their web site, here. If this direct link doesn’t work right for you, link to Consumer Reports and follow the Personal Finance links to an alphabetical list of articles, and look for one called “Debit Cards.” The article is called, “Debit Cards, Going Cashless, not Clueless.”

Press Conference on Net Neutrality at Powell’s: U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden will speak about Network Neutrality and the fight in Congress over the future of the Internet at a press conference on Wednesday in Portland. He’ll be joined by local business owners and concerned citizens, who will deliver more than 20,000 petitions from Oregon residents supporting Net Neutrality — the longstanding principle that ensures all Web sites and services are treated equally.

WHAT: Press Conference on “The Internet at Risk”
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 18, 11:15 a.m.
WHERE: Powell’s Books, 1005 W. Burnside, Portland
WHO: U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
Michael Powell, Powell’s Books
Alan Davidson, Google
Rich Bader, EasyStreet Online Services
Laura Etherton, OSPIRG
Bruce Fife, American Federation of Musicians and Oregon Alliance to Reform Media

FRIDAY THE 13TH ROUNDUP:

RSS in Law Firms, Courtroom Animation, etc.: Not all of you check Boley Blogs, but it’s worth it. The past couple of weeks have had links to great posts on uses for RSS in law firms, a history of courtroom animation, and more.

Zimmerman’s Legal Research Guide: Most law librarians know about Zimmerman’s Research Guide, which was around well before Lexis/Nexis picked it up, but not many other people do. It’s extremely useful and worth adding to your list of basic legal reference tools.

Oregon Supreme Court Rules on OSB Diversity Requirement: The Oregon State Bar (OSB) reports: “On Tuesday, October 10, 2006, the Supreme Court voted 5-1 to reject the Board of Governors’ proposal to amend the MCLE rules to delete the Elimination of Bias requirement.” The OSB links to this story in the Statesman Journal. (We will continue to check for any official announcement or transcript of the proceedings, but the OSB web site will likely post the most timely information.)

League of Oregon Cities: The League of Oregon Cities doesn’t call itself a blog but it is as useful as one. Right now, in addition to other news, it has a lot of good links to measures that will be on the November ballot.

Small Business Legal Clinic: I’m rushing around for the next few days so don’t yet have all the links for this story, but did want to pass the news along. Tuesday’s (10/3/06) Portland Tribune reported on the opening of a new clinic staffed by Lewis & Clark Law Students offering, “free and low-cost legal assistance to owners of small business.” The story reports that the grant funding is from the city and Portland Business Alliance. (There may be others – this was a tiny story, more a blurb, at the bottom of page 2.) Law librarians and public librarians field a lot of information requests from small businesses and this specialized expertise is most welcome. The clinic, Small Business Legal Clinic, is at 422 NW Everett, in Old Town, Portland (see , our neighborhoods are now part of our addresses – we love our neighborhoods).

Right next to this blurb was another story about the archives at the City Auditor’s office. There will be an open house at the Stanley Parr Archives & Records Center. This bodes well for online access to historical record.

My Summer Vacation and Intellectual Property Law: Is your 4th grade student essay on your summer vacation protected under intellectual property laws? The October 4, 2006, Library Link of the Day, links to a Washington Post story from McLean High School (Virginia?) where the students are challenging school officials who plan to turn over student work to Turnitin, a “a California company that specializes in catching cheaters” according to the article. (That is, it attempts to deter and detect plagiarism.) If nothing else, this is a great civics lesson for these students. They may learn more about the law, the constitution, and legal research than most of their elders. (Slashdot also posted on the story a few days ago.)

* Sometimes you do have to register to read the Washington Post. As of the writing of this post, however, I was able to link directly to the article without logging in.
** A link to the archives of Library Link of the Day (LLD) can be found at the bottom of the LLD home page.

Librarians and the Lottery: Never say law librarians don’t look after you. King County Law Library has always been terrific (and I’ve always wanted to do something like this for Oregon public librarians) and now they have this, a Research Guide for Lottery Winners. (So Pick Me a Winner already 🙂

Divorce and Children: See the Oct 3, Steve Duin Commentary, “Putting Children at the Center of the Solution” about the Multnomah County Child Centered Solutions nonprofit. (If it is no longer Oct 3rd, go to OregonLive, click on Columnists, and follow links to Steve Duin’s Oct 3rd, 2006, column – you will/may need to enter your zip code, etc.)

Estate Planning: You CAN Take it With You: This story from CNET News, Taking Passwords To the Grave, should give you more than pause. Interesting. Linked to from
Bruce Schneier’s blog. And, as always, read the comments to Bruce’s posting.