Oregon Legal Research Blog

The April 27th Roseburg News-Review reports:

“Electric car company financier arrested for fraud“

“A California man who negotiated to buy a Roseburg company working to bring an electric car manufacturing plant to Sutherlin turned out to be a con man, law enforcement authorities say.Randall Bert Foshie, 57, was arrested earlier this month by the FBI at his home in Roseville, northeast of Sacramento. He is being held on federal charges of wire and mail fraud.Foshie is accused of carrying out a scheme to defraud investors by asking for up-front “commitment fees” in order to secure loans that Foshie agreed to finance. After collecting the fees, Foshie never made good on providing funding, federal officials said.”

From the April 27th Albany Democrat-Herald:

“LUBA overturns Tangent decision“

‘The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals has struck down the city’s approval of Mel Brush’s application to bring his 84-acre farm into the city and build houses on it.Brush said he and his attorneys likely will appeal the decision to the Oregon Court of Appeals. They have 21 days from Wednesday, when LUBA announced its decision, to file.

From the Ashland Mail Tribune, April 27th:

“Rift: Proposed charter changes are dividing Ashland“

“Charges that the town’s crown jewel, Lithia Park, and its municipal water could be sold to private interests have cast shadows over a three-year-long attempt by city officials to adopt a new, modernized city charter.

For some reason the subject of municipal courts, their jurisdiction, appeals from, and their judges keeps popping up these past couple of weeks. I was scanning the newspapers from around the state and this story from the April 27th Daily Astorian jumped out: “Astoria DUII falls under the radar: City prosecutor won’t appeal May 11 drunken driving dismissal”

“Get arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants in Warrenton, and you’ll likely face the charge in Clatsop County Circuit Court, a “court of record” held to state standards of judicial conduct.But get caught across Youngs Bay Bridge in Astoria, and the outcome in the city’s municipal court is more debatable.”

Interesting story.

The most popular reference question people ask librarians, both law and public librarians, is “is it legal?” Is it legal for me to copy this DVD, is it legal for me to evict my roommate, is it legal for the kennel to refuse to take my dog, is it legal for my HOA to remove my “vote for x” sign from my front lawn, is it legal for me to have sex with my friend, is it legal for me not to pay this bill, is it legal for the hospital to stop treatment as soon as they find out I don’t have insurance, is it legal for my employer to tell me I can’t have time off to do volunteer work, etc., etc., etc.

The most common variation on the “is it legal” question is the “can s/he do that to me?” question. “S/he” may be a landlord, an employer, a partner, a bus driver, a parent, a teacher, a traffic cop, etc. and sometimes it is prefaced with variations on “s/he done me wrong.” Apart from the fact that I always itch to say, “don’t you mean ‘is it LAWFUL?’” (but I don’t do that because snarkiness isn’t nice and besides I know what the person means and mostly because I really admire people who are brave enough to come into a law library – it is a very intimidating place), I am also full of wonder at how many people live on the edge of lawfulness and unlawfulness. My life just isn’t that exciting. Maybe I have to work on that.

Anyway, I bet public librarians get this “is it legal?” question much more than law librarians, though I have no facts to back this up – but librarians can make themselves really believable at times (trust me). Our credibility comes from all our practice solemnly swearing that “yes, I too would wear that tin foil hat, but our evil bosses who are in cahoots with the All Powerful won’t let us.” Follow this up with a loud sigh, and after a brief interval (librarians learn about this Magic Interval in Library School) we then perk up and ask, “now, how may I help you today?”

I know some of you already look at these two excellent, fun, practical, and timely legal web sites, but for those of you who do not, check them out:

Future Lawyer: This posting caught my eye today: “What happens when the software licenses are more expensive than the computer they run on? If you have a medium to large law firm, what are you going to spend on new Vista operating systems, and licenses for Microsoft Office.” The direct link to the article is here.

My Shingle: “If you had 20 hours of law student time this summer, how would you spend it? And if you’re a law student, what would make you want to take a job with a solo?” Permalink here.

PI Buzz links to a useful selection of real estate glossaries.

Another useful TVC (The Virtual Chase) link: “Conducting Research on Non-Profit Cos“. It links to this April 4th, Bill Smith, BusinessJournalism.org article: Key Areas to Explore in Form 990s.

You can search for 990’s and other free information on non-profits here and here.

The April 20th Virtual Chase has links to lots of interesting and practical tips for lawyers. If you need to find an FEIN or Martindale-Hubbell via Amazon and much more. Check out all of their April postings and even their TVC (The Virtual Chase) home page.