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Posted on November 20, 2009 at 04:20 am

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My new Washington Examiner column is up. Posted on November 22, 2009 at 09:53 pm

If you've been waiting for a guest of the show to talk more quickly than Andrew Breitbart, then yesterday was your day. Hugh interviewed Ann McElhinney, an absolute Irish dynamo who is the director and producer of "Not... Posted on November 21, 2009 at 01:40 pm

As of yesterday afternoon, ReverseTheVote.org had raised more than $90,000 from more than 1,600 donors in three days, all of which will go to fund GOP challengers to vulnerable Democratic Congressmen who voted for... Posted on November 21, 2009 at 06:57 am

The following Early Day Motion was tabled on 18 November 2009 by Lynne Jones MP: 83 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LEGISLATION AND ROYAL HOUSEHOLD 18:11:09 Lynne Jones Norman Baker Mr Ian Davidson Mr Gordon Prentice Dr Doug Naysmith That this House disagrees with the proposed removal of the public interest test for access through the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to information held by public authorities relating to the Royal Household's function and activities, and with the blanket ban on accessing... Posted on November 19, 2009 at 08:18 am by Katherine Gundersen

Number 10 website 17 Nov 2009 The Prime Minister has announced that the public will have more access to Ordnance Survey maps from next year, as part of a government drive to open up data to improve transparency. Communities and Local Government website Read more about the Make Public Data Public project Gordon Brown said the government and Ordnance Survey, Great Britain's national mapping agency, will open up the data relating to electoral and local authority boundaries, postcode areas and... Posted on November 19, 2009 at 05:05 am by Katherine Gundersen

Remarks by President Obama at Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai, 16 November 2009: None of this was easy. But we made progress because of our belief in those core principles, which have served as our compass through the darkest of storms. That is why Lincoln could stand up in the midst of civil war and declare it a struggle to see whether any nation, conceived in liberty, and "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" could long endure. That is why Dr. Martin Luther King could... Posted on November 17, 2009 at 02:00 am by Katherine Gundersen

I am sitting on a "weather-delayed" (or could it be the delay caused by the massive computer glitch, here?) flight from Austin to Houston IAH, hoping to get there in time to board my flight from Houston to New Orleans. I need to be in New Orleans TONIGHT, because I'm testifying in a court case tomorrow morning. When I called Continental to see what it could do if I missed my connection, the customer agent (yes, I've omitted the word "service"--intentionally) told me that all other flights were... Posted on November 19, 2009 at 08:38 am by Nancy Rapoport

I'm hearing through the grapevine that some of my law students were unhappy with the grades that they received on their group papers this semester. I told them to find a movie with legal ethics issues and write about those issues. (Sneaky way to reinforce what they're learning, eh?) The good news: for the most part, they did good work analyzing the ethics issues in the movies. The bad news: most of them made proofreading and grammatical mistakes. The statistics: because virtually every group... Posted on November 18, 2009 at 10:27 pm by Nancy Rapoport

The SuperLawyers law school rankings are out (see here for a leak of the results). As I predicted (here), older and bigger schools did well; younger and smaller schools (except for Yale, which counts as "older") did poorly. I had emailed SuperLawyers to find out if its methodology was going to factor age and size of school into account. The folks there were very nice, but noncommittal--and you can see for yourself that the results show what I'd predicted. Speaking of nice, I had occasion to... Posted on November 17, 2009 at 01:21 am by Nancy Rapoport

This is episode 20 of the UK's only Freedom of Information podcast by information lawyer Ibrahim Hasan (www.informationlaw.org.uk) In the three months upto the end of October 2009 the Information Commissioner published 132 decisions whilst the Information Tribunal published 11. In this episode Ibrahim discuses decisions on: &#xe2€&#xa2 Information contained in publication schemes &#xe2€&#xa2 Marks on documents and whether they constitute information &#xe2€&#xa2 Vexatious requests &#xe2€&#xa2 Section 35 and disclosure of... Posted on November 20, 2009 at 11:40 am

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to episode 19 of the UK's only Freedom of Information podcast. I'm Ibrahim Hasan. In the three months upto the end of July 2009 the Information Commissioner published seventy four decisions whilst the Information Tribunal published thirteen. I'm here to guide you through some of these. In this episode, amongst others, we will be discussing decisions on: &#xe2€&#xa2 Fees and the aggregation rules &#xe2€&#xa2 Request for information about land &#xe2€&#xa2 Court records and section 32 &#xe2€&#xa2... Posted on September 26, 2009 at 04:00 am

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to episode 18 of the UK's only Freedom of Information podcast. I'm Ibrahim Hasan. In March and April 2009 the Information Commissioner published seven seven decisions whilst the Information Tribunal published eleven. I'm here to guide you through some of these. In this episode, amongst others, we will be discussing decisions on: &#xe2€&#xa2 Information held with a view to publication &#xe2€&#xa2 Disclosure of CCTV footage of the 7th July Bombers &#xe2€&#xa2 The definition of court records... Posted on May 28, 2009 at 12:57 pm

In the summer of 2007, the president of the Ontario Association of Parliamentarians was injured in a serious car accident. Over the past year and a half, in my role as vice-president, I've been helping her to carry the load. Tonight, however, at a special meeting of the board of directors, her resignation from office was accepted and I therefore become president. It is important to note that even when an association's by-laws are silent, when the office of president becomes vacant, the... Posted on January 19, 2009 at 05:48 pm by Dan Lynch

As of January 18, my parliamentary consulting business, formerly known as Dan Lynch, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, is now called Raplyn Consulting. This represents the third major change to the business in the last three months. First, on October 20, after resigning from my day job, I began working full-time rather than part-time in the profession. And second, on November 1, I relocated the business from Waterloo to Toronto, in order to be closer to my current and potential clients.... Posted on January 18, 2009 at 12:41 pm by Dan Lynch

Over the past few months, I have been working to develop a new name and branding strategy for my business. In the coming weeks, this will finally be realized, in both the physical world and here on the Internet. The new name of my parliamentary business will be Raplyn Consulting. The word "Raplyn" doesn't mean anything in particular, but was formed by combining some last names within my family. The new logo and stationery were designed by a professional logo design firm, and I think they look... Posted on December 18, 2008 at 11:45 am by Dan Lynch

On October 17, the Institute for Law and Politics will co-sponsor the University of Minnesota Law Review's annual symposium at the law school. The event is scheduled to take place following the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, and prior to the general election. The discussion will examine the ways in which political factors increasingly affect the development of the law, and will feature two keynote speakers: D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh and New Republic Columnist Benjamin... Posted on September 25, 2008 at 02:54 pm

With all the media and political coverage in Minnesota surrounding the DNC and RNC Conventions, you may have missed that Tuesday, September 9th is Primary Election Day in Minnesota. If you are an eligible Minnesota voter, you can register to vote at your polling place on election day. To find your polling place, check the Secretary of State's website. Enjoy the Law and Politics Blog? Subscribe to our RSS Feed Posted on September 8, 2008 at 08:25 pm

You are invited to a live taping of "Washington Week" with Gwen Ifill on August 29 at the University of Minnesota. The University of Minnesota Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, along with the AARP are sponsoring this opportunity to participate in PBS's national political news show. Friday August 29, 2008 Ted Mann Concert Hall Seating from 2:45 PM - 3:15 PM Taping starts at 3:30 PM Free tickets available at: [www1.umn.edu] The panelists will be: Michele Norris of National Public... Posted on August 20, 2008 at 08:23 pm

Esta semana ha sido noticia el caso del profesor que, por hacer copiar a una alumna cien veces "debo hacer lo que me manden" y confinarla sola al fondo de la clase, ha sido sometido a juicio penal por la acusaci&#xc3&#xb3n particular del abogado del padre de la alumna que solicit&#xc3&#xb3 su condena por [...] Posted on November 21, 2009 at 10:00 pm by Sevach

Ayer el Parlamento asturiano tuvo un debate sobre el posible abuso de "contratos de alta direcci&#xc3&#xb3n" por parte de la Administraci&#xc3&#xb3n auton&#xc3&#xb3mica y por el sector p&#xc3&#xbablico auton&#xc3&#xb3mico. Se trata nuevamente de la utilizaci&#xc3&#xb3n pol&#xc3&#xadtica de la cr&#xc3&#xadtica a los contratos de alta direcci&#xc3&#xb3n pese a que todos los partidos pol&#xc3&#xadticos, [...] Posted on November 19, 2009 at 10:35 pm by Sevach

Eso debi&#xc3&#xb3 pensar el Alcalde de un peque&#xc3&#xb1o municipio castellano-leon&#xc3&#xa9s cuando el 14 de Octubre de 2009 recibi&#xc3&#xb3 la notificaci&#xc3&#xb3n de la concesi&#xc3&#xb3n por la Comunidad Aut&#xc3&#xb3noma de una subvenci&#xc3&#xb3n para la mejora de un camino p&#xc3&#xbablico, y en la misma se fijaba en t&#xc3&#xa9rminos imperativos una doble condici&#xc3&#xb3n que no me resisto [...] Posted on November 18, 2009 at 10:17 pm by Sevach

In a recent Ethics Opinion, the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee authorized blogging by judges. The Ethics Opinion advises, however, that any judge that engages in blogging should consider posting a disclaimer that the opinions expressed are only those of the author and should not be imputed to other judges and should outline constraints that the judge is subject to in order to avoid ex parte communication. See our October 23, 2009 blog entry regarding the City of Federal Way v. Koenig case... Posted on November 20, 2009 at 04:58 pm

The Kitsap Sun recently reported that on October 28, 2009, the Kitsap County Parks and Recreation Department's blog (launched September 8, 2009 and hosted on a County intern's Facebook site) was taken down. According to the article, the decision to take the blog down stemmed partially from the electronic records management advisory issued by the Secretary of State's office. See our November 4, 2009 blog posting for more information regarding the advisory. The other reasons cited include the... Posted on November 10, 2009 at 10:13 am

The Washington State Archives recently published a records management advice sheet entitled "Electronic Records Management: Blogs, Wikis, Facebook, Twitter & Managing Public Records" that provides guidance to state and local government agencies regarding the retention of public records of posts to social networking websites such as blogs, wikis, Facebook, and Twitter. The advice sheet provides five (5) factors for agencies to consider when managing the retention of public records created or... Posted on November 4, 2009 at 05:12 pm

Can you believe it? It's that time of year again where turkeys head for the hills and people head for the airports. It's the busiest travel time of the year and a time when people who rarely fly, or have never flown, take to the skies, so we wanted to provide some clarification and tips for those who might come to the blog looking for some information. Here's some guidance related to the most common questions we've been hearing lately. Please remember that each time our officers have to search... Posted on November 20, 2009 at 09:23 am by Bob

It's been a while since we talked about IDs and what happens if you lose or forget your ID on the way to the airport. With the busiest travel time of the year quickly approaching, I thought it would be wise to do a quick refresher on the subject. So, what if you show up at a TSA checkpoint and you can't find your ID? Does that mean you won't fly? Nope&#xe2€&#xa6 You'll still be able to fly as long as you provide us with some information that will help us determine you are who you say you are. Verifying... Posted on November 16, 2009 at 07:39 am by Bob

We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." - Winston Churchill Veterans Day is a time to remind our nation to reflect on all of the people who served and sacrificed as members of the United States military and thank them for that service. From the battles of Lexington and Concord to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this nation has always had a strong core of people who were willing to serve, fight, and... Posted on November 10, 2009 at 12:51 pm by Bob

The 2009 Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual is available. It is effective as of November 1, 2009.[The manual] is available in HTML and Adobe .PDF formats (large file and broken into chapters), which can be viewed, downloaded or printed via the website. Posted on November 20, 2009 at 02:47 am by Lucie

Via Telegraph.co.uk, the following is a list of Best Green Websites providing online advice to help to live green, buy green, and change the world.RecycleNowWhatDoTheyKnowTheHungerSiteBlackleFixMyStreetWorldchangingBBC BloomKarmaWishDo-itFreeRice Posted on November 17, 2009 at 04:29 am by Lucie

The 2009 Annual Report is available in 15 languages.In this publication the reader will find the latest facts, figures and trends on drugs in Europe, collected in the annual report of the EU drugs agency, the EMCDDA. The report offers an overview of the drug situation across the 27 EU Member States, Croatia, Turkey and Norway, and details the current legal, political, social and health responses. Posted on November 17, 2009 at 04:11 am by Lucie

Other topics in this post: Real World Experience: Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD Real World Experience: Clay Shirky The Online Health Forum launched on October 28th on the FACA Blog to elicit comments and opinions on your Health IT adoption experience (or your plans for EHR adoption). Thank you for your active participation, with nearly 200 posts to date and over 10,000 "hits." True to the spirit of our Open Government philosophy, many of you extended the conversation throughout a number of more... Posted on November 19, 2009 at 05:27 am by Aneesh Chopra

As the HIT Standards Committee and its various Workgroups listen to the experience and advice of practitioners, standards experts, clinical system vendors and technological wizards and contemplate what recommendations to make to the Office of the National Coordinator, we often turn to look at what works in the real world as an anchor. One of the earliest principles the Committee embraced is that the standards being recommended should be in actual use - to be not only adoptable but adopted. An... Posted on November 9, 2009 at 06:56 am by Dr. Marc Overhage

Since May of 2009, a Federal Advisory Committee called the HIT Standards Committee (HITSC) has been identifying standards that will help stakeholders select and meaningfully use electronic health record (EHR) systems. What is a standard? A standard (per the definition of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel) specifies a well-defined approach that supports a business process and: (1) has been agreed upon by a group of experts; (2) has been publicly vetted; (3) provides rules,... Posted on October 30, 2009 at 06:41 am by Dr. John Halamka

/**/ [UK] Develin, Kate, "NHS whistleblower 'sacked for revealing dumped x-ray scans'," Telegraph.co.uk, November 14, 2009. Dr Otto Chan, a consultant radiologist, believes that he was labelled a troublemaker after the revelations about the Royal London. He claims that hospital bosses decided to get rid of him and that his dismissal has left him unable to get another job in the health service. He is suing the hospital for loss of earnings, future earnings and pension.Click here to read more.... Posted on November 16, 2009 at 08:25 pm

The CIA has decided to pay Richard Horn $3 million for a unique settlement of a fifteen (15) year-old spying case. The government not only wants Horn to dismiss the case and release the CIA and State Department officials who spied on him, but the government also wants Horn to promise that he will not oppose the government's motion to vacate the judge's prior orders finding that former CIA Director George Tenet committed a "fraud on the court." Having reviewed the settlement agreement, the... Posted on November 12, 2009 at 01:03 pm

/**/ [Russia] Humphries, Conor, "Russia fires police YouTube whistleblower," Reuters, November 8, 2009. A junior Russian policeman was fired on Sunday after making a YouTube appeal to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accusing senior officers of corruption, a claim dismissed by authorities as false, news agencies reported. The policeman from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk last week posted a seven-minute clip that accused senior officers of forcing him to work weekends and solve imaginary... Posted on November 9, 2009 at 12:07 pm

Posted By: Dwight Merriam, Partner, Robinson & Cole, LLP Those of us whose professional lives are inextricably linked to the real estate development economy in one way or another have had plenty of time in the last year to twiddle our thumbs and attempt to figure out what the heck happened. This much we know - [...] Posted on November 9, 2009 at 01:41 pm by imlablog

Posted By: Dwight Merriam, Partner, Robinson & Cole, LLP My favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz, so I couldn't help but notice the decision of the Kansas Supreme Court yesterday on a wind energy issue in Wabaunsee County. Zimmerman v Wabaunsee County. Wabaunsee County is in the eastern part of the state 30 miles west of Topeka. [...] Posted on October 31, 2009 at 08:22 am by imlablog

Posted By: Dwight Merriam, Partner, Robinson & Cole, LLP Lyrics: Lawrence Wagner Music: Elliot Ingber (on the soundtrack of "Easy Rider") Chorus Don't bogart that joint my friend Pass it over to me Don't bogart that joint my friend Pass it over to me Roll another one Just like the other one You've been holding on to it And I sure will like a hit [chorus] Roll another [...] Posted on October 26, 2009 at 02:08 pm by imlablog

/**/ In its latest move in the "net neutrality" debate, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in late October 2009 that breaks from the FCC's historically restrained approach to Internet regulation and proposes a host of new prohibitions and requirements on broadband providers. While some have praised the move as a necessary means to ensure continuing investment in innovative content and competition in the Internet access market, others have... Posted on November 2, 2009 at 10:12 am

On August 28, 2009, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion in Comcast Corporation v. FCC, which vacated the FCC's 30% limit on the number of subscribers to which a cable operator could offer service. The 30% cap, created in 1993, was initially intended to promote competition in the cable television market and increase consumer access to diverse network programming. In 1993, however, the cable television market was dominated by large companies that had... Posted on September 10, 2009 at 07:42 am

A broad coalition of telecommunications companies and organizations has called upon President-elect Barack Obama to prioritize broadband deployment and stimulate investment in broadband services. This large coalition - which includes AT&T, Verizon, Google, Alcatel-Lucent, organizations representing the cable and wireless industries, organizations representing state and local governments, as well as consumer groups - emphasizes both infrastructure deployment and demand stimulation to foster... Posted on December 18, 2008 at 06:31 pm

The statutory amendments to the Texas Nursing Practice Act as proposed by House Bill 3961 came into effect on September 1, 2009. The Amendments were largely suggested by the Texas Board of Nursing's executive staff and attorneys in an effort to circumvent difficulties they were experiencing prosecuting disciplinary and licensure cases involving the nursing practice of Registered Nurses (RN's), Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVN's) and Advanced Practice Nurses (APN's) such as CRNA's or Clinical... Posted on September 2, 2009 at 07:39 am

Recently I have been the attorney of record in nursing license defense matters against the Texas Board of Nursing for a number of registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses (RN & LVN Practice) in cases where a low level EtG test is in issue despite clear indications that these test results are inadequate proof of deliberate consumption of ethyl alcohol (ETOH). Thus the formal charge by the BON is unsupported by adequate admissible evidence and should not be the basis for the... Posted on August 22, 2009 at 11:09 am

In cases involving possible alcohol/controlled substance abuse or mental health issues, the Texas Board of Nursing frequently asks nurses to submit to a forensic psychological evaluation and polygraph examination. This standard letter also contains a list of pre-approved evaluators and polygraph examiners. Any nurse who receives such a request should immediately stop and call an attorney with experience practicing before the Texas Board of Nursing. The psychologists and psychiatrists referenced... Posted on August 14, 2009 at 03:14 pm

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA), also known as the Financial Bailout Law, authorizes the U.S. Department of the Treasury to spend up to $700 billion to secure the national economy. However, the Treasury Department has and will spend much of that money without following the long-established rules that govern more typical government procurements, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The Treasury Department's implementation of the EESA has been a fluid process, with... Posted on April 14, 2009 at 10:41 am

Today marks the launch of our Government Contracts blog. It coincides, more or less, with President Obama's March 4, 2009 memo launching his Government Contracting initiatives. On their face, the initiatives are nothing new. They really just ask Office of Management and Budget to develop some guidance on various contracting topics. Still, the President has given us a good idea of his preferences. He doesn't like sole source contracts. He likes competition. He doesn't like cost-reimbursement... Posted on April 8, 2009 at 11:34 am

On March 4, 2009, President Obama signed a memorandum that tasks the heads of all executive agencies with ensuring that the Federal Government will perform its functions efficiently and effectively while ensuring that its actions result in the best value for taxpayers. The memo creates a critical issue for government contractors: it suggests that the President may be inclined to have the Federal workforce, as opposed to private contractors, perform a greater portion of the Government's work,... Posted on April 7, 2009 at 11:41 am

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 today to issue an order imposing regulatory controls on the Internet. The ruling concerns a network management technique used by Comcast for its high-speed Internet service that had the effect of giving slightly lower priority to some peer-to-peer (P2P) upload sessions so that the latency-sensitive applications of the vast majority of its Internet customers would remain uninterrupted. The Commission ruled that the practice-which Comcast previously... Posted on August 1, 2008 at 10:35 pm by DWT

April 2008: DTV transition education notice mandatory Beginning in late April 2008, all cable television operators will be required to provide specific customer notices in monthly bills to educate customers about the digital television (DTV) transition. All cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) should take immediate steps to comply with the notification requirements outlined in this post. Full-power television stations are scheduled to transition from... Posted on March 31, 2008 at 08:02 pm by DWT

Posted on March 17, 2008 at 10:42 pm by Admin

On June 21, 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada released a decision dismissing the appeal of the City of London (the "City") from a decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in respect of an interim control by-law (the "By-law") that had been challenged by RSJ Holdings Inc. ("RSJ") for illegality. In order to address the concerns of a group of residents living around Richmond Street about an increase of student housing in their neighbourhood, the City passed the By-law in January 2004, thereby... Posted on June 25, 2007 at 08:54 pm

The Ministry of the Environment ("MOE") posted the final regulations for Bill 133 on the Environmental Bill of Rights ("EBR") on June 8, 2007. The Environmental Penalties ("EP") regulations are included. They can be found on the MOE weblink below. Attached is a slide presentation from the MOE explaining the changes between the draft regulations which were issued in October 2006 and these final regulations. The final regulations are somewhat less punitive than they were in draft; although, they... Posted on June 12, 2007 at 03:44 pm

Effective September 1, 2007, the 2001 Liquid Fuels Handling Code published by the Technical Standards & Safety Authority (the "TSSA") will be revoked and replaced with the "Liquid Fuels Handling Code 2007". According to the TSSA press release, the major changes between the 2001 code and the 2007 code are as follows: A new section on leak detection that contains information derived from Section 4.4 of the National Fire Code of Canada 2005; A revised environmental section that makes reference... Posted on June 7, 2007 at 01:39 pm