Courts begin fining rural parents if children skip school: Education | adn.com

Courts begin fining rural parents if children skip school: Education | adn.com:

But "[a]ttendance rates show no dramatic trend over the past year."

I worked with kids for a few years in rural Alaska. It's weird how attendance rates vary by village. Also, truancy is a lot more complicated that simply not showing up to school, but enforcing school attendance rules is really the only tool the school has.

IMHO re: GTD

I found an "e-book" about the lawyer-version of "Getting Things Done." Like many useful things, it's common sense repackaged.

One of things I want to "get done" is blog. I make a hundred excuses to not blog. GTD inspired this post.

Click on the blog post title to get one. You'll need to sign up. 

Boxes for Free

I actually have a few more, too. 
Reply to Erin M. Lillie

I am a business-friendly Communist

Are We Overpaying Grandpa? - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com: "The total annual income in the United States (national income, as economists call it) is about $12.5 trillion, or about $40,000 per person per year.� The egalitarian view of government is that it taxes persons with annual incomes more than $40,000, and pays benefits to persons with less than $40,000, so that those with less than average incomes could enjoy living standards closer to the average."

Which got me thinking: what if we actually did that? What if we basically guaranteed every worker, say, about $40k per year? The only catch is, one would have to work to qualify, even a legal small business.

The nightmare scenario is a bunch of people doing as little as humanly possible, but still getting a bunch of money. But so what?

Think of it as a huge subsidy for small business: they would only have to pay minimum wage. Or, we could do away with the minimum wage.

I know this doesn't make any sense, because of inflation and etc, but it's a fun notion.

Timely example of non-OPTN organ donation

Stranger Saves Man's Life Through Internet Organ Donation

Under the NOTA, one can donate outside the network for matched-pair donations, which is essentially an exception to the prohibition against organ purchasing (as the exchanged organ for a third party is, in essence, "payment" for the donated organ).

Weekly timesheet: 2/15/2010

Right to business. All this from sticky notes and memory. (Also: this is net of all breaks & lolligagging; quality work time only.)

2/15: 8 hours.
3 hours of crim pro reading: federal statutory discovery requirements: less gamesmanship, more accuracy (& more legitimacy?).
1 hour IPLC meeting: new assignments; mine is unusual.

2/16: 8 hours.
3 hours writing IPLC memo about Native hire preferences (applies) and state civil rights law (doesn't apply); done.
5 hours in classes.

2/17: 8 hours.
3 hours new IPLC memo research about treaty rights (good) and pollution (bad); my new goal: most succinct memo ever.
2 hours crim pro reading: Brady & constitutional discovery requirements, especially materiality & the role of prosecution (from a defense-oriented prof).
1 hour: Journal cite checking review (only 6 thin binders, not 12 thick binders).
2 hours: ULWR research. Reread federal statute, regs, & policies about organ donation. Way better than reading a secondary. Next step: reading State laws. After that: secondary sources to check understanding.

2/18: 8 hours
2 hours crim pro reading, as above.
2 hours JML cite checking. Finished 1 binder.
2 hours crim pro class
2 hours ULWR research, as above.

2/19: 8 hours
4.5 hours JML cite checking. Finished 2 more binders.
3.5 hours: JML symposium. Mostly sitting around & chatting with people I already knew. I failed to network. I guess I assume it has no value, but I think experts say I'm wrong.

I set up a blog specifically to take notes while I do ULWR research on-line, which is how legal research is mainly done. I figure if I can do decent legal research and writing, I can free-lance forever.

Timesheet

I think this should be my newest feature. In an earlier post, I considered posting about the progress I'm making on my papers. Usually, though, I'm unhappy with the progress I make on my papers, or perhaps I don't want to disclose how little I actually accomplished on a given day. At any rate, I haven't posted about them until now. 

As for my main ULWR paper, it pains me - literally causes me physical anxiety to write this - but I haven't worked on my ULWR. This is the beast. I need to do it to graduate. So, it might be (almost certainly is) that I've placed a huge amount of pressure on myself to do this well. Naturally, it will pretty good. The question is: will it be very good? 

As to my ILPC paper that is actually due very soon, I worked on it for 8 hours today. I composed a decent full draft of about 3/4 of the paper. The remaining 1/4 is the important part: federal pre-emption, which is the (best?) friend of the enemy of state law. Try reconciling federal pre-emption with a plain reading of the 10th Amendment, and get back to me on that someday.

I worked on both papers for zero hours on Friday. Mainly, I took the dog for a walk and cleaned the house on Friday. I also watched the Olympics. 

So, here's the timesheet:

Tuesday:

2 hours: Criminal Procedure readings

3 hours: Worked on ILPC paper (research and writing blurbs)

5 hours: classes

Wednesday:

4 hours: Worked on ILPC paper

Thursday:

4 hours: worked on ILPC paper

2 hours: Criminal Procedure readings

2 hours: classes

Friday

2 hours: Walked the dog

Saturday

8 hours: Worked on ILPC paper (composing)

Ultra-curmudgeon: Like!

Conversations - Expert’s Advice - Stop Whining and Run Your Small Business - Question - NYTimes.com

Getting good people is 100 times more difficult than conventional wisdom says.

Yup. Of course, the subject of the interview is on his 3rd marriage, so he might not have the whole "happiness" thing worked out yet. Of course, his point is that you gotta do what it takes to make money, which is basically to focus totally on making money. Not exactly a fresh idea, but it sounds true to me.