Teresa Schmid has written The Lawyer-Rent Seeker Myth and Public Policy. Here is the abstract: Two enduring fallacies in public policy are that lawyers are rent seekers who impair rather than stimulate the economy, and that there are too many of them. While lawyers may disagree with the first premise, they tacitly accept the second. […]
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by Paul Alan Levy Readers of this blog may recall that Brett Kimberlin has filed a defamation action against two dozen bloggers and other defendants; Public Citizen is in the case for the limited purpose of defending the anonymity of one of the bloggers. Since that blog post, there have been a number of developments, […]
Allison recently posted on the Obama Administration's excecutive order prohibiting government contractors from using forced arbitration in contracts with their employees in some circumstances. To watch a news story on the order, go here or click on the embedded video below. HT to Paul Bland.
Remember in March, when Senate Intelligence Committe Chair Dianne Feinstein took to the floor of the Senate to accuse the CIA of having hacked the computers of the committee, which was at the time investigating CIA abuses in the war on terror? At the time, CIA director John Brennan vehemently denied the charge. But this […]
Check out this troubling idea for an ad campaign: giving kids fake pill bottles filled with candy. Probably not encouraging the right associations. When confronted with this observation, the company, to its credit, agreed and stopped distributing the bottles. Consumerist has the story. A testament to the power of consumer speech to change minds and […]
by Ted Mermin (guest blogger — pictured to the right) Just a quick follow-up on Allison Zieve's post on the country-of-origin-labeling case decided yesterday by the DC Circuit. As Allison notes, the case addresses the constitutional standard under which government-mandated disclosures should be reviewed. In particular, the decision will affect the manifold federal administrative regulations […]
AP is reporting: "President Barack Obama is preparing to sign an executive order cracking down on labor violations by companies that contract with the federal government …. In a bid to allow potential victims to have their day in court, the president's order will also prohibit companies pursuing government contracts from requiring their workers to […]
Think back to when you took the bar exam. Now try to think how you would feel if after you finished, you were unable to submit the exam. That is exactly what happened yesterday for exam takers in as many as seventeen states. New law graduates in many states experienced a technology snafu […]
In 2002 and again in 2008, Congress enacted legislation requiring country-of-origin labeling (COOL) on certain foods, including meats. The 2008 statute defines country of origin as meaning, at least, where the animal has been born, raised, and slaughtered—the three major production steps. After the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a regulation to implement the […]
This article by Matt O'Brien is about the same study that Scott posted about yesterday. But it highlights a longer-term phenomenon — that the middle class has lost ground, not only in the recent past (because of the massive recession spurred by the mortgage meltdown), but over the last three decades: Nostalgia is just about […]