“According to State Health Facts, a project of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the total amount paid in medical-malpractice claims in 2009 was almost eight times higher in New York than Texas, with the average New York payment nearly three times higher.” Physicians keep voting with their feet to escape the New York model. [Joseph Nixon, NY Post; Coyote]
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Says the Arkansas man who has sued Microsoft for $500 billion over his XBox Live contract. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
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Today is the last day for public comment on the National Labor Relations Board’s controversial plan to speed up the timetable for unionization elections, and a flood of opposing comment has already come in. Earlier here.
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Charlotte Allen and Orin Kerr with more on what began as a report of a complaint about a professor’s classroom hypotheticals and has spiraled into a major embarrassment for the Delaware institution. Earlier here, etc.
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…on an old bottle of motor oil, resulting in 12 days in jail for a 66-year-old Minnesota woman. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune via Balko]
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“The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as a low-income census tract where a large number of residents are more than a mile from a grocery store…. [L]ess than 4.5 percent of the U.S. population [falls into that category], yet roughly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.” And that’s just the start of the difficulties with the food-desert theory [David Gratzer, Washington Examiner]
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In a new Reason symposium on how to revitalize the American job market, I explain my answer to that question.
More: This set off a round of discussion on employment blogs including Jon Hyman (nominating FLSA for vaporization), Suzanne Boy (concur), Daniel Schwartz (leave laws), Suzanne Lucas (citing “the fabulous Overlawyered.com”), and the ABA Journal.
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Bad enough when the media caters to this sort of thing, but when government itself does it, you may have crossed into Arpaio territory [Coyote] Related: David Kravets, Wired.
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A dispatch from Britain makes David Frum’s jaw drop.
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Raise a defiant glass on August 20. Hey, that’s my birthday! Earlier here, here; more from CEI’s Ryan Young and Iain Murray in a post, podcast and column, Freedom Center of Missouri (map of “The Government War on Kid-Run Concession Stands”), and Ken at Popehat.
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British Columbia lawyer Erik Magraken shares this photo.
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“A gipsy family accused of making life a misery is using legal aid to fund a human rights challenge in the European courts for being evicted – from a travellers’ camp.” [Telegraph]
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You’ll probably never see them unless Congress chooses to repeal or amend the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, which bars most cruise operators from coastwise routes. [Matt Welch]
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Prosecutors bring in adorable “therapy dogs” to assist witnesses in rape and abuse trials. Aside from the jury sympathy issue, and the possible sending of “this is a victim” signals, defense lawyers argue that the dogs’ presence makes testimony easier whether accusations are true or not: “They argue that as a therapy dog, Rosie responds to people under stress by comforting them, whether the stress comes from confronting a guilty defendant or lying under oath.” [N.Y. Times] More: Greenfield.
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Which is good advice for many other touchy sorts of plaintiffs too, not just for the Thomas M. Cooley Law School of Lansing, Michigan [Mike Masnick, TechDirt, earlier]
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Point of Law
Get your copy today! My new book tackles the question of why so many bad ideas come from the law schools. "Cutting-edge commentary, hard-hitting, witty, astute." -- Publisher's Weekly. "Excellent... A fine dissection of these strangely powerful institutions" -- Wall Street Journal.
Individual liberty, free markets, and peace: the world's premier libertarian think tank. Publishes Cato at Liberty, where I blog on contemporary policy issues.
Gone fishin’
by Walter Olson on August 12, 2011
I will be taking a week or so away from the blog to enjoy the summer and will be holding comments until my return. See you soon.
Tagged as: about the site, open threads and commenter posts
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