Riding the tiger: China’s struggle with rule of law

Stanley Lubman writes for the Wall Street Journal China Real Time blog, December 18, 2013

Although relative freedom has become possible in the growing private sector of the economy, the Party’s version of the rule of law continues to control legal institutions. Meanwhile, public discontent has grown, fed by widening economic inequality, widespread corruption, official arbitrariness, land theft by local governments, looseness of Party discipline, the rise of privileged elites and a persistent lack of protection for private rights.

Pandora’s price

Peter Menell, quoted in East Bay Express, December 18, 2013

Peter Menell … noted that musicians have often been pushed aside in these debates. “Artists are an underrepresented part of the ecosystem,” he said. “They are now starting to speak up.”

California juvenile incarceration rate down

Barry Krisberg interviewed on KGO 810 News, December 18, 2013

But there’s still work to be done. “The one area that still needs quite a bit of work is mental health care for mentally ill kids across the nation. It’s a problem,” says Barry Krisberg.

Faith-based education opens doors

John Coons co-authors opinion-editorial for USA Today, December 18, 2013

The U.S. lacks a surplus of high-quality schools, especially that serve the urban poor. Yet year after year, we have watched as thousands of faith-based schools have been forced to close. America is losing a valuable national asset—not because it has become obsolescent or because the demand for it has disappeared, but because of a needlessly narrow view of which families should have the choice in education that is so dear to the middle class.

Privacy laws can create opportunities, limitations, California lawmakers advised

Deirdre Mulligan and Paul Schwartz quoted in Bloomberg BNA , December 16, 2013

“Privacy rules don’t necessarily erode innovation. Sometimes they’re the fabric of it,” said Deirdre Mulligan, co-director of the University of California Berkeley School of Law Center for Law & Technology.

The ‘California Effect’ is how what California does ripples across the nation and the world, said Paul Schwartz…. “The California Effect is typically the first stage. It would be followed by action in D.C.,” which Schwartz said has been lacking. “The question becomes in absence of action in D.C., what should we do?” he asked. The question is whether “to act or not to act” in the world’s ninth largest economy.

Our house divided: What US schools don’t teach about US-style apartheid

Richard Rothstein writes for Huffington Post, December 16, 2013

We have many celebrations of the Civil Rights Movement and its heroes, but we do very little to explain to young people why that movement was so necessary…. Throughout our nation, this fear of confronting the past makes it more difficult to address and remedy the ongoing existence of urban ghettos, the persistence of the black-white achievement gap, and the continued under-representation of African Americans in higher education and better-paying jobs.

NYPD: As stop-frisk declines, gunfire increases

Franklin Zimring quoted in Newsday, December 15, 2013

Franklin Zimring, a professor at Berkeley Law in California, said the size and duration of the changes in the number of shootings in New York have to be watched. “There could be random fluctuations,” Zimring said. “You have to imagine it is like baseball statistics,” said Zimring, who has studied New York City crime trends. If a hot hitter suddenly strikes out three times, what he then does in his next 10 at bats becomes important, he said.