Franklin Zimring quoted in San Francisco Chronicle, November 17, 2013
As UC Berkeley Law School Professor Franklin Zimring said, “Whenever you have people thinking it will be harder to buy tomorrow, they buy more today.”
Celebrity Court: the trials of Egyptian Presidents Morsi and Mubarak
Stephen Rosenbaum interviewed on Blog Talk Radio, November 17, 2013
“We have…the irony of …one dictator [Mubarak] getting increasing levels of liberty and another shut out more and more. Morsi, for instance, didn’t even have access to his lawyers until his [first] day in court.”
Legalese It!
Richard Rothstein interviewed by The Huffington Post, Legalese It! November 15, 2013
“There’s a lot of suspicion that the Supreme Court wants to rule that under the Fair Housing Act, you can only violate the act if you explicitly say you intend to discriminate. The suspicion is that the court wants to issue a ruling so that even if a policy is discriminatory in effect, it doesn’t violate the Fair Housing Act if it doesn’t intend to discriminate.”
Finding Google Books ‘transformative,’ judge rejects lawsuit
Jennifer Urban quoted in New York Law Journal, (registration required) Nov. 15, 2013
Jennifer Urban of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic … was part of a team of lawyers who filed for amicus curiae, a group of digital humanities and law scholars, in favor of a finding of fair use. “I think it’s an absolutely terrific decision,” Urban said. “It’s a careful fair use decision that explains why new technologies and the ability to digitize physical texts like books supports the societal goals of copyright law.”
After years of cuts, Salinas police chief says it’s time to add back
Barry Krisberg interviewed by KAZU-FM, November 14, 2013
Barry Krisberg puts it this way. “Changing the relationship of the police to the community—what’s often called community policing—in which police position themselves as partners with people in a city,” Krisberg says. “You know they’re no longer the occupying army.”
MSNBC contributor says national debt is at its lowest point since World War II
Alan Auerbach quoted in Tampa Bay Times, “The Truth-O-Meter Says,” November 14, 2013
The story is the same for the 2012 federal deficit, which fell to 7 percent of GDP but was larger than any year since the end of World War II. In fact, as … Alan Auerbach pointed out, the federal government had budget surpluses while Bill Clinton was president.
Majority of killings go unsolved in Bay Area’s most violent cities, FBI data shows
Barry Krisberg quoted in San Jose Mercury News, November 13, 2013
One factor in San Pablo’s success may be its less adversarial relationship with residents. When citizens believe police are brutal or unfair, they won’t step forward to help, said Barry Krisberg.
Challenges ahead for international criminal court, says leading war crimes expert
Eric Stover interviewed by KPBS-TV, November 12, 2013
“These are the most serious crimes. These include genocide, as we saw in Bosnia, or we saw in Rwanda; crimes against humanity, which are crimes that can take place during war or after war which involve massacres throughout countries; and what are generally called war crimes. But most of them are going to be crimes against humanity and genocide…. You’re going for the big fish, not the little fish; you’re going for military leaders, you’re going for leaders of countries, commanders, and so on who have commander responsibility and often order these crimes.”
Injunction dysfunction
Barry Krisberg quoted in Mission and State, November 12, 2013
Barry Krisberg … said the 9th Circuit Court’s decision signals the slow-but-steady demise of gang injunctions. “Requiring full-blown due process and individual hearings for each person named in an injunction will cost prosecutors and city attorneys resources that they do not have,” said Krisberg…. “It’s time to deploy scarce law enforcement dollars on approaches that really advance public protection, not quasi legal stunts like injunctions.”
‘Green’ paving helps the bay, human health
Michael Kiparsky and Max Gomberg write for San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 2013
Every time it rains, San Francisco Bay gets a little sicker. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Asphalt streets collect pollutants from motor oil to metals from brake pads to nutrients from garden fertilizers. Rains quickly wash it all into storm drains, local streams and the bay. When combined with decades of industrial pollution, storm-water runoff damages marine life and kills fish, leaving those that survive too toxic to eat. We cannot completely repair the bay’s ecology, but we can improve its health and ours by changing the way we build city streets.