Jennifer Granholm writes for POLITICO, December 5, 2012
Munich RE is an insurance company: what progressives often consider a methodical, calculating, machine using cold, heartless data to maximize profits. In a report to fellow insurance companies, Munich RE noted that the number of weather-related losses had quintupled over the past thirty years. In October, the company said, “Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America.”
Peter Menell and Jonas Anderson write for Patently-O, December 5, 2012
In its filing last week, the Solicitor General has unfortunately recommended against Supreme Court review principally on the ground that Retractable Technologies is not an “appropriate vehicle” because the district court did not specifically rely upon factual findings. Therein lies the Catch-22. No district court since at least the Federal Circuit’s 1998 en banc Cybor ruling has been willing to make factual findings in construing patent claims for the pragmatic, logical, and legal reason that to do so would contradict Federal Circuit law that claim construction is a pure question of law.
Christopher Hoofnagle quoted in The Washington Post, December 4, 2012
The “metadata” that’s embedded in files is particularly treacherous, said Chris Hoofnagle, a law professor at U.C.-Berkeley. Businesses made so many accidental releases that several programs now are available to help scrub out comments and deletions in documents that are intended to remain private. Rules in some states govern what information lawyers can use when opposing counsel inadvertently shares private information in metadata fields. The rapid spread of smartphones has made it even harder for most users to monitor the creation and flow of personal information, Hoofnagle said. “It has trapped a lot of people, this problem. We’re often not aware of the metadata that’s created.”
Jesse Choper quoted in San Francisco Chronicle, November 30, 2012
“The fact that he is commenting on a matter that is public concern—the lawsuit—and not simply on his own, will tend to be something that favors protection under the First Amendment,” Choper said. “What he has to overcome is the fact that he is making a comment on employment conditions, which is a matter of internal office affairs,” Choper added. “That, by itself, cuts against his claim that he’s protected by the First Amendment.”
Justin McCrary quoted in Insurance Journal, November 30, 2012
“The bigger police departments are a lot cheaper to run,” he said. But the result can also mean a lost “of texture and nuance” that residents will resist when they deal with officers unfamiliar with the territory.
Mary Ann Mason writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 29, 2012
Did you know that Title IX specifically includes important protections for pregnant women and mothers? You probably didn’t, and neither do most pregnant graduate students and postdocs, or their teachers, principal investigators, department chairs, and deans. Most people think of Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in any education program receiving federal money, as focusing on athletics and sexual harassment.
Franklin Zimring quoted in Newsday, November 28, 2012
With the national economy in trouble and incarceration rates actually falling, some experts expected homicides to increase, said Zimring. But that theory has not borne out. “Crime, instead of turning up, turned down,” said Zimring. “It may be what is going on in New York City is a bit of a tail wind of the national trend.”
Barry Krisberg writes for California Progress Report, November 27, 2012
Policy makers and news reporters should approach fearsome claims about crimes and crime trends skeptically. A few cherry-picked local statistics and anecdotes of a handful of sensational offenses are inherently misleading and often contradicted when data for the full year is available for the whole state.
Sarah Lawrence study cited in the San Jose Mercury News, November 27, 2012
The city also is launching a new initiative with the University of California at Berkeley, funded through a $300,000 federal grant, that will use data from the ShotSpotter system to identify areas where the most shots are fired, define strategies to prevent future shootings, and monitor whether those tactics are effective.
Aarti Kohli quoted in The Press Democrat, November 24, 2012
“If someone is pulled over without identification, for law enforcement, that raises questions and they tend to err on the side of bringing folks to jail,” said Kohli…. “If you can determine that this person is who they say they are, that gets rid of the additional uncertainty,” Kohli said. “I think what’s happening in Sonoma is really instructive. It’s telling us something: if people have identification they are perceived as much less of a threat.”