David Gamage Describes Legal Scenario if Oakland Declares Bankruptcy

KQED-FM, Forum with Michael Krasny, June 10, 2009 Host Michael Krasny
http://www.kqed org/epArchive/R906100900

“The city’s contracts are potentially all up in the air. More or less everything the city does is reviewable by a bankruptcy judge in a bankruptcy court. The bankruptcy court can tear up contracts that otherwise the city couldn’t alter—and force the city to restructure its finances in ways that the political leaders wouldn’t necessarily approve. In fact, the last thing any entity, public or private, wants to happen is for lots of talk to be out there about bankruptcy without bankruptcy actually happening, because you get all the costs without any of the potential benefits.”

Franklin Zimring Explains Phoenix’s Drop in Violent Crime, Rise in Kidnapping

The Arizona Republic, June 10, 2009 by JJ Hensley
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/06/10/20090610ucrstats0610.html

Police say the vast majority of those crimes are the result of drug-and-human smuggling operations, which should make the overall decline in violent crime more significant to most Valley residents and visitors, said Frank Zimring…. “There is no inconsistency between that subtrend and the larger population statistics on crimes that are going down. They’re just two different scales,” he said. “Unless you get kidnapped, then you don’t worry about that trend.”

Pamela Samuelson Opposes Google Book Deal

PC World, June 10, 2009 by Juan Carlos Perez
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/166417/reports_doj_turns_up_the_heat_on_googles_book_deal.html

“The Book Search agreement is not really a settlement of a dispute over whether scanning books to index them is fair use. It is a major restructuring of the book industry’s future without meaningful government oversight. The market for digitized orphan books could be competitive, but will not be if this settlement is approved as is,” Samuelson wrote.

Jonathan Simon Notes Social Costs of U.S. Prison System

The New York Times, June 10, 2009 by Jim Lewis
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/magazine/14prisons-t.html?_r=1

As Jonathan Simon, a law professor at Berkeley, pointed out to me, convicts tend to come from cities; guards do not. Culture clashes inevitably arise. Skilled labor — doctors, psychologists and the like — is harder to find in rural areas, and so are the volunteers who work in the many rehabilitation programs. The families of working-class and poor convicts often can’t afford to travel a few hundred miles to visit their relatives. As a result, prisoners have a harder time maintaining ties with the lives they left behind.

Eric Talley Grades Federal Stress Test

-Fox Business.com, June 8, 2009 by Peter Barnes
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/tarp-overseers-say-banks-need-new-stress-tests/

In a special study for the panel included in the draft report, Talley and Walden gave the stress test generally favorable marks. “We conclude that the Federal Reserve Board’s risk modeling approach is, on the whole, a reasonable one, erring for the most part on the conservative side,” they wrote to the panel…. Still, the researchers raised concerns about the program’s transparency and lack of data disclosure, which they said could limit checks of the test by outside researchers.

-CNBC, June 9, 2009 by Albert Bozzo
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31177176

The highly anticipated stress test report is partly the work of outside consultants. The committee said it used two “internationally-renowned experts in risk analysis” to review the process; they are Professor Eric Talley, Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy at the University of California, and Professor Johan Walden, an assistant professor at the University’s Haas School of Business.

-The Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, June 9, 2009 by Ronald D. Orol
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-stress-tests-urged-for-banks

The two academics argued that important details about bank assets were not publicly provided, making it difficult for anyone to replicate the results. They also argued that the hostile scenario considered by the tests only looked at an adverse scenario through 2010, a period that does not consider potential problems in the commercial real estate market that could continue in later years.

David Gamage Examines Tax Battle between Archdiocese and City of San Francisco

San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 2009 by Marisa Lagos
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/05/MNJ0180DCU.DTL

UC Berkeley assistant law professor David Gamage said cases such as this one are not as clear cut as both sides would like. “I would say an inquiry like this is very fact intensive,” he said. “The law recognizes that taxpayers have the right to organize their affairs to minimize their taxes, but only within the bounds of what is legal.”

Kathryn Baron Describes Challenges Facing Undocumented College Applicants

KQED-FM, The California Report, June 5, 2009 by Kathryn Baron
http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R906051630/a

Although California lets some undocumented students pay in-state tuition at public colleges, other laws prohibit those students from receiving any governmental financial aid. The girls have been applying for every private scholarship they can find. Cindy has raised about $45,000 dollars, enough for about a year-and-a-half at UCLA.

Paul Schwartz Scrutinizes Warrantless Wiretap Case

NPR, Morning Edition, June 4, 2009 by Martin Kaste
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104922405

For almost three years, the Bush administration tried to quash the lawsuit, arguing that the wiretapping program was simply too secret for court. This is known as the state secrets privilege, and that usually is enough to convince a court to shut a case down. “The general attitude has been extremely deferential and has taken the government at its word, and has decided that if there are state secrets, then there’s state secrets,” Schwartz says.