Articles Posted in Commentary and Opinion

Hearing and listening to all of the media hype of the last few days, one could be convinced that the Baucus version released a couple of days ago is the only legislation being seriously considered in the present debate. Far from it. Not only do he have at least one House version of proposed health reform legislation, we also have another Senate version which was Reported by the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP on July 15, 2009 and introduced yesterday as the Affordable Health Choices Act S. 1679 by the Senate HELP Committee Chairman,Tom Harkin.

This bill certainly represents a different viewpoint on health care reform than the Baucus bill and we hope it will help to level the playing field in the ongong debates and discussion on health care. The HELP Committee legislation does provide for a public option. Here is some of the language from TitleXXXI Affordable Health Care Choices for All Americans that appears on page 43 of the proposed legislation:

”(3) OFFERING OF COVERAGE.-

Today Sept. 16, 2009, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, released the first draft of the committee’s long awaited proposed legislation to overhaul the country’s health care system. The proposal is the result of more than a year of preparation and more than three months of intense negotiations between a small group of Democrats and Republicans led by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee.

The following are a few highlights of interest included in this 223 page proposal:

The bill includes a slimmed down price-tag of $856 billion over 10 years. Earlier versions of the health care legislation had come in costing $1 trillion or more

Here is the companion article to “In Appreciation of Library Catalogers and Cataloging Standards” posted by me 7/23/09. At the end of that article I wrote that I had asked Joni Cassidy to consider writing an article for this blog that woud explore RDA in greater depth. Joni agreed, I am proud to present to you the article below prepared by Joni and two senior members of her staff at Cassidy Cataloging Services.

David Badertscher

AACR Move Over! Here Comes RDA!

By Brett Burney Principal Burney Consultants LLC

We are proud to reprint the following article “The Emerging Field of Electronic Discovery Project Management” which first appeared as a TechnoLawyer TechnoFeature exclusive on September 1. It is being reprinted here with the written permission of both the author Brett Burney, a world recognized authority on issues related to bridging the chasm between the legal and technical frontiers of electronic discovery, and Technolawyer. Whether acknowledged or not we are living in an age of electronic discovery and must learn to cope with its challenges,which requires authorative, updated information such as that provided in Mr. Burney’s article. The complete article is presented as a pdf file provided by TechnoLawyer which can be read by clicking on the link following some introductroy material from the article we have provided below for your convenience.

INTRODUCTION

Articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post September 11, 2009 discussing memories and implications of the tragic events that occurred eight years ago on September 11, 2001:

New York Times: September 11, 2009.

Remembering a Future That Many Feared By N. R. KLEINFIELD Published: September 11, 2009 In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, many New Yorkers imagined a grim future that has not come to pass.

Des Moines, IA – September 1, 2009 – According to an editorial in the latest issue of Judicature, the journal of the American Judicature Society, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Caperton v. Massey Coal Company is a wake-up call for states to take disqualification seriously.

The editorial explains that “If state judicial systems have procedures in place to ensure that judges understand and follow more exacting disqualification rules, legitimate due process problems need never arise.” Caperton held that West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin’s failure to recuse himself in a case involving a litigant who supported his election campaign was a violation of due process.

The editorial recommends judicial education programs that identify factors judges should consider when deciding whether campaign support they have received gives rise to a disqualifying appearance of partiality; having contested disqualification motions assigned to a different judge for final resolution; and, in the highest courts of each state, establishing a procedure to review disqualification decisions of individual justices by the remainder of the court or a special panel of judges. The editorial concludes that such procedures will foster public confidence in the expeditious administration of justice.

**The Government Domain: Tracking Congress 2.0

http://www.llrx.com/columns/govdomain42.htm

With the 111th Congress of the United States reconvening on September 8th, e-gov expert Peggy Garvin highlights new tools and sources that enhance and expand your ability to track and monitor the action.

In their September 8 article in Bloomberg News, Cary O’Reilly and Linda Sandler write that “[A]s the White House and Congress debate how to regulate financial crisis, judges have assumed the point position of punishing Wall Street for causing the worst recession since the 1930s.” O’Reilly and Sandler point out that while the executive and legislative branches of government continue to discuss the possibilities of implementing various reforms as a response to the financial crisis that began approximately a year ago, “judges are [actually] taking the first steps toward the same goal, punishing executives and issuing rulings with national impact.” In their article O’Reilly and Sandler go on to enumerate specific examples of how some judges have proceeded along this path.

We are forwarding the following message from Emily Feldman of the Government Relatiojns Office of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) because it contains important information that we believe should be distributed widely:

OpenTheGovernment.org today released the latest edition of their annual Secrecy Report Card (http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/SecrecyRC_2009.pdf). This year’s report card found slight decreases in government secrecy overall, though secrecy still trumps openness in many instances. This year’s report also includes a special analysis of the Obama Administration’s mixed track record on transparency.

Some of the highlights from this year’s report include:

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