For a summary of the key Supreme Court cases decided this term check out this week’s Lawyer 2 Lawyer Podcast, hosted by Robert Ambrogi and featuring two Supreme Court experts. Click here for more details.
News
New! Web Access to NY Law Journal and other Legal Newspapers!
We now have a site-license for unlimited access to all articles and cases found on the websites of four major legal newspapers: The New York Law Journal, The New Jersey Law Journal, The National Law Journal, and The American Lawyer. These sites offer the latest legal news, with a six-month archive. Earlier content is available on Lexis.
Access is easy: Under Electronic Resources on the Library’s homepage, click Complete List by Title. The newspapers are listed there alphabetically. Click on the “website” link for the title you want. If you’re on campus, you’ll go straight to the newspaper’s website. Off campus, you’ll be prompted to enter your name and ID barcode.
We’re still working out some technical issues, but once we’re done you’ll also be able to subscribe to emailed alerts from these newspapers. They serve as excellent current awareness sources. Watch this Mendik Matters blog for further announcements!
Celebrate National Punctuation Day!
Take a break from the tedium of law study and enjoy the pleasures of punctuation!
September 24 is National Punctuation Day: “A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.”
How do you celebrate such an event? Enter the Presidential Punctuation Challenge; entries must be one paragraph, a maximum of three sentences – this post isn’t – and use the thirteen punctuation marks (you may use a mark more than once) in this post [apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, semicolon . . . and don’t forget the ellipsis] to argue which punctuation mark should be the official punctuation mark of the President of the United States.
Law and the Olympics
Haven’t been able to make it to London for the Olympics? Curious about the many different laws and regulations that underlie and sometimes impact what has been described as “the world’s most recognized international sporting event”? It’s not too late to explore the wide-ranging Olympics and International Sports Law Research Guide produced by the Georgetown Law Library. You may not win any medals but you’ll learn about the formal organization and legal structure of the Games and the various forums and procedures that govern resolution of disputes. So, in the spirit of the Olympics . . . Citius, Altius, Fortius!
Celebrate Earth Day!
Sunday April 22, 2012 is Earth Day.
Repeating last year’s theme of A Billion Acts of Green®, a “people-powered campaign to generate a billion acts of environmental service and advocacy . . .” the folks at the Earth Day Network have almost reached their goal: the total Acts of Green reported as of the morning of April 18, 2012 was 977,876,186 (and counting).
One easy Act of Green you could pledge, helping send that number over the one billion mark, would be to turn off the library study table lamps and carrel lights whenever you leave. Or, you could use the stairs instead of the elevators between floors. We will thank you and so will the Earth.
Another suggestion: By drinking your coffee, tea, or other beverage from a spill-proof, reusable mug, you can transform a single Act of Green into an ongoing one, helping continually to reduce the volume of plastic, Styrofoam, and paper cups piling up in landfills or requiring energy for recycling. At the same time, you’ll be complying with the Library’s food and drink policy and earning our thanks!
If you don’t have a spill-proof mug, pick one up at the Circulation Desk for $3.00. Although we already sell these mugs at a loss, for every one purchased through the end of this semester’s exam period librarians will contribute $.50 to Earth Day Network (www.earthday.org/), which works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement.
For complete information about Earth Day, visit Earth Day Network.
Tax Time
This is the time of year when our thoughts have turned to the issue of taxation. Whether you have already submitted your tax returns or continue to fiddle with them under an extension, you may want to take an enjoyable look at the Tax History Project, created by Tax Analysts, publisher of Tax Notes. The Tax History Project is a collection of all kinds of fun and interesting things:
- 1040s back to 1913
- cartoons and posters about tax dating back to the 1870s
- FDR’s tax returns, as well as those of other presidents and presidential candidates
-and much much more!! See it all at http://www.taxhistory.org
Celebrate National Punctuation Day!
Take a break from the tedium of law study and enjoy the pleasures of punctuation! September 24 is National Punctuation Day: “A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.” How do you celebrate such an event? Enter the Punctuation Paragraph Contest; entries must be one paragraph, a maximum of three sentences – this post isn’t – and use the thirteen punctuation marks (you may use a mark more than once) you see used in this post [apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, semicolon . . . and don’t forget the ellipsis].
Tax Season—Tax Forms—Tax Resources
It’s that time of year again! Are you looking for tax forms? You can find federal forms at the IRS site at http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html?portlet=3.
If you are looking for New York forms, go to http://www.tax.ny.gov/forms/. If you need forms from other states there are links to all state tax forms from the Federation of Tax Administrators at http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/link/forms.html
How the Tax Code Drives up the Cost of Yankees/Mets Tickets
According to a Duke Law professor and a Rutgers Business professor, average ticket prices for baseball games have increased 265% over the last two decades, more than four times the inflation rate. Those same professors suggest that tax laws that allow businesses to write off tickets to sports events as entertainment expenses are partly to blame. They argue that because businesses are able to buy what amounts to government-subsidized luxury seating, demand for those seats has increased along with an expansion in the number of skyboxes and a concomitant reduction in the number of other ballpark seats.
Read more in this NYTimes.com Op-ed.