It’s difficult not to become even more cynical when you read stories like the following one. Sent in by Eric Goldman, it’s about a state law in California that was mainly written by two lawyers: Joaquin Avila, a law professor from Seattle, and Robert Rubin, the “legal director” for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. So, here’s the interesting thing: since this state law has been put in place (seven years ago), the only lawsuits have been brought by Rubin’s committee or Avila and they’ve made themselves over $4 million with a few more lawsuits pending and a bunch more threatened (again, all from either Avila or Rubin’s committee).
What a great deal: write a law, and then be the only lawyers to use the law to make millions.
As for the law itself, it was a law that apparently very few people were asking for — requiring that state courts carve out specific districts that favor minority groups, so they are not excluded from local elections. Here’s how the AP describes it:
The California statute targets commonly used “at-large” elections — those in which candidates run citywide or across an entire school district. Avila said that method can result in discrimination because whatever group constitutes the majority of voters can dominate the ballot box and block minorities from winning representation. As a remedy, the law empowers state courts to create smaller election districts favoring minority candidates.Officials in several California communities said they never heard complaints of voter discrimination until the lawyers stepped forward. In one case, the Tulare Local Healthcare District, now known as Tulare Regional Medical Center, was sued even though its five-member governing board is a rainbow of diversity — two emigres from India, a Hispanic, a black and a white. The lawsuit argues Hispanics, who make up about a third of local voters, have been shortchanged.
Of course, there are many reasons why the exact makeup of a governing board might not match the exact percentage of the population (including the simple fact that most people vote on issues, not the ethnicity of the people they’re voting for). But, even if there was a problem it seems highly questionable that the two lawyers who wrote the bill are now profiting tremendously from it and appear to be the only ones who do so.
It’s stories like this one that make us so nervous about so much legislation. This is the type of law they create: it maysound good (who’s going to argue against diversity?). But, the actual law appears to have been nothing more than a way for these lawyers to go around collecting millions, while disrupting communities and schoolboards, and sending their taxpayer money to these lawyers.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Sharing images over the Internet via e-mail services and keeping them in online photo albums often requires that your pictures come in a smaller size. This can be a requirement for previewing purposes, in the case of catalogs, or a condition imposed by the current limit of mail attachments. Usually, these occurrences are best translated by ”less is more” and the saying is true because the more reduced the photo dimensions are the more their number can increase. So, if you want to display, let’s say, all the pictures you took during family vacations, you’d better find a way to decrease their size in order to share them with efficiency.
Ray acknowledged here that last year, he spoke of the cloud in very “cloudy” terms. Reminder about launch of Windows Azure at PDC 2008. “We committed to spending the year engaged with you, listening with you…before we took it live.”
Motorola and Verizon, thanks to their $100 million marketing efforts, are going to sell some 600,000 Droids during the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Mark McKechnie of Broadpoint AmTech, a boutique research firm. He had initially expected about 200,000 device sales following the launch, but he has upped his forecast: Motorola should sell another 200,000 Droids by Black Friday and 150,000-200,000 during the remainder of the holiday season. This would bring the total to some 600,000 Droids for 2009. 
"eBay’s partnership with Delta Air Lines will showcase to a million-plus holiday travelers the amazing value, and unparalleled selection that eBay offers shoppers every day," said Greg Fant, eBay vice president of marketing. "This year marks the largest integrated holiday season campaign eBay has created."
The online music space is in a volatile state with newcomers popping up seemingly every week while older services are dwindling, having failed to reach the popularity they needed to survive. But, while they may not be thriving financially, the online music market is sure to explode in the coming years and already some players are consolidating their position. MySpace has given up on the social media front and wants to become an entertainment hub, with music being a huge component. The company is now said to be in talks to acquire music streaming startup iMeem with a deal awaiting approval according to multiple sources. 
Following our usual monthly report, we present the conclusions of the recent Elance Work Index, a top provided by Elance, which ranks the most desired skills in today’s online freelance work. Even if the latest report is only for the month of October, PHP skills seem to have won the competition for the number one spot in this year’s top, Elance reports.
A mere week after 
If you’re planning your holiday shopping but want to get a good grasp of the budget available to you in advance, it helps to know what kind of deals you’re going to get. Luckily, Apple’s Black Friday discounts have been leaked early, so you can factor in those price reductions while you’re figuring out how pinched you’re going to be financially come January.
Wow…I had completely forgotten about 