Wednesday April 4, 2007 My wife Lita and I have flown from Seattle to Zihuatanejo, Mexico to stay at the Casa Que Canta for a few days before boarding a cruise ship to meet our entire office and their families for our annual office retreat. We´ve not been here before. It resembles a sleepy Mexican fishing village on a beautiful bay, but it has some 80,000 inhabitants. The bay has numerous boats of all sizes bobbing up and down on…
The U.S. Supreme Court case of Massachusetts vs EPA has been described as one of the most important environmental cases to ever come before the United States Supreme Court dealing with global warming. The case involves the thirty six year old federal Clean Air Act. The act provides for regulation of "any air pollutants" from vehicles "that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health of welfare" and defines "welfare" as including effects on climate and weather. A group of…
The National Law Journal, in an article by Tresa Baldas, reports the illegal promotion of "off label" use of products by pharmaceutical companies. An "off label" use is the prescription of a drug by a physician for a use which it was not approved or intended. For example, a drug manufactured as an antidepressant might be prescribed by a doctor to treat pain or a drug manufactured for an unrelated use might be prescribed by a physician to treat cancer…
Susan Dudley is typical of George Bush’s nomination of anti regulatory and anti environmental zealots to head important agencies responsible to control big oil and big business in their greed for profit at the expense of our planet. His appointees are selected as people who are expected to undermine the function of these agencies and allow industry to do what they want. This is a person who opposed EPA plans for tougher public health standards for smog; who opposed cleaner…
Inez Milholland was an attorney, a charismatic public speaker and a beautiful woman whose role in the fight for the right of women to vote has been largely forgotten. I’ve posted before about the women’s right to vote movement and a history of Inez Milholland Boissevain can be found at "Suffragette Remembered." She was born in 1886 in Brooklyn to a rather wealthy family. Her father was a reporter and editorial writer at the New York Tribune, but his invention…
Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett in the last issue of the official Catholic diocese newspaper, The Northwest Progress, argued against passage of a pending bill in Olympia that would grant same sex couples the right to make medical and other decisions as other relationships. When Kate Fleming drowned in her Seattle basement from a sudden flood, her partner of ten years had no legal right to be with her or make decisions about her and was legally treated as a stranger…
Marian Meade has written a book Bobbed Hair and Bath Tub Gin about Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber and their activities during the "roaring twenties." These women were unique. Their life stories are entertaining and unlike any I’m familiar with. I was particularly amused by one of Dorothy Parker’s comments about her relationship with Charles MacArthur. She said to her friends that her poor treatment at his hands was her own fault for "putting…
I’ve often told lawyers at legal seminars how important it is they eliminate pretense and present the real person at all times. Appearances are not determinative of great lawyers. Genuine sincere and honest conduct results in credibility. I was reminded of this in William Barclay commentaries about scripture. He was discussing a passage suggesting the Corinthians had actually taunted Paul about his personal appearance causing Paul to respond. Barclay cites a very early book dating back to about A.D. 200…
I don’t mean to sound like I have a vendetta against Senator Lieberman, but his latest demonstration of loyalty to his buddy George Bush and the Republican party while of turning on a former friend and colleague, John Kerry, is offensive. President Bush rewarded an unqualified Sam Fox with the political favor of nominating him for an ambassadorship to Belgium. This was a repayment for the St Louis businessman contributing $50,000 to the underhanded attack against John Kerry with the…
Two recent decisions have limited the rights of whistle blowers. Various laws have been passed in Congress and states to encourage reporting fraud and illegal conduct as beneficial to the tax payers. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court has written opinions which limit the effectiveness of the federal laws. The United States Supreme Court, in a six to two vote, has restricted the ability of whistle blowers to share in recoveries under the U.S. False Claims Act. Under the False Claims…
