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A bill introduced July 30 in the Ohio General Assembly would provide decorated veterans with some major support for completing their college education. HB603 would “require state institutions of higher education to waive undergraduate instructional and student fees and room and board and provide book vouchers for Ohio residents awarded the Purple Heart or other combat decorations superior in precedence.” The bill was introduced by Representative Dan Dodd (D).

Journal literature available for free on the web certainly leads to wider distribution of one’s scholarship, but does it leader to wider use, as far as citations are concerned? Not according to a recent study reported in the British Medical Journal and summarized in the Cornell Chronicle. While open access articles are downloaded more than subscription access works, they are not more likely to be cited by subsequent researchers. It’s the quality of the scholarship that leads to citations, say the authors, and the highest quality articles are also likely to be widely and freely available. The study involved articles from scientific journals.

First of all, in getting ready for fall, there are RTA schedule changes effective Aug. 24^th.

Second, it's not a surprise that RTA is experiencing fuel cost increases, and is projecting less revenue than needed. See the RTA 2009 Tax Budget with projected scenarios. (The Euclid Corridor Project is from different funds and is projected to be more cost efficient operationally when completed this fall.) Ridership is growing, however RTA has indicated that fares only cover about 20% of the cost of service. For costs not exceed its revenue, a legal requirement, RTA is looking at imposing a fuel surcharge (increasing the fares), and making service reductions. The Community Circulators, a service improvement on which many in our community depend, may all have to be cut, along with cuts on numerous other routes. See the list.

RTA is holding public hearings to gather testimony concerning impact of specific cuts. There was a very upset, overflow crowd at the downtown Cleveland Public Library Auditorium on Tuesday, Aug. 5^th , with many speaking after the PowerPoint presentation. RTA reserved the Auditorium at CPL for Wed. Aug. 5^th at 12 noon for additional testimony. If a cut will impact you but you cannot attend a hearing, submit your comments to RTA by Aug. 18^th.

RTA is created under the authority of Ohio Revised Code Chapter 306. For more information on documents establishing the parameters for the governance of RTA, as well as the powers, responsibilities and duties of RTA see RTA's website.

H.R. 3221 Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, signed Wed., July 30^th, Public Law 110-289, is now available - as Enrolled or Typeset

See NeighborWorks’ Summary of the new legislation and link to Senate Statement and summary .

From the President ‘s page: signing information “The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which authorizes the Department of the Treasury to purchase obligations of housing Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs); reforms the regulatory supervision of the housing GSEs; provides reform of the Federal Housing Administration; provides homeownership assistance and reforms to mitigate recent increases in foreclosures; and contains housing-related tax incentives and other tax provisions.”

The C-M Law Library Blog has two different widgets you can put in your webpage or blog. The first shows some of the text of each blog post, the second contains just post titles. Simply click on the "Get Widget" link on the bottom of each widget, to get code to embed in your blog or webpage.  (More)

While the Ohio Employer's Law Blog has been around since 2007, it's new to me! Cleveland law firm Kohrman, Jackson and Krantz, PLL, brings you "Practical employment law information for businesses in Ohio and beyond". Recent articles include "6th Circuit decides standard of proof for mixed motive cases" and All hail dads(about more men filing claims under the FMLA for family responsibilities).

They even have this handy widget which you can paste into your webpage or blog:

Thanks to yesterday’s post on Out of the Jungle, I was tipped off to HeinOnline’s Facebook debut. Doesn’t surprise me in the least that this family-run legal information purveyor is reaching out to customers through social-networking media. You can also check out how-to videos on various HeinOnline collections on their YouTube channel. Some of the most popular collections in the database are law journals, session laws, CFR, English Reports, legal classics, U.S. Supreme Court library, U.S. Congressional documents, and world trials.

Today, the Sixth Circuit upheld a decision from the Ohio Northern District denying an appeal to suppress evidence obtained from a warrantless search conducted by a police officer who smelled marijuana and saw a partially smoked marijuana cigarette in plain view in a vehicle during a traffic stop. In U.S. v. Crumb (No. 08-3207), the Sixth Circuit stated that the officer had probable cause to conduct a lawful search of the vehicle without a warrant. The search incidentally turned up more marijuana, crack cocaine, Ecstacy pills, and a semi-automatic weapon in the defendant’s car.

You may save money by finding used law school text books online. The Four L Blog mentions Amazon.com, Ebay, Ebay's Half.com and AbeBooks, and recommends using the book's ISBN number to order, as it is a unique identifier for the book. Some of our staff used Amazon and Half.com to buy law school books. (These services did not exist when I was in law school!) Be sure to allow enough time for shipping, so you can get the books in time to prepare for the first day of classes. For first-day assignments, and the book titles required for each class, with ISBN numbers see First Assignments/Book Lists on the law school's webpage.

The library does not buy a copy of every text book, but we may have copies of some textbooks. Most likely those copies were donated by a student. If our library does not have the book, you may be able to get a copy via Ohiolink. Just check Scholar, the library catalog. Using the advanced search, click on the "other" tab to search by ISBN number. (You can search for title too, but you may not retrieve the most current version of the book required by the professor. If you use an older version, you will have to supplement it with the case opinions added to the new edition).

If CSU does not have the book, hit the Ohiolink button, and see if you can order the book from another Ohiolink institution. Ohiolink books take at least 3 days to arrive. See Circulation Policies and Services for loan periods and the number of times you can renew a book.

Rebecca Flanagan, Director of the Academic Success Program at Vermont Law School proposes using a visual arrangement to brief cases, called the "star strategy". The star strategy was developed by Lynn Melzer, PhD, of the The Research Institute for Learning and Development.

Source: Law School Academic Support Blog,(Rebecca Flanagan).

I came up with this "diamond strategy" diagram, based on the more traditional IRAC approach (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion):

 (More)

Our Amy Burchfield was much too modest in her previous post There’s More on Sports Law Than You Think. When she referred to the recently updated International Sports Law resource guide published by GlobaLex , she neglected to name herself as the author. Now, Amy’s just celebrated her first anniversary here as our Access & Faculty Services Librarian, and quickly established credentials as our international and foreign law expert. Who knew she was also such a fan? Kudos, Amy!

The involvement of two graduate students from Dominican University, near Chicago, to bring a successful law suit to a close a night club in Ecuador that employed underage prostitutes is the topic of a story in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education. Human trafficking, a major human rights violation, is widespread in many regions of the world. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, a division of the U.S. Department of State, compiles yearly reports on human trafficking, placing countries into tiers based on compliance with national and international norms. The Trafficking in Persons Report 2008 includes an evaluation of human trafficking in Ecuador, which is classed as a Tier 2 country. The key international document to read is the UN’s Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, which supplements the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

The ACLU hosts a free brown bag lunch lecture on discretionary policies within the criminal justice system. The speaker is criminal defense attorney Terry H. Gilbert, an alumnus of Cleveland-Marshall. The lecture will take place Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 from noon to 1:30 pm at the ACLU of Ohio's Max Wohl Civil Liberties Center, 4506 Chester Avenue in Cleveland (just a little east of Cleveland State). More information/RSVP .

Check out the Top 35 Law Professor Blogs rankings, released yesterday. The rankings are taken from the Law Professor Blogger Census. The blogs must be edited by law professors, and have traffic over the past 12 months with publicly available sitemeters. Some popular law prof blogs, such as Feminist Law Professors, are not included because their sitemeters are not publicly available.

The Law Professor Blogger Census contains lots links to professor blogs. You may also want to look at Law Professor Blogs.com and Law X.0 to find more blogs of interest.

Tip from TaxProf Blog

The new Cuyahoga Enterprise Geographic Information System (CEGIS)
provides detailed information on houses and businesses in the county. Just type in an address or owner's name. The system combines information from the Cuyahoga County Auditor's Office and Recorder's Office. It will show the property owner, liens, how much was paid for the house, whether taxes have been paid and a detailed deed transfer history. There is a map which shows information about the property's neighborhood - census information, nearby sex offenders, nearby foreclosures and more.

The site is free, with registration. The database is still in its testing phase.

See Cuyahoga Engineer's Office Starts Up New County Map, Info System, The Plain Dealer Blog, July 14, 2008.

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• Ohio Bill Would Help Decorated Veterans Earn Degree
• Open Access Doesn't Mean More Citations
• RTA - Schedule Changes, Public Hearings, Involvement in the Public Sector
• On the Foreclosure Front - H.R. 3221 Signed
• C-M Law Library Blog Widget
• Ohio Employer's Law Blog
• Facebook Friends with HeinOnline
• Telltale Smell Upheld as Justification for Warrantless Search
• Saving Money on Law School Textbooks
• Visual Ways to Brief Cases

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