SBM Blog

Granholm-ordered Environmental Justice Plan Issued

It took three years, but the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) on Monday released an Environmental Justice Plan ordered by Gov. Granholm in 2007.  The Governor's order defined environmental justice as "the fair, non-discriminatory treatment and meaningful involvement of Michigan residents regarding the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies by this state."

Implementation of the plan rests in the hands of the new Governor, who has already announced plans to "un-merge" the Department of Environmental Quality from the DNRE.  But elements of the report, like the following, may be to his liking:

Imposing new regulatory requirements that increase costs and create regulatory uncertainties in environmental justice communities could serve as an obstacle to economic development in those communities. Again, care has to be taken to assure that the plan does not result in any additional regulatory mandates for businesses.

Here's the report. (PDF)

Red Flags Rule Clarification: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

On Saturday, President Obama signed the Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010, which makes clear that lawyers do not have to comply with the Red Flags Rule under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003.

From our Dec. 7 post:

Lawyers have been battling to avoid having to comply with inappropriate regulations concerning identity theft ever since 2007 when the FTC required 'creditors' and 'financial institutions' to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs and decided that lawyers qualify as 'creditors'. 

Dores McCree, 1920-2010

No one who ever met Dores McCree, who died on Dec. 7, will ever forget her graciousness, intelligence, and elegant beauty. Fortunately, all of that is preserved in this interview by the Detroit African-American History Project. The MP3 audio file is here.  Here's a bit of the interview about how she met her husband Wade McCree.  It demonstrates that as remarkable as he was, Dores McCree was every bit his match:

When I met him…I went to Boston Library School and to Simmons College Library School in Boston. I went in 1942 and I had graduated from Wayne here. I didn't know anyone in Boston but I was invited to a party by one of Wade's friends, a young man who had not yet been drafted. He came and picked me up and took me to the party but before we went to the party we went by Wade McCree's house where his mother lived. His father was away in Chicago on some narcotics assignment. Wade was home that weekend on a weekend pass, his first weekend pass. He was a rank, buck private, no stripes, no anything; just a soldier in uniform and we picked him up and took him to the party. Well, he and his good friend, another brilliant soldier who had been at Harvard Law School the same time he had been, one year, was also home that weekend. This other young man had been a Phi Beta Kappa, all "A" student up at Bowdoin College and they were good friends and very arrogant and very smart and they sat there and talked to each other sometimes in Greek and Latin. They were bragging about how they mystified their officers, their sergeants by speaking these classical languages to each other in the camp in the army. The officers couldn't understand them. They were bragging about how smart they were. And I thought that this was the most arrogant thing that I had ever seen. Coming from Wayne, I didn't know any men like that at Wayne, believe me.

Colorado Public Defense Law Challenged as Unconstitutional

A Colorado state law that codifies a practice that the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) says is also found in Michigan -- deferring the appointment of counsel for indigent misdemeanants until after the prosecuting attorney has spoken with the defendant -- now faces a constitutional challenge in federal court.

Here's the  Denver Post story.

Here's the complaint (PDF).

Here's the NLADA report referencing a similar practice in Michigan, 2008 Evaluation of Trial-Level Indigent Defense Systems in Michigan.

New Tribulation for Iowa Supreme Court Justices: Possible Impeachment

The justices of the Iowa Supreme Court that unanimously struck down a statutory ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional in 2009 have not had an easy time of it. First, the three justices who were up for retention election last November were targeted for defeat by opponents of same-sex marriage, and lost. The campaign was bitter, and particularly divisive for the Iowa bar. The defeat sent shock waves through the judicial community nationwide.  Now, Reuters reports, three-newly elected Iowa legislators are launching an effort to impeach the remaining four. AP reports that it takes only a majority vote in the Republican-led state legislature for impeachment, but a two-thirds vote to convict in the state Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

White House Gearing Up for Expected House Investigations

National Law Journal (subs. req.) reports that the White House has positioned two women to be lead "spear-catchers" in anticipation of non-stop investigations from the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the next Congress -- Kathryn Ruemmler and Kimberley Harris.  Ruemmler will be familiar to Michigan attorneys who attended the 2008 State Bar annual meeting, where she gave a memorable luncheon speech on the Enron prosecution.

Top 2 Reasons Why Detroit is the Nation's First PTO Satellite Office

If you missed the monster news that Detroit has been chosen as the site of the first U.S. satellite of the Patent and Trademark Office, here are the top two reasons why Detroit was chosen, plus links to the stories.  (If you didn't miss the story, just keep celebrating.)

1. Michigan's huge intellectual capital. There are lots of scientists and engineers in the Detroit area and they represent an attractive work force for the Patent Office.  Then there are our great universities to keep up the supply, plus lots of patent activity, patent agents, and patent attorneys.  In celebrating Detroit's selection, Gov. Granholm pointed out that Michigan ranks seventh in patents issued in the United States, and that "if Michigan were a country we would rank ninth in the world.”
   
2. Michigan's huge economic distress.  Michigan readers need no elaboration.  Decisions like this help us help ourselves.

The reader commentary from the IP blog Patently-O was brutally anti-Detroit, not to mention ignorant.  But what the heck?  We'll take the obloquy if it's part of the satellite decision package.  This is great news.  Risin' from the ashes.

Here's the Free Press story.  Here's the Detroit News story.

What's Going On In the Universe That You May Have Missed

In the interest of keeping Michigan lawyers well-rounded, SBM Blog wants you to know that astronomers now think there are three times as many stars in the universe as previously thought.  The recalculation comes as the result of a discovery that the small, dim stars known as red dwarfs are much more prevalent than previously thought.  You're welcome.

HT: Yale Daily Bulletin

In Memoriam: Walter Reed

Walter Reed, of Kalamazoo, died Dec. 11, 2010, at the age of 84. Mr. Reed was a 1953 graduate of University of Michigan Law School.

Dazzling Show. Upbeat Message. Maybe.

Looking for an upbeat message about the future, as well as inspiration about how to present data?  Enjoy.  (Then again, at least one blogger finds the message "seriously misleading.")