What Five Local Cops Read

The Seattle Times has a charming feature interviewing five local cops about the books they read. (The last question also asks what they write -- besides crime reports, one has written novels and one just finished a dissertation.) Jennifer Sullivan, By-the-Book Cops - and Their Lit Picks, Seattle Times, March 23, 2008.

King County Equity and Social Justice Initiative

Jerry Large's column this morning was about King County's Equity and Social Justice Initiative. From the initiative's website:

The King County Equity and Social Justice Initiative takes aim at long-standing and persistent local inequities and injustices. Government and local communities are better prepared than ever before to address these challenges.

"It is unacceptable that the color of your skin or your home address are good predictors of whether you will have a low birth weight baby, die from diabetes or your children will graduate from high school or end up in jail," says King County Executive Ron Sims.

The King County Equity and Social Justice Initiative aims to end persistent local inequities and injustices that result in, among other things, higher rates of disease among low-income populations and disproportionate rates of young black men in jail.

Examples of actions of the new Initiative include

* Developing and testing an equity impact assessment and review tool and incorporating the tool into decision-making.
* Collecting and publishing measures to highlight inequities and to mark progress in correcting them.
* Beginning a community dialogue process, using a new PBS series “Unnatural Causes,” to increase awareness among community members of equity and social determinants of health and to spur action, especially around policies.

Bad Conditions at King County Animal Shelter

In September a citizens advisory committee issued a report strongly critical of the King County animal shelter. Now the Times gives an update. Goal is getting critters out of shelters — alive, Seattle Times, March 17, 2008. The advisory committee's website (including the report) is here.

I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really.

A nice little piece about taking a regular break from email, blogs, cell phones, PDAs, etc.: Mark Bittman, I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really., N.Y. Times, March 2, 2008.

Nathan Zeldes, a principal engineer at Intel (employees there read or send three million e-mail messages daily), is running a couple of experiments, one in which people spend a morning a week at work but offline, another in which people consciously reduce their e-mail output. Though he’s not reporting results, he’s encouraged and he says people are participating.

Paris and beyond in France

If I ever plan a trip to France, I can turn to Jake and Maureen Dear's blog, Paris and beyond in France, which has lots of recommendations for books, accommodations, and more. Ooh-la-la!

(Jake Dear is the coauthor of an interesting law review article on the influence of state supreme courts. See my post in Trial Ad (and more) Notes.)

English Medieval Legal Documents Wiki

Wow! Hazel Lord at USC has created English Medieval Legal Documents Wiki, "a collaborative database on the published sources of English medieval legal documents, and to provide links to the growing number of online sources currently being developed."