Novalawcity

Banned Books Week 2009

This week is Banned Books Week (BBW). Started in 1982, BBW draws attention to the problem of censorship and celebrates our freedom to read. Check out the BBW website, where you can find an annotated list of the 10 most frequently challenged books in 2008, see a map of reported challenges over the past 2 years, and discover BBW events in your area. 

For a more historical perspective on banned books, the American Library Association offers an annotated list of Banned and Challenged Classics. Here a a couple of examples from that list:

Ulysses, James Joyce

Burned in the U.S. (1918), Ireland (1922), Canada (1922), England (1923) and banned in England (1929). Source: 3, p. 66; 5, pp. 328-30; 10, Vol. III, pp. 411-12; 557-58, 645.

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

Banned in Boston, MA (1930), Ireland (1953), Riverside, CA (1960). Burned in Nazi bonfires (1933).

Men's and Women's Earnings by State: 2008 American Community Survey

The American Community Survey, a program of the U.S. Census Bureau, has just issued a report on the  results of the 2008 survey of women's and men's earnings by state. The report "presents data on men’s and women’s earnings at the national and state levels. ... 'Earnings' are the sum of wage and salary income and self-employment income. ... Estimates are restricted to full-time, year-round workers 16 years or older."

Here are some of the results from the report:

• The U.S. national median earnings for men was $45,556.
• The U.S. national median earnings for women was $35,471 (77.9% of men's earnings)
• Men's highest median earnings was in Connecticut ($58,838)
• Women's highest median earnings was in D.C. ($50,519; 85.9% of men's highest earnings)
• Men's lowest median earnings was in Puerto Rico ($19,942)
• Women's lowest median earnings was also in Puerto Rico ($20,165; 101.1% of men's lowest earnings)
• Puerto Rico also had the distinction of being the jurisdiction where women earned more than men, and the jurisdiction where the discrepancy between men's and women's earnings was the smallest (1.1%)
• Wyoming had the largest discrepancy between men's and women's median earnings, with women's at  64.3% of men's ($48,555 vs $31,204)

If you're not familiar with the American Community Survey program, here's a brief description: "The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely demographic, social, economic, and housing data every year. It has an annual sample size of about 3 million addresses across the United States and Puerto Rico and includes both housing units and group quarters." You'll find more information on their web site.

International Day of Peace, 21 September 2009

"On 13 June 2009, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a multiplatform campaign under the slogan WMD – We Must Disarm to mark the 100-day countdown leading up to the International Day of Peace ... The International Day of Peace, observed each year on 21 September, is a global call for ceasefire and non-violence. This year the Secretary-General is calling on governments and citizens to focus on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation."

There's still time to participate. Go to the International Day of Peace web page (linked above) and make your voice heard. You can also follow the WMD campaign on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

2009 Government Secrecy Report Card released

Issued annually by OpenTheGovernment.org since 2004, the Secrecy Report Card measures certain indicators related to openness and transparency in the federal government.  The current report is available here.

Examining Legal Issues In Michael Jackson's Will

Legal experts discuss the estate and will of Michael Jackson in this Lawyer2Lawyer Podcast.

From the Department of Hypochondriasis

In the category of things you didn't know were there, but now will find endlessly, morbidly absorbing, is Google's Flu trends and now, Google's Experimental flu trends for Mexico.  Google created the latter in a spirit of helpfulness, at the urging of the folks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  In the United States, the aggregate search data that Google uses to show trends is verified against confirmed cases of flu.  This has not been possible in Mexico, hence Google terms that trend map "experimental."  

The Long Arm of Spanish Law

The Association for the Dignity of Prisoners has filed a criminal complaint in Spain against the attorneys in the Bush administration who were behind the creation of the Guantanamo Bay detention center.  The complaint seeks to hold the attorneys responsible for basically authorizing torture at the center. Investigative Judge Baltazar Garzon has asked prosecutors to examine the six attorneys named in the complaint, who include John Yoo and former attorney general Alberto Gonzales.

Spain's universal jurisdiction statute allows its courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture, war crimes and terrorism.  Judge Garzon famously indicted Osama bin Laden and Augusto Pinochet.  Even if there are no practical effects from the Spanish case, it gives a new gloss to globalism - the whole world is watching, and judging, when human rights are violated here. 

Presidential Libraries: NARA Seeks Public Input

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is currently seeking input regarding the development of alternative models for Presidential Libraries.  The public is invited to submit comments and suggestions regarding cost effective ways to modify the present system for archiving and providing public access to Presidential records.

Details regarding the project and relevant legislation can be found here.  Suggestions can be submitted via e-mail to preslib-alternatives@nara.gov.  The deadline is April 17, 2009.

Blogging with the O-Man, Remembering FDR

Hey, hip kids!  Wanna discourse in real time with the President?  Well, now you can!   President Obama's first Online Town Hall meeting took place today.  Read the transcript of the trial run of Open For Questions and savor the historical nuances, baby,  'cause this is the 21st Century version of President Frankin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats.

History buffs -- or your grandparents -- can tell you that on Sunday, March 12, 1933 President Roosevelt used a technology known as 'radio' to kick off the first of his fireside chats series.  The topic?  The banking crisis.  And here I thought that the saying 'everything old is new again' only pertained to polyester and bell-bottoms.  I stand corrected.  Listen to the audio here; read the transcript here.

FDR's calm, smooth voice emanated over the airwaves for 13 minutes and 42 seconds during that first fateful broadcast.  He effectively reassured and persuaded a frightened public that the Great Depression would pass, that the collective confidence and courage of the American people would get the country through an unprecedented economic nightmare. 

From 1933 to 1944 FDR hosted a total of thirty fireside chats, each dedicated to a different topic pertinent to the rejuvenation of the United States.  All thirty transcripts are available c/o the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.  The Museum of Broadcast Communications archives contains the entire series of audiorecordings.  Free registration is required but soooo worth it!

Plans for future Open For Questions sessions with President Obama are already underway.  In the meantime, everyone is encouraged to submit questions for review via the Open For Questions web site.  Registration is free but your input is priceless (with apologies to Mastercard). 

Whatever our individual differences -- be they political, social, economic, or religious -- I, for one, fervently hope that all of us will heed FDR's concluding statement of his initial chat: "It is your problem no less than it is mine.  Together we cannot fail." 

Libraries and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Visit the State Library and Archives of Florida’s Economic Recovery Wiki for additional information about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  See how libraries are involved and contribute information on what your library and community are doing.

Further details regarding ARRA and efforts to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of stimulus funds can be found at http://www.recovery.gov/.