HerringLaw: Civil Rights & Discrimination Law in Iowa

Notetaking Applications for the Mac

My article on Notetaking Applications for Mac users is in the recent magazine, GPSolo Magazine, of the American Bar Association. As I conclude: 

 "perhaps this overview will give you a taste of what’s out there for lawyers who want to collect and deal with all the types of information that come into their possession over time." 

 If you're interested in applications for desktop/laptop Mac computers, iPads or iPhones, you might check it out:  GPSolo.

Recent article in GP Solo Magazine of the American Bar Association

I wrote an article on my movement from the practice of law to the art and sales of art photography, When Your Pastime Becomes Your Profession.  It was published in the April/May issue of the ABA's magazine for general practice solo lawyers, GPSolo.

Four Art Shows for June, one each weekend

I applied to several juried (i.e., selected by a jury in competition) shows for this summer and was accepted (so far) into four of them: 

     Edina, MN - June 4, 5 & 6

    Hinsdale, IL - June 12 & 13

    Stone Arch, Minneapolis-St. Paul - June 19 & 20

    Art Fest Midwest, Fairgrounds, Des Moines, IA - June 26 & 27

Hope to see you there.

Why do we yawn?

There was an NPR program back in 2007 about why people yawn and I came across my note about it and thought I'd share the info:

 The Wonderful, Mysterious Yawn : NPR

Recording Video on Your Mac: It Gets Even Easier | Mac|Life

It's easier to record a video message with QuickTime Player. And Photo Booth is even easier, especially for the grandmother who was mentioned in the original question.Right you are! A few people wrote in to correct us on that, and we appreciate the feedback. While the iMovie method we outlined does work, using QuickTime or Photo Booth is definitely a simpler solution.If you’re using Snow Leopard, launch QuickTime Player and select File > New Movie Recording. An iSight window pops up, and you can just click the Record button and go for it. Click the Stop button when you’re done, and QuickTime saves a MOV file to your ~/Movies folder. If you need a smaller file size, select File > Save For Web, and have QuickTime export a version for iPhone (Cellular), which is the smallest. Our 2-minute, 30-second MOV file was compressed from 17.6MB in its default version to just 4KB in iPhone (Cellular) size.

via www.maclife.com

Setting up an iPad

Well, here I sit selflessly setting up Mark's new iPad - his birthday present - it's a tough job but someone has to do it.

Please Rob Me

Hey, do you have a Twitter account? Have you ever noticed those messages in which people tell you where they are? Pretty annoying, eh. Well, they're actually also potentially pretty dangerous. We're about to tell you why.

via pleaserobme.com

[Good point about taking assertive action to protect your privacy and safety]

A good quote for today

None of us has gotten where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps.  We got here because somebody bent down and helped us - Thurgood Marshall.

Family Status Discrimination in Employment [California]

One employment law claim that has been quickly becoming more popular these days is "family status discrimination". That is, discriminating against someone based on their familial obligations or simply because they have a family in the first place.

via www.calemployeerightsblog.com

I was conducting some research into 'familial status discrimination' in housing and in a Google search came across this blog comment from a couple of years ago which sets out some of the arguments in favor of applying it to employment discrimination.  Some circuits have said there is no such thing under Title VII, but as this author notes, there are theories [e.g., sex role stereotyping, moral stereotyping] which would seem to permit this case to proceed even under Title VII as a form of gender discrimination.

Filiblustering - why your Senate doesn't work & plays parlor games

Sen. Begich from Alaska was asked on a radio show recently what the reality is about today's filibuster [which I renamed in the title, 'filibluster'] in the US Senate.

[from themudflats.net blog]

Felling: I think when a lot of people hear the word “filibuster,” they go back to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and they think about a Republican senator reading from the dictionary or the phone book, but that’s not the way it goes any longer. How exactly do they do it then?

Begich: It’s just kind of a parlor game, it’s a parlor trick and what they do is they claim a “cloture vote” which is a vote that requires 60 votes instead of a real filibuster where you actually have to sit on the floor and talk about why you’re doing this. You just go home! And they get 30 hours to do nothing and the senate really just stands in stall. If people turn on C-Span they’ll see people presiding and the room empty, because they just get to burn up 30 hours of time and that’s it. In days gone by you’d actually have to come down and debate the reason why you’re holding up the legislation that might be in front. But the reason they don’t do that now, especially the minority, is because they’d be embarrassed. Because all they’re doing is coming down and delaying for the sake of delaying and costing this economy, costing American jobs, costing Alaskan jobs. It’s really a shame. So I hope in a lot of ways we can get beyond that a lot of the freshmen on both Democrat and Republican are somewhat fed up with that process and want to move forward and doing the business that this country, that my state, sent me here to do.