The Office of the Code Reviser has posted an online archive of the Revised Code of Washington going back to 2002. The archived versions are PDF files of the official printed volumes.
While there are no plans to add more retrospectively, the archive will grow going forward.
We have added new training classes for May and June! Classes include Public Sleuthing on Social Networks and two sessions of the Legal Research for the Non-Attorney series, with one session to be held at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Space is limited and pre-registration is required so call the Library today at 206-296-0940 to sign up for these FREE classes. View the complete calendar here.
The State Law Library of Montana has announced the creation of the Montana Indian Law Portal. This website provides access to Montana’s tribal legal documents such as tribal court opinions, constitutions, water rights compacts, gaming compacts, fish and game regulations and codes. Judy Meadows, Montana State Law Librarian states, “we believe it is the first comprehensive Indian law site for one state that includes all basic and controlling documents of the tribes.” The project manager, Daniel Belcourt, met with the tribes and digitized documents in situ in order to capture this rich resource.
Congratulations to the Montana State Law Library for their role in collecting and cataloging these vital documents and making them available to the public. Click here to read more about this project and view the website.
Today in the Czech Republic, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia signed the Nuclear Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (called New Start). This treaty is aimed at reducing the number of nuclear arms held by both countries. Together the US and Russia own 90% of the nuclear arms in existence.
The objective of this treaty is that each country will decrease nuclear warheads by 30% while decreasing by half the instrumentalities used to carry them. The additional goals are to improve relations between the US and Russia and put increased pressure on Iran as it attempts to develop its own nuclear weapons.
The US Senate and Russian Duma still will need to ratify this treaty before it can take effect.
To read news coverage on this treaty, click here or here.
To read the text of the treaty, click here.
To read a comparison between this treaty and previous nuclear reduction treaties between the US and Russia, click here.
Today the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC ruled against the FCC in its fight to maintain net neutrality. “Net neutrality” is the concept that there should be no restrictions on information available on the internet—or, in other words, there should be no preferential treatment for any information on the internet. The court’s Ruling in Comcast v. FCC strikes at the heart of this concept.
As you likely know, the FCC is an independent federal agency, with jurisdiction across all of the US and its territories, “charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable.” In 2007 the FCC discovered that Comcast was deliberately slowing down or blocking its subscribers’ high-speed internet connections when they attempted to access media through online file exchange services such as BitTorrent. The FCC ruled that Comcast’s business practice “contravenes federal policies that protect the vibrant and open nature of the Internet” and gave the company until the end of 2008 to correct the problem. Comcast, claiming that its practices were intended to help manage limited network capacity, appealed the FCC decision to the DC Court of Appeals.
In today’s decision, the DC Court of Appeals indicated that the FCC has no “statutorily mandated” authority over Comcast’s internet service management, reversing the FCC’s order against Comcast. While this decision is a victory for Comcast and other internet service providers, the real losers here might be the public who face the possibility of continued limitation or blocking of access to certain online platforms as well as increased costs for more bandwidth access.
To read the New York Times Article on this ruling, click here.
To read the text of the DC Court of Appeals decision, click here.
To learn more about net neutrality, click here.
Just a friendly reminder for those of you who have not yet filled in your 2010 Census questionnaires; it’s time to put them in the mail! King County has so far responded at a 50% participation rate, which is 2% below the national average and way below South Dakota’s 62%, which currently leads the nation. Why is it important to mail back your census? Well, in the legislative sense, census information directly affects the number of seats your state gets in the United States House of Representatives.
What if you never get mailed a census, lose your census, or accidently shred your census with a pile of junk mail and magazine advertisements you’re positive you sifted through before pushing the shiny button – just as a hypothetical, mind you – I have no actual knowledge regarding that last careless and unforgivable example. Anyway, have no fear! After April 12th, you can contact the Census’ Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Centers to get a replacement form. See the links below for more details.