Today Governor Gregoire appointed King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez to the Washington State Supreme Court replacing Justice Gerry Alexander who is retiring December 31, 2011. Judge Gonzalez’s appointment is effective January, 2012.
Today King County Law Library is celebrating Happy One’s Day – 1/11/11. I thought I’d check the Internet to see what momentous things happened on this day. I discovered that Theodore Roosevelt designated the Grand Canyon as a national monument on this day in 1908. Alexander Hamilton, the first United States Secretary of the Treasury was born in 1804. In 1973, Jan. 11 was the beginning of the Watergate burglary trial. In the area of sports in 1973, the American League adopted the designated hitter rule. In the area of public health, insulin was used for the first time on a human patient on this date in 1922. And from Frazz, my favorite comic strip, bottled milk was first delivered in NYC on Jan. 11, 1878. Check out the sources listed below. You may find your favorite first (the day that Whisky A Go-Go opened in LA?).
Sources include www.on-this-day.com, www.factmonster.com/dayinhistory, www.wordiq.com/definition/January_11 and www.history.com/this-day-in-history.
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.
An article in today’s Seattle Times cuts right to the chase. How does one get to information stored on your computer at home or somewhere on the Internet when you die. Not only does this present a challenge to your family but it also impacts your office if you were to die suddenly or become incapcitated unexpectedly. Just as a will is created to dispose of your physical assets, will there be a legal document that holds the passwords to your information stored electronically?
*Blood, Sweat & Tears’ “Spinning Wheel”
In a recent story on National Public Radio, a speaker discussed the results of comparing search engines Bing and Google. He used a program called Bing-vs-Google. After a week of searching for an article he was preparing, he thought there were gaps in the Bing results, but that Bing may offer more opportunities for shopping online. You can run your own test. Enter your search terms in the search box. The default display shows the results side-by-side or you can show the results horizontally. Give it a try.
As I was preparing an order for CLE materials for the library, I noticed that the Washington State Trial Laywers Association has changed its name. WSTLA is now the Washington State Association for Justice. According to the press release, WSTLA feels that the name change best captures their mission.
Also changing their name this year is the Northwest Women’s Law Center. NWWLC is now known as Legal Voice. Check out their new websites.
The flooding of the Green River will affect virtually everyone in the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area. It may directly affect your home, business or commute. Or it may indirectly affect you when your staff can’t make it to work, or the products you use are stored in a warehouse in the Kent valley. Here are a few links to alert services that will help you stay on top of the flooding situation.
You can sign up for alerts from the Regional Public Information Network. You would receive news alerts from safety and transportation agencies in Puget Sound. They include traffic, wind, flood and earthquake alerts.
Mystateusa.com allows you to sign up for weather alerts in your area. You may select what type of emergencies you want to receive notification. Just click on the weather alerts button in the upper right hand corner.
The cities affected by the potential flooding have established reverse 911 call systems. Each city has its own signup. If you click on each city listed below, the link will take you to their signup page.
Many of these services will allow you to sign up multiple phone numbers or receive text messages.
Check them out!
The King County Law Library at the Maleng Regional Justice Center is just one of several departments that are making contingency plans in the event that the Howard Hanson Dam fails. If the dam fails, flooding will occur in the Green River flood plain, including Auburn, Kent, Renton and Tukwila. See the article in today’s Seattle Times.
The Library’s disaster plan includes how and when to move books, computers and other materials out of the MRJC and what services can be provided to South King County patrons by the KCLL staff in the Seattle Courthouse.
This last week many of the bills passed by the legislature this past session became law. One of them amends the state’s Lemon Law. If you feel that the car you bought is a lemon, the Office of the Attorney General has a great web site to help you determine if your car qualifies as a lemon and how to seek help.
One of the new provisions of the law specifies that cars owned by members of the armed services who are stationed or residing in Washington are covered under the new amendment, even if the car was purchased out of state (and it meets other criteria).
Check it out.
Mandatory e-filing for attorneys in King County Superior Court begins today. The Clerk’s Office has created some excellent tutorials to familiarize yourself with the process. Take a look at them here. On the same web page they have a link to frequently asked questions. They also have a tutorial for submitting working copies.