KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

What with the rapture scheduled for tomorrow (May 21), I’ve been thinking about other disasters (zombies, hurricanes, American Idol) and how we should all have a disaster plan in place.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently hopped (or perhaps stumbled haltingly with arms outstretched) onto the zombie bandwagon with a tongue-in-cheek guide to preparing for a zombie apocalypse. 

King County has an excellent disaster preparedness site, www.3days3ways.org.  Here you can learn about the three steps you can take to prepare for a disaster (amazingly, planning for zombies is not much different than earthquakes or floods):

1. Make a Plan (plan a meeting spot, pick an out-of-state contact)
2. Build a Kit (put together a kit for your home and car)
3. Get Involved (follow the news, take a class to help yourself and others)

And in case you’re visiting the law library and we have to shelter-in-place due to marauding bands of the undead (or a chemical spill on I-5), you can take comfort in knowing that we have created a disaster plan and stocked the library with food, water and other essentials.

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.

When I teach my Public Sleuthing on Social Networks class I often caution the students about being careful about both their privacy and what they post when using social networks. Others may be checking your postings. Trial Ad Notes posted a cautionary story the other day about photos posted on a Facebook page and the BBC posted a story about serving a court order via a Twitter page.  Everyday I seem to come across another instance of social networking that could bring trouble to the person posting. 

I know that I always try to post with caution myself, although I still like to comment about #dwts occasionally. Maybe I should stop.  But doesn’t social networking also have to be fun?

One of the blogs I read on a regular basis is Laura Orr’s Oregon Legal Research blog. Recently she posted about engagement rings – and who gets the ring when the engagement is broken. She titled it “The Law of Engagement Rings (with a side of ring-flingers and Oregon cows).” It is a fascinating and funny post. So if you want to know more about this area of the law read Laura’s post.  It will make your day.

The Arlington Times reports on a man who was called to jury duty despite the fact that he had been dead since 2005. It seems he did not get stricken from the rolls of those to be called. “Jury duty rolls are drawn from random number polls of voter registration, licensing and state-issued ID cards, and … it is possible for dead people to receive jury duty summonses.”

My spouse believes that you get called to jury duty when you get a library card – as I have been called numerous times and he has never been called. Funny, dear!

KCLL’s own Department of Redundancy Department found this amusing bit of legislative double-speak while helping a patron research a question about public drunkenness: 66.44.175: Violations of law.  We suspect it was written to ensure that anyone violating the administrative regulations corresponding to Chapter 66.44 could also be prosecuted under the statute as well but it certainly makes for a confusing read.

The ABA has posted their top 3 ‘Peeps in Law’ entries. They ask you to “weigh in on your favorite. The winner gets bragging rights and our peepternal gratitude.”

Take a look. My favorite isn’t winning, as I love the Minnesota U.S. Senate Trial Peeps!