The Pol State blog where I blogged politics before starting Wash Park Prophet, ceased operations on May 24, 2008 when Temple Stark, the lead editor there, shut it down.
Originally designed as a bipartisan 50 state political blog with corrospondents in each state, it fell victim first to partisan infighting (which was why I left), to technical difficulties, and then to the power of RSS based blog aggregators to appropriate more lively state political blogs. It was sponsored by DailyKos financially, but not affiliated with it in editorial policies or politics.
It had covered almost nothing about Colorado politics that did not touch on the Presidential race for a long time when it ceased operations.
Other Pol State alums from the Colorado political blogosphere include my predecessor Colorado Luis, who sometimes writes at Square State after discontinuing his highly insightful personal blog, and my conservative Pol State colleague who continues to be part of the Mile High Delphi team.
15 August 2008
F-35 Program Progress Report
The U.S. military is buying about 2,500 aircraft. Allied nations are purchasing an additional 500 or so. Lockheed Martin officials are expecting foreign military sales to hike the total number to more than 4,000 Joint Strike Fighters. . . . Once the line ramps up to full-rate production — possibly as early as 2016 — the company estimates it will assemble about 21 fighters per month, or roughly one aircraft per working day. . . .
There are three variants of the F-35: A conventional take-off and landing aircraft for the Air Force, a short take-off and vertical landing version for the Marine Corps and a carrier-based variant for the Navy.
Lockheed has completed the critical design reviews and last month the first flight of its short take-off and vertical landing variant for the Marine Corps took place. The initial operating capability for that version is expected in 2012, followed by the conventional takeoff and landing version in 2015, and the carrier version a year after that. . . .
To keep the line running steadily, Lockheed has been working to convince partner nations to increase their advance orders for the aircraft. That would reduce the price of the fighters for all potential buyers.
The United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway all have pledged funds to help develop the aircraft. Singapore is said to be considering joining the program. Israel has proposed a five-year defense plan that includes purchasing 25 JSF in 2012. . . .
Lockheed Martin says that the unit cost of the F-35A conventional fighter is less than $50 million, in 2002 dollars, when the contract was initially awarded. By the same accounting, the F-35B and F-35C are about $60 million per copy.
In an audit last year, however, the Government Accountability Office estimated that the F-35 could cost as much as $97.6 million apiece, in 2008 dollars. Norway recently asked the U.S. government to provide information on a potential buy of 48 F-35s for delivery in 2016. Lockheed estimated that, in 2008 dollars, each aircraft would cost $56.5 million, with an additional $2.2 million for auxiliary mission equipment, such as pylons, rails and the helmet-mounted display systems.
From here with a hat tip to Defense Tech.
The Air Force is attemptly to parlay delay in F-35 production into twenty more F-22s beyond the currently planned buy of 183; the Air Force actually wants 381 F-22s and believes that "requirements for 1,763 JSFs would be met only incrementally until 2025." The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is another name for the F-35 program.
Bank Pays $10,000 To Give Away Detroit House
You know Detroit real estate values are in trouble when banks have to pay buyers in order to sell houses at foreclosure sales. While this isn't uncommon in cases of documented toxic waste problems, it is unusual for an ordinary home acquired in a foreclosure sale.
Why the bank chose this route rather than simply allowing it to be foreclosed upon by the city for unpaid taxes is also mysterious. Perhaps they were concerned about in personam liability for unpaid bills in connection with the property and land owner liability.
According to today's Detroit Free Press real estate classified ads section, there are 610 properties currently being listed in the City for $10,000 or less, including many three and four bedroom homes, and at least some five and six bedroom homes.
While sales are picking up, Detroit real estate prices have gotten catastrophically bad (as of June 4, 2008):
What next?
Why the bank chose this route rather than simply allowing it to be foreclosed upon by the city for unpaid taxes is also mysterious. Perhaps they were concerned about in personam liability for unpaid bills in connection with the property and land owner liability.
According to today's Detroit Free Press real estate classified ads section, there are 610 properties currently being listed in the City for $10,000 or less, including many three and four bedroom homes, and at least some five and six bedroom homes.
While sales are picking up, Detroit real estate prices have gotten catastrophically bad (as of June 4, 2008):
Buyer activity within the city of Detroit has increased dramatically and may spread to surrounding areas. For the first four months of this year, home sales in the city increased by 48 percent from last year, according to residential sales statistics released by the Michigan Association of Realtors. The average price dropped 56 percent to just $20,514, as many of the sales “involve decrepit homes in neighborhoods with few jobs,” according to a report on hard-hit areas by The Wall Street Journal last month.
Much of the buyer activity in the city has been based on speculation as investors snap up entire street blocks of underpriced properties and wait “for things to get better,” Chubb said. The overall market has also attracted the interest of first-time buyers, who have typically delayed their plans to purchase homes until recently.
What next?
14 August 2008
Comic Books On Tax
The Tax Profs blog notes two comic books about tax (one classic and one recent).
Also, I'll call attention to a post by Prof. Maule whose blog references some thoughts I shared with him about the politics of a new above the line property tax deduction, in response to one of his prior posts on the subject.
Also, I'll call attention to a post by Prof. Maule whose blog references some thoughts I shared with him about the politics of a new above the line property tax deduction, in response to one of his prior posts on the subject.
Court Changes Mind In Rendition Case
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has called for en banc review of a panel decision in June against a Canadian victim of an American rendition without being asked by anyone to do so. Nationwide, about 50-100 cases receive en banc review, but almost all of them involve strenuous requests from the parties for en banc review.
This is an extraordinarily rare event and that make that it is happening in a high profile war on terrorism case makes it even more remarkable.
This is an extraordinarily rare event and that make that it is happening in a high profile war on terrorism case makes it even more remarkable.
13 August 2008
USPS Outsourcing
Unbossed notes a recent GAO report critical of the United States Postal Service's inability to determine cost savings associated with out sourcing.
What Is Outsourcing?
This makes me wonder what precisely constitutes United States Postal Service outsourcing. The most important form of outsourcing by the U.S.P.S., although not everyone recognizes it as a form of outsourcing, arises from its preferential rates for bulk mail, from pre-sorting rates, and from zone rates for mail deliveries.
Typically, the person who wants to send lots of mail employs a commercial mail house that uses information in a customer database to print form letters, in the order required to obtain pre-sorting rates, at a local printing shop in the same postal zone as the postal zone where the mail will be delivered.
There is no doubt that pre-delivery outsourcing practices encouraged by bulk rates save the postal service money. Pre-sorted, single zone bulk mail is much cheaper for the postal service to handle because the post office doesn't have to do as much with those items of mail. The ability of mail houses to merge the process of printing the actual item to be delivered to customers, and the process of preparing it to be mails, is also inherently more efficient than doing the tasks separately. Properly designed, a bulk mail printing job can be done in pre-sort order with proper postage for no more money than a bulk mail printing that is prepared for mailing separately.
For the customer, this minimizes per item mailing costs. For the postal service, this eliminates most of the long haul transportation costs, and most of the sorting burden involved in getting mail from the sender to the individual postal worker who will actually deliver the mail.
Wage Issues In Outsourcing
Government monopolies are relatively easy to unionize. You only have to campaign to get union recognition once, and the entity will likely stay unionized forever. While they can outsource to some extent, they can't go off shore. They are subject to political control and protected by civil service rules that limit the most ruthless union busting activity.
The postal service pays its average employee about $62,000 a year, which isn't bad, considering that about 6 out of 7 of those jobs are relatively low skilled, non-supervisory jobs as clerks, as mail handlers, as mail carriers, as truck drivers, and for janitorial and handyman work. In exchange, the U.S.P.S. gets reliability, consitency, a well qualified work force, and an important jobs program that provides honest work for military veterans who have preference for the jobs which significantly impacts the nature of the work force.
Since the Post Office is run as a government owned non-profit that seeks to simply break even over the medium to long term, we also have the comfort of knowing that none of the user's fees paid to maintain the postal system go towards shareholder dividends or fat pay packages for senior executives. Top U.S.P.S. executives make decent incomes, but they are chump change compared to the lavish compensation packages afforded senior executives in private industry in enterprises of this scale. Thousands of dollars per employee of above market rate compensation to postal service employees is basically payback for the costs avoided by not having to pay excessive compensation to Wall Street and senior management.
The high skill level and reliability of postal employees, also allows the U.S.P.S. to have a quite low percentage of supervisors and managers relative to a typical private enterprise.
The Post Office's pay structure looks more like a typical publicly held Japanese or European company, and less like a typical American company.
In the private sector, retail service jobs comparable to that of clerks, mail handling jobs comparable to that of factory workers, truck driving jobs, delivery jobs and building services jobs pay considerably less and come with fewer benefits. Private sectors jobs tend to have more turnover, less qualified workers in these kinds of jobs, and less job security. Often, they are non-union jobs and of course, they don't come with civil service protections.
Our current economy has lots of people who are able to fill jobs that aren't highly skilled, like most postal jobs and comparable work; but such jobs are increasingly scarce, because many of these kinds of jobs have been sent abroad and because technology has eliminated many less skilled jobs. Even within the postal service, robotic kiosks are replacing a significant share of work once done by clerks from a modest price compared to the payroll costs involved in employing a clerk.
The Economic Importance of Accurate Bulk Rates
If bulk mail and pre-sorting and zone discounts accurately reflect the cost savings associated with those kinds of mail, then it is up to the private sector to decide if it is more cost effective to have the sorting and transportation functions done by the postal service, or if it is more effective to have those tasks done either by a third party mail house, or an in house bulk mail operation.
Of course, if bulk mail rates are set too low, private mail houses will end up doing jobs that could be done cheaper by postal service employees. Similarly, if bulk mail rates are set too high, people who want to send mail will have printing of the items and the mailing of the items done separately, even though this is clearly less efficient.
What Outsourcing Matters Most?
I suspect that when the GAO is talking about outsourcing, that they are really talking about contract post offices, the outsourcing of express mail services to Federal Express, and the like. But, the importance of "traditional" outsourcing by the U.S.P.S. is really trivial in magnitude compared to the importance of the invisible pre-post office outsourcing that occurs as a result of bulk mail rate structures.
Bulk mail accounts for more than half of the items delivered by the postal service, and about a third of postal service revenue (the statistics cited don't segregate out first class and priority mail which receives a pre-sorting, but not a "standard mail" discount, such as credit card and utility bills). So, bulk and pre-sorted mail effective outsources something on the order of $20 billion of postal business each year, based upon the cost of having the postal service do the work.
By comparison, U.S. Postal Service Express Mail, which is basically outsourced to Federal Express, is a little less than a $1 billion a year business, and franchised post offices are a pretty small percentage of the total number of post office locations and also tend to have lower volume than a typical publicly owned post office.
Yet, no one is seriously proposing that the United States Post Office get into the bulk mail printing business, as it would have to in order to realize these economies for its customers.
Do we need another tier of bulk rates?
To my knowledge, there is also no rate structure currently in place to provide additional bulk rate savings for commercial mail houses that not only sort bulk mailing by route, but also sort mailing from multiple customers with different items into consolidated route packages which are also pre-sorted by address. Multi-bulk mailer intra-route pre-sorting would save the people who actually deliver mail a great deal of time. It would also open up the possibility of allowing individuals and small businesses to electronically transmit individual mail items to a mail house for printing and mailing off site for something less than the ordinary first class postage rate, if basic rules on paper size, paper type and numbers of pages were adhered to by the small mailer.
This new tier of postal rates would promote mail house industry consolidation by creating an advantage that only the largest mail houses could benefit from, but would only do so because the economies of scale involved are real.
Increased incentives to use bulk rates would, of course, also undermine postal unions by reducing the amount of work done by postal workers in favor of mail house workers. But this concern would be mostly mitigated, if unions managed to unionize most major mail houses.
Then again, maybe we'd be better off if Congress rethought the mission of the United States Postal System and expanded its mandate to include the mail house business as well. After all, the U.S.P.S. is set up like a utility or cooperative, so it can secure economies of scale without the abuses associated with private sector monopolies or restraint of competition.
What Is Outsourcing?
This makes me wonder what precisely constitutes United States Postal Service outsourcing. The most important form of outsourcing by the U.S.P.S., although not everyone recognizes it as a form of outsourcing, arises from its preferential rates for bulk mail, from pre-sorting rates, and from zone rates for mail deliveries.
Typically, the person who wants to send lots of mail employs a commercial mail house that uses information in a customer database to print form letters, in the order required to obtain pre-sorting rates, at a local printing shop in the same postal zone as the postal zone where the mail will be delivered.
There is no doubt that pre-delivery outsourcing practices encouraged by bulk rates save the postal service money. Pre-sorted, single zone bulk mail is much cheaper for the postal service to handle because the post office doesn't have to do as much with those items of mail. The ability of mail houses to merge the process of printing the actual item to be delivered to customers, and the process of preparing it to be mails, is also inherently more efficient than doing the tasks separately. Properly designed, a bulk mail printing job can be done in pre-sort order with proper postage for no more money than a bulk mail printing that is prepared for mailing separately.
For the customer, this minimizes per item mailing costs. For the postal service, this eliminates most of the long haul transportation costs, and most of the sorting burden involved in getting mail from the sender to the individual postal worker who will actually deliver the mail.
Wage Issues In Outsourcing
Government monopolies are relatively easy to unionize. You only have to campaign to get union recognition once, and the entity will likely stay unionized forever. While they can outsource to some extent, they can't go off shore. They are subject to political control and protected by civil service rules that limit the most ruthless union busting activity.
The postal service pays its average employee about $62,000 a year, which isn't bad, considering that about 6 out of 7 of those jobs are relatively low skilled, non-supervisory jobs as clerks, as mail handlers, as mail carriers, as truck drivers, and for janitorial and handyman work. In exchange, the U.S.P.S. gets reliability, consitency, a well qualified work force, and an important jobs program that provides honest work for military veterans who have preference for the jobs which significantly impacts the nature of the work force.
Since the Post Office is run as a government owned non-profit that seeks to simply break even over the medium to long term, we also have the comfort of knowing that none of the user's fees paid to maintain the postal system go towards shareholder dividends or fat pay packages for senior executives. Top U.S.P.S. executives make decent incomes, but they are chump change compared to the lavish compensation packages afforded senior executives in private industry in enterprises of this scale. Thousands of dollars per employee of above market rate compensation to postal service employees is basically payback for the costs avoided by not having to pay excessive compensation to Wall Street and senior management.
The high skill level and reliability of postal employees, also allows the U.S.P.S. to have a quite low percentage of supervisors and managers relative to a typical private enterprise.
The Post Office's pay structure looks more like a typical publicly held Japanese or European company, and less like a typical American company.
In the private sector, retail service jobs comparable to that of clerks, mail handling jobs comparable to that of factory workers, truck driving jobs, delivery jobs and building services jobs pay considerably less and come with fewer benefits. Private sectors jobs tend to have more turnover, less qualified workers in these kinds of jobs, and less job security. Often, they are non-union jobs and of course, they don't come with civil service protections.
Our current economy has lots of people who are able to fill jobs that aren't highly skilled, like most postal jobs and comparable work; but such jobs are increasingly scarce, because many of these kinds of jobs have been sent abroad and because technology has eliminated many less skilled jobs. Even within the postal service, robotic kiosks are replacing a significant share of work once done by clerks from a modest price compared to the payroll costs involved in employing a clerk.
The Economic Importance of Accurate Bulk Rates
If bulk mail and pre-sorting and zone discounts accurately reflect the cost savings associated with those kinds of mail, then it is up to the private sector to decide if it is more cost effective to have the sorting and transportation functions done by the postal service, or if it is more effective to have those tasks done either by a third party mail house, or an in house bulk mail operation.
Of course, if bulk mail rates are set too low, private mail houses will end up doing jobs that could be done cheaper by postal service employees. Similarly, if bulk mail rates are set too high, people who want to send mail will have printing of the items and the mailing of the items done separately, even though this is clearly less efficient.
What Outsourcing Matters Most?
I suspect that when the GAO is talking about outsourcing, that they are really talking about contract post offices, the outsourcing of express mail services to Federal Express, and the like. But, the importance of "traditional" outsourcing by the U.S.P.S. is really trivial in magnitude compared to the importance of the invisible pre-post office outsourcing that occurs as a result of bulk mail rate structures.
Bulk mail accounts for more than half of the items delivered by the postal service, and about a third of postal service revenue (the statistics cited don't segregate out first class and priority mail which receives a pre-sorting, but not a "standard mail" discount, such as credit card and utility bills). So, bulk and pre-sorted mail effective outsources something on the order of $20 billion of postal business each year, based upon the cost of having the postal service do the work.
By comparison, U.S. Postal Service Express Mail, which is basically outsourced to Federal Express, is a little less than a $1 billion a year business, and franchised post offices are a pretty small percentage of the total number of post office locations and also tend to have lower volume than a typical publicly owned post office.
Yet, no one is seriously proposing that the United States Post Office get into the bulk mail printing business, as it would have to in order to realize these economies for its customers.
Do we need another tier of bulk rates?
To my knowledge, there is also no rate structure currently in place to provide additional bulk rate savings for commercial mail houses that not only sort bulk mailing by route, but also sort mailing from multiple customers with different items into consolidated route packages which are also pre-sorted by address. Multi-bulk mailer intra-route pre-sorting would save the people who actually deliver mail a great deal of time. It would also open up the possibility of allowing individuals and small businesses to electronically transmit individual mail items to a mail house for printing and mailing off site for something less than the ordinary first class postage rate, if basic rules on paper size, paper type and numbers of pages were adhered to by the small mailer.
This new tier of postal rates would promote mail house industry consolidation by creating an advantage that only the largest mail houses could benefit from, but would only do so because the economies of scale involved are real.
Increased incentives to use bulk rates would, of course, also undermine postal unions by reducing the amount of work done by postal workers in favor of mail house workers. But this concern would be mostly mitigated, if unions managed to unionize most major mail houses.
Then again, maybe we'd be better off if Congress rethought the mission of the United States Postal System and expanded its mandate to include the mail house business as well. After all, the U.S.P.S. is set up like a utility or cooperative, so it can secure economies of scale without the abuses associated with private sector monopolies or restraint of competition.
Spiders and Cows
Science New reported yesterday on their website the discovery of the first species of spider that is primarily vegetarian. It steals food from ants that are in symbiotic relationships with acacia trees in Mexico. The discovery was made by a student researcher looking at the relationship with open eyes. Professional researchers had been so focused on the remarkable ant-plant relationship that they had overlooked the remarkable spider. The research was done with technology no more advanced than videotape. About 3% of the time it does eat ant larvae stolen from adult ants carrying them from place to place. Children's fiction predicted this long ago, in the character of Miss Spider created by David Kirk.
NPR reported this morning that miniature cows produce half the meat for a third of the feed. These cow produce 50% more meat to be produced with the same amount of feed. While red meat of any kind still takes orders of magnitude more resources to secure the same nutritional value of a vegetarian diet, chicken and farmed fish grown in rice fields are probably the only more efficient forms of commercially produced meat available.
NPR reported this morning that miniature cows produce half the meat for a third of the feed. These cow produce 50% more meat to be produced with the same amount of feed. While red meat of any kind still takes orders of magnitude more resources to secure the same nutritional value of a vegetarian diet, chicken and farmed fish grown in rice fields are probably the only more efficient forms of commercially produced meat available.
12 August 2008
Primary Results 2008 UPDATED
Republicans
Incumbent Doug Lamborn in the 5th CD, and Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman in the 6th CD have won their respective primaries. Given that both seats are safe Republican seats, this means that Democratic Governor Bill Ritter is likely to have the opportunity to appoint a Democrat to replace Mike Coffman as Secretary of State.
George Lily will have the hopeless task of facing incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette in the general election.
Incumbent State Representative Doug Bruce appears to have lost his primary contest against Mark Waller. No Representative in Colorado history has disgraced himself so much in a single legislative session for his boorish conduct.
Joshua Sharf is the winner in HD 6 (Washington Park et al.). Kit Roupe is winning in an open race in HD 17. Carole Murray is winning in HD 45. Incumbent Glenn Vaad has narrowly won the primary in HD 48. Randy Baumgardner is winning in an open race in HD 57.
Mark Scheffel has won the primary in SD 4, an open seat. Lauri Clapp has won the primary in SD 26, an open seat.
Controversial Republican District Attorney Carol Chambers, the incumbent, in a judicial district that includes Arapahoe County appears to have successfully fended off a primary challenge. Incumbent El Paso County District Attorney John Newsome, who made headlines for his alcoholism, appears to have been defeated in the primary by Dan May.
Democrats
In the safe Democratic Second Congressional District (with a weak Republican nominee this election cycle), Jared Polis has 43% of the vote, Joan Fitz-Gerald has 39% of the vote, and Will Shafroth has 18% of the vote with 20% of the vote counted. Polis leads but a come from behind victory is not impossible for Fitz-Gerald at this point.
UPDATE: Fitz-Gerald has reportedly conceded. Jared Polis wins.
Incumbent Mark Ferrandino has easily won his primary in HD 2. Lois Court is on track to win the Democratic primary to replace Andrew Romanoff in HD 6. Beth McCann is the runaway winner in HD 8, a race several leading local Democrats had declared too close to call. The three way race is currently split 51-31-18. Joe Miklosi appears to be the winner in HD 9.
Camille Ryckman has won in HD 22 over disgraced school board member Vince Chowdhury who had abandoned his campaign after getting onto the ballot. Shelly Tokerud has won the privilege of taking on incumbent Republican Mike May in HD 44. Edward Vigil is winning in an open race in HD 62.
Joyce Foster has won the primary in SD 35.
Democratic primaries in HD 24, HD 30 and in SD 18 are too close to call at this point.
UPDATE: Rollie Heath appears to have won in SD 18. HD 24 and HD 30 remain too close to call.
Ballot Issues
Denver voters are on track to pass both Ballot Issue 100, an anti-immigrant measure that requires police to impound cars of people suspected of being illegal immigrants, likely in part due to a deceptive title, and Referendum 1A, which eliminates the City Council's role in the city initiative process.
Incumbent Doug Lamborn in the 5th CD, and Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman in the 6th CD have won their respective primaries. Given that both seats are safe Republican seats, this means that Democratic Governor Bill Ritter is likely to have the opportunity to appoint a Democrat to replace Mike Coffman as Secretary of State.
George Lily will have the hopeless task of facing incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette in the general election.
Incumbent State Representative Doug Bruce appears to have lost his primary contest against Mark Waller. No Representative in Colorado history has disgraced himself so much in a single legislative session for his boorish conduct.
Joshua Sharf is the winner in HD 6 (Washington Park et al.). Kit Roupe is winning in an open race in HD 17. Carole Murray is winning in HD 45. Incumbent Glenn Vaad has narrowly won the primary in HD 48. Randy Baumgardner is winning in an open race in HD 57.
Mark Scheffel has won the primary in SD 4, an open seat. Lauri Clapp has won the primary in SD 26, an open seat.
Controversial Republican District Attorney Carol Chambers, the incumbent, in a judicial district that includes Arapahoe County appears to have successfully fended off a primary challenge. Incumbent El Paso County District Attorney John Newsome, who made headlines for his alcoholism, appears to have been defeated in the primary by Dan May.
Democrats
In the safe Democratic Second Congressional District (with a weak Republican nominee this election cycle), Jared Polis has 43% of the vote, Joan Fitz-Gerald has 39% of the vote, and Will Shafroth has 18% of the vote with 20% of the vote counted. Polis leads but a come from behind victory is not impossible for Fitz-Gerald at this point.
UPDATE: Fitz-Gerald has reportedly conceded. Jared Polis wins.
Incumbent Mark Ferrandino has easily won his primary in HD 2. Lois Court is on track to win the Democratic primary to replace Andrew Romanoff in HD 6. Beth McCann is the runaway winner in HD 8, a race several leading local Democrats had declared too close to call. The three way race is currently split 51-31-18. Joe Miklosi appears to be the winner in HD 9.
Camille Ryckman has won in HD 22 over disgraced school board member Vince Chowdhury who had abandoned his campaign after getting onto the ballot. Shelly Tokerud has won the privilege of taking on incumbent Republican Mike May in HD 44. Edward Vigil is winning in an open race in HD 62.
Joyce Foster has won the primary in SD 35.
Democratic primaries in HD 24, HD 30 and in SD 18 are too close to call at this point.
UPDATE: Rollie Heath appears to have won in SD 18. HD 24 and HD 30 remain too close to call.
Ballot Issues
Denver voters are on track to pass both Ballot Issue 100, an anti-immigrant measure that requires police to impound cars of people suspected of being illegal immigrants, likely in part due to a deceptive title, and Referendum 1A, which eliminates the City Council's role in the city initiative process.
Louisiana Wetlands Dying
Flood control and development along the Mississippi River is having unexpected consequences that are destroying wetlands the Cajun Coast of Louisiana.
Follow the link for an explanation of the basic ecology concept that wetlands (a.k.a. swamps) are often a good thing for the environment.
The Everglades, by the way, are also endangered by rising sea levels created by global warming. Most of the Everglades are at very close to sea level, so even modest increases in sea level can return much of it to the sea.
Taken together, about half of America's critical wetlands are at risk in these two areas alone.
Swampy South Louisiana, unbeknownst to most people, contains a staggering 25% of America's total wetlands, 40% of its salt marsh. In fact, jumbled and meandering wetlands in South Louisiana are the size of the much better known Everglades[.]
Follow the link for an explanation of the basic ecology concept that wetlands (a.k.a. swamps) are often a good thing for the environment.
The Everglades, by the way, are also endangered by rising sea levels created by global warming. Most of the Everglades are at very close to sea level, so even modest increases in sea level can return much of it to the sea.
Taken together, about half of America's critical wetlands are at risk in these two areas alone.
California Weakens Non-Competition Clauses
If you work in a field that values relationships or specialized skills, a critical question when you leave your job is whether you can take your clients with you to a new job.
The mad dash to divy up clients and employees in the absence of a non-competition clause was exemplified in the movie Jerry McGuire (1996) featuring Tom Cruise (in the title role) as a sports agent, who comes out of one of those mad dashes, after being fired for his "fewer clients, less money" idea, with just one client (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and a secretary (Renee Zellweger).
In California, the Jerry McGuire scenario is now clearly the law, regardless of what an employment agreement says. According to the ContractsProf Blog, "California Supreme Court has ruled that virtually all non-competition agreements are invalid in that state." Basically, non-competition agreements are permitted in California only in connection with business ownership transactions.
The California court also defined what counts as a prohibited non-competition agreement broadly to include, for example, prohibitions on solicitation of clients of the ex-employer introduced to the employee at the former employer.
California law has never greatly favored the clauses. Indeed, some economists cite weak non-competition clauses as an important driver of economic growth in California relative to states like Massachusetts, where they are enforced more strictly.
Less obviously, this ruling may have considerable impact in Colorado, because many multi-state companies that employ people in Colorado often enter into contracts incorporating California law into their employment contracts.
Also, in employment agreements without a choice of law clause, Colorado employees in non-competition agreement disputes with their former employers may try to beat California based former employers to the court house by filing declaratory judgment actions in California courts, before employers can file in Colorado. California courts are likely to apply favorable California law even to disputes with out of state employees. Colorado courts, in contrast, are likely to apply Colorado law which disfavors non-competition agreements, more than in a typical state, but permits them in more circumstances than California law does.
Colorado generally bans non-competition agreements (indeed insisting that an employee enter into an invalid non-competition clause is a criminal offense in Colorado), but has several more exceptions to the rule than California, and has historically been understood to take a narrower view of what counts as a non-competition agreement than California. For example, Colorado law expressly validates non-competition agreements narrowly tailored to protect trade secrets. This is important because trade secrets are frequently defined to include information about clients the employee worked with at a former employer. So, non-solicitation clauses are easier to validate in Colorado than in California.
The Recorder at Law.com, however, suggests that the distinction may be not as great as it seems.
The would include the most important exception under Colorado law to the ban on non-competition agreements to California law as well.
The mad dash to divy up clients and employees in the absence of a non-competition clause was exemplified in the movie Jerry McGuire (1996) featuring Tom Cruise (in the title role) as a sports agent, who comes out of one of those mad dashes, after being fired for his "fewer clients, less money" idea, with just one client (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and a secretary (Renee Zellweger).
In California, the Jerry McGuire scenario is now clearly the law, regardless of what an employment agreement says. According to the ContractsProf Blog, "California Supreme Court has ruled that virtually all non-competition agreements are invalid in that state." Basically, non-competition agreements are permitted in California only in connection with business ownership transactions.
The California court also defined what counts as a prohibited non-competition agreement broadly to include, for example, prohibitions on solicitation of clients of the ex-employer introduced to the employee at the former employer.
California law has never greatly favored the clauses. Indeed, some economists cite weak non-competition clauses as an important driver of economic growth in California relative to states like Massachusetts, where they are enforced more strictly.
Less obviously, this ruling may have considerable impact in Colorado, because many multi-state companies that employ people in Colorado often enter into contracts incorporating California law into their employment contracts.
Also, in employment agreements without a choice of law clause, Colorado employees in non-competition agreement disputes with their former employers may try to beat California based former employers to the court house by filing declaratory judgment actions in California courts, before employers can file in Colorado. California courts are likely to apply favorable California law even to disputes with out of state employees. Colorado courts, in contrast, are likely to apply Colorado law which disfavors non-competition agreements, more than in a typical state, but permits them in more circumstances than California law does.
Colorado generally bans non-competition agreements (indeed insisting that an employee enter into an invalid non-competition clause is a criminal offense in Colorado), but has several more exceptions to the rule than California, and has historically been understood to take a narrower view of what counts as a non-competition agreement than California. For example, Colorado law expressly validates non-competition agreements narrowly tailored to protect trade secrets. This is important because trade secrets are frequently defined to include information about clients the employee worked with at a former employer. So, non-solicitation clauses are easier to validate in Colorado than in California.
The Recorder at Law.com, however, suggests that the distinction may be not as great as it seems.
The decision, several attorneys said, could place new emphasis on California's Uniform Trade Secrets Act, a statute that gives employers the right to protect certain company information, including, in some narrow circumstances, client lists. The Supreme Court, in a footnote in Thursday's ruling, declined to address a trade-secret exception to §16600.
"What this decision does not do is eliminate the possibility of former employers saying to employees, 'You cannot solicit our customers because our customers are trade secrets,'" [Jennifer] Redmond [a partner with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, who was not involved in the case,] said.
The would include the most important exception under Colorado law to the ban on non-competition agreements to California law as well.
What Is A CLE Like?
I usually teach one or two continuing legal education courses a year (CLEs), and I am required to take 45 hours of them every three years. What does this look like in real life? The Trademark Blog has an instructor's view photo which captures perfectly the typical audience and format of a CLE for those who have not experienced this kind of class in person.
Pimp Case Oversold
Yesterday's news was based on a police department press release:
Today's report reveals that the child prostitution ring appears to involve one sixteen year old prostitute. This very likely supports very serious child prostitution charges, but a far cry from the pedophile pandering ring suggested the first time around.
A two-year investigation by Denver vice police led to the arrest of a woman and man accused of running a ring of more than 50 prostitutes, some of whom were children.
Today's report reveals that the child prostitution ring appears to involve one sixteen year old prostitute. This very likely supports very serious child prostitution charges, but a far cry from the pedophile pandering ring suggested the first time around.
Denver Cops Beat Up Man And Lie About It
Denver cops used grossly excessive force against a man accused of a bicycle traffic violation and then covered up their misdeeds in police reports and testimony under oath. Videotape has revealed the truth.
The case against the man beaten up for resisting arrest has been dropped (and the state legislature legalized scalping in this year's legislative session). Now, we need to see if the bad cops involved will be prosecuted, and if an internal affairs investigation will met out justice. If justice is to be served in this case, these men need to be prosecuted for assault and perjury, and they need to be kicked off the force.
This has to stop. Denver has reformed its system of internal discipline for police officers with an emphasis on cases involving dishonest and excessive force by police. This will be a test case. If the reforms work, Michael Cordova and James Costigan has thrown their careers away. If it doesn't, they will escape prosecution, receive minor discipline and return to the force.
Gross negligence
While the police brutality case above is a clear case of intentional wrongdoing by Denver Police, instances of reckless indifference are also a problem.
The Denver Post is also reporting today, a day after the free Denver Daily News scooped it on the story, that the ACLU is bringing suit against Denver for a string of misidentification cases, where people were arrested despite clearly not matching the descriptions of the suspect, and then denied access to magistrate review of their arrests beyond the time period mandated by law.
The Big Picture
Mayor Hickenlooper and the City Council have done a lot of things well.
The jail system was in crisis when Hickenlooper took office. Now, a long overdue new criminal courthouse and expanded jail are under construction, and pre-trial detention changes have reduced the burden those jails have to bear. DNA testing in burglaries has gotten the kind of criminals who need to be off the streets in long prison terms. The expansion of the Denver Art Museum and the relocation of the Colorado History Museum were handled well in the end. The Mayor and Council can take partial credit for the fact that Denver proper has a far more flourishing construction and real estate market than the surrounding suburbs, despite the fact that it is virtually landlocked and far more developed already. The City's budget is in better shape than Hickenlooper received it, despite hard economic times. The City is trying to be more environmentally conscious. Serious efforts have been made to give more Denver residents access to quality pre-school education and to reduce vagrancy and homelessness in the city.
The City has thoughtfully considered the local dimensions of the foreclosure crisis although this hasn't yet resulted in much action. Hickenlooper has tried to crack the nut of police misconduct, which is too common in the city, despite strong police union efforts to protect bad cops. This test case will see how successful that effort has been.
There have also been failures. Hickenlooper is still struggling to get the red tape associated with City permits under control. A plan to divert graywater to the lake in City Park, as part of a plan to improve neighborhood storm drainage, also turned out to be a serious environmental problem. The City constantly has to walk a tightrope on development and may grow overconfident and choke it off. And, the City's security plans for the Democratic National Convention have been excessively restrictive overkill.
The case against the man beaten up for resisting arrest has been dropped (and the state legislature legalized scalping in this year's legislative session). Now, we need to see if the bad cops involved will be prosecuted, and if an internal affairs investigation will met out justice. If justice is to be served in this case, these men need to be prosecuted for assault and perjury, and they need to be kicked off the force.
On the video, which was shot outside Coors Field during the Colorado Rockies' home opener April 4, plainclothes Denver police detectives working a scalping investigation are seen apparently hitting, kicking and choking John Heaney.
"They both unloaded on me, and I started seeing stars, and the whole thing was just bam, bam, bam after that," said Heaney.
After three detectives had Heaney face-down on the ground with his hands behind his back, the video shows undercover Detective Michael Cordova pull Heaney's hair, lift up his head and slam it into the ground, breaking two of his teeth on the concrete.
Heaney says he had to have two teeth capped.
"I didn't know my teeth were broken until I was spitting out loose pieces," he said.
The officers claimed in court papers that Heaney rode his bicycle through a red light at 20th and Blake streets and then punched Cordova in the nose when Cordova confronted him.
After he was beaten, Heaney was charged with second-degree assault on a police officer and criminal mischief after one of the officers' sunglasses were broken during the arrest. But Heaney, who said he didn't know they were officers, said he only flipped Cordova's Rockies hat off his head.
Before the Denver detectives knew about the videotape made by sports TV producer Greg Prinkey and his crew, they wrote reports and were questioned in court about what happened. Both officers claimed Heaney was throwing "wild punches" at them, hit the officers in the face and chest, and continued to attack them, even when they had him on the ground.
Under oath, Cordova and Detective James Costigan also denied knowing anything about Heaney's broken teeth.
Heaney's attorney Lonn Heymann asked Cordova in court, "Was there a point at which somebody slammed his face into the ground?"
Cordova answered, "Absolutely not."
"How did Mr. Heaney's front teeth get broken," asked Heymann, who is married to Post columnist Susan Greene.
Cordova replied, "I have not a clue."
This has to stop. Denver has reformed its system of internal discipline for police officers with an emphasis on cases involving dishonest and excessive force by police. This will be a test case. If the reforms work, Michael Cordova and James Costigan has thrown their careers away. If it doesn't, they will escape prosecution, receive minor discipline and return to the force.
Gross negligence
While the police brutality case above is a clear case of intentional wrongdoing by Denver Police, instances of reckless indifference are also a problem.
The Denver Post is also reporting today, a day after the free Denver Daily News scooped it on the story, that the ACLU is bringing suit against Denver for a string of misidentification cases, where people were arrested despite clearly not matching the descriptions of the suspect, and then denied access to magistrate review of their arrests beyond the time period mandated by law.
The Big Picture
Mayor Hickenlooper and the City Council have done a lot of things well.
The jail system was in crisis when Hickenlooper took office. Now, a long overdue new criminal courthouse and expanded jail are under construction, and pre-trial detention changes have reduced the burden those jails have to bear. DNA testing in burglaries has gotten the kind of criminals who need to be off the streets in long prison terms. The expansion of the Denver Art Museum and the relocation of the Colorado History Museum were handled well in the end. The Mayor and Council can take partial credit for the fact that Denver proper has a far more flourishing construction and real estate market than the surrounding suburbs, despite the fact that it is virtually landlocked and far more developed already. The City's budget is in better shape than Hickenlooper received it, despite hard economic times. The City is trying to be more environmentally conscious. Serious efforts have been made to give more Denver residents access to quality pre-school education and to reduce vagrancy and homelessness in the city.
The City has thoughtfully considered the local dimensions of the foreclosure crisis although this hasn't yet resulted in much action. Hickenlooper has tried to crack the nut of police misconduct, which is too common in the city, despite strong police union efforts to protect bad cops. This test case will see how successful that effort has been.
There have also been failures. Hickenlooper is still struggling to get the red tape associated with City permits under control. A plan to divert graywater to the lake in City Park, as part of a plan to improve neighborhood storm drainage, also turned out to be a serious environmental problem. The City constantly has to walk a tightrope on development and may grow overconfident and choke it off. And, the City's security plans for the Democratic National Convention have been excessively restrictive overkill.
Vote Today!
Colorado's primary election is today. Polls are open until 7 p.m.
In Denver there are two issues on the ballot that you can vote on, even if you are unaffiliated. Go to the polls and vote no on both. One of the measures (Issue 100) is a deceptively titled anti-immigrant measure described as a car impoundment measure.
The other is a proposal (Referrendum 1A) to change the way citizen initiatives get on the ballot in hte City that doesn't fix the flaws in the process, will sometimes result in unnecessary expenses for the city, and removes an opportunity to get city council members on the record about the measure. The city ballot initiative process is flawed, but this is the wrong solution.
As a Democractic Party of Denver official I will make no recommendations for the primary in Democratic races. I urge Republicans to vote against Carol Chambers, against the incumbent D.A. in El Paso County, and against Doug Bruce.
One of the most fateful races is the race for the 6th Congressional District. The front runner is Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman. If elected to Congress, Coffman would leave his post and allow Governor Bill Ritter to appoint a replacement, probably a Democrat. Coffman has done a miserable job as Secretary of State, so this would be a plus for the state, and Coffman would be hard pressed to be worse than his predecessor, Tom Tancredo, in Congress. On the other hand, there is no reason to believe that Coffman would be any better as a Congressman than he would as a Secretary of State.
Coffman face the Colorado voters again in two years (unless he runs for some other state office), and can't serve more than six in his post. A Congressman can and often does serve for decades in a safe district like the 6th Congressional District of Colorado. A better Republican in the seat could do the state a great deal of good over the years.
In Denver there are two issues on the ballot that you can vote on, even if you are unaffiliated. Go to the polls and vote no on both. One of the measures (Issue 100) is a deceptively titled anti-immigrant measure described as a car impoundment measure.
The other is a proposal (Referrendum 1A) to change the way citizen initiatives get on the ballot in hte City that doesn't fix the flaws in the process, will sometimes result in unnecessary expenses for the city, and removes an opportunity to get city council members on the record about the measure. The city ballot initiative process is flawed, but this is the wrong solution.
As a Democractic Party of Denver official I will make no recommendations for the primary in Democratic races. I urge Republicans to vote against Carol Chambers, against the incumbent D.A. in El Paso County, and against Doug Bruce.
One of the most fateful races is the race for the 6th Congressional District. The front runner is Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman. If elected to Congress, Coffman would leave his post and allow Governor Bill Ritter to appoint a replacement, probably a Democrat. Coffman has done a miserable job as Secretary of State, so this would be a plus for the state, and Coffman would be hard pressed to be worse than his predecessor, Tom Tancredo, in Congress. On the other hand, there is no reason to believe that Coffman would be any better as a Congressman than he would as a Secretary of State.
Coffman face the Colorado voters again in two years (unless he runs for some other state office), and can't serve more than six in his post. A Congressman can and often does serve for decades in a safe district like the 6th Congressional District of Colorado. A better Republican in the seat could do the state a great deal of good over the years.
11 August 2008
Piled Higher and Deeper
I've lived all my life in and around institutions of higher education. I grew up in a college town. Both my parents worked at a university, so graduate students always came to our parties. My wife and I have both taken our turns in graduate school. My wife was an international student administrator at a university and also been a lecturer at two different universities, and I've spent time as a professor for graduate students.
Piled Higher and Deeper (a.k.a. PhD), a comic about life as a graduate student, captures the insanity and joy of this world in an incredibly accurate ear.
For example, I tagged along once to my wife's interview with faculty in the Department described in this page of the comic at Bowling Green University, and I remember most of the jargon used in this strip about foreign student visa status.
Go read it. But, head the warning: "Reading this entire archive can be hazardous to your research. Proceed with caution and use only in moderation."
Hat Tip to Physics Formus.
Piled Higher and Deeper (a.k.a. PhD), a comic about life as a graduate student, captures the insanity and joy of this world in an incredibly accurate ear.
For example, I tagged along once to my wife's interview with faculty in the Department described in this page of the comic at Bowling Green University, and I remember most of the jargon used in this strip about foreign student visa status.
Go read it. But, head the warning: "Reading this entire archive can be hazardous to your research. Proceed with caution and use only in moderation."
Hat Tip to Physics Formus.
Holy Misfile.
Normally, misfiles in religious affairs are the stuff of comics, but every once in a while there is a real one. Last October, the Vatican
The resulting lawsuit against the Pope by alleged heirs to the Knights Templar are like dead on arrival on account of sovereign immunity and statute of limitations concerns.
released copies of parchments recording the trials of the Knights [Templar] between 1307 and 1312.
The papers lay hidden for more than three centuries having been "misfiled" within papal archives until they were discovered by an academic in 2001.
The resulting lawsuit against the Pope by alleged heirs to the Knights Templar are like dead on arrival on account of sovereign immunity and statute of limitations concerns.
Do You Want Tenure With That?
Sometimes articles published in scholarly journals are less than scholarly, such as one just published with the following abstract:
It makes you wonder about the merit of articles with less comprehensible abstracts.
Law professors dress scruffily, and we need to do something about that.
It makes you wonder about the merit of articles with less comprehensible abstracts.
Colorado Christian University Case Criticized
A recent case on constitutional validity of a state scholarship program that excluded pervasively sectarian educational programs in Colorado has drawn criticism in a piece at Findlaw.com. Colorado Christian University won the case.
The analysis notes that the big prize in this case is the prospect that the ruling might lead to a jurisprudence that mandates rather than forbids public funding of private religious education on the grounds that secular public schools receive public funding.
Colorado has chosen not to appeal the ruling in favor of the college in the case from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The remedy will not have to be resolved on remand or via a consent degree with Colorado's Attorney General.
The analysis notes that the big prize in this case is the prospect that the ruling might lead to a jurisprudence that mandates rather than forbids public funding of private religious education on the grounds that secular public schools receive public funding.
Colorado has chosen not to appeal the ruling in favor of the college in the case from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The remedy will not have to be resolved on remand or via a consent degree with Colorado's Attorney General.
Hope and the Alternatives
A week from day, my local elementary school will be back in session. Is it "back to school" or "the end of summer"?
Tomorrow is a primary election in Colorado, a day when we sum up our aspirations and give them form. We may have a President with Nixonian approval ratings and a Congress that neither Democrats nor Republicans love, but it all starts over in January, based upon choices we make in November.
Usually, recessions don't last long. They tend to be shorter than boom times. We may even have a sluggishly growing GNP. But, it feels far worse. Consumer confidence is at a record low and it isn't the only record making bit of bad economic news out there. Note the usually. Now and again, countries have not recessions, but depressions. The last depression in the U.S. was in the 1930s. Japan has had one far more recently, as has Russia. Are we due?
As an attorney who does pre-nuptials, estate planning and works with businesses, it is usually my job to be the pessimist, counseling my clients to prepare for what could go wrong. Entrapreneurs and couples preparing to marry are optimists. They believe that their ideas will work, despite alarmingly high rates of failures for new ventures. Lawyers are generally there to have Plan B waiting in the wrings.
Hope is not an unequivocally good thing. Expanding consumer debt and the growing foreclosure crisis are symptoms that our society has had too much hope. High divorce rates can be attributed, in part, to unrealistic expectations. Irrational hope brings people to the tables to gamble their money away. Too much hope can lead people to apply for colleges they subsequently fail in, leaving them with big non-dischargable student loans but no degree or school imparted wisdom to show for their efforts. Excess optimism keeps people from settling lawsuits and accepting plea bargains, more often than not to their detrimen, according to the New York Times.
On the other hand, hope is also necessary. You have to get on with your life knowing that you don't what will happen next. You buy houses knowing that your current job could end tomorrow. You keep running your business without any assurance that clients will keep coming in next month, as they have in the past. You have children not knowing how they will turn out or what hardships you will endure as the grow up. You marry knowing that many marriages fail. You drive and cross the street despite the fact that there are dangerous activities. Paralysis with fear can do as much harm or more as excessive optimism. It is sometimes easier to foresee in detail things that could go wrong, than it is to foresee good fortune. Solutions to mere possible problems are a step removed from the problems themselves.
In the long run, we are still in an era of progress.
Hope is not, as the aphorism says, something you can not endure without for even a moment. People endure in hopeless shells for months. But, a deep enough depression will kill you sooner or later. When asked "Got Hope?", the answer ought to be yes, even though too much can be a bad thing.
Perhaps as much as anything, hope makes a good default option, but needs to be tempered when facts to the contrary are available.
Tomorrow is a primary election in Colorado, a day when we sum up our aspirations and give them form. We may have a President with Nixonian approval ratings and a Congress that neither Democrats nor Republicans love, but it all starts over in January, based upon choices we make in November.
Usually, recessions don't last long. They tend to be shorter than boom times. We may even have a sluggishly growing GNP. But, it feels far worse. Consumer confidence is at a record low and it isn't the only record making bit of bad economic news out there. Note the usually. Now and again, countries have not recessions, but depressions. The last depression in the U.S. was in the 1930s. Japan has had one far more recently, as has Russia. Are we due?
As an attorney who does pre-nuptials, estate planning and works with businesses, it is usually my job to be the pessimist, counseling my clients to prepare for what could go wrong. Entrapreneurs and couples preparing to marry are optimists. They believe that their ideas will work, despite alarmingly high rates of failures for new ventures. Lawyers are generally there to have Plan B waiting in the wrings.
Hope is not an unequivocally good thing. Expanding consumer debt and the growing foreclosure crisis are symptoms that our society has had too much hope. High divorce rates can be attributed, in part, to unrealistic expectations. Irrational hope brings people to the tables to gamble their money away. Too much hope can lead people to apply for colleges they subsequently fail in, leaving them with big non-dischargable student loans but no degree or school imparted wisdom to show for their efforts. Excess optimism keeps people from settling lawsuits and accepting plea bargains, more often than not to their detrimen, according to the New York Times.
On the other hand, hope is also necessary. You have to get on with your life knowing that you don't what will happen next. You buy houses knowing that your current job could end tomorrow. You keep running your business without any assurance that clients will keep coming in next month, as they have in the past. You have children not knowing how they will turn out or what hardships you will endure as the grow up. You marry knowing that many marriages fail. You drive and cross the street despite the fact that there are dangerous activities. Paralysis with fear can do as much harm or more as excessive optimism. It is sometimes easier to foresee in detail things that could go wrong, than it is to foresee good fortune. Solutions to mere possible problems are a step removed from the problems themselves.
In the long run, we are still in an era of progress.
Hope is not, as the aphorism says, something you can not endure without for even a moment. People endure in hopeless shells for months. But, a deep enough depression will kill you sooner or later. When asked "Got Hope?", the answer ought to be yes, even though too much can be a bad thing.
Perhaps as much as anything, hope makes a good default option, but needs to be tempered when facts to the contrary are available.
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