,hl=en,siteUrl='http://0ldfox.blogspot.com/',authuser=0,security_token="v_SeT2Tv8vVdKRCcG9CCW-ZdIfQ:1429878696275"/> Old Fox KM Journal : August 2003

Friday, August 29, 2003

If an employee gives 2-week notice of his intent to leave, do we have to continue to employ him for the full two weeks, or can we terminate him sooner?


HR Comply Response:
Taken Directly From HR Comply Employment Guide and Professional Series The following material was found in HR Comply by performing the search - "notice of resignation."

Although there is no requirement to accept a 2-week notice, providing that there is no existing employment contract between the parties to honor such a notice of a resignation, there are several reasons employers should not respond to a 2-week notice by terminating the employee.

If an employer declines to accept a 2-week notice, the employer is, in effect, terminating the employee. Therefore, the former employee has the right to claim unemployment insurance if his or her future employment plans should, for some reason, be eliminated. Also, such a termination may provide former employees with a possible wrongful termination claim if they leave under adverse circumstances. Consult an attorney for more information on wrongful termination.

Employers generally expect professionalism from their employees, including the expectation that departing employees will provide a 2-week notice before leaving their position. In fact, some employee handbooks specifically state that employers expect such a notice. If employers terminate employees on receiving a notice of resignation, future departing employees may be reluctant to provide such a notice for fear that they will be terminated immediately and they will not receive compensation for their last 2 weeks of employment.

If you feel strongly that a resigning employee should leave immediately for any reason, we suggest that you tactfully inform the employee that he or she will be compensated for the following 2 weeks and that it is not necessary to remain on the premises after the close of business that day.


Our responses come from the HR Comply Employment Libraries or Professional Series and are not offered for the purpose of providing any particular legal advice in any form or manner.

All material is copyrighted.

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Stumpers-LSTUMPERS-L

[The Stumpers-L electronic mailing list moved to a new server and software on June 19, 2002. As a result, this website is currently under construction and being revised to reflect that transition.]
Welcome to the Stumpers-L electronic mailing list official home page. Sponsored by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, Stumpers-L was founded as an email-based resource where reference librarians can help each other find the answers to difficult questions.

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

The Estate of John Patrick O'Neill, Sr. et al. v The Republic of Iraq, Saddam Hussein et al. [75 named individuals and organizations, and Does 1-99]
03-1766 8/20/03 RBW

Estate and immediate family of former head of FBI counterterrorism division, the world's foremost expert on Islamic terrorism and Osama bin Laden's terror network, and, on Sept. 11, 2001, chief of security for the World Trade Center, a position he had held for less than two weeks, allege a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda and seek $1 billion in punitive plus compensatory damages for O'Neill's death in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

I have the Complaint.

wmob: the wiretap network
The Frank and Fritz show, Mafia wiretaps.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

The Department of Interior Library
(http://www.llsdc.org/sis/federal/fll_directory.htm#Interior/DOI) has the
entire Federal Register series in hard copy (bound - but they don't loan
it). There may be others like the Law Library of Congress and the Office of
the Federal Register (has a library but no librarian).

FLL Directory

DIRECTORY OF FEDERAL LAW LIBRARIES
IN THE D.C. METROPOLITAN AREA
March 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compiled by the Federal Law Librarians Special Interest Section
of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.

Interior/DOI
Interior, U.S. Department of

Library Name: Library
Address: 1849 C St., NW, Rm. 1151, Washington, D.C. 20240
Phone Number: Reference -- 202/208-5815; ILL -- 202/208-3309
Fax Number: 202/208-6773
Hours: 7:45 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., M-F
Visitor Policy: Open to the public with photo ID. If a visitor is copying over 24 pages, the library requests the donation of a ream of paper.
Depository Library? Yes, selective
ILL Policy: Loan permitted
ILL Pickup Location: Loading dock, 18th St. side; courier must phone library
No. of full time staff: Nine
Staff Contacts: Reference -- Frank Alan Herch; ILL -- Don Chase
Library Web Site: http://library.doi.gov
Agency Web Site: http://www.DOI.gov/

Monday, August 25, 2003

ClubSeal
Research Notebook
Researching Bankruptcies on the Web

A place to start for researching or filing bankruptcies.
Contents Pages from Law Reviews: "Contents Pages from Law Reviews and
Other Scholarly Journals

A keyword-searchable database of tables of contents from more than 750 law reviews and other scholarly publications related to the law published in the United States and abroad.
Updated daily, the database lists journal issues received over the past three months by the Tarlton Law Library.
Consult a commercial indexing service for less recent issues."

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Sources for Kylie rareties:


opal music home page: "
Europe's leading specialist for indie & alternative music"

Red Eye Records
Sydney, Australia

www.eil.com

Saturday, August 23, 2003

Remember everything.
Stop smoking.
Create your own world.
Access the subconsious. Hypnosis is science despite what they do on stage.
Click here for the details on a great book to get started.

CAMERA never lies

[more from the intelligence network of Mr. Rupert Murdock, The Sun station]




AS much as we love Cameron Diaz, it is refreshing to see the girl ain’t always glam.

Even though she was partying with fella Justin Trousersnake, she got down, dirty and downright sweaty in a New York nightclub.

So much so that her make-up slid off and showed she was just like us – spots and all.

Hurray! – there is a God.


GLAM it up




THE Love Kylie collection has been flying out of Selfridges since it launched there last February.

And now Kylie’s pants have gone nationwide.

The sets include underwired bras, hipster bikini briefs, hipster G-strings and vest tops.

They will be sold through House of Fraser, figleaves.com, Beales and selected Fenwicks stores, among other independents.

For stockists phone 020 8961 9038.

The Sun Newspaper Online - UK's biggest selling newspaper

Kylie's dressed to frill




Bra-vo ... pop babe models her new range
Click picture to enlarge

By VICTORIA NEWTON
Showbiz Editor


THE sexiest export from Down Under gets down to her undies . . . and Kylie desirable she looks too.

Pop princess Kylie Minogue posed in the frillies as she plugged her new range of lingerie — set to hit stores across Britain next week.

Aussie Kylie, 34, designed the undies herself and told how she was chuffed to see one of her bras turn up on her favourite TV show Sex And The City.


Purrfect ... Aussie Kylie
Click picture to enlarge


It was worn by Charlotte, alias actress Kristin Davis.

Kylie, currently recording in Spain, said: “I am a big fan of the show and try to watch every episode. It was a great surprise.”

The name of her lingerie range is — Love Kylie. Too right!

Friday, August 22, 2003

Stripper sues Journalist
This is the guy the Frontline program entitled the Man Who Knew covered. An amazing story.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/

The family of John O'Neill, the former head of the FBI's counterterrorism division and one of the world's foremost experts on Islamic terrorism, filed suit against the Republic of Iraq and Saddam Hussein, in Federal Court in Washington, D.C. O'Neill, who was chief of security for the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was killed in the terrorist attacks. His estate claims there is a definite link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. [from the Courthouse News Service 8/22/2002]

Perhaps their case will link up the justification for this war.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

This site http://www.AmericanRhetoric.com/ is an excellent online speech bank containing the full text of over 5,000 speeches in various formats. There are over 200 audio clips from speeches and movies, an index and partial database of the top 100 American speeches, and links to information on rhetoric in general and publications on the topic. The site does not have a good search engine. Users can browse by speaker or use the Alt + F buttons to do a find using the browser. There are also collections of speeches by topic.
Feature Article:

Lessons Learned on Computer Simulations and Models

By Ken Long, Tortoise Capital Management

One of the US armed forces enduring strengths is its commitment to rigorous training. A key component of the military training strategy is the extensive use of simulations and models to test theories and ideas under a variety of operational conditions in a risk-free, efficient manner. Before we commit our troops and units to a strategy, you can be sure that we have examined the situation and tested our plans hundreds of times. Furthermore we have rehearsed our actions in simulators that seek to duplicate realistic conditions as much as possible.

Many traders can and do apply a similar concept in their approach to the markets. Extensive use of backtesting to find and understand tradable patterns is the most common. A newer phenomenon is the use of computer simulations to train and test the traders' reactions and decision making under a variety of market conditions. These are designed to make sure the trader can actually stick to the battle plan as designed. When done properly, these training simulations can make a powerful positive impact on your bottom line. Computers and simulations, however are not a panacea. Ultimately a trader has to enter the market and perform in real time.

The purpose of this article is to lightheartedly summarize some of our military's lessons learned with the use of training simulations and models, and highlight some of their limitations so that you can be better informed on the use of these power tools.

Rule 1: Don't believe the 33rd order consequences of a 1st order model (Remember: "a grain of salt!"). Know the limitations of the model and what you can reasonably infer. Remember that models are simplifications of reality that allow us to study different aspects of our world. If you have a simple model (also called a "1st order model") you want to make sure that you don't try to make the model do more than it CAN do. You can try to force more analysis out of the model than it can reasonably provide! (33rd order effects!)

Rule 2: Don't extrapolate beyond the region of fit: (Remember: "Don't go off the deep end!") Know the limits of the environment you are trying to model. A model designed to simulate commodities may not be suitable for currencies or equities.

Rule 3: Don't apply the model until you understand the simplifying assumptions on which it is based and can test their applicability. (Remember: "Use only as directed"). All models require assumptions. This is only a weakness or a problem if you don't know what they are and then try to model and test things beyond the model's capacity.

Rule 4: Don't believe the model is reality. (Remember: "Don't eat the menu"). Another way of saying this is: the map is not the territory, it's simply a tool to help you accomplish your objective.

Rule 5: Don't distort reality to fit the model (Remember: "Wishing won't make it so!"). Don't fall in love with your model or simulation. Know when it's time to move on! The market has some powerful and painful ways of waking us up from our dreams.

Rule 6: Don't limit yourself to a single model: more than one may be useful for understanding different aspects of the same phenomenon. (Remember: "Legalize polygamy"). Of course, going to the other extreme can be just as bad, when you have too many models and indicators and strategies: namely paralysis by analysis.

Rule 7: Don't keep using a discredited model. (Remember: "Don't beat a dead horse"). Stay current, keep looking for new ideas and testing them. When you find something more robust, don't be afraid to let go and adopt the new strategy or new model.

Rule 8: Don't fall in love with your model. (Remember: "Narcissus").

Rule 9: Don't apply the terminology of Subject A to Subject B if it doesn't enrich either subject. (Remember: "New names for old"). Metaphors are such powerful belief concepts that inappropriate ones can take a long time to expunge.

Rule 10: Don't expect that by naming a demon you have destroyed him. (Remember: "Rumplestiltskin"). It takes action and effort to turn tested ideas and sound theories into habitual action.

Simulations and rehearsal tools can be a powerful addition to a traders' kit bag. They are certainly worth the time and effort it takes to use and apply. Don't lose sight of the fact that ultimately you have to go forward into the arena and compete in a live market that is never quite exactly the same as a computer model. Forewarned is forearmed!

Ken Long, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army with a Masters Degree in System Development, is a professor of tactics and logistics at the Army's Command and General Staff College. He has developed the Tortoise Method of mutual fund switching, a trading system that takes about five minutes each week and that routinely outperforms the S&P 500 Index

Ken is a speaker at Dr. Tharp's upcoming Infinite Wealth course. He is a trader and writes a daily and weekly market assessment for mutual funds and exchange traded funds. He is a proud husband, dad, and a ju jitsu practitioner.

To learn more about his Tortoise method visit, www.tortoisecapital.com


Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Monday, August 18, 2003

Outlook Web Access at GT: "gt-webmail.gtlaw.com "
If you buy books, or anything else they see for that matter, from Amazon, they have a pretty intereting deal on their branded credit card. They give you a point for every dollar spent (just like Citibank, AAdvantage etc) but they give you THREE points for anything you buy from Amazon. I am going to sign up.





Sunday, August 17, 2003

I've been reading this book by EDick Morris and it is hilareous. The clintons htre the fellow now because he has learned and divulged all their silly tricks and devious plans.



IT cerification exam prep.
Pete Waterman did it to sell Kylie Minogue records when all the record companies laughed him to scorn. Many of the hip hopt prodcers who have become so wealthyt marketing thier brnad of music have done it. If you have music, perhpas you should do it too. Start your own record company.

Click Here!

Saturday, August 16, 2003

Today's Chart


Bulls Touting Stocks Higher -- Bears LIcking Their Chops. Will Gold Get Going?
With the Dow industrials back above 9,100 you may be hearing talk of a bull market run. I am skeptical of such talk. My technical work indicates the likelihood that a bounce up to the 9,400 level would represent a tremendous selling opportunity. Time will tell. Meanwhile, gold has been quietly consolidating. If the US dollar resumes its fall, you may anticipate gold and mining shares to again get moving. So now, without further ado, here is...

This Week's Option Recommendation

Buy the Anglogold October $35 call for $125, or less, good this week.

Shares of Anglogold Ltd. trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "AU". The symbol for this reco is, "AU_JG". AU shares closed Friday at $32.20. The $35 strike call is an "out-of-the-money" option, with its premium for time and volatility only. The 52-week range for AU is $19.75-$38.69. Your broker can give you more information on the South African gold mining company, but I will tell you why I like a call recommendation here.

Gold and mining shares are having a quiet summer, but they are approaching the point of a likely breakout. It is not a certainty that the move will be higher; but it is likely. It is very difficult to reverse trends in currencies and a plunging dollar should get the next leg of gold's bull market moving. My target for AU shares is a move up toward $40. If AU rises to $40, each $35 call will have an intrinsic value of $500. If AU is at or below $35 on the third Friday in October, your option will expire worthless. That is your risk.

That's buy the Anglogold October $35 call for $125, or less, good this week.


Open Option Positions Review

Last week's recommended Avon October $60 put, for $150 or less, was not officially triggered.

The Coca-Cola August $45 call closed at $95: Sell/Hold. Use bounces to sell. Shares may try to rally against $45-$47.50 resistance.

The JP Morgan September $30 put closed at $45: Hold. Key resistance is at $36.09-$36.52.
The Wal-Mart September $50 put closed at $50: Hold. Key resistance is at $56.70-$57.51, with support at $52.50-$54.50 and $47.50.

Make sure you close out your July positions before Friday's expiration.

The Sony July $25 call closed at an intrinsic value of $702: Sell. You may want to instruct your broker to "exercise and immediately offset" in order to lock-in the real value of your options.
The Microsoft July $27.50 call closed at $40: Sell. MSFT is trying to move higher and may move this one back "in-the-money".
The Johnson & Johnson July $60 call, the Qualcomm July $45 call, and the Newmont Mining July $27.50 put are likely to expire worthless.

===============================================================
Steven Sarnoff, Editor
===============================================================

Steve's Sony pick is up 357.33% and Coke is also up 153.33% as of July 14, 2003.

SAVE THIS Important Information: Call 1-888-329-4417 (International: 732-578-6553)

GoodEatin'


Ugandan Dictator Amin Dies in Saudi Hospital


Sat August 16, 2003 06:43 AM ET

By Paul Busharizi
KAMPALA (Reuters) - Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of his people in the 1970s, died on Saturday in a Saudi hospital where he had been critically ill for weeks.

"We can confirm that Mr. Idi Amin has died from complications due to multiple organ failure," said a senior source at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

One of Africa's bloodiest despots, Amin had lived in exile, chiefly in Saudi Arabia, since being ousted in 1979. He was in his late 70s.

The Ugandan embassy in the kingdom would not comment on Amin's death, referring all queries to his family. Amin's family in Jeddah also declined to comment and it was not immediately clear what would happen to his body.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said that if Amin died abroad, his body could be taken home for burial, but officials ruled out any suggestion of a state funeral.

"Nobody will stand in the way of the family returning Amin's body to Uganda," said John Nagenda, Museveni's adviser on media relations, told Reuters in Kampala on Saturday. "It can be brought back and buried privately."

A man who expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, Amin was denounced inside and outside Africa for massacring tens of thousands of people -- some estimates say more than 100,000 -- under his 1971-79 rule and expelling thousands of Asians.

Ugandans reacted to his death with a mixture of relief at the demise of a tyrant, tinged with nostalgia for a leader who many Ugandans applauded for expelling the Asians who dominated much of the economy in 1972.

"I'm not happy, because Amin was for the local people. I have been praying that he would come back one day and become president again," said Mary Kimeme, 80, a grandmother preparing beans and bananas in her kitchen in Kampala. "I miss him."

One of Amin's sons, Ali Amin, told Reuters in Kampala that family members in Uganda were meeting to discuss arrangements, but declined to comment on where the burial would take place.

REIGN OF TERROR

A former boxing champion, Amin came to power in a 1971 coup and his rule was characterized by eccentric behavior and violent purges.

Amin was a ruthless dictator who, the International Commission of Jurists said in 1977, had violated every fundamental human right during a "reign of terror."

Exiles accused him of having kept severed heads in the fridge, feeding corpses to crocodiles and having one of his wives dismembered. Some said he practiced cannibalism.

In 1972 he expelled some 40,000 Asians, saying God had told him to transform Uganda into "a black man's country."

He himself was driven from Uganda in 1979 by forces from neighboring Tanzania and Ugandan exiles. Saudi Arabia gave him sanctuary in the name of Islamic charity.

A Muslim, Amin had lived quietly in exile in Jeddah on a government stipend with four wives.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a Ugandan-Asian newspaper columnist whose family was among those Amin expelled, said the Saudis should have brought him to justice.

"I think it is a disgrace that Saudi Arabia gave him the kind of life they did and the excuse is he was a Muslim. They should have delivered him into the hands of international justice and they never did," she told Britain's Sky television.

Amin was born in 1925, according to most sources, to a peasant family of the small, predominantly Muslim Kakwa tribe at Arua, in Uganda's remote West Nile district.

A large and imposing figure who reveled in publicity, Amin's eccentric behavior created the image of a buffoon given to erratic outbursts and bloodlust. His whimsical and savage rule shocked and revolted the world.

He declared himself King of Scotland, banned hippies and mini-skirts, and appeared at a royal Saudi Arabian funeral in 1975 wearing a kilt.

In a rare interview in 1999, Amin told a Ugandan newspaper he liked to play the accordion and recite from the Koran. He said most of his food, including fresh cassava and millet flour, still came from Uganda.

(With additional reporting by John R. Bradley in Jeddah and Miral Fahmy in Dubai)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Friday, August 15, 2003

TypePad: FAQ: "Q. What is TypePad?

TypePad is a personal publishing service designed to provide a simple yet full-featured environment for you to put your thoughts, ideas, and experiences on the web, whether it be a weblog, journal, photo album, diary, or an entirely new creation. Just sign up with TypePad and you'll be publishing your thoughts to the web in minutes. With TypePad, there's no installation or configuration required, your website and all the tools are managed by our service, and upgrades and updates to the TypePad application are included in your service subscription fee.

Q. Is TypePad just hosted Movable Type?

A.TypePad was built upon the reliable,tested Movable Type platform, but it includes new functionality that is not in Movable Type. Most importantly, we rebuilt the entire interface from scratch to be simpler, faster, cleaner and more powerful. Then we added in huge new features like photo albums and statistics tracking right in the application itself, and integrated it with built-in hosting with plenty of space for your weblog entries, photos, and the flexible archives Movable Type users have grown accustomed to.
Q. Do you offer a free trial?"
Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey

By David Horowitz

Review by Anna Gould:

"My second thoughts had led me through a night of the soul that involved the condemnation of my own life."

Who once occupied the leading ranks of the Leftist movement in the United States, but now praises The Heritage Foundation as "the right's most important policy think tank"? David Horowitz has traveled from one side of the political spectrum to the other. He chronicles this most unusual journey from leader and defender of the far Left to proponent and activist of conservatism in Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey.

In this captivating autobiography, Horowitz writes of the people, places, and events which shaped his life and philosophy. Spanning over 400 pages, this "public story" enhances the reader's understanding of the man who wrote it and details a seemingly impossible political transformation. Horowitz offers a masterfully written story, which leaves the reader tied to the book until the last page is read. It is the story of a prominent Sixties Marxist who eventually would walk "into the voting booth and, without hesitation, punch the line marked 'Ronald Reagan.'"

The grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants, his childhood in a heavily Communist/Socialist neighborhood in New York City influenced his political associations. Receiving his "instruction" from The Daily Worker, a Communist Party publication, Horowitz says his parents' friends were Communists who "invariably used the term 'progressive.'" The Horowitz family was very passionate and political. Hence, this explains why Horowitz's relationship with his father would forever change when they had a disagreement over the accuracy of news in the New York Times.

Gradually building a case against a cause he formerly prized, he writes of the "second thoughts" that led to his ultimate conversion. The Black Panthers' senseless violence (and murder), the apparent intolerance of the Left, and the wrongheaded programs they advocated contributed to Horowitz's break from the movement.

The Khrushchev Report, which exposed Stalinist atrocities, was purposely ignored by many radicals in the United States who were interested in propagating "the Party." Horowitz writes that while his parents "remained faithful in their hearts to the radical cause, they were really never active in politics again." Horowitz confronted his own "Krushchev Reports," or the glaring and dangerous aspects of the Left, when he could no longer ignore the destructive effects of the Panthers, the Weathermen, or Marxism in general.

These "second thoughts" led to his battle with friends and colleagues who did not support the open questioning of the Marxist doctrine. Indeed, he writes that one man told him that "even [raising] such questions [was] counter-revolutionary."

"As far as they were concerned, I was a renegade who had betrayed them - who announced today what he had denounced yesterday- and that was enough," he writes. "I ... had to face the savage personal attacks ... that were designed to warn others to remain within the fold."

But Horowitz refused to blindly accept a movement which was increasingly defined by its many failures and tragedies. He writes that he could not ignore that Marxist governments "produced the bloodiest and most oppressive regimes in human history." Instead of finding a forum for a lively debate, however, he found chilling silence and finally, alienation.

"Despite the uniform disasters of socialist revolutions, the socialist goal remained unexamined and unquestioned," he writes.

A controversial speaker and writer, Horowitz has successfully employed the tactics of famous radical Saul Alinsky for both the Right and the Left. This unique achievement sets him apart from most public figures, and leaves a fascinating tale. Radical Son is the story of a man, his time, and his struggle. As Horowitz writes, it is "not the complete record of a life, but an effort to make sense of one."

Anna Marie Gould, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, served as a 2002 summer intern for The Heritage Foundation and Townhall.com.

Okay, cigars were a govt monopoly in Cuba just like casinos are a monopoly in Monaco.

So the commies take over the business and some employees of the business run for their lives to Florida. Then the refugee former employees begin manufacturing cigars names Montecristo, Upmann, Romeo y Juliata etc.

Meanwhile around thew world Cuban cigars under those trademarks are marketing and sold and highly sought after. But you can't bring them into the US.

Now the guys who have been manufacturing these bogus trademarks in the US in violation of the rights of the true trademark holder (the govt of Cuba) are now suing some other guys (and getting the taxpayer funded POLICE! to arrest them) for diluting "their" trademark.

What fun to be the judge in this affair!
----------------------------------------------------------
From the Courts
Cigar giant fights counterfeit smokes
August 15, 2003 By: Matthew Haggman

Miami lawyers Steven I. Peretz, left, and Jorge Espinosa

Photo by
Aixa Montero


Fort Lauderdale company that ranks among the biggest cigar manufacturers in the world is cracking down on what it says is rampant cigar counterfeiting in South Florida.

Last week, Miami-Dade County police raided a Hialeah retail store called Cuba Habanos USA and arrested its owner. Detectives seized more than 2,000 cigar boxes with counterfeit labels and thousands of inserts and cigars bands, according to Miami-Dade police.

An expert from Altadis U.S.A., the cigar giant leading the anti-counterfeit campaign, accompanied detectives on the raid to confirm the labels were phony.

The move was part of a yearlong effort by Altadis, which makes the U.S. versions of well-known cigar brands like H. Upmann, Montecristo, and Romeo y Julieta, to combat cigar counterfeiting. The cigar maker says the manufacture and trade of illicit cigars is a multimillion-dollar business in South Florida, and that it has become a particularly acute problem in the last year.

According to attorneys for Altadis, more and more warehouses and backrooms of tobacco retailers in South Florida have become home to tobacco counterfeiters.

In the past 12 months, Altadis officials say the company has assisted in three federal convictions, a number of arrests, and sued purportedly illicit cigar distributors and retailers for trademark infringement. The company is promising more arrests and prosecutions and the filing of as many as a dozen trademark infringement lawsuits in the next few months.

“There has been a rash of cigar counterfeiting in South Florida that has come to our attention over the last year or so,” said Leora Herrmann, a partner at Grimes & Battersby in New York City who is heading Altadis’ anti-counterfeiting campaign. “There will be a lot more action both criminal and civil.”

Herrmann said Altadis sales representatives learned of a surge in counterfeiting by visiting retail stores more than a year ago. In response, Herrmann hired Steven I. Peretz and Jorge Espinosa, partners at Kluger Peretz Kaplan & Berlin in Miami, to fight the alleged phony cigar trade in South Florida.

U.S. and Cuban versions

Altadis, which is privately held, has revenues of more than $500 million annually, said company spokeswoman Janelle Rosenfeld. It sells primarily in the United States, but also exports cigars to distributors and retailers in Europe and Asia.

Its cigars are manufactured in the Dominican Republic and Honduras. Competitors include New York City-based General Cigar, which makes the U.S. versions of Macanudo, Partagas and Cohiba cigars.

Many of these brands previously were made in Cuba. But after Fidel Castro took power in 1959, a number of leading cigar makers fled to the United States. Meanwhile, the Cuban government continued producing cigars under the same brand name. So there is often a Cuban version and U.S. version of cigars with the same name.

General Cigar spokeswoman Victoria McKee agreed that South Florida is one of the “hot areas” for cigar counterfeiting.

South Florida is a center of cigar counterfeiting because they are quite popular — particularly among Hispanics — and because many people here understand the techniques of cigar making.

“Many worked in cigar industry before the Castro revolution and have knowledge and skills about cigars,” Herrmann said. “It would be hard to find someone in Wisconsin who could do this.”

Altadis’ lawyers maintain there is currently more cigar counterfeiting in South Florida than anywhere else in the country. In one single seizure recently at a Miami tobacco store, more than $500,000 worth of counterfeits were seized, Espinosa said.

And lucrative frauds generally proliferate. “There is a lot of copy-catting in this type of illegal activity,” Herrmann said.

But fake cigars aren’t high on the list of priorities for law enforcement.

Ed Griffith, a spokesman for Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, suggested that cigar counterfeiting is not a top priority for law enforcement authorities.

“The whole area of trademark counterfeiting has been a substantial concern and we have worked a number of cases on that,” Griffith said. “But that covers a broad area, from fake Louis Vuitton pocketbooks to counterfeit brand name jeans and CDs. Cigar counterfeiting is an area of concern but it is not as though we have a cigar task force.”

Yet, it appears that police are beginning to take notice of the illegal trade.

“This is something new we are coming up against,” said Miami-Dade Detective A. Ugarte, who headed the investigation that led to the Cuba Habanos USA raid in Hialeah last week. “This is the third or fourth raid this year. It is kind of opening up our eyes.”

Levels of counterfeiting

The cigar counterfeiting industry has a number of levels, Espinosa said. There are the printers of the fake cigar bands and labels that mimic the logo of well-known brands. There are individuals who sell the fake bands, labels and cigar boxes to cigar makers. And then there are cigar makers who market the bogus product. In some cases, there are financiers.

Espinosa declined to discuss the methods Altadis is employing to root out fraud. But he said legitimate cigar makers generally use private investigators, confidential informants and physically inspect tobacco products on store shelves to spot fakes. Once fraud is spotted, the company follows a two-pronged approach of assisting police and local prosecutors while also suing in civil court for trademark infringement.

In the Cuba Habanos USA case, after being tipped off by Altadis, Miami-Dade police detectives went to the Hialeah store on July 30 and purchased cigars that had bands and labels appearing to be authentic Romeo y Julieta cigars but were believed to be fakes. A search warrant was obtained and the raid was conducted August 7.

Rodolfo Morejon, the owner of the store who was arrested, has another store in Broward County and an Internet site through which he does most of his business, Ugarte said.

The Miami-Dade state attorney’s office has charged Morejon in Miami-Dade Circuit Court with organized fraud and vending counterfeit goods — which carry penalties of up to five years in prison. He currently is out on bond and his retail outlets and Internet site remain open for business, Ugarte said. Morejon could not be reached for comment.

Other cases pending

Last October, in another case involving Altadis cigars, three South Florida men were convicted of felony trademark counterfeiting in U.S. District Court in Miami. One of the three, Louis Ordonez, was found to have trafficked in bogus Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta cigars. The two others, Cesar Tellez and Jorge Guerra, were found guilty of supplying Ordonez with counterfeit packaging materials. Each was sentenced to 180 days in prison, 100 hours of community service and two years probation.

Also that month, Altidas filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court in Miami for trademark infringement against several South Florida companies and their owner. That case, before U.S District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages, is pending.

Next month, the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office is slated to try Margie Martinez and Nelson Mena in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on charges of selling counterfeit cigars, Griffith said.

In some of these cases, according to Altadis lawyers, defendants have argued that they were not copying Montecristo or Romeo y Julieta cigars made by U.S. companies. They argued they were instead copying the cigars of the same name produced by the Cuban government.

Thus far, however, that defense has not succeeded in court, he said

Monday, August 11, 2003

On the Record: Managing Your Sound Bites
August 11, 2003

Many leaders will be called upon to speak with the media. Are you ready when the lights go on and the microphone is in your face? Here are four secrets to making a compelling case.

August 11, 2003 Issue

Cheap, Fast, and In Control: How Tech Aids Innovation

On the Record: Managing Your Sound Bites


Why Budgeting Kills Your Company

What Do YOU Think:
Are We Facing an Attitude Shortage?

by Gary Genard

In today's media-saturated environment, managers and other company personnel not normally considered spokespersons sometimes find it necessary to speak on the record. So it makes sense to be prepared. In fact, careful preparation spells the difference between an excruciating experience and one that lets your reputation, along with the credibility of your company, soar.

Whether you're being interviewed for a newspaper article, a radio talk show, or a television appearance, following this four-step, quick-study guide can make the interview a success.

Control the agenda
One of the most common mistakes made by executives interviewed in the media is that they allow themselves to remain in a responsive mode throughout the interview. This is virtually an invitation to failure. Allowing the interviewer to set the agenda of topics, to which you simply respond, is akin to playing defense all the time. It's far more profitable to play for the win, with a game plan to get you there.

To do that, you must control the agenda of the interview at all times. Interviewers can ask whatever questions they like—there simply isn't any rule that says you are required to answer those questions. During an interview, savvy interviewees know how to speak to issues of importance to stakeholders, while giving the impression that they are responding directly to the questions asked. Know ahead of time the three critical points you want to make in the interview and use your conversation with your interviewer to make them.

Speak in ways that create visual images in listeners’ minds.
In other words, advocate rather than respond, and answer topics, not questions. Learn how to "bridge" from the question you are asked to the response you want to give. It can help to think of the bridge as a pathway from the boggy terrain the interviewer has prepared for you to the firmer ground where you would like to stand.

In your practice sessions, have colleagues pose the questions you are hoping you won't be asked, then practice bridging to the points you want to make on those issues. The more skilled you become at bridging, the less related the question and answer will have to be, and the quicker you will be able to get to your safe haven. The best practitioners of this art are politicians and government spokespersons, and you can learn a lot from them. Here's a case in point.

In June of 2001, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was asked on Meet the Press about President Bush's decision to end live-fire training exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Members of the president's own party were accusing him of playing politics with the decision. Rice was asked about this charge, and this is how she responded:

The secretary of the Navy, in a press conference about this, I think, made the case best. And let me just note that he said that effective training on Vieques is more and more difficult to do. He said that it is time to look for a feasible alternative, and the Navy will have time, in the time between now and 2003, to look for that feasible alternative.

If you slowly lead up to the point you want to make, the listener or viewer may never hear it at all.
Notice how Rice finesses the issue of live fire by hinting that the Navy was ready to find other alternatives. By focusing on the future, she effectively ends the discussion about playing politics now. Little time is spent on the "unsafe side of the bridge"—the interviewee's response immediately begins giving information consistent with her objective for the interview.

Use stories, visual images, and personal examples
Reporters and other media representatives need to make their interviews interesting for their readers, listeners, and viewers. You can help. In the process, of course, you'll be increasing three of your own critical "-abilities": Your likeability, credibility, and believability.

Claims and assertions made without evidence are, at best, only opinions. At worst, they may make the speaker come across as pontificating. Enliven your point of view—and enhance your credibility—with anecdotes, personal experiences, and statistics that prove your point (although you must remember to present the statistics in human terms). Speak in ways that create visual images in listeners' minds, using simple, concrete language and, where possible, similes, metaphors, and analogies.

Employing these techniques will not only humanize you, but they will also imbue you with both authority and interest. They will help your important points stay in people's minds by making those points memorable.

Like it or not, in the world of media, perception is stronger than reality.
Listen to these two spokespersons, both commenting in the New York Times on a snowstorm last February that blanketed the East Coast. The first is Paul V. Sullivan, the deputy commissioner of Buffalo's Street Sanitation Department. Sullivan manages snow removal for the city, and he was asked about Buffalo's reputation for being the butt of snow jokes. His response, incidentally, is a marvelous example of putting a positive spin on a negative situation for one's organization:

We do get snow, but we can handle it. A lot of people are negative about the snow. They say Buffalo is the snow capital of the world and that we lost four Super Bowls. But the snow can be a lot of fun.

That's much more memorable than typical bureaucratese, such as:

This city has 112 snowplows, and I'm confident that we do our job efficiently and well.

And here is Todd Miner, a meteorologist at Pennsylvania State University, a primary source of good weather data in the U.S.; because of Penn State's status in the weather world, its meteorologists often are asked to speak to the press. Miner grew up in Buffalo and recalled twenty-five-foot snowdrifts during a blizzard in 1977:

I was six years old, and we were off from school for two weeks. It completely shut the city down. Those images made the top of the national news, and people were seeing these pictures of two-story homes completely buried by snowdrifts. Johnny Carson came out with jokes that Buffalo still had snow in July.

Is it any wonder that particular quote made it into the article?

Reprinted with permission from “The Four Secrets to Delivering the Right Sound Bites,” Harvard Management Communication Letter, July 2003.

See the latest issue of Harvard Management Communication Letter.

Gary Genard is president of Genard & Associates, an Arlington, Mass.-based coaching and consulting film specializing in public speaking and media training. He can be reached at hmcl@hbsp.harvard.edu.


Related Stories in HBS Working Knowledge:
Getting the Media to Notice You

The Power of Posture

Making the Perfect Pitch to VCs

Loosen Up Your Communication Style


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Saturday, August 09, 2003

In the Know

:
A Slow Turning

Law firm Winston & Strawn turns to CRM for knowledge management, because who you know is as important as what you know.

Today's large, multinational law firm is the epitome of a knowledge organization. Lawyers, located in far-flung offices around the globe, specialize in various and often distinct practice areas ranging from litigation and antitrust to trades and estates and intellectual property.

Much of the knowledge they have acquired is tacit in nature, based on relationships with clients as much as on legal code. Yet even with different focus areas, lawyers within a large firm may have clients or other contacts such as expert witnesses in common. Identifying those common connections and making them readily available to its lawyers is something that Chicago-based firm Winston & Strawn is after with the implementation a CRM system from Interface Software.
With 900 lawyers and eight offices located in the United States and Europe, Winston & Strawn has plenty of relationships to uncover and mine. Traditionally, the firm's lawyers have relied on a hodgepodge of tools such as spreadsheets, e-mail and Word documents to track contacts and maintain client information, according to Mary Pickett, lead project engineer. "We always had client data available on an AS/400 or in an Excel spreadsheet or database, but it just wasn't consistent," Pickett says. Without a uniform knowledge base of client information, cross-selling, just to name one activity, was a challenge because lawyers in one practice area would often be unaware a prospective client was already working with Winston & Strawn lawyers in another practice area. Another problem with having pockets of information distributed throughout the firm was overlap. If six lawyers are working with a client, it makes economic sense (as well as good customer service and marketing practices) to send that client a single communication rather than six separate ones.

"Lawyers here have a fairly complex web of contacts," says Dave Hambourger, the firm's director of practice support. "One person here has to know what another person down the hall has or hasn't done in relation to a particular client." By implementing CRM software, Winston & Strawn is attempting to get a handle on who its attorneys know rather than what they know. The goal, says Hambourger has as much to do with client identification as it does with business development. "We want to exploit our networks across the firm and drive new business," he says.

Despite the worthy goals for the software, which enables lawyers to maintain their own contact information while supporting a centralized database of contacts, and even though Winston & Strawn has been using various iterations of Interface's product for several years, only about 10 percent of the firm's lawyers currently use the system. By design, says Hambourger, the rollout is gradual, relying on word of mouth among lawyers within the same practice group. Pickett concedes that many lawyers are reluctant to embrace the software because they don't have any personal issues with the way they've been maintaining their own contact information.

It's certainly not unusual for knowledge workers such as lawyers to cling to their own tried and true ways of doing things. So while Winston & Strawn's laissez-faire approach may not be the fastest path to achieving seamless client contact information, chances are it's the most practical way of gaining acceptance among the lawyers. In a perfect world, it would be great to mandate productivity—enhancing KM tools, but invariably such a heavy-handed approach will fail.


Opinion Editor Megan Santosus can be reached at santosus@cio.com.

Friday, August 08, 2003

Order Reprints Print
The Courts
A fine(s) mess
Cities face prospect of paying $200-plus to have courts help collect $50 fine



August 08, 2003 By: Tony Doris




Edward Fine

Photo by
Fred Mullane


he ability of Florida’s cities to enforce their local ordinances in the courts may be severely hindered by a new state law that requires them to pay the bills for prosecuting drunks, zoning violators and even graffiti artists.

A $200 courthouse filing fee and requirements that cities pay for attorneys’ fees are among the provisions that cities across the state insist will threaten their access to the courts as they seek to enforce some of their most common ordinances.

Thus, a city seeking to fine a drunken bar patron $50 for public intoxication might well face a bill for the $200 filing fee, as well as additional costs for a special prosecutor and even a public defender for indigents.

“The law as written would have a devastating effect on the way municipalities enforce their ordinances,” said Keith Poliakoff, a lawyer with Becker & Poliakoff in Fort Lauderdale.

Currently, the counties pick up much of the costs for the statewide court system. Under a massive restructuring to be fully implemented next year, the state would take most of the bills but would levy a series of fees on counties and cities to cover its added financial burden.

County officials in South Florida say the legislative rebalancing act — an effort to apportion costs as mandated by a 1998 revision in Florida’s constitution — also threatens to hurt them. They say it may spell the end of innovative programs designed to reduce crime and take pressure off the court system. The impact, they say, would be especially severe in South Florida’s fast-growing urban counties, which rely on teen courts and other pro-active programs more heavily than rural counterparts elsewhere in the state.

At issue are provisions in HB113A, a 208-page bill approved overwhelmingly by the state House and Senate on May 27 and signed into law by Gov. Bush on June 25. The state, while picking up the cost of what the Legislature considers core functions of the court system, is offsetting that burden through increased fees and by leaving it to the counties to pay for what it considers nonessential programs.

Sponsors say they intended the bill, a massive restructuring of finances of the judicial branch, to be “a wash,” in which Florida’s 67 counties get back as much in savings as the state charges through fees and other measures for taking over financial responsibilities that previously fell to the counties. The sponsors say that in any undertaking this ambitious, glitches are bound to arise and that they’re open to rewriting problematic sections to head off any undue hardship before the provisions take effect on July 1, 2004.

But South Florida officials and lawyers who represent them say it’s not clear a balance has been struck or that quick fixes are inevitable. They’re lobbying, through the Florida League of Cities and Florida Association of Counties, to undo what they see as provisions that put an unfair burden on local taxpayers.

“Right now, as it stands, July 1, 2004, that law goes into effect,” said Poliakoff, who serves as deputy town attorney for Southwest Ranches in Broward County.

Kenneth C. Hebert, Orlando city prosecutor, estimates that the $200 per case fee would cost Orlando $300,000 a year to seek $88,000 in fines.

“Is a city going to pay a $200 fee for something it might get $30 for?” asked Doug Gonzales, an associate at Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Guedes Cole & Boniske in Fort Lauderdale, who serves as prosecutor for Weston.

He noted that the $200 comes in addition to new expenses, such as a city having to hire a full-time prosecutor, and having to pay for a public defender for indigent defendants that face jail time. And when a court awards a city a fine, the court first takes out a series of fees before handing what’s left back to the city, Gonzales added. From citations for parking in handicapped-only zones to loitering and public consumption of alcohol, he said, “it will have a horrible effect on the enforcement of code.”

Cities can pass the extra fees and charges on to guilty defendants, but that’s unrealistic, Gonzales said. In practical terms, he said, many defendants won’t pay, or won’t be able to, putting the burden back on the city. “They just walk out of the courthouse.”

The changes stem from the Legislature’s effort to implement Revision 7 to Article V of the Florida Constitution, as approved by voters in November 1998. The idea was to have the state take overall financial responsibility for its court system, absorbing as much as $320 million in annual court costs. The implementation has been taking place gradually, through a series of laws passed in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, as the final 2004 deadline approaches.

Sen. Rod Smith, a Democrat from Gainesville, chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Article V Implementation and Judiciary. He said he’s proud that, considering the amount of ground that this year’s bill covered, criticisms have been small and the problems cited appear to be fixable, from the $200 fee to teen court funding.

But he cautioned that the money has to come from somewhere and said that voters never intended Revision 7 as a windfall for counties. As he traveled the state seeking input on the bill in recent months, he said, some county officials had in their minds that the state was going to take over court system expenses but continue paying the counties the same amount of money they’d been getting. My answer was, ‘We’re not going to take away the debt from you and send the money back to you. State taxpayers hope I’m smarter than that.’ ”

“We didn’t hear from the Florida League of Cities during the course of the session,” said Rep. Holly Benson, a Pensacola Republican who sponsored the bill in the House. She added that she’s meeting with representatives of the city and county statewide associations this week to talk about alternatives to fees and other concerns.

Some question whether the fees are being dumped on cities by state lawmakers unwilling to take responsibility for needed services. “It’s another way of increasing taxes by a Republican, conservative Legislature, disguised as a fee,” Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez said in an interview Tuesday.

But sponsors like Benson and Smith deny that party politics played a role in enacting the bill, which passed by a vote of 110-6 in the House and 40-0 in the Senate, in May.

“Really, what we were looking for in the way we structured the reorganization in the Legislature was a way to make sure funding responsibilities were allocated logically between the state, counties and system users,” Benson said. “In the rush to get through a 60-day session, there are going to be things you don’t anticipate. Our staffs are working together to compile a list of these questions, to make sure next year’s bill fills in some of these gaps.”

It’s the conciliatory sentiment of Smith, Benson and other sponsors, and the year-off effective date, that have representatives of the associations of Florida cities and counties sounding concerned rather than alarmed thus far.

The Florida League of Cities is in the process of informing its members about the potential impact and soliciting input. The league has been sending out a three-page analysis by Orlando prosecutor Hebert. In addition to the ramifications of the $200 fee, the analysis points out provisions that would prohibit cities from hiring state attorney’s offices to handle municipal prosecutions. In cases where alleged city code violators are indigent, the cities will have to pick up the cost of private defense counsel to serve as public defenders.

“I guess you’re going to have to get your own municipal court system,” Hebert concluded in an interview. “It appears as though, from a larger perspective, that the Legislature is going backward,” he added. “We used to say, ‘All these multiple court systems are not good, not economical, there’s a different kind of justice being done in different kinds of courts, so why not put all this together under one court system?’ ”

As a result of those concerns, the Legislature moved toward a statewide court system, he said. “We did well under that system for 20 years now. The Legislature is in effect dismantling that system, because it’s saying, ‘Cities can no longer use the state attorney and public defender, and if you want to use the court system you’re going to have to pay $200 a case.’ ”

What he’s referring to is a move by the Legislature in the early 1970s that replaced a hodgepodge of local courts, with state courts. “The state system came into place, but state funding did not,” said John Ricco, lobbyist for the Florida Association of Counties in Tallahassee. By the mid-’80s, he added, the counties were funding more of the costs of the state system than the state.

Sen. Smith, for his part, said Hebert “raises a good point” and that his subcommittee will have to restudy the issue of allowing cities and counties to contract with state attorneys for code enforcement.

Broward County, for one, would have to stop contracting with the state attorney’s office to prosecute county ordinance violations. The most common violations they currently handle for Broward: drinking near a licensed establishment, such as in a bar parking lot; disorderly conduct, particularly in buses or bus terminals; and operating a commercial vehicle without descriptive lettering.

Under the new rules, Broward would have to hire its own prosecutor and not use the state attorney, said Monica Hofheinz, assistant state attorney and executive director of the Broward state attorney’s office. There could be a constitutional problem with that, she said: The state constitution doesn’t say anything about counties having a right to employ their own prosecuting attorneys, though cities can. “This is one of the reasons why we’ve absorbed this function” for the county, she said. “I think this is a simple correction.”

Other looming problems cause greater concern for county officials. The Article V revisions threaten the loss of effective, innovative programs, said veteran Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer.

Krischer said the potentially rocky transition is a major reason he has decided to run for one more term. He said he didn’t want there to be a transition in the state attorney’s office at the same time as a transition in funding.

The constitutional amendment that instructed the state to take over the court system didn’t specify that funding levels should remain unchanged, he said. “The end result is, the state, with all due respect, is trying to do it on the cheap and they’re not expending the same dollars that the counties are.”

Accurate dollar figures are hard to come by, as far as how much financial burden the state is lifting from counties for court system operations, and how much it’s adding back in fees and reductions in revenue sharing. Rep. Benson noted that HB113A calls for a comprehensive, six-month-long audit of court costs around the state, to ensure a fair restructuring. That audit is in the works, she said.

But South Florida county officials say that several progressive programs they’ve implemented in recent years will be left without state funding, because they go beyond what the state considers essential court services. Palm Beach County, for example could come out as much as $3 million short for such local option programs, said Chief Judge Edward Fine. “It’s like ordering a car with no equipment,” he said. “You want to add anything, you have to pay for it yourself.”

Among these programs: the county has a Teen Court, which keeps many from going to harsher Juvenile Court. The program was funded by a $3 charge tacked on to all traffic tickets in the county; now that money will go toward funding court clerks’ offices instead.

The county also has a drug court, which also is like a “pre-court,” as Fine describes it; it lowers the repeater rate and seeks to help people with drug problems without their having to be dragged into Juvenile Court. Another court-system program, called Tips, picks up truant high school students and takes them to a central location where school authorities can get them. The program enforces truancy laws, keeps kids in school and keeps the crime rate down by preventing daytime burglaries, Judge Fine said.

Shortfalls in state funding put pressure on these programs and throughout the system, he said. Palm Beach has 51 judges, about 10 fewer than it needs. As the county grows, without diversion programs the county will need more prosecutors and more judges, he said. When push comes to shove, busy civil court judges must be shifted to cover the heavier criminal load instead, causing the civil system to bog down, Fine said.

Karen Marcus, chair of the Palm Beach County Commission and a past chair of the Florida Association of Counties, said her county and the association intends to press its legislators to roll back the $200 fees and get funding for important programs. Past efforts didn’t help, she said. “We tried to express to them [the bill sponsors], when they wanted to take away Teen Court programs, that they really needed the programs because they helped the state in the long run to not have to hire judges. They see it as a frill.”

Tony Doris can be reached at tdoris@floridabiz.com or at (305) 347-6657.

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Welcome to NationalJournal.com's Reviews section -- a growing guide to the books, studies and other information that so often overload political professionals.

Central to the section is The Well-Read Wonk, a weekly review of books worth reading (or at least worth keeping close at hand). This is not a source for literary criticism (although you can find links to that sort of thing below). Instead, the focus is on the information itself. The books featured below offer history, analysis and plain old data that can help readers do their job -- and look smarter in the process.

Also available is a constantly updated guide to book-related events in Washington, as well as an at-a-glance guide to the many titles out there that were penned by National Journal Group authors. And there's more to come; look for additional abstracts, analysis and reviews in the near future. If you have questions or comments, please let us know at books@nationaljournal.com


The Well-Read Wonk: This Week's Picks

Click cover to read review.
Since Sept. 11, the issue of national security has dominated the political dialogue. But what about the smaller, yet still important, issues of local policing and personal protection? In "The Politics of Community Policing," William Lyons refutes the notion that community-police partnerships work for the benefit of all, while John R. Lott Jr. argues in "The Bias Against Guns" that relaxed firearm laws will make for a safer society.

Looking for more on this topic? Click here for additional reviews from the Well-Read Wonk archives, or use our subject-specific searches.

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NationalJournal.com's Daybook keeps track of area book readings, signings, lectures and other events. Click here for a rundown of this week's happenings.

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National Journal Group offers both print and electronic reprint services, as well as permissions for academic use, photocopying and republication. Click here to order, or call us at 202-266-7230.
legislative history
Some files of this sort are not so widely available. In Virginia, "legislative draft files" prepared by staff members who draft bills are available in the Division of Legislative Services library but have not been published or microfilmed. Files for bills introduced since 1989 are open to inspection, but earlier files can be seen only with the permission of the bill's sponsor. If the sponsor has died, the files are permanently closed. There are no files before 1960, and those for 1980-81 were accidentally discarded.
Hotline Weekly (08/07/2003)
Thursday, Aug. 7, 2003
But Can He Win?

Celebrity candidates fall into two groups -- one includes Ronald Reagan and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the other is composed of folks like Nolan Ryan and Richard Petty. The former were more successful than imagined, and the latter were spectacular disappointments. So where will Arnold Schwarzenegger wind up?
-- Is He Reagan? We'll learn a lot about Schwarzenegger's political potential when he decides to campaign. Does he do it via press releases of tired cliches and TV shows, or does he do a Hillary-style listening tour and blanket the press with position papers? What about debates? No doubt this election is more appealing to Schwarzenegger because he probably won't have to debate.
-- Or Is He Petty? Could Schwarzenegger's candidacy and celebrity actually overwhelm the more important issue on the ballot -- recalling Gray Davis? If the actor does overshadow everything and everyone else, it could be the best thing to happen to Davis, who always seems to do his best in elections when he's not the focus. Then again, Schwarzenegger could follow the Ventura model and expand the electorate to a size that's impossible for Davis to overcome. (#22)

---------
Governor 2003
22 CALIFORNIA: Just Try To Keep This All Straight
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More On This Race
[ Polls | Ads | Candidates | Almanac ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) "jumped into his most demanding role ever" on Wednesday, telling "The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno "and a nationwide audience" that he will be on the ballot for the Oct. 7 recall election of Gov. Gray Davis (D). Schwarzenegger "made his announcement in true Hollywood fashion, joking with Leno, poking fun at himself, then dropping a bombshell that stunned even his close associates."
But if the "setup was relaxed, the message was deadly serious." Schwarzenegger: "The politicians are fiddling, fumbling and failing. The man that is failing the people more than anyone else is Gray Davis. He is failing them terribly, and this is why he needs to be recalled, and this is why I'm going to run for governor."
Schwarzenegger "declined to say when he had made the decision, only that it had been a very long and difficult process," one that "finally came down to discussions" with his wife, Maria Shriver.
"If she had been against me campaigning and me going for the governorship, I would not have done it," Schwarzenegger said (San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 7).


Riordan Jilted -- But Still Might Run
"Among the many Californians amazed" at Schwarzenegger's decision "was the actor's Brentwood neighbor and friend," former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan (R). Riordan was "stunned" when he learned from a TV newscast that Schwarzenegger would run. As of Wednesday morning, Riordan "had spoken to Schwarzenegger and gotten no inkling that the movie hero was about to announce his first run for public office." The two "had been saying for weeks that they were working closely together and that only one would enter the race for governor."
Said one Riordan aide, "So this is what it feels like to be mugged." The aide said Riordan "might still decide to enter the race" (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 7).


Democrats Nervous? What Gives You That Impression?
There was no official reaction to Schwarzenegger's announcement from the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in Washington. But one top Democratic aide on Capitol Hill said: "Everyone will be focused on this. Just like Clinton and impeachment, this will suck the oxygen out of everything else" (San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 7).


Big Court Day
The California Supreme Court has announced "that it will act on all five cases pending on the recall before the close of business" today. Specifically, Court spokeswoman Lynn Holton said that "the court will issue orders either denying review or taking up the cases. If the court decides to take up one or more of the cases, the justices will call for additional briefings and hold oral arguments before issuing an opinion" (California Insider blog, Aug. 6).
Davis filed suit with the California Supreme Court on Monday, making "three separate requests: stop the process of preparing for" a Oct. 7 recall vote "while the state court reviews the constitutional issues, reset that vote" for March 2 and "strike down the existing procedures as a violation of equal voting principles and as a violation of the Constitution's guarantee that each state will have a representative government" (Boston Globe, Aug. 5).
Davis claims that "holding the election just five months before" the state's presidential primary "would violate his rights and disenfranchise many voters" because "some counties wouldn't have time to comply with current court orders to replace error-prone voting machines." This argument is "a variation of one used successfully" by then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R) in 2000's Bush vs. Gore. Davis also wants "to give voters the option of choosing him as his own successor" (AP, Aug. 5).

Here Comes An "Establishment" Dem
Late Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (D), announced that he will be "taking out candidacy papers" today. Bustamante is "abandoning what had sounded like an unequivocal pledge" in June "not to get into the race." He said then: "I will not participate in any other way than to urge voter to reject this expensive perversion of the recall process... I do not intend to put my name on the ballot" (AP, Aug. 6).

Darling Of The Left Takes On The Field
Calling herself an "independent progressive," columnist Arianna Huffington launched her campaign for governor on Wednesday. Huffington "has walked a road of political bombast and prolific self-promotion that has taken her from conservative firebrand to the unlikely champion of the left." The "53-year-old Greek immigrant has no political experience and only offered a glimpse of her plans to free" California "from its economic quagmire." She "pledged to close corporate tax loopholes and roll back tuition increases at state universities and community colleges" (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 7).


Flynt To Hustle For California State House
Porn king Larry Flynt (D) "wants to rule California." Flynt, a "civil libertarian and free speech advocate," said he would solve the state's "budget woes by expanding slot machine gambling."
"California is the most progressive state in the union," Flynt said. "I don't think anyone here will have a problem with a smut peddler as governor" (AP, Aug. 1).


Seems Like Everyone's Running...
Silicon valley entrepreneur Stuart Vance launched a campaign Sunday at www.run-for-governor.org "to derail the recall by encouraging as many Californians as possible to run for governor." Vance describes it as a "denial-of-service attack on the recall," aiming to "overwhelm election officials with up to 1,000 names. That could exceed the number that fits on the ballots and force" the election to be delayed.
Vance criticized Rep. Darrell Issa's (R) $1.7 million contribution to the recall effort, calling it "a corruption of the democratic process."
"I want to tell the Darrell Issas of the world that if they twist the system for their purposes, we the people will untwist it to stop them" (San Jose Mercury News, Aug. 4).


... Except Feinstein
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) announced Wednesday that she will not be a candidate in the recall. "After thinking a great deal about this recall, its implications for the future, and its misguided nature, I have decided that I will not place my name on the ballot," Feinstein said in a statement that also urged voters to vote against the recall (release, Aug. 6).


Don't Make Us Endorse Republicans, You Hear?
Davis got a boost Tuesday from California's AFL-CIO on Tuesday with the release of a three-paragraph letter to elected Democrats "urging them not to run" in the recall. From the letter: "We are united against the recall of Gov. Davis and urge all potential Democratic candidates to stay off the recall ballot and join with us in support of the governor.... United we will defeat this ultraconservative coup attempt" (AP, Aug. 5).
Also Tuesday, at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Chicago, members unanimously "vowed to mobilize" California members "and seek contributions from individual unions" but "stopped short of pledging money to Davis" themselves (Contra Costa Times, Aug. 6). On Monday, Davis had asked the union leaders at the organization's national meeting to pledge $10 million to his campaign, half of the $20 million "he told them he would need to fight the recall" (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 5).

Jury Verdict Research

Would you take this case to trial?

Davis vs. Ackerman

A 35-year-old female homemaker (Davis) suffered lacerations and abrasions on her face and head, resulting in permanent scarring, when she was bitten by her neighbor's dog. The plaintiff claimed the defendants were negligent for failing to properly restrain the animal. The defendants contended the plaintiff fed and welcomed the dog until the time of the attack.

Past Medical Expense Claimed: $2,200
Future Medical Expense Claimed: $3,000
State: PA
County: Bucks

Thursday, August 07, 2003


Knowledge managment comes to philanthropy


Foundations are endowed with intellectual as well as financial capital. Now is the time to use it.

Marla M. Capozzi, Stephanie M. Lowell, and Les Silverman
The McKinsey Quarterly, 2003 Number 2 Organization

Philanthropic foundations are knowledge-intensive bodies. Almost everything they do, from identifying innovative nonprofit organizations to evaluating grants and publishing policy-shaping reports, depends on the use of human and intellectual capital. But many philanthropies, fearing that a dollar spent internally is a dollar wasted, have neither the organization nor the systems to manage their knowledge properly. What they fail to understand is that knowledge is a cornerstone of effective philanthropy.

The organizational changes that many foundations are undergoing to improve their performance highlight the need for better knowledge management. Some of them are responding to pressure from donors and the media to demonstrate their impact more clearly. But many must now cope with tighter finances, for over the past few years, falling stock markets have cut the value of many US endowments by an average of 20 to 30 percent, inevitably leading to shrinking grant portfolios or increasing staff cutbacks. In short, foundations are searching for ways to do more with less.

If they follow the right approach, they can tap into their knowledge to improve the long-term effectiveness of their grants, to lower the cost of administration, and to invest in more effective strategies for social change. Just as important to bear in mind, however, is the fact that reorganizing a foundation without thinking clearly about knowledge management will probably bring problems up to the surface. The experience of the Annie E. Casey Foundation demonstrates these points.

With more than $2.5 billion in assets and 150 employees, the Baltimore-based Casey Foundation has for over 50 years been a leader in improving the lives and opportunities of disadvantaged children and their families by financing programs, conducting research, and promoting the reform of public-service systems. In 1999, the foundation concentrated some of its grants to launch Making Connections, an initiative to develop comprehensive and integrated social strategies in a few impoverished urban centers. It also set up a strategic-consulting arm to help states and localities make their public-service systems work better for children, families, and communities. These decisions reflected the belief that children thrive when families and communities are strong.

The transformation meant that Casey had to hire about 20 new staff members. In addition, the role of its program officers, known as senior associates, changed: from being national, single-issue experts on subjects such as child welfare and juvenile justice, several became generalists leading cross-functional teams in one or two cities. Two problems, both relating to knowledge challenges, emerged as a result of these organizational moves.

First, since the cross-functional approach meant that senior associates were now working in areas beyond their expertise, they needed more information from colleagues to do their work successfully. Moreover, many new staff members had a limited understanding of the history of the foundation or the best practice it had learned over time. More often than not, they could get this information only by asking their longer-serving colleagues for it. What they needed to know wasn’t written down; it had remained in people’s heads.

Second, what knowledge management there had been at the foundation was in danger of diminishing. With the experts’ time fragmented, no one took responsibility for managing the organization’s knowledge in any single area. Meanwhile, senior associates, already busy in their cross-functional roles, were too distracted by requests for information from colleagues to begin generating and applying new knowledge to their grant-making and policy work.

Casey soon realized that if it was failing to share its expertise adequately with its own staff, it must be failing to do so with the recipients of grants and with external policy makers. And if the foundation couldn’t readily share its expertise, neither could it fulfill its mission. So in 2001 Casey, well aware that its new approach and organizational structure would require unprecedented levels of knowledge sharing, set out to manage its knowledge better. To this end, a small team went to work classifying everything that Casey had learned, so that people could find what they needed more easily. It became clear that only a fraction of the foundation’s intellectual capital had been captured in an accessible form. Staff members were spending endless time looking for information, and experts were constantly answering the same basic questions, such as "What are best practices in early-childhood education?"

As a result, Casey began to develop processes that would help senior associates set down their knowledge quickly and efficiently. Visits to the sites of grant recipients had long been a rich source of insights, for instance, but too often what was learned there had been shared only verbally. So the foundation created simple templates its associates could use to identify and record findings that might shape its ideas in other program areas.

Developing a comprehensive knowledge strategy and thinking through knowledge management in detail are essential. Casey’s program defined the entire process: what knowledge should be harnessed, who should codify it, how it should be maintained and disseminated, and who should receive it. Yet in our interviews at 20 leading foundations, we discovered that although most of their executives believe that knowledge management is vital, few had considered it strategically. As a result, many foundations have pursued knowledge management piecemeal: they might invest in a new technology (such as a searchable database for grant reports) without reflecting on the process (how to catalog a document, who should post it) or the strategy (how to use the database to benefit the whole program).

Casey’s comprehensive approach enabled it to implement its strategy more productively. There were other important bonuses as well. By thinking carefully about knowledge management, Casey streamlined its technology spending and reduced duplication, thereby saving thousands of dollars across the organization. Moreover, it had started to build the institutional memory that would support its future works. So Casey’s investment in knowledge management, far from detracting from the organization’s philanthropic endeavors, has enhanced them. And because the foundation’s core value—improving the lives of disadvantaged children and their families—propelled the program, staff members welcomed rather than resisted it.

The Casey Foundation isn’t an isolated example. As pressure on foundations to improve their performance grows, so too does the potential impact of knowledge management and sectorwide learning. Philanthropic organizations must start managing their knowledge more effectively to put themselves in a stronger position to do more with less.


Notes:

Marla Capozzi and Stephanie Lowell are consultants in McKinsey’s Boston office, and Les Silverman is a director in the Washington, DC, office.


Subject: British courtesy

An American tourist in London found himself needing to take a leak something terrible. After a long search he just couldn't find any public bathroom to relieve himself. So he went down one of the side streets to take care of business. Just as he was unzipping, a London police officer showed up.

"Look here, old chap, what are you doing?" the officer asked.

"I'm sorry," the American replied, "but I really gotta take a leak."

"You can't do that here," the officer told him. "Look, follow me."

The police officer led him to a beautiful garden with lots of grass, pretty flowers, and manicured hedges. "Here," said the policeman, "whiz away."

The American tourist shrugged, turned, unzipped, and started relieving himself on the flowers. "Ahhh," he said, feeling much better. Then turning toward the officer, he said, "This is very nice of
you. Is this British courtesy?"

"No," replied the policeman. "It's the French Embassy."

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Livaudais Christmas Collection: "Calling Cards
The custom of using calling cards began in France sometime in the early 1800's. This practice spread throughout Europe and came to the United States in the mid 1800's. Callings cards, also known as Visiting Cards, were carried by the well-to-do of society and were presented at the time of a social visit. They were often left in special calling card receivers (trays) which was set on an entry table or parlor center table. The cards were smaller than today's business cards, frequently consisting of a name engraved and printed on glossy stock. In later years designs became more elaborate incorporating hearts, doves, scrolls, and forget-me-nots. The receiver of such splendid cards would often paste them in the family scrap book. Again, a tradition of exchanging cards was leading up to what would one day be the exchanging of Christmas cards. I'm sure Sir Henry Cole had received his share of Calling cards.
View a few examples of Calling Cards BY CLICKING HERE "
This is your kind of website!!

http://www.mediaresearchcenter.com/welcome.asp
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxx@earthlink.net [mailto:xxxxxxx@earthlink.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 4:51 PM
To: xxxxx@GMU.EDU
Subject: RE: Legislation to Restore Public Access to Presidential Documents

Hi All,

FYI,
My August 5, 2003 posting on beSpacific (http://www.bespacific.com) concerning S. 1517 has been updated today, so here is the permanent link:
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/003545.html#3545

I welcome your comments and suggestions, and links, for this resource, updated daily, on law and technology related news.

Regards,
Sabrina

Sabrina I. Pacifici
beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news
http://www.bespacific.com

Subscribe to beSpacific Free Weekday Coverage on Current Issues
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

>Subject: 100 milestone US Documents....


Hello. This is a pretty nice page to know about. Its one of the links on Thomas.
http://ourdocuments.gov/content.php?page=milestone_documents It lists the top most important US docs from 1789 to 1965. The reason they stopped at 1965?

Quote:
The decision not to include milestone documents since 1965 was a deliberate acknowledgement of the difficulty in examining more recent history. As stated in the guidelines for the National History Standards, developed by the National Center for History in the Schools, "Historians can never attain complete objectivity, but they tend to fall shortest of the goal when they deal with current or very recent events."


Babe Kylie's simply botiful




Bum's the word ... Kylie in today's Sun
Click picture to enlarge
By DOMINIC MOHAN
The man who's touched it



THIS must rank as one of the wonders of the world ... Kylie Minogue’s bottom.

I should know — I’ve touched it. And I can confirm her bum is the most sumptuous in showbusiness.

Now I don’t want you thinking I’m some kind of perv. It was an accident, honest.

Kylie was dancing at a party after a gig at London’s Hammersmith Apollo when my hand connected with her rear.

Much booze had been consumed by both of us and as I stumbled across the dancefloor she backed into me.

It all happened very quickly but my hand rested there long enough to make an assessment. I had expected her bum to be bony. But it was soft like a ripened fruit.

I apologised profusely and walked off. Later I looked down at my right mitt. Raising it skyward. I screamed: “Yesssss.”

Several months later, I was interviewing Jennifer Lopez. As we rose from the sofa at the end of our chat, my hand brushed against America’s most famous butt. J-Lo’s cheeks are larger, like a pumped up version of her Aussie rival’s. ims could not manifest warmth in the dungeon that was my soul. And thus I conclude, "for every up there is a down, for every smile there is a frown, and thats what makes the world go round!" (an excerpt of the song from Disney's 'Sword in the Stone'). Maybe for people with more internal pressure, the homeostasis never really hits neutrality. This is especially true for younger people.

Children have alot of passion. Passion creates energy. Energy builds internal pressure, and that is why children are never quite what we percieve as "normal". They always do things in extremes....when they play, when they talk/scream, when they eat....even their thinking is rather eccentric and is inevitably cherished by society these days. However their passion is blind passion. Its an instinctive passion. When they h

Monday, August 04, 2003

PRIVACY & SECURITY LAW REPORT
Volume 2 Number 31
August 4, 2003 Page 860
ISSN 1538-3431
News

Spam


Burns Expects Anti-Spam Legislation
To Move to Senate Floor in September



Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) told reporters July 30 that he expects his anti-spam bill (S. 877) to go to the Senate floor in September without substantial changes.
Burns said the main hurdle will be completing negotiations with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to strengthen criminal penalties in the bill.

"That's about the only obstacle we have," he said during a telephone conference with reporters.

Still, Burns said he did not expect many changes in the bill, and he looked forward to seeing it move as soon as the Senate returns from summer recess.

"We've got to take it to the floor," said Burns, who chairs a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. "It's got to be passed in September."

A bill introduced by Hatch (S. 1293) would subject violators to up to five years imprisonment. Burns' measure, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), currently provides up to one year of jail time.

Hatch has yet to act on his bill, which is focused mainly on setting criminal penalties for egregious spammers. The Burns-Wyden bill, which includes rules for legitimate e-mail marketers, is much closer to a Senate vote. The Commerce Committee approved the bill June 19 (2 PVLR 682, 6/23/03 ). During markup, Burns and Wyden promised to toughen the bill as it reached the Senate floor, but they have not yet offered details on how they would do that.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is among those on the committee who are pushing for a stronger bill. Nelson has introduced a measure (S. 1052) that would make spamming a felony crime under existing federal racketeering legislation.


Burns Rejects 'Do-Not-Spam List.'

A proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) could be another focus of debate.
Schumer has introduced a bill (S. 1231) that would create a do-not-spam registry, similar to the do-not-call list for telemarketers that was launched by the Federal Trade Commission in June.

While Schumer's bill appears to be gaining support among consumers, it has only one Senate backer. Despite that, Schumer has said he plans to introduce the legislation as a floor amendment.

Burns flatly rejected the proposal during his phone conference with reporters.

"Right now, we can't accept that," he said.

The Burns-Wyden bill, as approved by the Commerce Committee, would direct the FTC to study the effectiveness of a do-not-spam list.

So far, members of the commission, including FTC Chairman Timothy Muris, have raised concerns about the idea of creating such a list (see related report in this section ).

The Burns-Wyden bill would allow individuals to send unsolicited commercial e-mail messages as long as they follow certain rules, such as providing a mechanism for individuals to opt out of receiving future messages. The legislation is supported by a number of industry groups, including the Direct Marketing Association.

Besides creating a do-not-spam list, Schumer's bill would provide a private right of action for individuals, another feature that has made it popular with consumers. The Burns-Wyden bill would only allow the government and Internet service providers to go after spammers.

Copyright © 2003 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.