There is a light covering of snow on Taos Mountain and this very warm day has turned quite cold by the time the sun begins to set. From my car window I see neckless people with their collars up and their shoulders slightly hunched against the wind. It’s sleeveless weather during the day, but the temperature drops 50 degrees by […]

Online writing and grammar software allows us to check various blocks of text and other digital writing content for grammatical errors, so that they become correct, readable and professional. Although it can get frustrating at times, writing is a skill that we need to constantly improve if we are to achieve our writing goals. The following article describes the latest […]

“No man has seen the third hand that springs from the center, close to the heart…” (from the poem “Mystique” by David Ignatow) While not something I write about explicitly, I had an experience several years ago that changed my life. When I was in law school I was severely depressed. Since then, thankfully, I have recovered but have not […]

The New York High School Regents exams began in New York State in 1876, one hundred years after our nation’s Declaration of Independence. While they have evolved, they continue to this day, testing New York high school students in most academic subjects. Students who passed their exams received Regents certificates. This has also evolved. High school students who pass the […]

Human rights education is education that attends to the development of the human personality in general. It includes respect for the rights, the satisfaction of basic needs and the guarantee of the fundamental freedoms of all human beings. The key purpose of entering this field of education is to promote understanding of basic human needs and stimulate the need to […]

(The following article was originally published in the Milwaukee Law Journal in 2002. Following are innovative changes in technology and process since the original publication.) The introduction of computers to the court reporting industry in the mid-1970s opened the door to many new reporting products and services and is ultimately creating greater capacity for litigants. Computer-assisted transcription (CAT), the process […]

Whether you are sick, injured or pregnant, it is important to know the basics of family leave. The two most important statutes are the Oregon Family Leave Act (“OFLA”) and the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). OFLA is specific to Oregon and is similar to FMLA, which is the federal version. The following are answers to frequently asked questions: Am […]

There is a disturbing movement in the United States to view victims who sue the companies responsible for their injuries as opportunistic. Viewing their lawyers as ambulances chasing sharks. Make no mistake about it: this view has been propagated and reinforced by the very companies that want to avoid being held liable for civil negligence. There are very few ways […]

Ultimately, federal disability retirement is a benefit that must be fought for and secured to achieve a level of financial security for the future. The questions that are asked when first confronted with a medical condition that has begun to interfere and that leads to the inability to perform one or more of the essential elements of the job are […]

Until June 2004, Nigeria had operated primarily in the public sector, a defined benefit pension plan, which was largely unfunded and non-contributory. The system was characterized as a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) scheme, as retirees would not be supported by their previous contributions but by annual budget provisions, hence the massive accumulation of pension debt, which was estimated to be more than […]