Law school faculty email is down … and so is the UM Law web site. They did a big server move Saturday night, and all was supposed to be well by Sunday.
But it isn’t.
Since most law school workstations are set up to rely heavily on the network, I hear they are not working either.
You can contact me at gmail.com using my firstname.lastname before the @. Or you can wait like the rest of us.
Update (3pm): Fixed at last.
Congratulations to colleague Sarah A. Mourer who has just published her first book, Working in Innocence Programs: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Innocence Work But Were Afraid To Ask.
Here’s part of the synopsis:
This book is written for anyone interested in the innocence cause. The problem of wrongful convictions is moving more and more into the public’s eye every day. This book is specifically written to guide a student or participant through an innocence program step by step. It covers everything from how not to get too worried about the clients to how to conduct a client interview. It really is everything you need to know to participate in an innocence program. It is also a valuable resource for those directing innocence programs or hoping to start one. It provides templates for forms and suggestions for best practices for procedures necessary to run an exemplary innocence program. It is a must for any student enrolled in a law school innocence program. It will help the students hit the ground running and allow programs to get help to the clients more efficiently. No other book on the market is available that encompasses all of the major issues for effective innocence work in one convenient place.
This may be the first piece of advice the U has sent me on ID theft that I actually agree with: Tax Season Is Here; File Early to Avoid Scams:
As faculty and staff start receiving their W-2s and other tax documents, it is time to start thinking about filing income tax returns—early. This is also the season when identity thieves go into overdrive, attempting to file fraudulent tax returns. Tax fraud is now the third-largest theft of federal funds after Medicare/Medicaid and unemployment-insurance fraud. South Florida, already the leader in Medicare fraud, is also taking the lead in tax-identity theft. Florida has the highest rate of identity theft in the country, with 178 complaints per 100,000 residents in 2011. Tax-identity theft exploded to more than 1.1 million cases in 2011 from 51,700 in 2008.
Fraudulent tax returns can come in the form of tax-identity theft, refund fraud, or return-preparer fraud. With e-filing, evidence of fraud is difficult to find. There are no signed tax forms, envelopes or fingerprints, and e-filing promises quick refunds. For criminals to e-file in your name, they need your name and Social Security number, combined with a phony W-2 (wages) or fabricated Schedule C (business income). These ID thieves steal your personal information and then use it to file a fake tax return in your name, usually tweaking the numbers to get a large refund. The refund can be posted to an anonymous “Green Dot” prepaid Visa purchased at a drugstore, Wal-Mart, etc. The taxpayer whose ID has been stolen will not find out until he or she attempts to file the real return and then is informed by the IRS that the return has already been filed and the refund sent. That is the primary reason to file as early as possible, before a potential criminal attempts to do so on your behalf. To read the complete tip, including steps to protect your tax identity, please click here.
Interestingly (at least to me) the tip comes from the U’s Office of HIPAA Privacy & Security whose web site suggests it might be run by sensible people. This differentiates it from the junky and fearmongering advice I find strewn on a table at the front of our library at the start of every school year and which is issued by the campus police department.
Justice Sotomayor will be speaking at UM next Friday as part of her book tour. She’ll be interviewed by President Donna Shalala.
And, on Feb. 11 Justice Anthony Kennedy will be speaking here as part of the Robert B. Cole Distinguished Jurist Lecture Series. I gather our own Patrick Gudridge will be his interlocutor, which should be something to see.
And oh yes, there’s also a pretty star-studded cast of other speakers coming our way in the next few weeks. Do you think it might have something to do with the weather?
He’s coming. It looks like I have a scheduling conflict so I likely won’t be able to go.
Via Talking Points Memo, here’s a highlight from the talk:
If that doesn’t work, here’s a direct link.
As TPM notes, as a rally-the-troops kind of a speech President Obama’s Miami speech was a big success — the President had energy, he got himself going, and he got the crowd going.
And it did a good job of taking the fight to the other guy, unlike a certain recent debate performance.
But as a description of what Obama would actually do in the next four years the speech — like the whole campaign — was a little weak: end the war in Afghanistan, stay the course on the recovery, hire some teachers, make education more affordable (somehow), make a deal with Republicans to cut $1 trillion or more from the budget (queuecue the Catfood Commission).
The key for the Obama campaign has been and remains to demonize Romney, a process that very largely consists of just telling the truth about him. But that’s why the debate hurt so: for the mythical low-information undecided voter, who was just tuning and was relentlessly ignorant of everything Romney has been saying and doing for past two years, it’s all too possible Romney looked good, or at least neither dangerous nor demonic.
Update: While I’m swiping video from TPM, I really ought to include this — an analysis of Romney’s debate performance. It really deserves to work:
Just one thing: This video isn’t by Team Obama at all! It is by something called CannonfireVideo.
Update2: This following video, on the other hand, is by the ‘Obama Truth Team’:
Jotwell Blenderlaw