A Problem Shared...?\u27 Some Reflections on Problem Solving Courts and Court Innovation in Australia

There has been growing interest in recent years in developing \u27non-adversarial\u27 forms of court based justice, and exploring the potential for courts to take a lead role in resolving the underlying issues that ensure repeated contact with the justice system for particular groups. Problem Oriented Courts, such as community courts, drug courts, family violence courts and the like, originated in the USA but have taken root in societies across the globe. This article emerges primarily out of research and policy development work intended to inform an initiative in Victoria Australia called the Next Generation Courts initiative, which sought mainstream the problem oriented approach by adopting the non-adversarial paradigm as the basis for all future court development in Victoria

Additional Notes on Iowa Mosses

Since May, 1927, thirty-five new species and varieties of moss have been added to the collection at Iowa Wesleyan College. While the writer had not thought it possible, on account of other duties, to continue the study of mosses, they have proved so irresistibly fascinating that a few specimens have been picked up, although at decidedly odd moments. One day, however, was spent in a definite collecting trip, in Grannis Hollow, Fayette County. In that one hollow twelve species were found not hitherto reported for Iowa. One hardly dares imagine the number that might be found if a thorough study were made of northeastern Iowa, that most fruitful region of the whole state, where apparently no work has been done. Of the thirty-five species added to the Blagg list since May, 1927, nineteen are new for Iowa

Making the familiar unfamiliar

The output is a creative project. Blagg used key terminology from texts on the uncanny and attempted to apply them in a practical manner in the manufacture of familiar objects, investigating whether uncanny objects can be made using a recognisable systematic process. Research process: Blagg ran a series of workshops and exhibitions exploring audience interaction with and responses to the artefacts. Blagg tested ideas about how different audiences interacted with the work, developing activities, questioning and discussion techniques. He was interested in how audiences passing through the exhibition responded to the artefacts in comparison to focus group participants. Research insights: Blagg’s work focuses on everyday objects and how they have the potential to become uncanny. How familiar, seemingly innocuous, mundane and trivial pieces of design are able to alienate, frustrate or simply evoke uncertainty within their audiences. The participants did not require an in-depth knowledge of the uncanny to partake in this session. Blagg was able to gain user insight through interaction, play and discussion. This research added to his proposed understanding of certain concepts within the uncanny such as intellectual uncertainty and the doppelgänger, the evaluation and discussion of these notions suggested a more complex view of links between uncertainty and interactions with objects. Blagg was interested in applying a more pragmatic approach using hand held objects to explore the vagaries of ideas surrounding the uncanny, could intellectual uncertainty be felt or described by participants through a more measured approach. Dissemination: The output was disseminated through a series of workshops and exhibitions including: • Making the familiar unfamiliar, Leeds City Art Gallery. 12 May 2018. • Playtime, Leeds City Art Gallery. 5 December 2017

Oral History Interview: Donald Blagg

This interview is one of a series conducted concerning the Oral History of Appalachia. In this interview, Donald Blagg discusses his experiences as a lawyer, his education, working with the courts, his family, government, people he knew, and his health.https://mds.marshall.edu/oral_history/1214/thumbnail.jp

Examining the 2013 Kansas state income tax changes and their impact on job creation

Master of ArtsDepartment of EconomicsTracy TurnerI analyze the impact of Kansas House Bills HB 2117 and HB 2059, which made changes to the personal income tax structure and sales tax rates in the state of Kansas in 2012 and beyond. Using county-level, quarterly data gathered from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, I examine a full sample of Kansas and its four bordering states; Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma in order to determine the impact the tax changes had on the private sector employment in the state of Kansas. I subsequently use Kansas county-level, quarterly data to create a sample of Kansas border counties and their border pair matches, which consist of their adjacent counties in the neighboring states, to employ a differencing model to examine those same effects. With this analysis I isolate the policy change taking place in Kansas in 2012 and assess its impact controlling for the impact of the state corporate income tax, individual income tax, and sales tax rates on private sector employment in Kansas counties. My findings indicate that Kansas has not experienced an increase in private sector employment due to this policy change, but rather has perhaps seen private sector employment levels fall in the year following the enactment of the policy change