Digital Transitions: Nonprofit Investigative Journalism: Evaluation Report on the Center for Public Integrity

Summarizes outcomes of a one-year grant to CPI to transform itself into a leader in digital nonprofit journalism. Examines CPI's track record, use of new tools and methods, capacity as an effective and credible online presence, and areas for improvement

INJUNCTIONS - COURTS - LABOR LAW - POWER OF A STATE COURT TO ENJOIN NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD OFFICIALS

The Circuit Court of Washtenaw County, Michigan, recently issued an injunction enjoining the regional officials of the National Labor Relations Board from holding a scheduled hearing in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The injunction was issued on the theory that if any unfair labor practices were being practiced by the Ann Arbor Press (a local job printer charged with violating the act) they did not affect interstate commerce and hence were not within the jurisdiction of the board. The injunction was at least temporarily effective. The hearing was not held in Ann Arbor. The regional office of the board in Detroit withdrew its complaint, but a new complaint was at once issued by the board, itself, at Washington, D. C. The hearing was accordingly held in Washington commencing May 2, 1938, presumably on the theory that the Michigan injunction had no extraterritorial effect. The regional officials of the board then moved in the Michigan court that the injunction be dissolved on the ground that the question was moot and that the state court had no jurisdiction to issue the injunction in the first place

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - IMPAIRMENT OF OBLIGATION OF CONTRACTS -TAX ON INCOME OF BONDS GRANTED STATUTORY TAX EXEMPTION

Plaintiffs were holders of certain tax exempt bonds issued under authority of the state of Iowa. After the issue of the bonds a statute was passed imposing a personal net income tax upon persons resident within the state. The state board of assessment and review assessed this tax against $36,892.75 interest on the tax exempt bonds. The appellants, alleging that such an application of the law impaired the obligations of contracts of exemption, brought suit. Upon a ruling in favor of the assessment by the Iowa Supreme Court, appellants appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Held, the contract of exemption was properly interpreted by the Iowa Supreme Court as not including the tax in question. Therefore the contractual obligation was not impaired. Hale v. Iowa State Board of Assessment and Review, 302 U.S. 95, 58 S. Ct. 102 (1937)

CONTRACTS - ILLEGALITY - ENFORCEMENT OF CONTRACT DECLARED INVALID BY STATUTE

Plaintiff was injured while in the employ of defendant. Thereupon the defendant agreed to give the plaintiff employment for life if he would not prosecute the claim before the State Industrial Commission. After thirteen years plaintiff was summarily discharged. The time having elapsed for filing a claim with the Industrial Commission, he brought this action for breach of contract. Statutes of Oklahoma provide that no agreement to waive the right to compensation shall be valid and that claims shall not be released. The lower court awarded plaintiff $3,000 damages. Defendant appealed. Held, the rule that invalid contracts will not be enforced does not apply where the statute which makes the contract invalid is for the protection of one of the parties and non-enforcement will defeat the purpose. Oklahoma Portland Cement Co. v. Pollock, (Okla. 1937) 73 P. (2d) 427

Manual for use of two-pi liquid scintillation whole body counter : ⁴⁰K measurements, bio-applications, counting statistics

Cover title.Includes bibliographical references (page 32)

Intersection tests for single marker QTL analysis can be more powerful than two marker QTL analysis

BACKGROUND: It has been reported in the quantitative trait locus (QTL) literature that when testing for QTL location and effect, the statistical power supporting methodologies based on two markers and their estimated genetic map is higher than for the genetic map independent methodologies known as single marker analyses. Close examination of these reports reveals that the two marker approaches are more powerful than single marker analyses only in certain cases. Simulation studies are a commonly used tool to determine the behavior of test statistics under known conditions. We conducted a simulation study to assess the general behavior of an intersection test and a two marker test under a variety of conditions. The study was designed to reveal whether two marker tests are always more powerful than intersection tests, or whether there are cases when an intersection test may outperform the two marker approach. We present a reanalysis of a data set from a QTL study of ovariole number in Drosophila melanogaster. RESULTS: Our simulation study results show that there are situations where the single marker intersection test equals or outperforms the two marker test. The intersection test and the two marker test identify overlapping regions in the reanalysis of the Drosophila melanogaster data. The region identified is consistent with a regression based interval mapping analysis. CONCLUSION: We find that the intersection test is appropriate for analysis of QTL data. This approach has the advantage of simplicity and for certain situations supplies equivalent or more powerful results than a comparable two marker test

Government Contracts-Judicial Review Under Disputes Clause

In a factual dispute arising under a standard government construction contract, the contractor followed the procedures required by the disputes clause. The contractor, after its claim was denied by the contracting officer, appealed to the Board of Claims and Appeals of the Corps of Engineers. The Board rejected the claim, and the contractor brought suit in the Court of Claims, alleging, in the words of the Wunderlich Act, that the Board\u27s decision was capricious or arbitrary or so grossly erroneous as necessarily to imply bad faith, or was not supported by substantial evidence. Over the Government\u27s objection, a commissioner of the court received evidence de novo and concluded that the contractor was entitled to recover. The court received further evidence on the issue of damages and entered judgment for the contractor. On certiorari, held, reversed, two Justices dissenting. In cases subject to the standard disputes clause, the court may look only to the administrative record in order to determine, with respect to any of the Wunderlich Act\u27s standards of finality except fraud, whether the administrative decision should retain its finality. United States v. Carlo Bianchi & Co., 373 U.S. 709 (1963)

Organising Project Finance

Modern project finance is understood as a method of finance, whereby the borrower is generally a standalone corporate entity, often a special purpose vehicle and, therefore, a single-project enterprise. The advent of large-scale securitisation of project finance debt instruments helped to attract significant institutional capital, which had shied away from infrastructure debt because of the risk/return profile. This chapter argues that despite what some economic theory might predict, the manner in which a project is financed imposes formal ‘constraining and enabling’ conditions at all phases of the built-asset lifecycle. Successful project organisation and delivery depends upon an adequate understanding of these dynamics. Project governance should also ensure that there is a system of a detailed post-project evaluation of costs and benefits. The need for new public infrastructure in the twenty-first century is growing at a time when public finances are constrained

Market, Welfare and Land-use Implications of Lignocellulosic Bioethanol in Hawaii

This article examines land-use, market and welfare implications of lignocellulosic bioethanol production in Hawaii to satisfy 10% and 20% of the State's gasoline demand in line with the State's ethanol blending mandate and Alternative Fuels Standard (AFS). A static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is used to evaluate four alternative support mechanisms for bioethanol. Namely: (i) a federal blending tax credit, (ii) a long-term purchase contract, (iii) a state production subsidy financed by a lump-sum tax and (iv) a state production subsidy financed by an ad valorem gasoline tax. We find that because Hawaii-produced bioethanol is relatively costly, all scenarios are welfare reducing for Hawaii residents: estimated between -0.14% and -0.32%. Unsurprisingly, Hawaii.s economy and its residents fair best under the federal blending tax credit scenario, with a positive impact to gross state product of $49 million. Otherwise, impacts to gross state product are negative (up to -$63 million). We additionally find that Hawaii-based bioethanol is not likely to offer substantial greenhouse gas emissions savings in comparison to imported biofuel, and as such the policy cost per tonne of emissions displaced ranges between $130 to$2,100/tonne of CO2e. The policies serve to increase the value of agricultural lands, where we estimate that the value of pasture land could increase as much as 150% in the 20% AFS scenario