Getting into the Field

A group of students enrolled in a law school clinic wanders through a large farmers\u27 market. They stop to chat with the proprietors of a farm that has sold vegetables at the market for many years. They visit with a cheesemaker and an apple grower. A second group learns about the economic costs of organic production from a farmer and talks with an olive oil producer. Both sets of students seem unusually attentive to their surroundings. That may be because the first group helped the sponsor of the market rework the market\u27s rules and regulations, and the second developed a site agreement for use by the sponsor in securing new locations. They had spent a lot of time thinking about market operations and how best to reflect them in contract documents

Farmers Market Rules and Policies: Content and Design Suggestions (From a Lawyer)

Farmers market rules and policies can set out what products can be sold, how vendors are selected, what’s expected of vendors from growing practices to signage to paperwork, and how vendors are disciplined or removed from the market. Rules and policies can do even more, adding to their length and complexity. The landscape gets even more complex when the rules are accompanied by separate vendor applications, hold-harmless agreements, membership materials, and the market has a website providing additional information. All this can put a quite a reading burden on vendors and quite a management burden on the market. This article is about ways to both maximize the value to a market of its rules and minimize the load on the user

Reforming the Gift Tax and Making It Enforceable

Historically, the gift tax has performed the admirable role of safeguarding the integrities of both the estate and income taxes. Due to taxpayers’ abilities to narrow the gift tax base and ignore their filing obligations, however, fulfillment of its historical role is now in jeopardy. This analysis details how taxpayers circumvent their gift tax obligations and then sets forth reforms that Congress can readily institute to curb taxpayers’ transgressions. Institution of these recommendations would enable the gift tax to continue to fulfill its historic functions

Trauma Early Mortality Prediction Tool (TEMPT) for assessing 28-day mortality.

Background:Prior mortality prediction models have incorporated severity of anatomic injury quantified by Abbreviated Injury Severity Score (AIS). Using a prospective cohort, a new score independent of AIS was developed using clinical and laboratory markers present on emergency department presentation to predict 28-day mortality. Methods:All patients (n=1427) enrolled in an ongoing prospective cohort study were included. Demographic, laboratory, and clinical data were recorded on admission. True random number generator technique divided the cohort into derivation (n=707) and validation groups (n=720). Using Youden indices, threshold values were selected for each potential predictor in the derivation cohort. Logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors. Significant variables were equally weighted to create a new mortality prediction score, the Trauma Early Mortality Prediction Tool (TEMPT) score. Area under the curve (AUC) was tested in the validation group. Pairwise comparison of Trauma Injury Severity Score (TRISS), Revised Trauma Score, Glasgow Coma Scale, and Injury Severity Score were tested against the TEMPT score. Results:There was no difference between baseline characteristics between derivation and validation groups. In multiple logistic regression, a model with presence of traumatic brain injury, increased age, elevated systolic blood pressure, decreased base excess, prolonged partial thromboplastin time, increased international normalized ratio (INR), and decreased temperature accurately predicted mortality at 28 days (AUC 0.93, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.96, P<0.001). In the validation cohort, this score, termed TEMPT, predicted 28-day mortality with an AUC 0.94 (95% CI 0.92 to 0.97). The TEMPT score preformed similarly to the revised TRISS score for severely injured patients and was highly predictive in those having mild to moderate injury. Discussion:TEMPT is a simple AIS-independent mortality prediction tool applicable very early following injury. TEMPT provides an AIS-independent score that could be used for early identification of those at risk of doing poorly following even minor injury. Level of evidence:Level II

Asset Preservation and the Evolving Role of Trusts in the Twenty-First Century

For the vast majority of the twentieth century, trusts served two pivotal roles. The first was as a vehicle to help mitigate federal and state estate tax burdens, the rates of which could be quite significant. The second was to assist in asset preservation, safeguarding trust beneficiaries from their profligacy, former spouses, creditors, and the like. At the start of the twenty-first century, Congress passed legislation that curtailed the impact of the federal estate tax, and many state legislatures have followed suit, either eliminating or significantly reducing their estate taxes. As a result of these legislative changes, trust instrument reliance to mitigate transfer tax burdens is no longer a commonplace objective. Instead, the role of trusts has shifted entirely toward asset preservation, buoyed by state legislative reforms that facilitate fulfillment of this role. However, state legislative reform measures that are designed to strengthen the asset preservation element of trusts are replete with problems. In particular, they drain government coffers as they pit states against one another and the federal government; furthermore, insofar as they promote an aristocracy-like environment (where wealth cascades down from one generation to the next), they thwart economic mobility, an essential component of our nation’s financial fabric. Using three specific examples of states’ aggressive efforts to attract trust formation within their borders, this analysis demonstrates the shortcomings associated with the evolving role of trusts in asset preservation and its corrosive effects. Because too much is at stake for this role to be left unchecked, this analysis recommends several viable reforms

Asset Preservation and the Evolving Role of Trusts in the Twenty-First Century

For the vast majority of the twentieth century, trusts served two pivotal roles. The first was as a vehicle to help mitigate federal and state estate tax burdens, the rates of which could be quite significant. The second was to assist in asset preservation, safeguarding trust beneficiaries from their profligacy, former spouses, creditors, and the like. At the start of the twenty-first century, Congress passed legislation that curtailed the impact of the federal estate tax, and many state legislatures have followed suit, either eliminating or significantly reducing their estate taxes. As a result of these legislative changes, trust instrument reliance to mitigate transfer tax burdens is no longer a commonplace objective. Instead, the role of trusts has shifted entirely toward asset preservation, buoyed by state legislative reforms that facilitate fulfillment of this role. However, state legislative reform measures that are designed to strengthen the asset preservation element of trusts are replete with problems. In particular, they drain government coffers as they pit states against one another and the federal government; furthermore, insofar as they promote an aristocracy-like environment (where wealth cascades down from one generation to the next), they thwart economic mobility, an essential component of our nation’s financial fabric. Using three specific examples of states’ aggressive efforts to attract trust formation within their borders, this analysis demonstrates the shortcomings associated with the evolving role of trusts in asset preservation and its corrosive effects. Because too much is at stake for this role to be left unchecked, this analysis recommends several viable reforms

Comparison of diets collected from esophageally fistulated cows to forage quality estimated from fecal analysis

Differences in forage quality (crude protein and energy) were analyzed between esophageally fistulated diets, analysis of fecal samples with Nutrition Balance Analyzer (NUTBAL) analysis, and analysis of handclipped forage samples. On upland range sites, hand- clipped samples provided forage quality estimates that were closer to esophageally fistulated diets than samples analyzed with the NUTBAL analysis. Aft er one year of data collection, it appears that there may be some inconstancies with the NUTBAL analysis for estimates on rangeland forage quality in the Nebraska Sandhills. More data is needed to verify these results; however, making management supplementations decisions solely on the NUTBAL analysis may not always be accurate on Sandhills rangeland