Improving Legal Writing Courses: Perspectives from the Bar and Bench

To fine-tune legal writing courses to better prepare law students to enter legal practice, Professors Constance Krontz and Susan McClellan surveyed judges and practicing attorneys who supervise the work of first-year associates or judicial law clerks. They selected attorneys from a variety of practices in Washington State, including offices of public defenders and state prosecutors, the Attorney General\u27s office, and private firms of various sizes. They sought information about the performance of all first-year clerks and associates, without reference to where they obtained their law degrees. Knowledge of the bench and bar\u27s perception of the oral and written performance of recent law school graduates generally can inform all legal writing programs. Such knowledge can help legal writing professors determine whether the skills we are targeting are those the students will need when they begin clerking or practicing law. They presented the results of the survey at The Legal Writing Institute\u27s Summer Conference in July 2000. This article describes the survey, summarizes the results, and offers some suggestions for rethinking areas of emphasis in legal writing programs. The discussion includes some of the panelists\u27 comments as well as those made by the survey\u27s respondents. In addition, Judge Morgan\u27s Top Ten List for Legal Writers appears in the appendix

The direct diagnosis of myocardial infarction by photoscanning after administration of cesium-131

1. 1. It is possible to visualize the left ventricular myocardium of the intact, living patient, without discomfort or danger to the patient, by photoscanning after the administration of cesium-131.2. 2. The normal left ventricular myocardium appears as a full, even density, with a smooth contour. Myocardial infarcts appear as "cold" areas of decreased uptake.3. 3. In 6 patients with unequivocal fresh myocardial infarcts, the scans were positive in 5 and doubtful in 1. In 2 patients who probably had suffered recent myocardial infarctions, the scan was positive in 1 and negative in 1. In 2 patients who had heart disease but who had probably not had recent myocardial infarctions, the scan was negative in 1 and doubtful in 1. The scan was negative in each of 3 patients with normal hearts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32170/1/0000225.pd

Improving Legal Writing Courses: Perspectives from the Bar and Bench

To fine-tune legal writing courses to better prepare law students to enter legal practice, Professors Constance Krontz and Susan McClellan surveyed judges and practicing attorneys who supervise the work of first-year associates or judicial law clerks. They selected attorneys from a variety of practices in Washington State, including offices of public defenders and state prosecutors, the Attorney General\u27s office, and private firms of various sizes. They sought information about the performance of all first-year clerks and associates, without reference to where they obtained their law degrees. Knowledge of the bench and bar\u27s perception of the oral and written performance of recent law school graduates generally can inform all legal writing programs. Such knowledge can help legal writing professors determine whether the skills we are targeting are those the students will need when they begin clerking or practicing law. They presented the results of the survey at The Legal Writing Institute\u27s Summer Conference in July 2000. This article describes the survey, summarizes the results, and offers some suggestions for rethinking areas of emphasis in legal writing programs. The discussion includes some of the panelists\u27 comments as well as those made by the survey\u27s respondents. In addition, Judge Morgan\u27s Top Ten List for Legal Writers appears in the appendix

A Folkloristic Look at Cockfighting

Four Nebraska Cockfighters responded orally to queries about breeding, conditioning, heeling and handling of game fowl, and also about the public image and stereotypes of cockfighting and Its participants. Mastery of breeding, conditioning, heeling and handling is what makes a successful cockfighter, while association with the sport means having to face charges of cruelty to animals and accusations that only the seedier segments of society are attracted to it. Cockfighters are prepared to defend and rationalize their sport with a uniform set of excuses. They claim their adversaries are hypocritical in their accusations. Cockfighters also maintain that the Lord created game birds only for fighting. They emphasize that cockfighters are respectable people with a degree of honesty, dignity and pride unknown to other sports. The esoteric-exoteric factor in folklore provided a theoretical perspective to the study. Simply, cockfighters engage in an illegal activity that is regarded by those outside the group as cruel and dehumanizing. Cockfighters, however, realize the exoteric concepts believed about them and are able to refute those concepts on the basis of their own esoteric knowledge

First Report of Diaporthe stewartii Causing Phomopsis Stem Canker of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) in Minnesota

Phomopsis stem canker is one of the most economically important sunflower diseases in the northern Great Plains (Mathew et al. 2015). In October 2015, lesions consistent with Phomopsis stem canker were observed on sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) in a commercial field in Polk County, MN (47°46′12″ N, 96°24′00″ W). Five plants displaying elongated, brown stem lesions were obtained. Stems were cut into small pieces (10 mm), surface-sterilized, and plated onto potato dextrose agar (PDA). The plates were incubated for 10 days at 22°C under 12 h of alternating light/dark conditions. Two isolates of brown colonies were hyphal-tipped and transferred to fresh PDA plates