text:
I blogged yesterday about administrative enforcement, an area that lies at the intersection of criminal and administrative law. Among other topics, my scholarship has considered the civil penalty process. In particular, what are the inputs and incentives that shape administrative agency penalties?
A standard model used to describe the penalty process emphasizes economic theories of deterrence. Financial penalties are a mechanism to raise the price for violations either to make misconduct completely unprofitable or, in the alternative, to force violators to internalize the costs of violations. I've pointed out one way that this theory may break down – administrative agencies might not focus on deterrence at all. Instead, their penalties may be crafted to achieve retributive ends.
In our recent Harvard Law Review article, For-Profit Public Enforcement, Margaret H. Lemos and I looked at penalties from another perspective: public enforcers may have self-interested reasons to maximize civil penalty recoveries. These incentives are widely recognized in private enforcement. Class action lawyers, for example, operating on a contingency fee basis have straightforward reasons to maximize recoveries.
Perhaps less obviously, public enforcement lawyers can have comparable incentives to impose large penalties. These incentives work most clearly in cases where enforcement agencies keep a portion of the civil penalties imposed. This structure is common in the asset forfeiture process used in connection with many criminal cases and also exists in other state and federal enforcement contexts. Even when penalties are turned over to the general treasury, enforcers may have reputational incentives to maximize penalties. Both agencies as a whole and individuals working in enforcement agencies may seek to build a reputation as an aggressive enforcer for reasons other than deterrence.
Assuming that these claims are right and that civil penalties can be driven by retributive or self-interested goals, is this a problem? Perhaps, perhaps not. Self-interested public enforcement may push enforcers to emphasize financial recoveries over other tools of regulatory control, such as injunctive relief. However, if our default assumption is that administrative agencies underenforce and usually do not impose adequate penalties, the pressure of self-interest may correct this trend to some degree.
The presence of retribution in civil penalties has similarly mixed effects. Of course, if penalties are supposed to be carefully calculated to deter, retributive ends will hamper this goal. On the other end, we now widely recognize the role of norms in shaping compliance behavior. Retributive punishment done well can shape and reinforce industry norms.
Permalink | Administrative Law| Crime and Criminal Law| Economics| Law & Economics| Legal Scholarship | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Erik, thank you for that introduction. It is a pleasure to join the Conglomerate for a week. My scholarly interests have recently focused on federal administrative enforcement – enforcement actions by agencies like the SEC, the CFTC, as well as a host of lower profile entities. This is a fascinating area of public law combining two scholarly literatures. Administrative enforcement actions share much in common with criminal cases. They are brought by public entities to vindicate public wrongs. However, the administrative context deeply shapes this type of enforcement. For example, unlike most prosecutor's offices, administrative enforcement bodies tend to be industry-specific.
As a result, administrative enforcement can go wrong in two different ways– the "criminal law" way or the "administrative law" way. Administrative agencies face the challenges of regulatory capture, inadequate or incorrect information, or simply the wrong incentives to engage in appropriate regulatory action. Criminal enforcement, though, often struggles with procedural fairness as well as the difficult task of assigning the correct level of punishment to different forms of misconduct.
Take, for example, this last issue: the fundamental question of penalty levels. Administrative agencies commonly use financial penalties to punish regulatory violations. How should these penalties be set? Which cases require the largest penalties and which only need more modest sanctions?
Criminal law scholars will recognize this question as an inquiry about theories of punishment. Speaking broadly, criminal law considers a couple of approaches. Utilitarian theories of punishment (e.g., deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation) seek to punish conduct to produce beneficial social outcomes. Retributive theories emphasize desert – punishment occurs because the violator deserves punishment, not because it produces a social benefit.
So what do federal agencies do? As I argue here, administrative agencies almost uniformly talk about deterrence, but usually engage in retribution. When setting penalty levels, agencies move penalties up or down in response to facts that justify retributive punishment but do not adjust penalties in the way deterrence requires. For instance, building on Gary Becker's justifiably famous work, Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach, most deterrence theories emphasize the role of the probability of detection in setting penalty levels. To deter appropriately, penalties need to increase when violations are harder to detect and punish. In practice, though, administrative agencies place little weight on this issue. Instead, agencies are deeply concerned with issues like mens rea, a topic far more central to retributive theories of punishment.
Is this retributive bent in administrative enforcement surprising? Perhaps not. A large literature suggests that most people are intuitively retributive when making punishment choices. In social science experiments, study participants set penalties based on retributive concerns, but do not adjust punishment levels in ways that would be required to deter appropriately. In this way, administrative agencies look like the rest of us. We mostly care about desert even when we talk about deterrence.
Permalink | Administrative Law| Crime and Criminal Law| Law & Economics| Legal Scholarship | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
For this last guest post, I decided to eschew IP (well, to some degree, see below) and focus on a recent article of mine and Leandra Lederman—Enforcement as Substance in Tax Compliance—that (in my biased opinion) deserves more press. (Though, to be certain, Leandra would strongly disagree with my catchy title—see more on that below.)
In the article, we argue that the failure of the tax authorities to perfectly enforce the tax laws in effect can alter the substance of the tax laws, at least to the extent that taxpayers know the penalties for non-compliance and can reasonably predict how often the tax authorities conduct audits for certain classes of taxpayers.
This claim is quite different from the one that audit rates merely affect the propensity of taxpayers to "cheat." Rather, the effective tax rate can be intentionally adjusted downward (and not just to zero) by the taxing authorities from the nominal tax rate, in effect, yielding an entirely new substantive law.
For instance, suppose there is a sales tax of 5% and that given current audit strategies, the effective tax rate is 4% in all industries, because 20% of the taxes go unpaid in each industry. Based upon the elasticity characteristics of the products in a given industry—in other words, the propensity of purchasers to continue buying as the price of a good increases—under certain circumstances, the tax authority can adjust its audit rates in one industry relative to another to change the compliance by taxpayers in each industry. This adjustment, in turn, can change the effective tax rates paid by a given industry. For instance, the tax authority might audit more heavily in an industry selling luxury cars than in one selling textbooks, yielding effective tax rates of 4.5% in the luxury car industry and 3.5% in the textbook industry.
The ability of the tax authority to generate different effective tax rates from the same nominal tax rate is an example of what we call "enforcement as substance," namely the ability of differential enforcement strategies to effectively change the substantive law. A broader (and much less studied) question is whether "enforcement as substance" can be intentionally harnessed to improve social welfare.
Drawing upon work of mine in IP and others that shows that imperfect enforcement can decrease deadweight losses stemming from the issuance of patent rights, we show in our article that a "measured enforcement" policy (i.e., a conscious strategy to differentiate enforcement among different legal actors) can improve social welfare. In the tax context, measured enforcement can similarly be used to decrease deadweight losses caused by taxation, specifically by placing more of an onus on those industries with lower elasticities. Additionally, tax authorities can implement a quasi-Pigouvian tax on activities otherwise imposing negative externalities by upping enforcement of taxes on those activities.
Importantly, we show that under a variety of conditions, measured enforcement can yield welfare benefits while maintaining or even increasing the government's total tax revenue. Some of these conditions are that the taxpayers be sophisticated and informed and respond rationally to incentives provided by the tax authority's publicizing of its enforcement strategy. Generally, we believe large, sophisticated corporations—at least as an initial matter—would fit this bill.
Additionally, contrary to the title of this post—such a system should not be billed as one promoting "cheating." Rather, like prosecutorial discretion in the criminal law context, here the tax authority would use its on-the-ground enforcement discretion to achieve optimal deterrence—namely, the use of its resources in those areas that most need it not solely to increase the public fisc, but to improve overall social welfare. Such allocation of resources of course is not tantamount to promoting cheating in the conventional sense (hence, the quotes around "cheat" in the title of this post).
One potential concern with such an approach is the possibility of abuse on the part of the taxing authority—adjusting enforcement not to benefit society, but as a means of political reward and punishment. Yet, our proposal yields no more room for abuse than under the current system. Indeed, under our framework, the taxing authority would publish its audit rates (otherwise, how could taxpayers adjust their behavior?), making its audit scheme much more transparent than it is now.
Of course, other potential concerns arise in such a scheme, such as separation of powers and horizontal equity ("treating like taxpayers alike"). We address these and other potential issues in detail in the article, concluding (of course) that none are fatal.
On a final note, thanks again to Gordon Smith to letting me guest blog the last few weeks—now, it's back to the run-of-the-mill life as a law professor in the summer: writing law review articles (most of the time spent on the footnotes), lamenting the decline in law school enrollment, and enjoying the World Cup, Wimbledon, and the occasional barbeque.
Permalink | Intellectual Property| Law & Economics| Taxation | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Image: Flickr
In my last post—also a shameless plug for my recent article, "Boilerplate Shock"—I argued that boilerplate terms governing securities could serve as a trigger that transforms an isolated credit event into the risk of a broader systemic failure. I'll now briefly explain why I see this danger—which I call "boilerplate shock"—as a general problem in securities regulation, not just some quirky feature of Eurozone sovereign debt (the focus of the paper and post). Any market where securities are governed by uniform boilerplate terms is vulnerable to boilerplate shock.
The nature of this phenomenon—systemic risk—is of course familiar, but its source in contract language is a little unintuitive. How could private contracts unravel an entire securities market or the world economy?
Coordination around uniform standards.
In the back of our mind most of us probably still conceive of contracting as an activity that occurs among two, or perhaps a few, individuals or firms. But when standard terms are used by virtually all actors within a given market, it's worth considering the collective impact of those terms as a distinct phenomenon.
Coordination's benefits are well known. Consider uniform traffic signals. But coordination can also compound the effects of bad individual decisions.
As Charles Whitehead has argued, widespread "destructive coordination" among banks during the precrisis days helped generate systemic risks. When the credit markets froze, for example, firms using the same risk management formulas reacted in the same way at the same time. This helped transform isolated events into systemic ones—e.g., Lehman, the canonical example of a failure that triggered a de facto coordinated panic.
A similar risk, I argue, is present where participants in a securities market rely on the same standardized contract terms. Whether they were intended to or not, these terms will often control what happens in the event of certain legal emergencies, like a country departing the euro or Lehman declaring bankruptcy.
For example, if an effort by Greece to pay its bonds in "new drachmas" is rejected because of Boilerplate Contract Terms A and B, the market will surely be concerned that Terms A and B also govern the bonds of similarly situated borrowers, like Spain, Italy, etc. You'll see that the borrowing premium the "peripheral" euro countries (the uppermost five lines: Ireland, Italy, Greece (biggest spike), Portugal, Spain) paid versus richer euro countries (Germany, France, the Netherlands, the three lowest lines) zoomed higher as worry over a Greece exit gripped markets in late 2011/early 2012, and again (to a lesser extent) because of Cyprus exit talk in early 2013:
Bloomberg. Click to enlarge.
Moreover, this panic occurred against a backdrop of unduly rosy assumptions (namely, that a departing euro country could convert its bonds into a new currency and thereby avoid default, a likely contagion trigger). I argue that the uniformity of boilerplate across these bonds would intensify these problems significantly since it's likely to result in a declaration of default.
To my mind, this demonstrates that boilerplate securities contracts, in the aggregate, can be systemically significant. "Boilerplate Shock" introduces this concept and offers a modest proposal to mitigate its dangers in the Eurozone.
Beyond the euro, what about the risks of boilerplate shock in general?
Boilerplate shock is probably an inherent and permanent risk in any securities market.
Securities contracts are quintessential candidates for boilerplate. They are used by sophisticated parties for repeat or similar transactions and are drafted quickly—sometimes in three and a half minutes. The (correct) assumption is that they are more efficient for the parties that use them.
I'd like to begin thinking about how contracts can be drafted with a view to systemic risk mitigation, or at least to avoid exacerbating existing risks. But I think this is a hard problem that lacks an off-the-shelf solution:
- The nature of the risk is that it is a byproduct, not the result of intentional choices about risk allocation. This is the reason for the information-forcing default rule I propose in the Eurozone.
- The risk is also an externality: it is severe because of its collective impact. The parties do not bear the primary risk that uniform contracts will result in a meltdown, and in the unlikely event a crash happens (1) no individual party will be to blame and (2) at least one party to the initial transaction (the initial purchaser of a bond, for example) will probably no longer hold the asset, because most systemically significant securities are actively traded on the secondary market.
But banning or discouraging boilerplate is not the answer:
- The risk that a bunch of assets governed by the same terms will plummet in value is not only an externality. Risk allocation among parties might improve if scrutiny of existing securities boilerplate improves. The terms can evolve.
- A requirement to craft unique, artisanal terms—disclosures, subordination provisions ("flip clauses"), choice of governing law—for each individual securities transaction would be criminally inefficient.
- A requirement to craft unique contract terms might even be unjustified on risk-management terms alone, because it would increase drafting errors.
It's tricky to mitigate the risks of securities boilerplate.
Some options for places to start:
- Validation by third parties: perhaps issuers could use risk-rated contract templates. For example, see credit ratings…but see credit ratings.
- Culture: inculcate systemic risk mitigation as a professional norm among private sector lawyers? In principle, this could work. The number of lawyers who draft these contracts is pretty small. In practice, one could envision many complications.
- Insurance: encourage the development of derivatives to account for the possibility of boilerplate shock? Like some of the other solutions, this one presumes some agreement on what terms create the risk of boilerplate shock. It could also encourage new forms of moral hazard.
- Mandatory regulation: some public entity could be tasked with the mission of proactively identifying and combating the risk of boilerplate shock in contract practices. Arguably a natural choice given that the risk is an externality. Nevertheless, I'm a little skeptical. First of all, who would do it? A domestic regulator, like the SEC or CFTC, that might be dodged on jurisdictional grounds? An international institution, which is arguably more subject to capture? More generally, regulation seems like a heavy-handed first choice.
In sum, when standardized and aggregated, choices that determine legal risks—e.g., contract terms designating governing law, payment priority—can create the same hazards as choices about business risks. This suggests that contract terms should be taken seriously as possible sources of systemic risk alongside more familiar sources, like leverage and credit quality.
Securities contracts as a source of systemic risk—what do you think?
Permalink | Contracts| Economics| Europe| European Union| Fiduciary Law| Finance| Financial Crisis| Financial Institutions| Law & Economics| Rules & Standards| Securities | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
© Disney, "Duck Tales"
I expressed concern in my last post that uniform contract terms could destabilize securities markets in unexpected ways. In a recent paper, I dub this risk "Boilerplate Shock." The paper uses boilerplate terms in Eurozone sovereign bonds as a case study, but I argue that any market in which a lot of securities are governed by uniform contract terms is vulnerable to boilerplate shock. In this post, I will focus on the Eurozone and my proposed solution to the risk of boilerplate shock there.
One major problem is that no one really knows how to deal with sovereign debt obligations denominated in a currency that still exists but is no longer used by the debtor. A partial breakup of the European Monetary Union would trigger some question marks in commercial law and private international law (among other things).
In the Eurozone sovereign lending market, bond contracts typically contain standardized language specifying:
(a) choice of governing law (often foreign), and
(b) currency of payment (euros).
The combined effect of these clauses, I argue, is to render any country that departs the euro more likely to default on its debt. Whatever the impact of the departure itself, a forced default would make things much worse for Europe and the world economy.
Leading scholars have concluded or strongly suggested that a sovereign that changes currencies can redenominate (convert) its bonds to its new currency even where the contract is governed by foreign law (e.g., Philip Wood (p. 177), Michael Gruson (p. 456), Arthur Nussbaum (pp. 353-59), Robert Hockett (passim)). As a descriptive matter, I believe this to be a mistaken interpretation of New York (and probably English) private international law and commercial law (see "Boilerplate Shock" pp. 47-67). But normatively, I agree: a sovereign should be able to redenominate its bonds under certain circumstances. Among other things, the alternative would make currency union breakups far more dangerous than they already are.
In brief:
- The prevailing consensus underestimates the risk that a departing Eurozone member's attempt to redenominate its sovereign bonds into a new currency will be ruled a default.
- Since the bonds of other struggling euro countries are largely governed by the same boilerplate terms ((a) and (b) above), this misapprehension has the potential to be particularly damaging. In addition to surprising the market (which appears to incorporate this consensus), it is likely to spread beyond the immediate debtor to the bonds of similarly situated countries that have issued under the same terms.
- Same for CDSs (which are likewise often governed by foreign law, usually New York).
- Thus, given the widespread use of terms (a) and (b), a ruling that a departing country cannot pay its euro-denominated contracts in a new currency could cause the market to demand unsustainable premiums from other weak debtors.
- This could cause Eurozone countries to lose market access. Greece is not TBTF in any sense, but some of its neighbors are—and are also too big for the EU (including the ECB) and IMF to bail out. Italy (the world's 9th largest economy) and Spain (13th) come to mind.
Thus, if my commercial law/private international law analysis is right, these boilerplate contracts could end up playing quite a big role in the event of any euro breakup.
To mitigate this risk of boilerplate shock, I suggest a new rule of contract interpretation. The proposal is detailed at pp. 67-71 of the article. I suggest commercially significant jurisdictions adopt it by statute. Here is a quick summary.
Any sovereign that:
- Belongs to an international monetary union, and
- Issues bonds in the currency of that monetary union subsequent to the adoption of this rule, and
- Leaves the monetary union and introduces its own currency,
shall retain the right to redenominate its bond obligations into its new currency, UNLESS the sovereign has affirmatively waived the right to redenominate its bonds.
You'll notice this is a default rule—merely a presumption of the right to redenominate—not a mandatory rule. It is also prospective-only: it does not apply to existing issuances. It also does not protect sovereigns that issue in foreign currency (e.g., Argentina), only those that are monetary union members and issue in the common currency (e.g., France).
The reason for these limitations is to minimize unintended consequences and near-term disruption to the market, but also to embody the relatively modest objectives of the rule. It is an information-forcing default rule that is intended to facilitate better risk management by parties. It is not a "save the world" rule.
The challenge, as I'll discuss in my next post on the paper, is not that redenomination would be ruled impermissible when it ought to be available (otherwise, that might suggest a mandatory "pro-redenomination" rule). It is that the likely effect of these boilerplate terms—to prohibit redenomination—was almost certainly not bargained for and is largely unknown to parties. This market failure has, in turn, created latent risks to the broader financial system and the existing legal tools are poorly suited to address them.
Permalink | Contracts| Economics| Europe| European Union| Financial Crisis| Law & Economics| Rules & Standards| Securities | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
By now, the risk that a distressed European nation such as Greece might leave the Eurozone and thereby spark global economic calamity is well known. Regular readers of this blog may even privately relish the prominence of the issue. Not since the days of the gold standard has international monetary policy come so close to being a socially acceptable topic of dinner conversation.
As I noted in my first post, observers rightly perceive the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis to be driven by political and economic forces. But many consequences of a euro breakup would be determined by law, including sources of American (specifically New York) private law.
This is a complex issue. I try to address it more fully in a new article, "Boilerplate Shock," which I've just posted on SSRN.
In brief, and to continue picking on Greece, one key question in the event of a euro breakup would be: would a court recognize an attempt by Greece to convert its euro-denominated debt into its new currency, or would it instead insist that Greece pay in euros, the currency of contract? The answer is important because, as a practical matter, requiring payment in euro would be tantamount to forcing a default.
That's the familiar narrative, anyway. And I agree. But I believe that the ubiquity of boilerplate terms in these bonds—specifically, clauses selecting governing law (usually foreign) and currency of payment (euro)—is likely to make any dispute over redenomination even more damaging than this suggests.
In the article, I argue that the sparse literature on the question of redenominating sovereign bonds overlooks some sources—especially cases interpreting New York contract law and private international law—that, if extended to Eurozone sovereign bonds, could surprise the market and cause serious global repercussions. I argue that the reason for this is not only that the dominant view overlooks what are likely controlling sources of law. It is that standardization of contract terms across the Eurozone sovereign lending market makes the stakes of surprise that much higher.
If Greece's attempt to redenominate its bonds is declared a default, then the fact that the operative terms in Italian, Spanish, Irish, etc. sovereign bonds are the same or similar makes markets likely to demand unsustainable premiums from those countries. Capital and investor flight could be very rapid. We have seen several previews of this movie over the past few years in the Eurozone, and each time official-sector bailout institutions have saved the day. But the European Union/European Central Bank and IMF probably do not have the resources to stop a broad-based bank run of this nature, to say nothing of the political support necessary to attempt it.
Maybe none of that will happen. Nevertheless, the potential for uniform contract terms to create risk not just to individual third parties but to securities markets seems likely to grow at least as fast as those markets. Using Eurozone sovereign bonds as a case study, I introduce the term "boilerplate shock" to describe the potential for standardized contract terms—when they come to govern the entire market for a given security—to transform an isolated default on a single contract into a threat to the market of which it is a part, and, possibly, to the economy in general. My larger objective here is to foster a discussion of the potential for securities law and private-sector securities lawyers to manage (or alternatively, to contribute to) systemic risk.
I've posted an abstract below and will be returning to the subject. I look forward your comments.
Boilerplate Shock abstract:
No nation was spared in the recent global downturn, but several Eurozone countries arguably took the hardest punch, and they are still down. Doubts about the solvency of Greece, Spain, and some of their neighbors are making it more likely that the euro will break up. Observers fear a single departure and sovereign debt default might set off a "bank run" on the common European currency, with devastating regional and global consequences.
What mechanisms are available to address—or ideally, to prevent—such a disaster?
One unlikely candidate is boilerplate language in the contracts that govern sovereign bonds. As suggested by the term "boilerplate," these are provisions that have not been given a great deal of thought. And yet they have the potential to be a powerful tool in confronting the threat of a global economic conflagration—or in fanning the flames.
Scholars currently believe that a country departing the Eurozone could convert its debt obligations to a new currency, thereby rendering its debt burden manageable and staving off default. However, this Article argues that these boilerplate terms—specifically, clauses specifying the law that governs the bond and the currency in which it will be paid—would likely prevent such a result. Instead, the courts most likely to interpret these terms would probably declare a departing country's effort to repay a sovereign bond in its new currency a default.
A default would inflict damage far beyond the immediate parties. Not only would it surprise the market, it would be taken to predict the future of other struggling European countries' debt obligations, because they are largely governed by the same boilerplate terms. The possibility of such a result therefore increases the risk that a single nation's departure from the euro will bring down the currency and trigger a global meltdown.
To mitigate this risk, this Article proposes a new rule of contract interpretation that would allow a sovereign bond to be paid in the borrower's new currency under certain circumstances. It also introduces the phrase "boilerplate shock" to describe the potential for standardized contract terms drafted by lawyers—when they come to dominate the entire market for a given security—to transform an isolated default on a single contract into a threat to the broader economy. Beyond the immediate crisis in the Eurozone, the Article urges scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to address the potential for boilerplate shock in securities markets to damage the global economy.
Permalink | Comparative Law| Contracts| Economics| Europe| European Union| Finance| Financial Crisis| Financial Institutions| Globalization/Trade| Law & Economics| Legal Scholarship| Securities| SSRN | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Before returning to the legal boundaries of monetary policy, I wanted to briefly highlight some interesting contract and regulatory issues lurking just beneath the surface of an unusual Kansas state court order declaring a sperm donor to be the legal father of a child, against the wishes of all persons involved.
The facts of the case, decided last month and covered nationally (news account, order (PDF)), are straightforward and undisputed:
In 2009, a Topeka man answered a Craigslist ad soliciting sperm donations. The ad was placed by a lesbian couple, Jennifer Schreiner and Angela Bauer. The man supplied a donation. Schreiner became pregnant and delivered a baby. Schreiner began receiving Kansas welfare benefits for the child. Seeking child support payments, the state sued the sperm donor to establish paternity. The state argued that the donor—who lacks any relationship with the child or the couple (now estranged) beyond supplying the donation—was the child's legal father, and therefore must pay child support.
This is where the case gets interesting as a matter of private ordering and trade regulation.
Prior to the donation, all persons involved—the donor and both members of the couple—signed a non-paternity agreement in which the donor waived his parental rights and was released from his parental obligations.
Both mothers opposed the state's campaign to declare the donor the child's legal father.
Nevertheless, the court granted the state's paternity petition, which means it can now seek to compel the donor to provide child support. The paternity finding also appears to give the donor a good shot at asserting parental rights (though he seems unlikely to try).
Justifying its decision to ignore the wishes of both parents and the donor, the court intoned:
A parent may not terminate parental rights by contract, however, even when the parties have consented.
Well, maybe this case is a morality tale about those who would seek a father for their child on Craigslist. A warning from a heartland state to those who would selfishly try to contract around their sacred parental obligations. A sign that courts place the welfare of the child above all else. Right?
Haha, of course not!
Kansas law makes it easy to conclusively terminate the parental rights and obligations of sperm donors by contract. Care to guess what you need to do, besides sign a contract?
Pay a doctor.
The court explained:
Through K.S.A. 23-2208(f) [PDF], the Kansas legislature has afforded a woman a statutory vehicle for obtaining semen for [artificial insemination] in a manner that protects her and her child from a later claim of paternity by the donor. Similarly, the legislature has provided a man with a statutory vehicle for donating semen to a woman in a manner that precludes later liability for child support. The limitation on the application of these statutory vehicles, however, is that the semen must be "provided to a licensed physician." [FN1] (emphasis added)
The parties failed to do this.
So, the upshot is that you are free to find a father for your child on Craigslist—and you can even count on the State of Kansas to keep him out of your child's life in the future—so long as you hire a doctor to do the procedure. Similarly, you can spend your free time fathering children on Craigslist without losing sleep over child support suits—as long as you kick some of the action upstairs to an M.D.
It's not just Kansas; California, Illinois, and as many as 10 other states [FN2] follow the same law, the Uniform Parentage Act of 1973.
I'm not a family law expert, but it seems to me that a complete list of legitimate and unique public policy concerns that are implicated when a couple and a third-party sperm donor settle their parental obligations by contract looks something like this:
- Ensuring that the state can identify who can be held legally responsible for supporting the child.
Nevertheless, let's assume there are also truly compelling public health reasons to involve a physician in artificial insemination. After speaking with a few doctors, I'm skeptical that this is the case, but even if it were here are ten points that I think are worth considering:
- Should a mother who became pregnant by artificial insemination be forced to share parental rights with a stranger who donated sperm simply because she decided not to hire a doctor for the procedure?
- Conversely, should the scope of a sperm donor's rights and responsibilities as a father turn on the decision whether to enlist a doctor to oversee the procedure?
- Should the adequacy of a child support scheme turn on whether couples using sperm donors choose to hire a doctor?
- There are sound public policy reasons to be concerned about voluntariness in agreements that waive paternity. But if this case is really about ensuring voluntariness, why is enlisting doctors the solution? Establishing consent during contract formation is not some novel problem. Hiring a doctor is a novel solution, but as an evidentiary device it is not very probative.
- Hiring doctors for artificial insemination is not cheap. A single attempt through a physician's office costs about $3,000, and sometimes multiple attempts are necessary. Unsurprisingly, the American Fertility Association (a trade group for the fertility industry) applauded the court's decision.
- This rule looks even more like an attempt to extract rents when you consider that for many people, the price of artificial insemination without physician assistance may be zero.
- If the state interest in the use of doctor-assisted artificial insemination is so compelling, maybe the law should simply require it on penalty of criminal sanction. I have never even heard this idea floated, probably because it would be perceived (rightly) as an excessive intrusion on various important freedoms…
- …yet while they do not provide criminal sanctions, about 13 states are willing to provide unbelievably harsh "family-law sanctions." If a woman declines to hire a doctor, she is placing herself and her child in eternal jeopardy; at any time, the donor or the state can move to declare the donor to be the legal father, which would put the donor in a position to seek full parental rights—even if he is a stranger. (The same is true in reverse re: child support.) It is unsurprising that both mothers opposed the state's petition.
- Although facially neutral, this rule is almost certainly discriminatory in practice. It means that lesbian couples must either hire a doctor or adopt—there is no other way they can safely preclude the donor from being granted parental rights. And of course this is just one of many unofficial taxes gays and lesbians must pay, especially in states like Kansas that do not allow them to marry. It seems to me that there's a good argument the law should fail rational basis or equal protection review, but I will leave that brief to the con law scholars.
- Finally, beyond any constitutional infirmity, this law should serve as a reminder that protectionist regulations—which often take the form of onerous occupational licensing restrictions and NIMBY zoning rules—frequently have regressive distributional consequences, because they tend to favor powerful incumbents. And although probably not the case here, such laws can harm the broader economy as well by stifling innovation.
I welcome your comments. And I hope my doctor friends still talk to me.
* * * *
[FN1] It should be noted that under the letter of the statute as well as a 2007 Kansas Supreme Court decision (PDF) on this issue, the court did not have an obvious alternative to finding for the state. The problem, such as there is one, is with the statute.
[FN2] An accurate count is not possible without doing a full 50-state survey. As I have written about previously, the Uniform Law Commission's Enactment Status Maps are often unreliable or imprecise (see FNs 163 & 188).
Permalink | Constitutional Law| Contracts| Current Affairs| Economics| Entrepreneurship| Family| Gender Issues| Innovation| Law & Economics| Sociology | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Greetings, Glommers! (and hello, Janet and Mario*!)
It's an honor to join this extremely sharp and thoughtful community of corporate and commercial law scholars for the next two weeks. The Conglomerate has long been one of my favorite law blogs and it's truly a privilege to walk among these folks for a time (if a bit daunting to follow not just them but Urska Velikonja and her excellent guest posts). Thanks to Gordon, David, and their Glom partners for inviting me to contribute.
By way of biographical introduction, I'm currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where I teach International Business Transactions and International Commercial Arbitration. Last year, I did a VAP at Hofstra Law School (and taught Bus Orgs and Contracts).
In the next few weeks, I'll be exploring a number of issues related to law and global finance. I have a particular interest in currencies and monetary law, or the law governing monetary policy. Two of my current projects (on which more soon) address legal aspects of critical macroeconomic policy questions that have emerged since 2008: U.S. monetary policy and the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis.
Without further ado, I will take a page from Urska and kick off my residency here with a somewhat meta question: should scholars refrain from writing about legal issues in macroeconomics, specifically monetary policy?
One thinks of monetary policy decisions—whether or not to raise interest rates, purchase billions of dollars of securities on the secondary market ("quantitative easing"), devalue or change a currency—as fundamentally driven by political and economic factors, not law. And of course they are. But the law has a lot to say about them and their consequences, and legal scholarship has been pretty quiet on this.
Some concrete examples of the types of questions I'm talking about would be:
- Pursuant to its dual mandate (to maintain price stability and full employment), what kinds of measures can the Federal Reserve legally undertake for the purpose of promoting full employment? More generally, what are the Fed's legal constraints?
- What recognition should American courts extend to an attempt by a departing Eurozone member state to redenominate its sovereign debt into a new currency?
When it comes to issues like these, it is probably even more true than usual that law defines the boundaries of policy. Legal constraints in the context of U.S. monetary policy appear fairly robust even in times of crisis. For example, policymakers themselves often cite law as a major constraint when speaking of the tools available to the Federal Reserve in combating unemployment and deflation post-2008. Leading economics commentators do too. Yet commentary on "Fed law" is grossly underdeveloped. With the exception of a handful of impressive works (e.g., by Colleen Baker and Peter Conti-Brown), legal academics have largely left commentary on the Fed and macroeconomics to the econ crowd.
A different sort of abstention characterizes legal scholarship on the euro crisis. Unlike the question of Fed power, there is a burgeoning literature on various "what-if" euro break-up scenarios. But this writing tends to focus on the impact on individual debtors and creditors, not on the cumulative impact on the global financial system. Again, the macro element is missing.
It is curious that so many legal scholars would voluntarily absent themselves from monetary policy debates. The subtext is that monetary policy questions are either normatively or descriptively beyond the realm of law. If that is scholars' actual view, I think it is misguided. But maybe the silence is not as revealing as all that.
- One issue is sources. You will not find a lot of useful caselaw on the Fed's mandate or the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and the relevant statutes and regulations are not very illuminating. Further, it's a secretive institution and that makes any research (legal or otherwise) on its inner workings challenging.
- Another issue is focus. Arguably the natural home of legal scholarship on domestic monetary issues, for example, should be administrative law. But the admin scholarly gestalt is not generally as econ-centric as, say, securities law. Meanwhile, securities scholars tend to focus on microeconomic issues like management-shareholder dynamics.
- A final possibility, at least in the international realm, is historical. After World War II, Bretton Woods established a legal framework intended to minimize the chance that monetary policy would again be used as a weapon of war. The Bretton Woods system collapsed over forty years ago, the giants of international monetary law (Frederick Mann, Arthur Nussbaum) wrote (and died) during the twentieth century, and now even some of the leading scholars who followed in their footsteps have passed away. At the same time, capital now flows freely across borders and global financial regulation has become less legalized in general. These factors plus the decline of exchange-rate regulations (most countries let their currencies float) may have undermined scholars' interest in monetary law. But as the ongoing euro saga demonstrates, international monetary law and institutions remain as critical as ever.
These are some possible explanations for why legal scholars have largely neglected questions of monetary law, but I'm sure I've overlooked others. What do you think?
*Pictured are Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi, chiefs, respectively, of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
Permalink | Administrative Law| Comparative Law| Economics| European Union| Finance| Financial Crisis| Financial Institutions| Globalization/Trade| Law & Economics| Legal Scholarship | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Ronald Coase had some ideas about why speech is given more protection from government intervention than economic activity:
The paradox is that government intervention which is so harmful in the one sphere [speech] becomes beneficial in the other [economics activity].... What is the explanation for the paradox? ... The market for ideas is the market in which the intellectual conducts his trade. The explanation of the paradox is self-interest and self-esteem. Self-esteem leads the intellectuals to magnify the importance of their own market. That others should be regulated seems natural, particularly as many of the intellectuals see themselves as doing the regulating. But self-interest combines with self-esteem to ensure that, while others are regulated, regulation should not apply to them. And so it is possible to live with these contradictory views about the role of government in these two markets. It is the conclusion that matters. It may not be a nice explanation, but I can think of no other for this strange situation.
Ronald H. Coase, The Economics of the First Amendment: The Market for Goods and the Market for Ideas, 64 AM. ECON. REV. PROC. 384, 386 (1974).
There are some powerful counters to this argument (e.g., speech is a public good that is likely to be underproduced, especially if not protected vigorously), but I just thought it was interesting that Coase had written this article on the First Amendment.
Permalink | Economics| Law & Economics | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
After over four years of work, my book Law, Bubbles, and Financial Regulation came out at the end of 2013. You can read a longer description of the book at the Harvard Corporate Governance blog. Blurbs from Liaquat Ahamed, Michael Barr, Margaret Blair, Frank Partnoy, and Nouriel Roubini are on the Routledge's web site and the book's Amazon page. The introductory chapter is available for free on ssrn.
Look for a Conglomerate book club on the book on the first week of February!
Permalink | Books| Comparative Law| Corporate Law| Economics| Finance| Financial Crisis| Financial Institutions| Law & Economics| Legal History| Legal Scholarship| Securities| White Collar Crime| Wisdom and Virtue | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Dan Doctoroff is giving $5 million to the law school in Hyde Park to develop a law and business curriculum, which isn't exactly a vast amount of money, but congratulations to UC nonetheless. Like Wharton, Chicago has a 5-years-in-4 MBA-JD program already; there is a lot of happiness about the program in these parts, but it does require students to pay a ton of tuition, and compresses their schedule flexibility massively. It sounds the Doctoroff donation will permit law students to take classes at Booth, or maybe buy out some Booth teachers to teach a class exclusively comprised of law students on asset valuation, managerial economics, and &c.
One bridge that must be crossed for such classes concerns the basic level of knowledge of the law students. Some Wharton students are coming from the army or Teach For America, but most have been spending a few years working on spreadsheets and going through quarterly statements. This sort of thing provides a critical background (and a culture spreadable to those who are abandoning their careers in ballet or publishing) that just being smart and eager does not, and my case study for that would be the accounting for lawyers classes you might have taken in law school, and promptly forgot about. Good luck to Chicago as it seeks to deliver classes that law students can find instructive; oddly enough, it might be easier to focus on undergraduate finance offerings rather than on the MBA program.
Permalink | Accounting| Finance| Law & Economics| Law Schools/Lawyering | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Here is my disclaimer: I'm from "tornado alley." Here is "my tornado." The Lubbock tornado was 43 years ago (gulp), when I was an infant. I have no memories of it, just the story that my parents told me. We went down the street to a neighbor's storm cellar; the tornado didn't come that close to our neighborhood; we left the dog in our kitchen.
This week, as the history of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado is being written, I have read articles and heard radio stories asking why more residents in tornado-prone areas don't have storm cellars or safe rooms in their houses, schools, etc. Not only why don't residents take more precautions, but why doesn't the law require new houses have tornado protection (similar to earthquake building requirements).
I never had a basement until I moved out of Texas to the Midwest. In West Texas, and it seems Oklahoma and maybe further north, basements aren't really necessary. Land is flat and available. If you want more square footage, building out is cheaper than digging a basement in the really, really hard soil. I remember having two friends my entire childhood that had basements, and everyone was really, really jealous of them (mostly because there seemed to be a lot more kissing in basements than in main floor family rooms). Basements would also be handy in the case of a tornado, but are rare. Instead of digging a basement, the law could require a separate storm cellar in a backyard or attached. The NYT article estimated this cost as $4k, which seems like a low estimate to me. So, is adding $4k to every newly constructed home prohibitive? Is it wise?
The problem is that everyone doesn't need their own cellar, and most people will never need one. If you think of all the homes that are situated in tornado alley, the probability of a particular home needing a cellar is really, really low. And the cellar doesn't save your house. It saves you, if you happen to be at your house. At least in the Lubbock tornado, many victims were in cars, or fleeing their cars. (Here are some pretty interesting tornado data.) The reporters seen to think the probability of needing a cellar is really high in Moore, which also had a tornado in 1999 (no fatalities, but property damage). In a perfect world, there would be one storm cellar, safe room or basement per block, not per house. That's pretty hard to regulate. But, having a storm cellar or safe room per school or office building doesn't seem like a bad idea. (I haven't heard anyone talk about mobile homes/trailer homes, which are even less stable than a home with a shallow foundation.)
Interestingly, this same week, commentators in the news have questioned Angelina Jolie's choice to have genetic testing for breast cancer (that costs $3-4k, a little less than a storm shelter), then have a double mastectomy when she learned a rare gene gave her probability of getting breast cancer was 87%. Well, no one in tornado alley has an 87% chance of dying in a tornado.
The other variable, besides the probability that a tornado will hit not only your town, but your block, is whether you would go into the storm cellar. Here, the NYT article and the NPR story seemed to suggest that there is a low level of panic for residents of tornado alley. That may be true. The summers of my childhood seemed to be filled with tornado warnings and tornado watches, which we soon began to ignore. These warnings would shoot across our broadcast TV channels, and some families had storm radios in case the electricity went off. But, after awhile, you get a little desensitized to the daily tornado warning. And, of course, there are stormchasers, a category of thrill-seekers that I still don't understand. But even non-stormchasers can be mesmerized on their way to the cellar watching the sky, which looks really awesome in the middle of a storm.
But I guess what bothers me about these "why don't you have a cellar" questions is an underlying sense that people in tornado alley are stupid, so we should regulate their housing. I disagree.
Permalink | Law & Economics | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
One of my colleagues said that my latest article (written with one of my excellent students, Jordan Lee) sounds like an R-rated movie. The title is Discretion, and here is the abstract:
Discretion is an important feature of all contractual relationships. In this Article, we rely on incomplete contract theory to motivate our study of discretion, with particular attention to fiduciary relationships. We make two contributions to the substantial literature on fiduciary law. First, we describe the role of fiduciary law as "boundary enforcement," and we urge courts to honor the appropriate exercise of discretion by fiduciaries, even when the beneficiary or the judge might perceive a preferable action after the fact. Second, we answer the question, how should a court define the boundaries of fiduciary discretion? We observe that courts often define these boundaries by reference to industry customs and social norms. We also defend this as the most sensible and coherent approach to boundary enforcement.
I wrote an article about a decade ago called "The Critical Resource Theory of Fiduciary Duty" that still gets downloaded and cited a fair amount, at least for a fiduciary duty article. It is about the structure of fiduciary relationships, and I wanted to do a follow on article about how courts know when someone has breached a fiduciary duty. I actually had a fairly long draft of an article that was just horrible, and I never published it, but I kept thinking about and teaching about this problem. Earlier this year, I had a brainstorm about the subject, and the result is this new article.
By the way, interest in fiduciary law seems to have exploded in the past decade. Some of that interest stems from Tamar Frankel's book and the accompanying conference at Boston University. Some of the interest stems from the fact that fiduciary law is interesting in many countries outside the United States, where much of the best writing on this subject is found (see Paul Miller, for example). I look forward to a new surge in interest this summer, as Andrew Gold and Paul Miller have organized an excellent conference on The Philosophical Foundations of Fiduciary Law, to be held in Chicago. I am writing a paper entitled "True Loyalty" for that conference and very much looking forward to reading the other contributions.
Permalink | Business Organizations| Contracts| Corporate Law| Fiduciary Law| Law & Economics| Law & Entrepreneurship | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Here are a few gift suggestions culled from books published this year if your special someone is a lawyer who associates Modigliani and Miller with capital structure and not paintings with elongated faces and the Tropic of Cancer:
- Tamar Frankel's The Ponzi Scheme Puzzle;
- Steve Bainbridge's Corporate Governance after the Financial Crisis (for a point of comparison, see his former colleague Lynn Stout's The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public);
- Research Handbook on the Economics of Corporate Law, a collection edited by Claire Hill & Brett McDonnell.
Even the non-lawyers and non-academics in your life might enjoy Frank Partnoy's Wait: The Art and Science of Delay. Of course, the target audience might never get around to buying the book.
Permalink | Books| Corporate Governance| Corporate Law| Crime and Criminal Law| Law & Economics | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
Our local newspaper had a front-page story yesterday highlighting the fact that in a number of recent bank robberies (yes, they still rob banks here), the security photos were so blurry and grainy that they were simply useless. In fact, one bank still used a system that shot only black and white photos. Why would banks have less photographic technology than your cell phone? The article went on to describe state-of-the-art systems a bank might want to install from $2,000 to $14,000. My first thought was "Why wouldn't a bank install a $10k security system?" And my second thought was "Why would a bank spend $10k on a security sytem?"
The answer to these questions would depend on the difference between the costs to the bank of a "cleared" bank robbery versus an "uncleared bank robbery. Banks obviously have an interest in deterring bank robberies and avoiding employee and/or customer victimization and trauma, violence, and loss of customers. But once the robbery takes place, does it matter to the bank if the robber is caught?
I found a DOJ report on bank robbery, although it's a few years old. From this report, I learned that in 80% of robberies, the money is never recovered, and that 20% number includes robbers who are apprehended on the spot. So, once the robber is out the door, the chances of avoiding a loss is pretty low, even if your photo is incredibly clear. Also, most bank robbers get caught anyway -- 1/3 in 24 hours, and 1/2 in a month. If not caught quickly, the chances of the robber being caught rapidly diminish, probably reflecting the difference between amateur robbers and professional robbers. So, if you are a small-town bank, you may not feel that investing a lot of money in security cameras when the amateur robber will probably be caught anyway, and then even empty-handed. If you are a big, national bank with a presence in urban centers that might be attractive to professionals, then you might want to be on the forefront of security.
Also, the average robber gets away with $4000, and most banks have a 50% chance of being robbed over 10 years. So, the probable costs of the robbery, disocunted over time, may just not add up, even if you thought you could recover the $4000. Other costs to the bank, trauma therapy, employee time off, etc., would not be recoverable anyway.
But, do security cameras deter thieves? According to the DOJ report, no. Professionals wear disguises or disable cameras. Amateurs don't seem to figure them into the calculation. There are other ways to try to deter theft or minimize it, but some of them are expensive (security guards) or put off customers ("bandit barriers"). It may be that some banks just consider the occasional robbery as a cost of doing business.
Finally, bank robberies are not covered by FDIC insurance, but are covered by private insurance. Unless the insurer gives discounts or requires additional security measures, similar to smoke detectors or sprinkler systems, then the bank's incentives are even smaller.
But what about convenience stores? According to our newspaper, these stores have state-of-the-art equipment. Are convenience store owners' incentives different? First, 6% of robberies occur at convenience store, as compared to 2% at banks. Independent stores may not be as well-insured and so may more directly bear the costs of robberies. Also, convenience stores who are robbed have a greater chance of being robbed again if the robber isn't caught. In addition, these cameras work better because they have to cover smaller areas and are usually well-positioned.
Permalink | Law & Economics | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Bookmark
The Conglomerate Bloggers
Powered by TypePad


text:
Versium Leverages Microsoft Azure Machine Learning For New Predictive GivingScore Solution To Improve Fundraising
Versium, which earlier this year launched its Predictive FraudScore solution (covered here) today releases its Predictive GivingScore solution, designed to help charitable institutions and political organizations better predict who is likely to donate, be a repeat donator, or make the more significant contribution. PredictiveGiving Score is the latest of the company's predictive Score products, which also include churn, social influencer and shopper scoring – and it's by no means the last.
It was built with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, a managed cloud service for building predictive analytics solutions publicly unveiled just a short time ago. CEO Chris Matty says that platform is an aid to Versium in rapidly building its new score solutions. (Just shy of ten Versium scoring products are currently in use or in development.) Azure ML, Matty notes, contains dozens of machine learning algorithms and mathematical computation models it leverages to easily and effectively experiment, create and tune models to get the highest accuracy in predictive scoring solutions.
"Once we have a score built it just takes little tuning. But when we are building a new score we need to look at some different models and see what works better," he says. "We want to move quickly by evaluating the different models, and we can visualize very easily the process of building the predictive model."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Pharmaceutical sciences faculty member publishes research papers
Erxi Wu, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences, recently co-wrote four research papers.
"An Antimitotic and Antivascular Agent BPR0L075 Overcomes Multidrug Resistance and Induces Mitotic Catastrophe in Paclitaxel-Resistant Ovarian Cancer Cells" was published in PloS One. According to the authors, led by Xinli Liu's lab at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, paclitaxel plays a major role in the treatment of ovarian cancer. However, resistance to paclitaxel is frequently observed and a new therapy that can overcome the resistance would be clinically important. The authors evaluated antiproliferative effects of an antimitotic and antivascular agent BPR0L075 in paclitaxel-resistant ovarian cancer cells. The results showed BPR0L075 represents a novel microtubule therapeutic to overcome multidrug resistance and trigger alternative cell death by mitotic catastrophe in ovarian cancer cells that are apoptosis-resistant.
The second paper, titled "Hedgehog signaling regulates hypoxia induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition and invasion in pancreatic cancer cells via a ligand-independent manner," was published in Molecular Cancer. Hypoxia plays an important role in cancer epithelial to mesenchymal transition and invasion. However, it is not clear how hypoxia may contribute to these events. The authors, led by Qingyong Ma's lab at Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, investigated the role of Hedgehog signaling in hypoxia induced pancreatic cancer epithelial to mesenchymal transition and invasion. The findings suggest Hh signaling modulates hypoxia induced pancreatic cancer epithelial to mesenchymal transition and invasion in a ligand-independent manner. Therefore, Hh signaling may represent a promising therapeutic target for preventing pancreatic cancer progression.
"Lipid Based Signaling Modulates DNA Repair Response and Survival Against Klebsiella Pneumoniae Infection in Host Cells and in Mice" was published in American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. According to the authors, led by Min Wu's lab at the University of North Dakota, Klebsiella pneumoniae causes serious infections in the urinary tract, respiratory tract and blood. Lipid rafts, also known as membrane microdomains, have been linked to the pathogenesis of bacterial infection. However, whether lipid rafts affect Klebsiella pneumoniae internalization into host cells is unknown. The results suggest lipid rafts may modulate bacterial internalization and impact DNA damage and repair, which is critical to host defense against Klebsiella pneumoniae.
The fourth paper, "BRAF Mutation in Melanoma and Dietary Polyphenols as Adjunctive Treatment Strategy," is in press for the book Polyphenols in Human Health and Disease by publisher Elsevier. According to the authors, led by Joseph Wu's lab at New York Medical College, melanomas are the most insidious type of skin cancers, with more than 76,000 new cases and more than 9,100 deaths anticipated by 2013 in the United States. Recent advances in an understanding of genetic alterations that cause mutations in the oncogenes BRAF and NRAS, have provided new leads for treatment of melanoma. A valine-toglutamic acid substitution mutation at position 600 (V600E) in the BRAF kinase gene has been shown to occur in approximately 75 percent of melanoma cases. The mutation results in constitutive activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, offering a target amenable to development of novel therapies and complementary management options.
"To collaborate with some clinical researchers and other basic researchers can supplement our research strengths and boost our NDSU research reputation," Wu said "Also, together, we would like to find better disease therapeutics and elucidate the mechanisms of the targeted therapy for disease, especially cancer."
Wu laboratory research interests include cancer therapeutic targets, drug discovery and biomarkers. For more information about Wu lab, visit www.ndsu.edu/pharmsci/faculty_staff/erxi_wu.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.


text:
First Nursing Pay - page 2
What did you buy with your first nursing pay from your first nursing job?... Read More
- 2Jan 1, '13 by llg GuideIt was a long time ago. I made $4.51 per hour.
Some of it went immediately into a savings account (for emergencies ... and to build up money to pay for graduate school).
The rest was used to pay my half of the rent as I couldn't afford to get an apartment by myself. After savings, rent, utilities, and food ... there was nothing left for anything fun.
- 0Jan 1, '13 by KelRN215, BSN, RNRent, groceries, student loans, car insurance, gas. I use my checks for the same thing today if you replace rent with "mortgage".
- 0Jan 1, '13 by OnlybyHisgraceRNGroceries, clothes, shoes, expensive make up, bills, Tithes..... but wait, I do that every paycheck!
- 2Jan 1, '13 by Esme12, BSN, RN Senior ModeratorMy first check was at the hourly rate of $4.25/hr......I bought a "good" leather purse.
- 0Jan 1, '13 by NurseOnAMotorcycleWhat a great topic! I wasn't hard up for money in a bad way so I celebrated with my husband, but I can't remember exactly what... Dinner out somewhere.
- 0Jan 1, '13 by Aongroup1990Am I young minded or did people get paid 4.25 an hour. Thats unbelievable..
- 1Jan 1, '13 by Ntheboat2I remember when I was a kid I asked my mom how much she made (she wasn't a nurse) but she told me $4.25 and that was minimum wage in 1990.
What year was it when nurses were paid $4.25?
I remember a nurse telling me she made that much (but I don't remember what year or if we talked about it) but I remember her saying something like, "I still lived pretty good. I mean, I was able to take trips and stuff like that."
It seems crazy to us now, but I guess that was "good money" at one point in time.
- 1Jan 1, '13 by HM-8404Quote from Aongroup1990When I started working in 1979, minimum wage was $2.89 an hour. I busted my butt for it too. I remember thinking if I only made $10 an hour I'd have it made. Ha!Am I young minded or did people get paid 4.25 an hour. Thats unbelievable..
- 0Jan 1, '13 by gatoraims RNA 3d DS for my daughter's Christmas gift and the rest went into saving for tution for Rn school. fun fun
- 5Jan 1, '13 by lagalanurseI haven't gotten my first check yet, but I plan on buying myself some new jeans and underwear! The ones I have now all have holes.


text:
experts and two Saturday tours of local state-of-the-art water facilities, "Given the current and historical water crises we have faced in California and the paucity of relevant water management training programs, we believe this program
systems energy-efficient, and therefore ideal for solar and wind-powered installations. With more drought and water crises predicted for the area, Utrik remains a model for drought preparedness and safe, sustainable water production in the
nations. He previously published articles and reports on water crises in third world countries and the subsequent result of ..... governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in solving water crises in African countries such as Ghana, Mali, and Ethiopia
Pritil Gunjan looks at the geographical breakdown of the market and major players. The need for emergency responses to water crises in case of plant downtime, facility maintenance and emergency drinking water shortages is ever increasing. This is
International Workshop Agreement 6 (IWA6), lead by the Standards Institute of Israel, a framework for the management of water crises will address, among other things, "optimized modes, including for prediction of and dealing with dissemination of
increasingly scarce while water demands continue to rise as precious resources peak. He cited specific examples of water crises in large municipalities and small towns across the United States and offered practical, sustainable solutions for preventing
Automation Services adds Costa Mesa, CA's Control Engineering Inc. PepsiCo sustainability director to address global water crises at WaterSmart event Air Products adopts GE Water remote wireless monitoring solution Water Standard chooses ERI as strategic
agriculture, recreation, and creating power -- and there is no substitute for it," said Gordon. "If we are to meet the water crises of the future, we need an effective research and development effort that provides tools and information to manage our
past 20 years. Thirty-nine states are expected to experience droughts in the next five years. "If we are to avoid water crises in the future, we need an effective research and development effort that provides tools and information to manage our
population growth and inadequate or poorly conceived infrastructure are fundamental conditions that are escalating global water crises and driving increased conflict over water." CH2M Hill's Total Water Management approaches and related VOYAGETM platform


text:
Our customer service is second to none in the auto parts industry. Our pricing on Mercedes 250SL Fog Light parts is so low, many people think we must be some sort of Mercedes 250SL Fog Light auto parts secret. Save the most money you can buy purchasing your Mercedes 250SL Fog Light parts from AutohausAZ.com. Call us and let one or our experienced customer service representatives help you with your order. Good customer service is important to us. Skip the cookie cutter Mercedes 250SL Fog Light parts websites out there and use us to buy your Mercedes 250SL Fog Light auto parts. Don't let Mercedes 250SL Fog Light parts drain all the money out of your pockets.
Robert S. - Phoenix, AZ: Hi just picked up a couple of light bulbs, and the lady at the counter that helped me was very nice, great smile and could not do enough for me. I have purchased from Autohaus several times, and the employees are just great. Thanks!
Tom S. - Farmington, UT: Thanks Tom, I appreciate it. AutohausAz is bookmarked in my favorites section and I will be ordering something again soon no doubt. Thanks again.


text:
For obtaining of the further information on operation with nackte madchen bilder, yo porn preteen, nackt erotic visit our web site, having transited under the link …. Here we have few themed pictures:
my dad wants the family to become nudists. Do you have great desire to learn about senggigi beach resort lombok, ofnaturing gel, jomtien dragon beach resort? Our server is ready to satisfy your interest. Pay attention to pictures on this theme:
videos gratuites voyeur porno. In the work connected with wife flashing trucker stories you can't do anything without authentic and actual information: our site is necessary for you!
nudist senior. You learn about naturist hot springs, edgewater resort cook islands, fantasy preteen story thanks to our site. Those images will help you to understand:
Catalogue 5232
Does nobody know anything about long beach island hotel? We know! Also we will tell you! Also pictures:
Catalogue 6781
Shocking news about west palm beach and hotels! Visit our web-site and learn! Everything with pictures:
Catalogue 8446
Can't find something interesting in Internet? Learn about orchidacea phuket kata beach hotel thailand, myrtyle beach vacation or old orchard beach maine attractions at our site! Only at our web-site best pictures on this theme:
Catalogue 7100
The Errors admitted in work with nudist gallieries, beach miami hotel, alamo beach car myrtle rental and preteen stories asstr will not deliver you inconvenience because now breakers myrtle beach hotel has appeared! See it in details:
naturist preeteen. Our web site show all subjects connected with ca nudist resort, preteen swimsuit photo, photo x gratuit voyeur. Those images will help you to understand:
cameras voyeurs gratuit. On our site you can find the most detailed information about beach carpenteria rental, bike rentals miami beach, russian voyeur rapidshare. Those images will help you to understand:
Catalogue 3597
Catalogue 3853
Catalogue 5149
nudist senior. The information of our site will be useful to everything, the interested questions betheny beach hotels, beach resort shalm el, disney beach hotels. Pay attention to pictures on this theme:
sito amatoriale esibizionismo. We welcome you on our portal. The theory and practice from a zero and answers to all questions about folley beach vacation rentals, rapidshare users file nonnude model, cameras voyeurs gratuit. Besides that, only at our web-site you can find such detailed pictures:
Catalogue 8002
Catalogue 3001
Catalogue 8814
naturist preeteen. preteen model link and budget accommodation mombasa nyali beach are not problems anymore - wexford naturalists field club will finish care about this. Besides that, only at our web-site you can find such detailed pictures:
beach caribbean island naturist. longboat key beachfront vacation rentals you can find an example at our site See it on the following pictures:
Catalogue 7378
palm beach map sydney
Catalogue 9313
australia beach camping queensland
Catalogue 7180
Our Internet page gives the fullest and trustworthy information about foto gallery naturism nudism. See it in details:
naturism in sauna. In our web site you receive all particulars concerning my dad wants the family to become nudists Here we have few themed pictures:
Catalogue 9070
Catalogue 3770
Catalogue 5515
videos gratuites voyeur porno. Visit our portal and learn more about naturalist or nature or guide or interpretive, naturista svizzera, naturist preeteen. More detailed information on these pictures:
x voyeur gratuit. The High quality standards in nudist beaches montenegro and define voyerism - not just words for us. See it in details:
Next Nudist Gallery


text:
Welcome Guest | My Membership | Login
jBASE allows the most flexible overall computing environment
possible by allowing multiple Operating Systems and multiple
Databases to seamlessly interact together in one overall
heterogeneous solution.
jBASE allows the most flexible overall computing environment
possible by allowing multiple Operating Systems and multiple
Databases to seamlessly interact together in one overall
heterogeneous solution.
Florida 2015 - April 13th-16thMore Info
Release Date: Monday, March 01, 2010
Eastern Metal Supply is a first-class supplier of aluminum products, providing common alloy aluminum standard and custom extrusions including sheet products. Founded in 1982 with a single Florida location and just five employees, the company now has seven nation-wide service centers and has grown to employ 350.
At the heart of the company's manufacturing and distribution network is a MultiValue application developed in the 1980s by Dan Madden, General Manager and CIO of Eastern Metal Supply. In 2009 the company decided that moving the application from the D3 system it had been on for the past 15 years was necessary. Eastern Metal Supply selected jBASE, a subsidiary of Mpower1 International, to satisfy its evolving needs.
Prompting the move was the desire to integrate parts of the application with Microsoft SQL Server, explains Madden. "We saw many benefits to converting, one of which was jBASE's seamless integration with SQL Server. Some of our users wanted to be able to structure their own reports and we felt that SQL Server would give them a more robust environment to work in and allow them to use third party tools. This would give added value to our system and extend its useful life."
jBASE allows the most flexible overall computing environment possible by allowing multiple Operating Systems and multiple Databases to seamlessly interact together in one overall heterogeneous solution. jBASE can read and write to whatever database is required for storage through an open, published interface, jEDI. Off the shelf connectivity is available for Oracle, IBM's DB2 and Microsoft's SQL Server and an ODBC driver is available for other databases.
The fact that jBASE is tightly interwoven with the operating system is a key advantage. Once an application has been moved to jBASE it then executes directly upon the base operating system. "It's closer to the native Window command structure than D3 so it allows us to be more mainstream," explains Madden. "We had tested others like Unidata or UniVerse back in earlier days so we were familiar with them and we knew that jBASE offered the best alternative for what we see happening in the next five to ten years. The skillsets required for jBASE also more closely resembled our own."
The migration was not considered lightly. "The software itself touches every single aspect of the operation—the accounting department, manufacturing, the warehouse, purchasing, sales, HR, credit, so every single department was affected by this," says Madden. "It was absolutely critical that we did not have any issues, as our business would be adversely affected."
After making the decision to migrate the mission-critical application, Madden assembled a team of people to map out the conversion. Planning began at the start of Q2 2009, with the goal of making the conversion at the end of hurricane season.
Throughout the process, jBASE provided direct access to technical support. "jBASE was great," says Madden. "We talked to them every day and anytime we brought up features that we saw that we needed, if it wasn't available, the jBASE engineers would look at it and see if they could incorporate it. I don't remember there ever being a time where they said 'no we can't do it'. It was a team effort all the way around."
The team at Eastern Metal Supply accomplished all of its goals in a six-month period and was able to take an additional month for testing prior to going live with the new system. "We have a rather complex environment of virtual machines and networks and backup facilities that are located remotely," says Madden.
The actual conversion started on a Saturday morning in early November 2009, and was completed by Sunday night. "By Monday, we were back in business and the system was operational." Madden had been prepared for the possibility that integrating the company's 50-plus printers of different sizes, capacities, and brands with the new system might be a hurdle, but it was not an issue at all. Following the planning and test period, it took 20 hours that weekend to accomplish the conversion.
Reflecting on the process, Madden says, "I can't emphasize enough how helpful jBASE was in the conversion process. My people were very pleased with the whole process. And, the fact that it was such a success speaks for itself!"
jBASE offers significant discount options on migrations from other MultiValue platforms and flexible payment plans tailored to the needs of the business. For more information, visit www.jbase.com.
# # # # # # # # #
About Mpower1 Group of Companies
Mpower1 is an international operation, headquartered in the UK under the group holding company Mpower Partnership LLP and operating from offices around the world, specializing in business creation, turnaround, growth and development "Business Mpowerment". Mpower1 provides an infrastructure that incorporates management, finance, support, sales and all other aspects of a successful business operation to companies looking to expand into new markets, achieve exponential growth, consolidate an existing position or recover from a challenge. Mpower1 calls upon a highly experienced team of directors, senior level employees, investment capital and it's global infrastructure to deliver an extensive knowledge of many international markets, the experience to manage the unexpected or unwanted and the necessary network of contacts around the world to achieve time after time accelerated growth or recovery of technology companies.
For more information, visit http://www.mpower1.com/
About jBase
A multidimensional database, a development environment including a
development language, and a middleware component allowing other
mainstream and standards-based products to communicate with the jBASE
products. The unique jEDI middleware enables access to other databases
such as Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server. Microsoft Windows, all major Unix
platforms including Linux, and IBM's e-Servers are supported.
For more information, visit http://www.jbase.com/products/jbase.html
Related Articles:
IT'S FREE! Become a member to get the tools and knowledge for
your MultiValue Enterprise.
Stay connected ... follow us!
2014 MultiValue Industry End-of-Year Recap
Developing MultiValue GUI Applications
Tuesday, January, 13 - 02:00 (Pacific) / 05:00 (Eastern)
Responsive Desktop Applications with MultiValue Data
Tuesday, January, 20 - 11:00 (Pacific) / 02:00 (Eastern)
Return to top
© 2010 International Spectrum, Inc
Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement | MultiValue Symbol
About INTERNATIONAL SPECTRUM - Home of the
MultiValue Symbol
and the premiere independent information resource for users, developers, and vendors of
jBase International (jBase), Rocket Software (UniVerse, UniData, D3, mv*Base & mvEnterpise), Revelation Software (AREV & OpenInsight), NorthgateArinso (Reality), ONgroup (mvON), InterSystems (Caché), & Ladybridge Systems Ltd (OpenQM)


text:
Amicus Therapeutics Provides Full-Year 2013 Financial Guidance And Strategic Outlook
Fabry disease is an inherited lysosomal storage disease that is currently estimated to affect approximately 5,000 to 10,000 people worldwide. Fabry Disease is caused by deficiency of an enzyme called alpha-galactosidase A (alpha-Gal A). The role of alpha-Gal A within the body is to break down a complex lipid called globotriaosylceramide (GL-3). Reduced or absent levels of alpha-Gal A activity leads to the accumulation of GL-3 in the affected tissues, including the central nervous system, heart, kidneys, and skin. This accumulation of GL-3 is believed to cause the various symptoms of Fabry disease, including pain, kidney failure, and increased risk of heart disorders and stroke.
About AT2220 for Pompe Disease
AT2220 is an investigational, orally-administered pharmacological chaperone owned exclusively by Amicus. In published preclinical studies, AT2220-ERT co-administration resulted in significant increases in muscle rhGAA levels and decreases in glycogen levels in a mouse model of Pompe disease. Preclinical results to date also suggest that AT2220-ERT co-administration may mitigate ERT-induced immunogenicity by stabilizing the enzyme in its properly folded and active form.
Pompe disease is a lysosomal storage disease characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness and respiratory insufficiency. It is caused by a deficiency in GAA activity, which leads to accumulation of glycogen in tissues affected by the disease (primarily muscle). Pompe disease affects an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 individuals worldwide and is clinically heterogeneous in the age of onset, the extent of organ involvement, and the rate of progression.Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains, and the accompanying conference call will contain, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to preclinical and clinical development of Amicus' candidate drug products, the timing and reporting of results from preclinical studies and clinical trials evaluating Amicus' candidate drug products, and the projected cash position for the Company. Words such as, but not limited to, "look forward to," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "targets," "likely," "will," "would," "should" and "could," and similar expressions or words identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations that involve risks, changes in circumstances, assumptions and uncertainties. The inclusion of forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by Amicus that any of its plans will be achieved. Any or all of the forward-looking statements in this press release may turn out to be wrong. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions Amicus might make or by known or unknown risks and uncertainties. For example, with respect to statements regarding the goals, progress, timing and outcomes of discussions with regulatory authorities and the potential goals, progress, timing and results of preclinical studies and clinical trials, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in this release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in the business of Amicus, including, without limitation: the potential that results of clinical or pre-clinical studies indicate that the product candidates are unsafe or ineffective; the potential that it may be difficult to enroll patients in our clinical trials; the potential that regulatory authorities may not grant or may delay approval for our product candidates; the potential that preclinical and clinical studies could be delayed because we identify serious side effects or other safety issues; the potential that we will need additional funding to complete all of our studies and, our dependence on third parties in the conduct of our clinical studies. Further, the results of earlier preclinical studies and/or clinical trials may not be predictive of future results. With respect to statements regarding projections of the Company's cash position, actual results may differ based on market factors and the Company's ability to execute its operational and budget plans. In addition, all forward looking statements are subject to other risks detailed in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and Amicus undertakes no obligation to revise or update this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. This caution is made under the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Select the service that is right for you!COMPARE ALL SERVICES
Action Alerts PLUSTry it NOW
Jim Cramer and Stephanie Link actively manage a real portfolio and reveal their money management tactics while giving advanced notice before every trade.
Product Features:
- $2.5+ million portfolio
- Large-cap and dividend focus
- Intraday trade alerts from Cramer
- Weekly roundups
TheStreet Quant RatingsTry it NOW
Only $49.95/yr
Access the tool that DOMINATES the Russell 2000 and the S&P 500.
Product Features:
- Buy, hold, or sell recommendations for over 4,300 stocks
- Unlimited research reports on your favorite stocks
- A custom stock screener
- Upgrade/downgrade alerts
Stocks Under $10Try it NOW
David Peltier, uncovers low dollar stocks with extraordinary upside potential that are flying under Wall Street's radar.
Product Features:
- Model portfolio
- Stocks trading below $10
- Intraday trade alerts
- Weekly roundups
Dividend Stock AdvisorTry it NOW
Jim Cramer's protege, David Peltier, identifies the best of breed dividend stocks that will pay a reliable AND significant income stream.
Product Features:
- Diversified model portfolio of dividend stocks
- Alerts when market news affect the portfolio
- Bi-weekly updates with exact steps to take - BUY, HOLD, SELL
Real Money ProTry it NOW
All of Real Money, plus 15 more of Wall Street's sharpest minds delivering actionable trading ideas, a comprehensive look at the market, and fundamental and technical analysis.
Product Features:
- Real Money + Doug Kass Plus 15 more Wall Street Pros
- Intraday commentary & news
- Ultra-actionable trading ideas
Options ProfitsTry it NOW
Our options trading pros provide daily market commentary and over 100 monthly option trading ideas and strategies to help you become a well-seasoned trader.
Product Features:
- 100+ monthly options trading ideas
- Actionable options commentary & news
- Real-time trading community
- Options TV


text:
Margaret Sears, Ph.D.
Disclosure Statement:
Dr. Sears has indicated that she has no financial relationships with any commercial supporters.
About Dr. Sears
Margaret (Meg) Sears was trained in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto, Canada. She worked briefly in energy research,
then completed her doctoral research in biochemical engineering at McGill University.
With children, as an overly educated mother she then became interested in environmental issues, both preserving natural features and functions, and impacts on human health.
With skills in scientific analysis and writing, Dr. Sears gained associations with Ottawa research institutes. Dr. Sears is now adjunct with the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, and a Senior Clinical Research Associate with the Knowledge Synthesis Group at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.
Some highlights for Dr. Sears include: writing the Medical Perspective on Environmental Sensitivities for the Canadian Human Rights Commission, leading to a policy under the Canadian Human Rights Act; receiving Canadian Institutes for Health Research funding for a scoping review on toxic elements (arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury); numerous collaborations with the Environmental Health Committee of the Ontario College of Family Physicians; work on pesticides, and electromagnetic radiation, spawned by public interest; and acting as a Guest Editor for medical journals.
Dr. Sears' central interest is the conduct and interpretation of science. She is immensely grateful to the many wonderful physicians and other professionals who generously contribute time and expertise to her endeavours, and to the committed citizens working for a better world.
When she is not working, you'll probably find Meg roaming the outdoors, or "playing in the mud," gardening.
Harvesting the Best from the Wilderness: Moving from Scouts' Common Sense, to Evidence-Based Practice for Environmental Health
In the wilderness, scouts make careful observations, discern old, disused trails and determine safe, efficient routes to the destination. Some environmental physicians liken themselves to scouts, focusing on careful, detailed individual observations, and honing their skills to lead patients along safe routes to better health. Meanwhile, "evidence based practice" chiefly emerges from large scale research orchestrated by large institutions and often vested interests; research that is played out among thousands of patients under the largely pre-determined care of hundreds of physicians. With many more patients than the scouts can handle, we will examine the underpinnings of "medical evidence," and explore tools and means by which the environmental health scouts' knowledge may be harvested to advance clinical care.


text:
Document Actions
Butterfly Pavilion Opening
Join us and enjoy some of the most beautiful creatures in Albuquerque.
National Free Fishing Day
Fish without a license, this day only!
Albuquerque Museum
Information about The Albuquerque Museum
Keep fit with classes for seniors.
Outdoor Recreation
Come and enjoy outdoor recreation. View the latest activities.
Sports - Practices & Workshops
All workshops and practices are open to beginners through advanced athletes.
Winter Sports
Get out the house and enjoy winter sports.
Sporting Events
Come enjoy a sporting event near you.
Weight Training Classes
Sculpt your body and stay healthy with weight training.
Summertime in Old Town
Experience music, dance, and theatrical performances throughout Old Town every Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Run for the Zoo
Run for the Zoo… and walk with us too!
March Madness Flower Show
Welcome the coming of spring with colorful blooms at the Botanic Garden.
An Ikebana Autumn
View local artists' arrangements and discover the subtle allure of this Japanese art on Oct. 3-4
African Violet Show and Sale
Display and sale of African Violets at the Botanic Garden's Heritage Farmhouse.
Bonsai Show
Enjoy the Botanic Garden's final spring show.
National Public Gardens Day
Experts share information about southwest plants on May 8.
National Quilting Day
Enjoy dozens of handmade quilts at the Botanic Garden.
Orchid Show and Sale
Enjoy hundreds of enchanting orchids in the Conservatory and Showroom, May 1-3.
Rose Exhibition
Enjoy the colors and smells of roses on Sept. 26 & 27
Spring Pastels Flower Show
Welcome the spring season at the Mediterranean Garden Conservatory.


text:
With all the rain that we've had over the past week, Saturday was probably the best day all week for people visiting the Herkimer County Fair. By looking at this picture, you can tell that the fair was booming with excitement. The Ferris Wheel had emptied and come to a halt, but only for a moment. The other rides were filled with participants screaming for a thrilling ride of their life. I could hear them all the way from the Frankfort off ramp!
Herkimer County Fair, 2008
By: Faith McLeodSubscribe Channel: Close 2 Home Location: Frankfort, New York
1 Comment
This story is inappropriate and should be flagged for moderation. Please choose from one of the following options:
Also by Faith McLeod
You have indicated this comment should be removed.
The comment has been submitted for review. Thank you .
says ... on Monday, Aug 18 at 3:43 PM
wow, i have never been to the Herkimer County Fair since the last night of the fair in 2003 with my aunt Margaret White.6142294
Inappropriate? Alert Us!


text:
Definitions for brash ice
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word brash ice
brash ice(Noun)
A patch of accumulated small fragments of floating ice (less than about 2 metres big)
Find a translation for the brash ice definition in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss these brash ice definitions with the community:
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
"brash ice." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2014. Web. 18 Dec. 2014. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/brash ice>.


text:
June 28, 2011
The Flag Code formalizes and unifies the traditional ways in which we give respect to the flag:
It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open. However, when a patriotic effect is desired, the flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness. ·
When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union (or blue field) should be to the observer's left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the same way, with the union to the left of the observer in the street. ·
No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America, except during church services conducted by naval chaplains at sea...for personnel of the Navy...when the church pennant may be flown above the flag.
When flags of States, cities, or localities, or pennants, of societies are flown on the same halyard with the flag of the United States, the latter should always be at the peak. ·
When the flags are flown from adjacent staffs, the flag of the United States should be hoisted first and lowered last. No such flag or pennant may be placed above the flag of the United States or to the United States flag's right.
The flag of the United States of America, when it is displayed with another flag against a wall from crossed staffs, should be on the right, the flag's own right, and its staff should be in front of the staff of the other flag. ·
The flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs. (Only exception to * Note below)
When flags of two or more nations are displayed, they are to be flown from separate staffs of the same height. The flags should be of approximately equal size. International usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation in time of peace.
Churches, Auditoriums: When used on a speaker's platform, the flag, if displayed flat, should be displayed above and behind the speaker. When displayed from a staff in a church or public auditorium, the flag of the United States of America should hold the position of superior prominence, in advance of the audience, and in the position of honor at the clergy man's or speaker's right as he faces the audience. Any other flag so displayed should be placed on the left of the clergyman or speaker or the right of the audience.
When the flag is displayed as a lapel pin, it should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
The flag should not be used as drapery or any other decoration.
When the flag is lowered, no part of it should touch the ground or any other object; it should be received by waiting hands and arms. To store the flag it should be folded neatly and ceremoniously.
The flag should be cleaned and mended when necessary.
Ripped, torn or tattered flags should not be displayed. When a flag is so worn it is no longer fit to serve as a symbol of our country, it should be destroyed by burning in a dignified manner.
Note: Most American Legion Posts regularly conduct a dignified flag burning ceremony, often on Flag Day, June 14th. Many Cub Scout Packs, Boy Scout Troops, and Girl Scout Troops retire flags regularly as well. Contact your local American Legion Hall or Scout Troop to inquire about the availability of this service.
For more information: http://www.usflag.org/flagetiquette.html