Recent Articles

As you faithful readers recall, we annually present a handful of our favorite Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest winners. For you new readers, the Bulwer-Lytton Contest is named after novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton who wrote many famous novels including “Paul Gifford” which started with the immortal words, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Supposedly that’s [...]

Last week we made our recommendations for the State Propositions on your November 6 ballot and a handful of statewide elections. Here we go with an even more difficult chore, recommendations for local elections. If you wonder why there are no recommendations on several local agencies, it’s because our office likely does legal work for the [...]

On July 17, 1981 a group of 1,600 people gathered to watch and participate in a tea dance in Kansas City, Missouri.  (Aside: A tea dance is just that: an afternoon social event where people gather to drink tea and dance.)  During the tea dance, two vertical walkways collapsed onto the dance area below, killing [...]

Remember, yours truly is a moderate Democrat and not an anti-tax guy, which may be obvious. View an excellent Good Morning Truckee PowerPoint on these Propositions Local candidates next week. STATEWIDE BALLOT INITIATIVES Prop 1: YES. Proposed by the Legislature, provides $3 billion for various state housing programs and another $1 billion for home loan [...]

One of a contractor’s most valuable statutory rights in a dispute with an owner is the right to record and foreclose a mechanic’s lien.  Because a mechanic’s lien makes it more difficult to sell or refinance the liened property, this provides additional leverage to obtain payment from a reluctant owner during the entire pendency of [...]

From time to time, year to year, we occasionally suffer from yellowjackets especially when eating outside. They love meat. Yountville in the Napa area has its share of yellowjackets as you will see. SWARMED ON GOLF COURSE In July 2013, Carolyn Staats was taking a golf lesson, indeed taking her first shot on the fifth [...]

If a person needs help in an emergency situation, they would likely want a Good Samaritan to help get them out of harm’s way as soon as possible. For example, you would want someone to come to your aid following a serious car collision, biking accident, pedestrian hazard, assault, avalanche, or any other disaster. In [...]

One of my pet peeves is the rigging of elections by politicians. Drawing voting district maps in convoluted configurations to insure victory at the polls at the expense of the party not in power (gerrymandering), is common throughout our fair land. We recently wrote about Gill v. Whitford, a US Supreme Court case, where the [...]

Lots of my friends regularly attend yoga classes. I go to the gym – old school. So when I came by a new California case where a student sued her yoga instructor, I knew we had to feature it in the Law Review. YOGA INSTRUCTOR OVERZEALOUS? On October 11, 2014, Amalia Webster attended a yoga [...]