Dan Fisher notes a flurry of press releases from law firms following the decision by the board of directors of Lubrizol to accept an offer from Warren Buffett. “Never mind that the $148-a-share offer is a 41% premium to Friday’s closing price and 64% above its 1-year moving average of $90.” [Forbes]
Archive for March, 2011
Noise in the middle of the night?
Think twice before encouraging someone to check [NJLRA]
The unfairness of bargain prices
Don’t know whether to laugh or weep: why one local activist thinks Washington, D.C. would be better off without Wal-Mart [Mark Perry]
Judge Posner weighs in on class actions
An uninvited-fax case gives the judge a chance to express some views on the typicality, credibility and adequacy of class representatives. [Trask]
Mothering Magazine ceases print publication
And one of the reasons for the title’s closure after 35 years might be surprising, at least to non-readers of this site. [Handmade Toy Alliance]
Great moments in fair use disputes
The estate of James Joyce is disputing the right of Craig Venter and other scientists to encode a 14-word fragment of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man into synthetic genetic code for a bacterium. [David Ewalt, Forbes via Jessa Crispin via Tyler Cowen; & see Blawg Review #305 at A Fool in the Forest]
March 30 roundup
- “Woman Sues Adidas After Fall She Blames on Sticky Shoes” [Lowering the Bar]
- Texas lawmakers file loser pays proposals [SE Tex Record] Actual scope of proposals hard to discern through funhouse lens of NYT reporting [PoL] Marie Gryphon testimony on loser-pays proposals in Arkansas [Manhattan Institute, related]
- Google awarded patent on changing of logo for special days [Engadget via Coyote]
- “Civil Gideon in Deadbeat Dad Cases Would Be ‘Massive’ Change, Lawyer Tells Justices” [Weiss, ABA Journal, Legal Ethics Forum]
- Amateur-hour crash-fakers in Bronx didn’t reckon on store surveillance camera [NY Post]
- “Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in Cobell Defend $223M Fee Request” [BLT]
- Show of harm not needed: FDA kicks another 500 or so legacy drugs off market, this time in the cold-and-cough area [WaPo]
- “Wal-Mart v. Dukes: Rough Justice Without Due Process” [Andrew Trask, WLF]
Another serial ADA complainant, another closed restaurant
Donner Lake Kitchen, a popular family-owned restaurant in rural Truckee, Calif. is closing its doors following a legal battle with attorney Scott Johnson, who is said to have filed “countless” complaints of lack of handicap accessibility at California businesses. The owner estimates that $20,000-$60,000 in repairs and upgrades would have been needed to bring the dining establishment into ADA compliance. [Sierra Sun via CJAC]
American exceptionalism in playground warnings?
Ira Stoll notices a curious cautionary sign at a Washington, D.C. playground: “Designed for Children Ages 2 to 5 Years (18 months – 5 years for Canada).”
Fastening ethics rules on the U.S. Supreme Court
Easier said than done, especially given the mandates of the Constitution about the structure of the judiciary, warns Brookings’s Russell Wheeler. Relatedly, Ed Whelan at NRO “Bench Memos” scrutinizes the ethics charges floated by some left-leaning groups against Justices Scalia and Thomas in recent weeks (parts one, two, three).