Extreme Home Improvement: Former Inmate Purchases his Cell

Graeme Alford, an Australian ex-convict, has decided to take part in the rehab of the prison where he was incarcerated by purchasing his former home, Cell 43. Alford, a lawyer by trade, became heavily involved with alcohol and gambling in the 1970s, leading up to his arrest for embezzlement and armed robbery in 1982.

After serving his sentence in Pentridge prison, Alford pledged to turn his life around by kicking his drinking habit. He has gone on to write a best-selling memoir and is now a renowned motivational speaker.

Pentridge prison, notorious for housing some of the most dangerous criminals in Australia’s history, was the sight of the country’s final public execution in 1967. Recently declared a historical trust by the Australian government, the prison is currently being remodeled into a commercial development.

By purchasing his former cell, Alford has made a very public confrontation with his past. Ironically, the cell will now act as a storage unit for a collection of fine wine. Alford contends that he has no interest in the cell’s new function, stating that to him it is “purely an investment.”

For more information about Graeme Alford's extreme home improvement project, please click here for an article from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. For photos of Pentridge Prison, click here.

Migrant Workers Flee Wildfires

It is not only the residents of Southern California whose lives have been disrupted by the deadly wildfires raging through the region this week. According to the US Border Patrol, the volume of illegal immigrants attempting to enter the country has dropped precipitously in recent days due to fear of getting caught in the fires. Although the Border Patrol was forced to evacuate several of its checkpoints, warnings from the Mexican government not to venture into the area were largely heeded by migrant workers.

However, a small number of people tried to take advantage of the crisis to make their way into the United States. Fifty people have already surrendered themselves to authorities to escape the fires, informing the Border Patrol that smugglers convinced them to cross while the emergency created a distraction. It seems that, like the residents of Southern California, these illegal immigrants and their smugglers were caught off guard by the destructive power of these wildfires.

Illegal immigrants have also been hired to fight wildfires in several states. Click here to view an article discussing the issue from The New York Times.

No Jerks Allowed

Around the country, law firms have begun to take a stand against potential and current employees with negative attitudes and abusive personalities. According to Bob Sutton, the author of The No-Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn’t, many firms have realized that keeping a jerk in the workplace is simply not worth the trouble, and are choosing to officially declare their commitment to a positive, healthy working climate.

However, some believe that success necessarily fosters an attitude. Sutton explains that because of the “power differentials, the competitive drive, and the perceived need to intimidate rivals” in the industry, lawyers are particularly prone to this idea.

Mr. Sutton also offers an online test, which allows you to test how difficult of a person you are to work with, rating each of us on a 0-15 scale. See how you rank compared to Steve Jobs or other notoriously difficult co-workers!

The Fight for DC’s Handgun Ban

On September 4, Washington, D.C. announced that it will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court the May 2007 federal appellate court decision striking down the city's handgun ban as unconstitutional. The case was originally brought to trial by 6 D.C. residents challenging the city’s gun control regulations, demanding the right to keep firearms in their homes for protection.

The D.C. Firearms Control Regulation Act of 1975 prohibits the sale or ownership of firearms in the District; the ban also mandates a strict permit system and the disassembly of all firearms in homes. The city contends that the ban does not violate the Second Amendment; it claims that the right to bear arms, originally intended for the creation of militias, does not apply to private citizens. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the laws unconstitutional. The dissenting Judge, Karen Henderson, argued that because the District is not a state, the Second Amendment does not apply to its regulations.

The appeal would be the first case the U.S. Supreme Court has heard regarding the Second Amendment (Fastcase subscription required) in more than 70 years.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Republican from Texas, argues:

“Not only is Washington, D.C.'s gun ban unconstitutional, but it also has been a public policy failure as seen in the rise in crime since its enactment. The time has finally come to change course."

However, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has said that he strongly supports the ban, stating that the city will continue to strictly enforce the laws and work for tighter gun control. Cities with similar regulations around the country anxiously await the decision, which could strike down diverse statutes such as California ban on machine guns and Chicago’s comprehensive handgun ban.

Research Tip: Dual-Column Printing in Fastcase

With many web-based legal research services, printing is a big mess. You get big, ugly web addresses on the bottom of the page, awkward page breaks, and text cut off on the bottom and right side of the page.

Not so with Fastcase and its dual-column print utility. With Fastcase, you can customize the appearance of your case and can print easily and beautifully, in Microsoft Word format, PDF format, or in Rich Text format (RTF) for use in WordPerfect.

When you’re doing caselaw research on Fastcase, you’ll see the Print/Save button on the top right hand side of your screen (see the image at top right). Click that link, and you get a menu of choices. These allow you to customize your case printout exactly the way you like it.

Do you want your search terms highlighted in the case or not? Do you want the case formatted in one column, or in dual-column format, like the books? What kind of document format do you want – Word *.doc, Adobe *.pdf, or WordPerfect *.rtf?

When you have selected all of your preferences (or just gone with the defaults – no highlighting, dual-column, Word format), click Print. Fastcase will ask your permission to open the program necessary to view your case – and when prompted, click Open. Fastcase will then format your case to your specifications and open the case in a new window. Caselaw research as easy as pie!

Now you have a beautiful, predictable, perfect version of the case. From here, you can further format the case in your word processor, selecting your own fonts and font sizes. (Don’t edit the court’s opinion – that’s a sure recipe for trouble!) You can save the case for later reference, print the case, e-mail it to someone else – anything you’d do with a document on your computer.