Saturday, October 27, 2007

Legal scholar dissects Supreme Court workings at El Caballero Country Club Event


Here's my article from this week's Encino Sun


Noted legal expert and Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson spoke to a crowd of about 90 members of The Executives – the Valley-based fundraising arm of The Jewish Home for the Aging – at the El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana on October 18.

“Is this really a room full of lawyers or are there any normal people here?” Levenson joked at the early morning meeting.

Levenson, who testified earlier this year before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Alberto Gonzales proceedings, eloquently translated the law into user-friendly terms in a lecture entitled “What to Expect from the 5-4 Supreme Court.”

In an age of celebrity-driven court news, from O.J. Simpson to Phil Spector (the latter of whom Levenson said looked “more and more like my Bubbe” as his trial progressed), the professor focused on cases addressed during the Supreme Court’s past term, and why people should care.

“This is the lowest number of cases they’ve decided in the last 50 years,” Levenson remarked on their 68 case load, as compared to the more typical 150 in years past. “As they decide fewer cases, unfortunately their opinions get longer and less comprehensible, so that’s the challenge that we have for today.”

Her favorite case of the term, she said, was Morse and the Juneau School Board et al. v. Frederick in Alaska, a freedom of speech item that concerned a high school student holding up a “Bong Hits for Jesus” sign during the passing of the Olympic Torch in the 2002 Winter Games. The high school student’s principal, represented by attorney Kenneth Starr, accused the student of promoting drug use.

Levenson succinctly covered the broad range of criminal and civil cases decided by the Supreme Court and everything in between. These included issues involving gun control, equal protection violations, the Environmental Protection Agency and global warming, and the Guantanamo Bay enemy combatant cases, among others.

Possibly in salute to the bingo nights the Jewish Home for the Aging frequently hosts, Levenson teased the crowd to yell out “bingo!” at the tenth mention of Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote who often acts as the deciding factor. This was true of the past term’s abortion case, where Kennedy’s vote determined the court’s ruling against full-fetal extractions.

Levenson discussed court decisions that disproportionately affect minority populations, such as the “war on drugs” and the disparity in sentencing terms for powdered cocaine vs. crack cocaine – the drug of choice in poor minority communities.

“[This means] if you’re a minority, you’re going to get slammed, and if you’re the kid in Beverly Hills you might get a lighter sentence,” she said.

A return guest speaker at an Executives event, Levenson also brought a note of humor to serious legal matters.

Regarding her experience as a witness during the Alberto Gonzales case and the discharge of eight United States attorneys for performance-related issues, she stated that “the attorney [Gonzales], in my opinion, did lie.

“I never had a date who wanted to be discharged for a performance reason.”

The Executives will continue their speakers series on December 6 when they host Kenneth Starr at the El Caballero Country Club. For more information, call (818) 774-3332.

Friday, October 26, 2007

My Article on Legal Expert Laurie Levenson in This Week's Encino Sun

Check out my article on Laurie Levenson, legal expert and Loyola Law School professor, who spoke on behalf of The Executives at the El Cabrillo Country Club in Tarzana last Thursday. The Executives is a wonderful charity organization that raises funds and support for the Jewish Home For the Aging in Reseda.

Please access the story by visiting www.encinosun.com . Then click on the Tab for Encino Sun. My article is listed under the heading "News".

I will also have a PDF copy of the article available by Monday. You may also read the article by picking up an Encino Sun at the Encino/Tarzana library on Ventura and Nestle.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

A Lone Travellin' Man

My friend Daniel has been exploring the world - from Asia to Europe - since August. During this time, he has sent periodic digests from his adventures in places like Vietnam and Egypt. His latest update is from Eastern Europe. Daniel finished law school and just took the bar. I usually have a prejudice against the writing ability of attorneys, but his pen betrays the general stereoytpe of unclear, convulted and boring legal dredge. So enjoy - here's part of his recent world travelling saga.
-----

We all have our mountains to climb. Some of us have them in our personal lives, some in our schooling, and some in our work lives. Some can even consider taking the adventure of traveling alone as a mountain to climb. I looked at it more as an invitation, of a world open to exploration. What I found, was a bunch of mountains to climb. Actual mountains.

That's not to say that traveling alone has been difficult. In fact, I enjoy the freedom that comes with solo travel, and as I've noticed, I'm never really completely alone, because there is always somebody out there to extend an invitation.

Leaving Istanbul to Bulgaria, I was struck with the notion that Bulgaria would not be an inviting place at all. No fewer than three people in Istanbul said with an air of snootiness, "Why would you want to go to Bulgaria?" Indeed, when I arrived in Plovdiv, the Cyrillic signage against my Latin lettered Lonely Planet map invited chaos, confusion, and an inevitable triple priced cab ride to my hostel.

The hostel I stayed at in Plovdiv was at the top of one of the 7 hills of Plovdiv. Appropriately it was called Hiker's Hostel. There, one of my roommates extended an immediate invitation to me to join him and three others for dinner in the town center. It was a good meal and good conversation. That's the thing about hostel travel, you easily connect with people. As far as the rest of my time in Plovdiv, I conquered two of its 7 mountains, including the tallest one in the city, saw the Roman theatre of Phillipopolis, the original name of Plovdiv after Alexander the Great's father, the ethnographical museum, and of course, my good friend McDonald's.

The people at Hiker's Hostel extended the invitation to book me in their sister Hiker's Hostel in Veliko Tarnovo, and after a few hour mini bus ride through a gorgeous mountain pass, I was greeted by the hostel owner at the bus station and driven up and even large hill to the hostel. The only guests in the hostel were me, a pair of Korean girls, a norweigan couple, and an 18 year old Australian named Scott.

Scott was to become my new travel buddy. We explored the beautiful town of Veliko Tarnovo, played cards, and of course climbed to the top of the mountain on which the old fort was located. Also in Veliko Tarnovo were inviting sigange for the 36th annual world arm wrestling championships. But we followed all the arrows and we never succeeded in seeing any competition. But the streets were loaded with guys with huge arms all wearing their national matching track suits.

Because Scott, the Korean girls, and I were all headed to Bucharest the following day, the hostel owner invited us to accept a drive in his car there for the same price as the train which would take twice as long. So into his Fiat we all piled for Romania. However, crisis hit as he told us that all the hostels were booked. He offered to let us stay with him another night in Veliko Tarnovo, for a price of course, but Scott and I together decided to forgo Bucharest and take a train to Transylvania upon arrival. We met two interesting Romanian students on the late train, and arrived at the hostel in Brasov at 2:30am.

In Brasov Scott and I decided to do separate things, and I ended up day tripping to the birthplace of Dracula, Sighsoara. It was a beautiful old town, on top of a mountain, with a wonderful covered staircase leading to the top. I also climbed the bell tower and wandered in the cemetery, though I made sure to do so before dark fell, because I didn't want to invite anyone to suck my blood, whether the vant to or not!

Brasov was also a wonderful city for exploring and climbing mountains. Though for the huge mountain there was a cable car to the top, next to the giant Brasov sign that looked like the Hollywood sign. There was no access to the Brasov sign, sadly as uninviting as the one in Hollywood. That night Scott headed off to Hungary with some travellers from Trinidad and Tobago, though they invited me to dinner at KFC with them. Now while McDonaldćs is my old friend, nothing seems less inviting to me than KFC, except maybe KFC on the top of a mountain. So I went with for company, said goodbye, and then went with two girls to a Chinese restaurant.

After two nights sleeping in Transylvania, it was off to Bucharest via Sinaia, where I climbed an even larger mountain to get to the amazing castle there. Talk about uninviting! You have to buy your ticket, then ring the front door, then wait to be invited in! I had to wait 40 minutes. It reminded me of Buffy in reverse though, where instead of vampires needing to be invited in, here the vampire castle had to invite you in!
------

For more, check out Daniel's blog. He's listed as Danielspice on my friends' blogroll on the right.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

On The Streets of Berlin: Part Three

I know that many of you faithful blog readers were left in suspense with my last "On The Streets of Berlin" post. I promised to make my two-part series into a three-parter. So even though I touched on the highlights and landmark sights on the previous two posts, I will take this current opportunity to touch on the minutiae - The dear, the queer, and everything in the middle.

It's true. Berlin is very gay. So says my friend Adam who lives there now. Their mayor is gay (as is the mayor of Paris) and the travel guides associate a whole borough of the city as a gay haven. I went to a gay cafe one night. It was Elvis-inspired, in fact, all-American with a 50's jukebox soda joint motif. Well, I guess if anything is gay, it's got to be the 50's double-entendre hush hush homosexuality of 50's Middle America.

Dicki Miami, who my CMU friends also know as Richard Florida (once taught at Carnegie Mellon), wrote a book that incorporated the finding that gay cities are often more artistic, community-based, tech-savvy, environmentally-conscious, and cool than the rest of 'em towns. If the percentage of gays and lesbians in a city is directly proportionate to its coolness factor, then Berlin is as cold as an iceberg (I know, I know, they say this about their personalities too). And environmentally conscious. And eclectic! This is a coffee shop mecca, especially in the Kreutzberg area where I frequently ventured.

Another reason for the city's diversity is the large population of Turks. The reason is that may left Turkey for Germany in the 50s and 60s for the excellent job market. The Turks stayed and their population grew, and its probably the largest in a city outside of Turkey. And one of the legacies of this Turkish migration? Doner kabob! I didn't get to try it, but it's a Turkish version of kabob that is extremely popular there. I wonder, how many Germans would pick doner kabob over bratwurst and sauerkraut as their meal of choice?


Berlin is also a city of many fashion styles including lots of punk, granola, alternative, ska, and even Neo-Nazi chic (scary, I know) The hairstyles are particularly diverse. Although I wouldn't necessarily call a multi-colored mullet a thing of "coolness", the attempt to pull it off is definitely worthy of admiration.

I didn't go out at night to clubs in Berlin. I did, however, do karaoke. And boy, do the German youth in Berlin love karaoke. The set-up was box-hopping with four different karaoke rooms open to the public. Antonia, Adam and I settled in one for the evening, where we got cozy with a group of karaoke-regulars. Adam and I did some Salt and Peppa and Adam took his turn solo on Hall and Oats' "Rich Girl" and INXS' "The Devil Inside". We had a good time, but I knew the night was done when the drunk Germans started doing encores and I heard "Let's Get Physical" one too many times.

There are other things I did in Berlin that I haven't mentioned in this "Berlin" series. Like the unbelievable food department in the KaDeWe department store - the largest department store on the continent. Or the delicious muesli breakfast I had at the organic cafe next to Antonia's apartment. Or the kitschy traffic lights that demarcate former East Germany from the West. I originally thought a whole week in Berlin was a long time. It turns out that it was...but it was worth it. Lots of history, lots to do , and well, lots of attitude. Dufde wa?