Save that $1, another Virginia lottery ex-millionaire goes broke

The AP has this report on a woman who won millions in the Virginia lottery and is now in debt.

4-year limitations period for new-fangled claims under 42 U.S.C. 1981

In Jones v. R.R. Donnelly & Sons, Co., the Supreme Court decided today by 9-0 vote that the (relatively) new catch-all federal limitations period of 28 U.S.C. 1658 applies to new causes of action contained in 42 U.S.C. 1981 for post-contract discrimination that were created when Congress amended section 1981 in 1991 in response to the Supreme Court's Patterson decision.

So, if I understand this correctly, the effect of this ruling is that for old-fashioned section 1981 claims, of the kind that have been around since Reconstruction, the statute of limitations (in Virginia) is two years, but for the new-fangled claims, the limitations period is four years.

It's 5 o'clock somewhere on Virginia roads

Via VLW, according to this report ("Parrotheads can squawk about new license tag," 5/1/04) in the Richmon paper, the Pattorhead license plate will be out on the streets in Virginia this summer.

Covering the asterisks in the Moussaoui opinion

Findlaw has this article commenting on the security-based redactions in the Fourth Circuit's opinion in the Moussaoui case.

Heading out to San Francisco, not much blogging this week

Like Huck Finn wearing shoes, I'm making a rare excursion to the big city, going to California tomorrow for a DRI seminar - so there is not likely to be much news here.

Reactions to Brown in the Richmond area and elsewhere in Virginia

This Richmond paper has this article about recollections of area people who experienced the local reaction to the Brown v. Board v. Education decision.

The Daily Press has this series of articles about the effect of Brown in Southeastern Virginia.

From right here in Abingdon is this oral history interview (to which I've linked before) with Ms. Harriet Debose, who was one of my sister's teachers, and who was an African-American teacher in Washington County at the time when segregation in the schools was ended here.

More on the making of the tax vote

This article ("Behind-scenes wrangling led to tax bill passage," 5/2/04) from the Roanoke paper suggests that the principal contribution of Governor Warner to the big vote on taxes was keeping his own party members in line, no small task I'm sure.

The Roanoke paper also offers this primer ("Tax legislation in a nutshell," 5/2/04) on the substance of the tax vote.

The Washington Post has this article ("Transportation Projects Move to Va.'s Back Burner," 5/2/04) concluding that the tax vote left Virginia with no money for new road projects, plus this article ("N.Va. Counties Fear Expensive Effects of Car Tax Cap," 5/2/04) that says Northern Virginia counties are unhappy about the car tax reimbursement cap. The Lynchburg paper has this story ("Impact of car tax still unsure," 5/1/04) which says city officials there are not much happier.

Hugh Lessig has this piece ("Republicans under fire for pro-tax position," 5/2/04) in the Daily Press that says some Republicans will never forget who broke ranks against raising taxes this year. Also in the Daily Press, former Republican state party chairman Patrick McSweeney asks here ("Republicans: Can GOP get its act together?, 5/2/04) what happened in the General Assembly session that Republicans enabled the tax increases - suggesting that the House leadership should have championed massive spending cuts as the alternative to tax increases.

Honoring Oliver Hill in Roanoke

As stated in this report ("Brown v. Board of Education decision traces its roots to former Roanoker," 5/2/04) from the Roanoke paper, 97 year-old Oliver Hill, a Roanoke native and retired Virginia lawyer, was "one of the architects of one of the most important Supreme Court cases in U.S. history, the Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed school segregation and opened the door for the civil rights victories of the past half-century."

Bringing broadband to Lee County

This article ("Cooperation bringing broadband network to Southwest Virginia," 5/1/04) in the Kingsport paper describes efforts to bring fiber-optic cable into Lee County, in part with Tobacco Commission funds. Right now, so far as I know, true broadband ends at Duffield.