More on Russell County as the new India

The Christian Science Monitor has this report on tech jobs being moved to places like Lebanon, Virginia, instead of overseas.

The article says in part:

"In a crook of Clinch Valley in Lebanon, Va., there are no counterculture coffeehouses, no art museums, and the 'ginger' salad dressing at the town's only Japanese restaurant is really Thousand Island.

Despite its country couture, Lebanon (pop. 3,300), once betrothed to King Coal, is on the cutting edge of a new business trend. The farmshoring phenomenon, in which high-tech companies choose to open offices in rural America as opposed to India, China, or Mexico, is coming to this mid-Appalachian plateau."

Twenty year variance below guidelines is unreasonable

In U.S. v. Moreland, the Fourth Circuit in an opinion by Chief Judge Wilkins, joined by Judge Luttig and District Judge Kelley from the E.D. Va., concluded that West Virginia District Judge Goodwin erred by imposing a ten year sentence when the guidelines would call for 30 years.

Professor Berman has this interesting post about the decision.

On the perils of changing hunting laws

The University of Virginia's College of Arts and Sciences online has this article about research that resulted in the conclusion: "Laws designed to control the deer population seem to have had an unintended effect on accidental shootings."

Cake hits ground, cake-maker kills husband, but she didn't mean to do it

According to this story in the Norfolk paper, "Lawyer argues fatal fight over cake wasn't premeditated."

The jazz singer

The Staunton paper has this interesting profile of a Virginia lawyer turned professional singer.

Fewer college applicants will say what is their race

This Roanoke Times article says that 20% of the latest Virginia Tech applicants did not answer the question about race.

Unrelated to this, I see this story titled: "Law Schools' Emphasis on LSAT Scores Hurts Black Applicants, Report Says."

On the late great Curt Gowdy

The word is out that Curt Gowdy has died. Dick Vitale has this typically understated remembrance of Gowdy.

I think of him as the host of American Sportsman but even moreso calling the NFL games for NBC with Al De Rogatis, particular this terrible one, when the Raiders knocked out the Dolphins from going to their fourth-straight Super Bowl.

Virginia had more black lawyers in 1890 than there were in 1960

So says a law professor writing a book about early black lawyers in Virginia, quoted in this Roanoke Times article about A.J. Oliver, the first black lawyer in Roanoke.

The article says:

"According to Hylton, Oliver was part of a wave of black attorneys who began appearing in Virginia in the last decades of the 19th century. Increased opportunities for blacks after the Civil War was one reason; low standards for admission to the bar didn't hurt. Applicants, white or black, often just had to pass an oral test administered by a judge or magistrate.

By Hylton's count, there were 35 black lawyers in Virginia in 1890 and 53 by 1900.

Ironically, the numbers began to fall again as Jim Crow laws excluded blacks from many public institutions. More rigorous written testing for lawyers didn't help. For many decades, the number of black lawyers in Virginia languished."

What do J. Edgar Hoover and my wife have in common?

Hoover loved Lucy. So does my wife, who rarely wears dresses, but does wear a Vitameatavegamin t-shirt.

Strange doings by the ABA

As outlined in this Taxprof post, there has been an online debate about a new standard from the American Bar Association that appears to urge law schools to violate the law, as it says: "The requirement of a constitutional provision or statute that purports to prohibit consideration of gender, race, ethnicity or national origin in admissions or employment decisions is not a justification for a school’s non-compliance with Standard 211."

This seems like a strange thing for a bar association to be doing. The Instapundit himself said: "Legal consequences aside, though, I think the ABA is in danger of further marginalizing itself, accelerating its move from an umbrella legal-profession organization to just another political interest group."