Nothing is more routine than arriving home and checking the mail box. But change is coming to the United States Postal Service as it struggles to make up a September 30 payment of $5.5 billion to finance retirees' mandatory annual retirement payments and health benefits. Delving into the issues behind this development provides an interesting view into the difficulty of serving the needs of a diverse nation. The reasons for the dire financial situation are varied. Mail volume fell again this year to only 167 billion pieces, down 22% from four years ago. More Americans are paying bills online and sending electronic invitations instead of paper ones. Email, online catalogs and, instant news all contribute to the drop in volume. Whenever the U.S. Postal Service contemplates a change in the nature of service, it must request an Advisory Opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission. On March 24, 2011, the Commission issued an Advisory Opinion on Elimination of Saturday Delivery.

On Sunday, August 28, 2011, 48 years after his historic "I Have a Dream Speech," was delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the 1963 March On Washington, a 30-foot sculpture will be dedicated to honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a man of peace among the many monuments to wars and presidents in the nation's capital. Several hundred thousand people from around the country are expected to attend the formal dedication. The National Park Service, which oversees the National Mall, allowed reporters an early look and Jennifer Wlach of ABC News provides the following description: Upon entrance, visitors will approach the 'Mountain of Despair,' a large rock cut in two, through which they can walk to the main memorial. As the memorial opens in front of you, the 'Stone of Hope' stands at its center -- with a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on its far side, overlooking Washington, D.C.'s Tidal Basin. Encircling the monument are marble walls on which 14 of King's famous, and lesser known, quotes from his speeches, sermons and writings are etched.

The state of Ohio has a job for you! Two new websites give the public a chance to participate in the state's redistricting process. The first is Reshape Ohio: A Public Service of the Legislative Task Force on Redistricting, the Ohio Apportionment Board and Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted. By participating in the reshaping of Ohio's legislative boundaries, Ohioans can: --Gain a better understanding of the redistricting process; --Follow the proceedings of the state Apportionment Board and the committees set up by both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly to take public testimony on the drawing of congressional districts, and, --Try their hand at redrawing state legislative and/or congressional district lines that will serve Ohioans for the next decade, using the latest mapping technology.

An initiative by the Ohio Project, to allow Ohio voters to decide whether the state will opt out of the federal health insurance mandate through a constitutional amendment was certified by Secretary of State Jon Husted (R). Called "Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment," it will appear on the November 8 ballot. Promoted by the Ohio Republican Party and various Tea Party groups, the amendment would forbid any government entity -- federal, state, or local -- from mandating that Ohio residents buy health insurance. Overshadowed by the referendum to repeal SB5 (the controversial collective bargaining law), which will appear on the same ballot, the effort to circumvent the individual insurance mandate of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 began 14 months ago, according to the group's website.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced "historic new guidelines that will ensure women receive preventive health services at no additional cost" or copayment, coinsurance or deductible for each of the designated services. The Affordable Care Act, health insurance reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, requires health plans to cover recommended preventive services without cost sharing. The new guidelines for Women's Preventive Services were developed by the Institute of Medicine(IOM) and are based on strong scientific evidence of their health benefits.

The federal courts website has started a video series entitled, "Pathways to the Bench," in which sitting judges discuss their upbringing, early years of law practice and, the road they took to judicial appointments and confirmation. Although a challenging career path, there are a number of online and print directories and biographical compilations that offer insight into how others have navigated and successfully achieved careers in the federal judiciary. Here are a few:

Ohio's consumer law is widely regarded as one of the best state unfair and deceptive practices statutes in the country. As described by Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter, Cheryl Harris: "The 40-year-old Consumer Sales Practices Act protects consumers against unfair and deceptive sales practices by companies. If a consumer proves his case, the law allows the court to order the business to pay the consumer's attorney's fees and triple damages -- a powerful disincentive against cheating."

This week, we observe the 50th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Mapp v. Ohio, announced on June 19, 1961. This decision broadened the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. As noted on the U.S. Courts website: The case originated in Cleveland, Ohio, when police officers forced their way into Dollree Mapp's house without a proper search warrant. Police believed that Mapp was harboring a suspected bomber, and demanded entry. No suspect was found but police did discover a trunk of obscene pictures in Mapp's basement. Mapp was arrested for possessing the pictures, and was convicted in an Ohio court. . . Up to that time, unlawfully seized evidence had been banned from federal court prosecutions but not those in state courts. By a 5-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mapp v. Ohio that the same constitutional rule applied to criminal prosecutions in state courts as well.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times, recently wrote an article entitled, Justices Turning More Frequently to Dictionary, and Not Just for Big Words. The article reports on a study by Profs. Jeffrey L Kirshmeier, Case Law, '89 & Case, '84, and Samuel Thumma entitled, Scaling the Lexicon Fortress: The United States Supreme Court's Use of Dictionaries in the Twenty-First Century (94 Marq. L. Rev. 77 (2010)). Liptak reports: "in the study, Profs. Kirshmeier and Thumma found that the justices had used dictionaries to define 295 words or phrases in 225 opinions in the 10 years starting in October 2000. That is roughly in line with the previous decade but an explosion by historical standards. In the 1960's, for instance, the court relied on dictionaries to define 23 terms in 16 opinions. Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Benjamin N. Cardozo and Louis D. Brandeis managed to make it through distinguished careers on the Supreme Count without citing dictionaries. Learned Hand, widely considered the greatest judge ever to have serve on the Supreme Court, cautioned against the mechanical examination of words in isolation."

Updated Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court website, expected to go live in June 2011, aims to help the "growing number of people filing for divorce without lawyers." Citing an "increase of over 76% of people handling their own divorces since 2009", and working on recommendations from a 2009 Ohio Supreme Court report, Administrative Judge Diane Palos plans to significantly improve Court communications with the public. The updated website will include "easy-to-understand instructions and fill-in-the-blank forms."

Download file (request for an arrest warrant for Gaddafi, et al.) On May 16, 2011, ICC “ Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo requested ICC judges to issue arrest warrants against Muammar Abu Minya Gaddafi, Saif Al Islam Gaddafi and the Head of the Intelligence Abdullah Al Sanousi from crimes against humanity committed in Libya since February 2011.†The alleged crimes include implementing "a State policy of widespread and systematic attacks against a civilian population, in particular demonstrators and alleged dissidents." (p.4)

We might hear about airline mergers in the news, and we certainly spend significant time searching for discount airline tickets online but, unless you travel frequently, you may not have noticed that the Cleveland area is in the middle of airline merger central. What this means for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Akron-Canton Airport remains unclear, but Cleveland City Hall and local businesses have considerable interest in improving northeast Ohio's air transportation options. To summarize, in October, 2010, Continental and United airlines closed their $3.2 billion all-stock merger, marking the official launch of the world's biggest airline. Prompted by an airline document, former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray launched an investigation into the merger's impact on the state and the city of Cleveland. Cordray and executives of the airlines settled the investigation with an agreement announced Sept. 13 on the merged airline's Hopkins activity. It binds the new United to maintaining departures out of Hopkins at no less than 90% of their present departures. What happens in the final three years of the five-year pact hinges on Cleveland's profitability for the new United.

Among the numerous news accounts of the raid of Osama bin Laden's fortified home, were accounts of Attorney General Eric Holder's testimony before the House(May 3)and Senate(May 4)Judiciary Committees. Scheduled to discuss the "Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice," Holder was asked by the Senate Committee about the legality of the U.S. action. Attorney General Holder told the Senators the raid was "entirely lawful and consistent with our values. . . He was the head of al-Qaida, an organization that had conducted the attacks of September 11th. He admitted his involvement and he indicated that he would not be taken alive. The operation against bin Laden was justified as an act of national self defense."

April 26, 1986, 25-years ago today, the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl plant, then in the Soviet Union, exploded and caught fire after a safety test experiment went badly wrong. Eryn Brown of the Los Angeles Times writes: "Over 20 days, radioactive smoke and other products emanated from the plant, spreading out over parts of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and extending, in lower concentrations, around the world. . . In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, about 30 people, mostly firefighters, died from acute radiation poisoning. A few more died of radiation poisoning over the next decade, and in 2008, a United Nations report concluded that 6,000 thyroid cancers in young people were linked to the accident, too. . . But even after decades of study, experts are still debating the long-term health effects of the disaster."

An important environmental law case has worked its way to the United States Supreme Court and is being argued today. It is American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut (Docket Number 10-174). In 2009, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that "States and private plaintiffs may maintain actions under federal common law alleging that defendants -- in this case, five electric utilities -- have created a 'public nuisance' by contributing to global warming, and may seek injunctive relief capping defendants' carbon dioxide emissions at judicially-determined levels." To preview some of the important filings in this case, the American Bar Association has a public education web page called Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases. Under April, 2011 there are links to the Merit and Amicus briefs in this case. Further information regarding the findings of the appellate court and the questions before the Supreme Court can be found on the Supreme Court web page.

This afternoon, a 9-6 vote by the House Commerce and Labor Committee, approved Senate Bill 5 on a party-line vote, sending it to the full House for a vote that is expected on Wednesday. As passed, the amended version will weaken collective-bargaining power for about 360,000 public workers, including safety forces, teachers, corrections officers, nurses and some university employees. Supporters say the bill is necessary to slow the escalating personnel costs and give governments the tools to deal with budget cuts proposed in the new two-year budget. The Ohio Legislative Service Commission has prepared a Sub. Bill Comparative Synopsis which compares three versions of the bill.

The unimaginable devastation caused by the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, has galvanized relief organizations to respond to the suffering of the Japanese people. Listed here are a few links to organizations, many with teams already on the ground, that need donations to provide desperately needed services: Doctorswithoutborders.org Huffingtonpost.com; "How to Help Japan: Earthquake Relief Options" -- article with links to multiple relief organizations. "Japan and Beyond: Advice for Donating After Disasters," by Saundra Schimmelpfenning, is an article about the dos and don'ts of making a donation decision after a disaster.

The U.S. Department of Health and & Human Services, along with the American Dietetic Association, want us to take steps to improve our total diet. " National Nutrition Month 2011" , observed this month, is a nutrition and information campaign created by the American Dietetic Association that highlights the importance of healthy eating habits for adults and children. The campaign focuses attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, is intended to improve the health of our Nation's current and future generations by facilitating and promoting health eating and physical activity choices. The 2010 edition reflects emerging scientific evidence about diet and health and expands the traditional focus on nutrient adequacy to address the impact of diet on chronic disease.

Protesting workers and legislators in Wisconsin are dominating the news right now but Ohio is expected to be the next hot spot for conflict involving collective bargaining and public employee unions. Introduced Feb. 1, 2011, committee hearings have already occurred and a final vote on Ohio's bill Senate Bill 5 is expected this summer. With Republican majorities in each chamber, passage is likely.

Yesterday, President Obama released his budget proposals for FY 2012 to anticipated groans from both political parties. Concerning health care, budget proposals for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice (see Assist State, Local and Tribal Law Enforcement, p. 1), support provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) such as providing mandatory funds for states to reform their medical malpractice laws. Good articles on the internet include: Kavita Patel, Health Care in the 2012 Budget: Looking Forward and Backward, Health Care Affairs Blog, Feb. 14, 2011.