Here’s what folks at the Capital Center for Law & Policy have been reading and thinking about this week. You can also hear an interview featuring McGeorge Professor, and Capital Lawyering Concentration Director, Dan Croxall on Capital Public Radio’s Insight with Beth Ruyak.

 

 

 

Leslie Gielow Jacobs

This is an interesting article about how human policy decisions outside the realm of greenhouse gas emissions exacerbate the effects of climate change.  This author studied recent home building trends and noticed that homes were placed in the likely paths of hurricanes, which will be more frequent and severe with climate change.  The research shows that development decisions should be made with the growing threats posed by climate change in mind.

New York Times

Opinion: This Map Show How the Carolinas Became More Vulnerable to Hurricanes by Stephen M. Strader (Stephen M. Strader is an assistant professor in Villanova University’s geography and environment department)

 

 

 

Jon Wainwright

This story started about two months ago with some excellent reporting by Matt Pearce, Richard Winton and David Montero about how MGM sued the survivors of the Las Vegas shooting last October. MGM “Sued survivors to claim immunity under a federal law passed in the wake of Sept. 11 that was designed to protect corporations from lawsuits after terrorist attacks. Experts said it was the first time such a lawsuit had ever been filed under the law.” The update to the story is that MGM is telling survivors that if they waive their legal notice that MGM will make a $500 donation in the survivors name to a charity that supports survivors or families of slain victims. It’s like the old saying goes: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.

Associated Press (published in the Chicago Tribune)

MGM offers $500 donation to charity for each shooting survivor who waives notice of lawsuit by Regina Garcia Cano