Russ Barnett, Director of the Kentucky Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development and professor with the University of Louisville Department of Urban and Public Affairs treated Professor Tracey Roberts's first year property class and Professor Jamie Abrams' Torts class to an Environmental Justice Tour of Louisville Saturday, February 17th. The tour included a visit to Bourbon Stockyards, Beargrass Creek, the levees in Butchertown, the historic Trolley Barn site (currently the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage), Rubbertown, the Cane Run Power Station, and the Lee's Lane Superfund Site.

Relax! You'll be more productive

More and more of us find ourselves unable to juggle overwhelming demands and maintain a seemingly unsustainable pace. Paradoxically, the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less. A new and growing body of multidisciplinary research shows that strategic renewal — including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office and longer, more frequent vacations — boosts productivity, job performance and, of course, health. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/opinion/sunday/relax-youll-be-more-pro...

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work

http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.htm...

Before You Feel Anxiety About Your Grades…

 From The Harvard Law Record 

Before you feel anxiety about your grades, think about the following:

Former Dean Elena Kagan received several B’s during law school, especially her first year. She went on to become the first female dean of Harvard Law School, the U.S. Solicitor General, and the 112th Supreme Court Justice.

Tax Law Professor Daniel Halperin received his worst law school grade in: tax.

Dean of Students Ellen Cosgrove received a Property exam back that had a note from the professor saying “this is exactly what I warned you not to do”—followed by her lowest grade since kindergarten. She went on to work at a top law firm before becoming a dean at Harvard.

[MORE. . .]

Brian Esser, Jackie Clowers and Denise Hall each took on a second job last summer to work in conjunction with the he Center for Land Use and Environmental Responsibility at U of L and the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University to assemble an Energy Tax Breaks Wiki and populate it with basic information on the subsidies provided to the energy industries through the tax code. 

The wiki was launched last week and an article about the Wiki has been published in Grist Magazine. 

Kudos to  Brian, Jackie and Denise for their efforts and enterprise!

"Perhaps the most irritating facet of all of these transactions is the fact that hundreds of millions of Fed dollars were given out to hedge funds and other investors with addresses in the Cayman Islands. . . . It's one thing for the federal government to look the other way when Wall Street hotshots evade U.S. taxes by registering their investment companies in the Cayman Islands. But subsidizing tax evasion? Giving it a federal bailout?"

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-real-housewives-of-wall-st...

Is it ironic or perfect that this article was published in "Vanity Fair"?

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.

Read More http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-20110...
 

Bruce Springsteen Letter to the Editor of Asbury Park Press: Story on poverty, aid cuts gives voice to voiceless

http://www.app.com/article/20110331/NJOPINION02/103310303/Bruce-Springst...

"Thank you for your March 27 front-page story by Michael Symons, "As poverty rises, cuts target aid." The article is one of the few that highlights the contradictions between a policy of large tax cuts, on the one hand, and cuts in services to those in the most dire conditions, on the other.

(Click here to see the article: As poverty rises, NJ cuts target aid.)

Also, you've shone some light on anti-poverty workers and analysts such as Adele LaTourette, Meara Nigro, Cecilia Zalkind and Raymond Castro, among others, all of whom have something important to add to the discussion: real information and actual facts about what is happening below the poverty line.

These are voices that in our current climate are having a hard time being heard, not just in New Jersey, but nationally. Finally, your article shows that the cuts are eating away at the lower edges of the middle class, not just those already classified as in poverty, and are likely to continue to get worse over the next few years. I'm always glad to see my hometown newspaper covering these issues."

Leona Helmsley was known, in part, for her views on tax policy. "Tax is for the little people," she said.

If Congress's recent moves are any indication, she's right. Income inequality is the highest it's been since just prior to the Great Depression. Consider the impacts of the elimination of the estate tax and December's $318 Billion tax giveaway primarily to the wealthiest Americans in growing the deficit. 

Martin Sullivan recently examined the tax returns of the residents of the Helmsley Building in New York, calculated their effective tax rates and compared them to the tax rates of NYC janitors and security guards. The janitors and security guards have higher effective income tax rates than the mllionaires living in the Helmsley Building. 

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2011/02/sullivan-janitors-.html

Should we consider the impact of tax policy on deficits as we examine the proposed budget cuts?

Inspiring leader, author of The Blue Sweater, and head of the Acumen Fund, Jaqueline Novogratz talks about immersing yourself in a cause, in a community, and asks "What is the cost of not daring? What is the cost of not trying?" in thus TED Talk:  http://www.ted.com/talks/jacqueline_novogratz_inspiring_a_life_of_immers...