ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan cornerback J.T. Turner is no longer a Wolverine.
The school said Wednesday that Turner asked for and was granted his release. He had a chance to start this season after cornerback Donovan Warren chose to skip his senior season to enter the NFL draft.
Turner, who is from Massillon, Ohio, was one of coach Rich Rodriguez’s highly touted recruits last year and then redshirted last season as a freshman.
In one week, roughly two dozen students from Marquette University Law School and the University of Wisconsin Law School will return to America bringing with them many fond memories of Giessen, Germany, their jet-lagged bodies, and an inexplicable taste for beer mixed with coca-cola. In recognition of this fact, this week’s “Best of the Blogs” features an international law edition.
What is the status of a Declaration of Independence under international law, and must the nations of the world respect the self-proclaimed independence of a break-away state? That is the question that the International Court of Justice faced when it decided that Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence was legal. Professor Christian Tams of the University of Glasgow discusses the ICJ’s ruling in the Kosovo Opinion and finds the criticism that many scholars leveled at the world court to be unwarranted. In this post on the Blog of the European Journal of International Law, Professor Tams ties the ICJ’s rather lukewarm endorsement of a right to declare independence to the uncertain status of seccession under international law. Given the manner in which international law has neglected the issue, it is doubtful that the ICJ could have gone much further to support a right of self-determination than it did.
The confirmation hearings for (now) Justice Elena Kagan raised the issue of the use of international law as a tool for interpreting the United States Constitution, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave a speech on the topic earlier this month that received some media attention. Over at the blog Opinio Juris, Duncan Hollis summarizes Justice Ginsburg’s defense of the practice. He notes her references to historical appeals to the use of international law as an interpretive guide, by Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall among others. He also underscores Justice Ginsburg’s strong personal endorsement of the practice. However, what interests him the most is that Justice Ginsburg includes legal blogs among the sources of international law that judges in the United States should feel free to consult! You can read his post here.
The esoteric question of the interaction of international law with domestic law in the United States is given a concrete application in a recent post by Professor Paul Stephan of the University of Virginia Law School. In this post, he examines the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Abbott v. Abbott. In interpreting the scope of t
Read more…
Last week we read about the Colorado Virtual Academy (COVA) “mishap” that invalidated more than 6,000 CSAP test scores. This week’s release of CSAP data by the Department of Education keeps the story in the forefront. But when it comes to the whole COVA incident, I must confess to having some unanswered questions. (And I must also confess to working closely with a COVA board member, as well as having both CDE employees and COVA parents as friends.)
EdNews describes administering CSAP tests to students from different grades in the same room as “a violation of state testing protocol.” But if action is going to be taken as severe as throwing out thousands of assessment scores (resulting in failure to make AYP under federal law), it would help to know more about the origin of the protocol. It’s not in state law. It doesn’t originate from rules adopted by the State Board.
Hence it would be valuable to know: When was the policy adopted? By whom? With what rationale?
Others have brought attention to the lack of clarity in the way the “protocol” is presented. In the EdNews
Read more…
Ah, the wonderful careers we pondered when we were young. I can only recall ever having two career dreams for myself: when in elementary school, I knew absolutely that I would become an elementary school teacher when I grew up, and in high school I changed my mind and wanted to earn my degrees in physical therapy.
Practical and lacking incredibly in imagination, I know. What a lame kid I was. Didn’t I ever want to be a queen or a ballerina? Nope. I would have totally ganged up with the Dukes of Hazard, and in the fourth grade, during the 1984 Olympics, I spent a few months trying to work out how I could actually become Mary Lou Retton (cute, short, and all gymnastics-y, just like fourth-grade me).
The most impractical my real dreams and aspirations ever were: the bizarre number of graduate degrees I felt I needed to hold in order to follow my teaching/physical therapy paths. I was always certain that my working life would not begin until I had at east one PhD on my wall. W
Read more…
MAUMEE, OHIO — Sixteen local kids recently attended the week-long “Big Green Machine” program, an alternative science technology camp hosted by Owens Community College. And as you might imagine there was quite a bit of hands on material for everyone.
Dave Siravo is an instructor for Owens in the Workforce and Community Services Department. To these kids though, he’s camp counselor. Siravo realizes the group he’s working with represents the next generation, and he believes they need to lead the way with green technology.
The attendees learn about climate changes and the effects of greenhouse gases. The young scientists also conduct various experiments, collecting electrical energy to construct a water heater and solar oven. Of course there are some lifelong lessons to take away as well.
For more information about future green classes offered at Owens, you can call 567-661-7357 or 1-800-GO-OWENS, Ext. 7357.
