The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of a Texas death row inmate, LaRoyce Lathair Smith, because jurors in his trial did not consider his learning disability and other evidence. Today’s report from the New York Times.

Supreme Court Rebukes Texas Again Over a Death Sentence
By LINDA GREENHOUSE

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 - The Supreme Court overturned a Texas death sentence on Monday while delivering its latest rebuke to the way the death penalty is being handled by judges in the state, which has executed far more people than any other in the modern era of capital punishment.

Full story

CalAware Weekly News provides the following suggestions on using Prop 59 to break open an intransigent public agency, in order to obtain records.

Prop 59 doesn’t change any of the rules about what is open or closed. It requires courts (and by extension, public officials generally) to interpret affirmative access rights provided by laws like the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act broadly. Correspondingly it requires the narrow interpretation of exceptions and exemptions under these laws.

Accordingly, when you see a public agency appearing to stretch an exception or exemption denying access to fit information or circumstances that are not spelled out in the statue being relied on, that is the time to invoke Proposition 59.

Judge rules that grand jury transcripts in Spector case can be released

LINDA DEUTSCH

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - A judge has ruled that transcripts of grand jury hearings in the Phil Spector murder case should be made public, brushing aside vehement arguments by the defense that the documents are “full of lies.”Full story

The Society for Human Resource Management suggests various means for companies to identify, and then test the skills of bilingual employment candidates. Some suggestions may be helpful for PI firms.

To find employees who have a sales background and are fluent in Spanish, HomeBanc recruiters have become resourceful. HomeBanc has joined and now participates in such organizations as the Latin American Association of Atlanta, the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs. All of these organizations, according to HomeBanc’s Stevens, are a rich resource since they not only have fluent Spanish speakers, but candidates with the required educational background and business skills needed. In addition, through membership, recruiters also have the ability to post job announcements in the organization’s newsletter.

There are many Police Officer Standards and Training certification classes that non law enforcement investigators can attend. San Bernardino Sheriff Department is hosting the upcoming Advanced Defensive Driving course, December 11, 2004, useful for surveillance operatives.

How badly does a Judge have to perform in his/her duties to uphold the law? Seems like several Orange County, California Judges are deficient in a number of areas …

Here’s the procedure to remove your telephone number from the Google search engine. Others have said that it may also delist the number from other search engines.

Our phone and address listings are gathered by a third party provider, which collects telephone directories and other public records available elsewhere on the web. If you would like to have your telephone number completely unlisted (including from your local phone book), contact your local phone company and request to be both unlisted and unpublished.
To remove your residential listing information from the Google phonebook, please fill out the form below, entering all information exactly as it appears in your phonebook entry. Doing so will mean your residential listing does not appear in Google for any phonebook search, even searches conducted on your name instead of your phone number.
To remove your business listing information from the Google phonebook, please send a signed request on your company letterhead to the address below. Include a phone number at which you can be reached so that we may verify your phonebook removal request.

Google Phonebook Removal
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
IMPORTANT NOTE: Removing your phonebook listing will not remove your personal information from other pages on the web or from other reverse phone listing lookup services, such as: Anywho, Switchboard.com, Whitepages.com, Reverse Phone Directory, Phonenumber.com, Smartpages.com

For a comprehensive list of reverse phone lookup services, try a Google search.
Please enter all information exactly as it appears in your phonebook entry:
Enter your name

Enter your city and state (e.g. Mountain View, California)

Enter the phone number to be removed
( ) -
Reason for removal
My phone number is incorrect
Privacy concerns
Other

MoreLaw is the only Web service with free, nationwide verdict and settlement reports. It covers all states and the District of Columbia. I’m not sure how inclusive this is, or the date range. Just something to add to the mix.

American Lawyer Media has a nationwide, verdicts service, with online search capability but costs a bundle (How’s $200 for a one time 24 hour access!) Seems like they have a monopoly now on the compilation of verdicts.

You don’t even need an account at Knowx to search many database indices. Inquiries for divorce and marriage filings for Texas, Nevada and Florida return both the bride and groom’s name. As with all these searches, a filing detail costs too much. But many of these same records are available, for free, at the state site.

Professional Licenses can be searched across all states, in one search, but this is only useful for an unusual name, where you need to pin down the state. Similarly, Corporations and corporate officers can be narrowed to a state.

Free registration will get you access to the database of privately and publicly held companies at CorporateInformation.com.

The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board adjudicates employee appeals of personnel actions and administrative decisions related to various Federal employees.

Need to do a reverse telephone search of an historical city directory ? The Library of Congress, Microform Reading Room, has directories for 1000 cities, towns, and counties; the years of coverage are primarily 1861 through 1960. Check out the list of counties and dates of coverage for California. If you don’t want to go to D.C. to look up a name, contact a local researcher.

You’ve searched for people who have made political contributions, through Politicalmoneyline.com, but have you used this to locate employment? Works best on people who are professionals.

MacRae’s Blue Book: This buyer’s guide provides information about the products of 120,000 industrial companies. Search by company name or product keyword to find names of matching businesses, their city and state/province, phone number, products made at each site and a listing of site specific contacts.