Priorities ass-backwards.

Opening paragraph of a Strib [Glen Taylor owned] editorial board opinion saying more politely about what the above headline says; with detail; and opening:

We can’t think of a good reason for the GOP-controlled state House to send a higher-education bill to conference committee that provides no funding increase for the University of Minnesota and reduces student financial aid via the State Grant Program.

Several bad reasons leap to mind. Parochialism, for one. The House bill provides $105 million more than forecast for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system for 2016-17, and $0 for the U. Might that be because many more GOP legislative districts include one or more of the 54 MnSCU campuses than one of the university’s five campuses? We hope not. Surely legislators know that the state’s only research university is an essential economic engine for the entire state.

Similarly, we don’t like assuming that partisanship is behind the House’s decision. Yes, only two of the U’s five campuses sit in districts represented by Republicans. And only those two — in Crookston and Morris — are beneficiaries of earmarked funds in the House bill. Crookston would get $2.15 million for agricultural education; Morris would get $1.4 million for campus improvements of the sort ordinarily financed via state bonds. But surely no legislator believes that there’s a partisan tilt to the quest for knowledge at the U.

Likewise, it’s hard to fathom that legislators think the State Grant Program is too large, especially at a time when steep student loan debt is hobbling an entire generation’s advancement. [...]

[italics added] (Glen Taylor surely would agree with his editorial board. He's nobody's dunce. Not a Sean Nienow about what's "good business" or "good government.")

The Strib editorial ended with a solid crystal-clear bottom line that should be heeded.

And it’s an ill-timed slap at Minnesota’s educational flagship, the institution that more than any other makes this state a player in today’s knowledge-based economy. Minnesotans know better: 69 percent of respondents to a U-sponsored opinion poll in December said the university is not receiving sufficient funding. The Legislature’s higher-ed conferees need to catch up with public opinion and the public’s priorities.

"Flagship." Biggest and best of the flotilla.

World class.

The choice for the U is either once-was, or still-is.

These GOP small town small minded legislators, it turns out they are short-sighted too. Not world class. Penny wise and pound foolish never was world class, and it always will be foolish.

....................

I will have to ask my HD 35A legislator about her solution for student debt "hobbling an entire generation’s advancement."

Some do get TA post-graduate subsidy, welfare from public dollars - it being an investment in honing the capabilities of a generation, i.e., a public good having social merit - and such fortunate souls to have had subsidy-help may hence emerge somewhat less hobbled.

I believe one term for that "hobbled by debt" generation with whom the Strib editors so strongly sympathize, is "millenials."

BOTTOM LINE: Strib's editorial board wants to see student debt relief for "millenials," as well as wanting to see the U kept world class; viewing them as two easily perceived, somewhat related, sound policies.

“The Board must also make a thorough evaluation of the capabilities and competencies of the Metropolitan Council staff to manage a project of this magnitude. I certainly will not recommend that any additional public money be committed to the project until I am satisfied that its cost can be justified and properly managed."

Our Governor is shocked and in awe. Met Council's staff's capability with numbers, of all things, called into question. Cost escalation gaming can only be so outrageous, and then the sheriff calls, "Foul."

Companion Strib link to the Gov's statement text, online here.

Visions and revisions get suspicious, when every revision is big-bucks-higher and suitably more Byzantine than its immediate predecessor.

Eventually, after bankrupting the state by 2050, the thing could be built. By then costing a "national debt" level of dollars. Trillions. And still with multiple pockets of along-route citizen bitching over this/that aspect of routing (in)convenience.

Such considerations preceding Northstar, who knows ...

Error and cost might have been lessened.

Waste on comp plans - on the entire comp plan process especially including but not limited to the frequency at which plans are forced to be generated and updated, and the arbitrary unreasonableness of Met Council's quota setting, might be the next areas for officials to question and investigate as to whether there is suitable staff competency at play.

It seems they invent numbers, and are overstaffed and short on imagination and cost controls. It seems little more than welfare for the State's comp-plan consultancy sub-population - hire the right one, get Met. Council staff fast tracking of your plan, etc..

Fast tracking but only after the consultants' have gotten their share. It's only decency, since some of those consultants are former MC staffers, or friends of staffers, now or even dating back to bonds formed during planning school days.

With knives and forks on the consultancy table, consultants gotta eat something. Eating your money is as good as anything.

Freak show

This link.

... and when his lips move ... [photo credit]

MN Progressive Project has recent threads of interest. Readers are urged to follow the link and bookmark the site.

http://mnprogressiveproject.com/

"... right here in Minnesota. ..."

The headline is from this Residual Forces link.

Chicken Little? Sky Is Falling? Or, a Cassandra?

Tell your legislators: "Oppose the Dirty Water Omnibus Bill." House File 846 attacks Clean Water rules and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Specifically, the House bill: [...]

Yes, the ellipsis in the headlining omits the substance of the story.

It's Sorensen's story to tell, Bluestem Prairie here. Sorensen links here.

Adelson pilgramage.

This link.

Also, here, here, here, here. and here. Related, here, here. Here. Rubio? Here. Here, re pot legalization in Florida.

Headline, "Billionaire mogul Sheldon Adelson looks for mainstream Republican who can win in 2016," here.

Nice headline. But that rat pack reported as visiting the mogul surely does not look to include much mainstream or winning potential. The spear carriers. VP candidates. Adelson backed Gingrich last cycle, so you can see what a danger Adelson represents.

The one Adelson likely chooses likely would be the one promising the most about online gambling constraint loosening. That would square with Adelson's bottom line in making humongo bucks in the gambling business - the gambling industrial complex - being expected to be his parallel, binding, bottom line, in candidate picking. (Adelson's Wikipedia page).

Emmer coverage, and how could he not be an upgrade?

Dan Burns, at MPP, here, and expect it to be an opposition item. Burns is after all, a progressive.

But - With GOP co-party friends like this and this, does Emmer need DFL enemies?

Well, a word in Emmer's Defense. We used to have Rep Crazy Eyes here in MN6:

Wonkette image, this link

Right. Remember that?

Now we have Mr. Emmer.

No Crazy eyes. Right?

image credit

Two threads.

The image is from EFF, this item, with more there on TPP, especially here.

Of course, there is a host of web content about cause to oppose TPP, especially fast tracking through and/or bypassing Congress.

E.g., do your own websearch = tpp fast-track

Go from there to content; but if and only if you first at least quickly scan-read the EFF's linked-to items, and consider signing into their decision-maker - email-petition-contact effort.

For Tea Party conservatives, constitutionalists, and others having knowledge of history sufficient to understand at least generally Federalist Papers content, and Federalism after the Civil War and in light of the Civil War Amendments; such persons should concede that questions of sovereignty arose as important, splintered the nation, and remain important. In such a spirit, such persons should

Do your own websearch = tpp fast-track sovereignty

SECOND THREAD

In discussing Clinton, Warren on record seems insightful:

Though Warren has repeatedly insisted she won't run, it's clear why liberals are eager to see her enter the fray. Clinton has been accused of being too cozy with megadonors and financiers while Warren has earned a reputation as a populist opponent of corporate America.

Warren seems to have adopted a set talking point for questions about the contrast between her and Clinton. Recently, Warren has responded to this idea by attempting to take the focus off her and Clinton and noting she wants all politicians to advocate aggressively to address income inequality and problems in the financial industry. This strategy shows Warren isn't currently interested in launching direct attacks on Clinton. [...] Warren said people "need to see" what Clinton plans to do. She also stressed she's not just pushing Clinton on issues like regulating banks and decreasing interest rates on student loans and wants "everybody" in politics to take up these causes. [...] "But I want to be clear, I think this is what everybody should be talking about. Democrat or Republican."

When asked if she would urge Clinton to distance herself from Wall Street and champion Warren's pet cause to lessen the student loan burden, Warren replied, "You bet." However, she quickly returned to stressing this is something she is pushing everyone in politics to focus on and not just Clinton.

"I'm going to push everybody," Warren said. "Do I not look like I’m gonna push?"

A day earlier, in an interview on the "Today" show, Warren used a similar strategy when asked if Clinton was the right messenger to represent the middle class.

She began by saying Clinton needs time and space to outline her platform.

So would it not be nice were candidate Clinton to articulate a clear and reasoned stand on TPP now while the question is a hot potato of sorts; because if you cannot stand the heat ...

Wait - wrong old saying. Sorry about that.

Though arbitrary, it was decided to put the TPP issue atop the sidebar for awhile, because it is an issue that sunshine might kill or at least civilize to something less than one-world new-order confrontational lopsidedness of power serving big business, not us folk of the US of A.

And in ending - Do some dark opposition allusions tie into why candidate Clinton might straddle the fence, metaphorically agreeing with her friends on both sides?

Might there be beholden compromises in the way of fairly aptly being "Candidate Clinton skeptical of  TPP and Fast-Tracking"?

She surely was not Senator Clinton skeptical of Operation Iraqi Liberation when that hummer was on the Senate calendar for a vote and she admits she should have been skeptical.

If there is no rattling skeleton dimension weighing the balance, it would seem Clinton seizing the TPP issue early and pressing it often might disarm much of opponents' claims of improper ties to and improper past handshakes with those having their hands on corporate power and corporate campaign and other cash in great amounts.

_______________UPDATE______________
Today, in DC, the AFL-CIO demonstrates against TPP; and HuffPo just says "No." (In suitable detail.)

These people.  Consciousness-raising meetings, rallies and demonstrations from them.

The billionaire bankers on the other side don't demonstrate. How could public consciousness-raising ever work in their behalf?

___________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Good for Bernie. But you had to expect him to be there. In an email subscription notice delivered four hours ago:

Protesting a trade deal that would throw Americans out of work, Sen. Bernie Sanders marched with leaders of the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations to a rally outside the U.S. trade representative’s office.

One of the key reasons why the middle class in America continues to decline and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider is because of disastrous trade agreements which have sent millions of decent-paying jobs to China and other low-wage countries,” Bernie said.

Bernie’s leading role in opposing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership follows a long record of opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement, Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China and other job-killing trade deals. Partly because of those and other agreements, nearly 60,000 factories in this country have been shuttered since 2001 and more than 4.7 million manufacturing jobs have vanished.

Proponents claimed that NAFTA would create 200,000 American jobs. Instead, the 1994 deal led to the loss of some 1 million jobs in the United States. The trade agreement with China six years later was ballyhooed by corporate backers as way to create hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Instead, it led to the loss of 3.2 million U.S. jobs.

Americans should not be forced to compete against desperately poor workers throughout the world. In Vietnam, for example, workers are paid as little as 56 cents an hour. “Trade agreements should benefit working people, not just CEOs of large corporations,” Bernie added.

As the largest economy in the world, Americans should expect corporations to invest in the United States and make products in America. “Corporate America must begin investing in the United States and not just low-wage countries,” Bernie said.

The senator also expressed concern about other aspects of the proposed Pacific Rim trade deal. While disturbing details of the agreement have been leaked, Bernie criticized the secrecy surrounding the negotiations. “It is absurd that a trade agreement of such enormous consequence has had so little transparency.” He also warned that the agreement could undermine U.S. sovereignty by giving foreign corporations the right to challenge laws in international courts. “It is beyond belief that this agreement would let corporations sue over laws to protect public health and the environment.”

Bernie and others participated in the rally outside the office of U.S. Trade Representative Michael B. Froman only four days after proponents of the trade agreement introduced legislation that would make it easier to rush the measure through Congress.

And this.

Bark a pox upon the unrestrained heavy heel - is it taxation without representation when it's appointees - acting as if royalty.?

Note the above is republished without any past, present or future payment exacted from or insinuated as between Crabgrass and the Woofer; each being independent of the other. The "PAID ADVERTISEMENT" part of the screen capture is something between those who have understandings to which I am not privy.

I find an unevenness in some Record effort to shift legal notices reliance in City of Nowthen inclusive of an offer of wholly free publication [made up for by volume?], on the one hand; and charging who knows however much, on the other hand, of the County Woofer -- whose very widget outlet is the ostensible subleased seat of record for the Record.

When you juxtapose things, ...

SHIFTING TO THE REPUBLISHED BARK ITSELF, IT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. Met Council = appointees non grata around the doghouse. Enlarge the image to read it. See if you agree or not; in whole, or perhaps in part.

Drilled but not fraced, awaiting wells akin to dark fiber already laid, with bandwidth capability well beyond current demand; a supply glut with falling prices?

Strib staff reporting:

N.D. sees second consecutive monthly drop in oil output
Article by: DAVID SHAFFER , Star Tribune Updated: April 14, 2015 - 10:40 AM

[...] The number of rigs drilling for North Dakota oil and gas dropped to 91 this month, down from 108 in March and 160 in February, according to data released by the state Department of Mineral Resources. The peak of drillings was 370 rigs in October 2012, the department said in its Director’s Cut report.

The average wellhead price for North Dakota crude oil fell to $31.47 per barrel in March, but has recovered to $36.25 per barrel, the report said. The average price is based on light sweet crude prices posted at a Twin Cities refinery, minus delivery costs.

The report said the number of uncompleted wells in North Dakota rose to an estimated 900 at the end of February as drillers decided to hold off on the final step — injecting water, sand and chemicals to free gas and oil in the Bakken or Three Forks shale layers.

Oil field operators are postponing this work to avoid initial high oil production at low prices and to comply with the state’s recent requirement to reduce flaring of natural gas, the report by division Director Lynn Helms said.

The price elasticity down from hundred dollar barrels is interesting. What's not left stored in ground but extracted is constrained to shipping and piping capacities; storage tank capacities; and other interim storage avenues; all subject to futures contracts, consumption fluctuations, and future production levels producing nations choose worldwide, while there may be political or battlefield price-impact events, uncertain as to likelihoods of occurrence and predictable impact levels and ranges, in our uncertain times.

Civics and Social Studies sample question - possibly worth inclusion in K-12 standardized testing.

Simple question. Name the 2014 Minnesota GOP candidate [without peeking at the link], who, after having the highest statewide vote percentage among GOP general election statewide candidates, now seeks an executive appointment to an upcoming vacancy - with the office now being sought being little different from the one for which this candidate ran.

Hint 1. Female gender.

Hint 2. This link.

If you are a reader getting the name right short of any hinting, a bonus essay question in order to earn a gold star is: Leave a comment comparing and contrasting the individual, Michelle MacDonald, and the term, chutzpah. [open book query - you can websearch in preparing commentary].

With Marco Rubio now officially a GOP presidential wannabe, and Jeb too, in Florida, are we facing a dilemma only our Supreme Court can resolve?

Does the Bush v. Gore right to steal votes and rig elections in Florida attach to the state's GOP, or to the Bush family alone, and if to the GOP what are relative rights to that right, per a sitting Senator vs a former Governor?

Perhaps the right to steal votes in Florida attaches to whoever can get away with it; but that simply puts us back into the post's opening paragraph. Ditto the right to impede likely Dem voters; an ancillary right -- and might the election rigging rights package actually be the jurisdiction solely of the Florida Secretary of State, and whichever GOP candidate he/she favors?

CLEARLY: We need a Supreme Court declaratory judgment - on beneficiary status per Bush v. Gore. A clarification of election theft rights, be they absolute or relative.

______________UPDATE______________

Dangling Chads -
reentering the vocabulary

And where is Rhenquist these days, when needed by his party? Will Roberts be up to Chief-Justicing a replay? In a proper GOP fashion? He does have the votes he'd need; and in disputes over counting votes, having votes lined up helps.

So what did the sign say?

Mainstream media reports.

"Worse ever" is hard to exceed. Something has to be really special, to grade out as "worse ever." Perhaps Pawlenty, W, at the presidential level, but worse ever for a state energy bill, that's showing ALEC-assissted talent.

"The worst energy bill ever sabotages solar. And that’s not all," a web post by Jean Wagenius.

And that's Garofalo's handiwork that Wagenius critiques. Wow, Worse Ever. That's like the Chicago Cubs, pick a year. Or David Kahn as an NBA basketball team administrator. Pat Garofalo as the David Kahn of the legislature. Awsome. Hackbarth has a way to go to make "worse ever." That puts a scale to things.

The Bernie Buzz. Always worth an intermittent reminder.

The latest, here. I am unaware of any direct link from the Sanders official Senate website, to a Bernie Buzz page; and I believe you get onto a mailing list by that name, from here. Getting the email for some time, I cannot recall how I initiated receiving it. Almost every emailing seems to have a "if you have difficulty reading the email the content is online ..." linkage, but that's only after you are on the list.

I could give the link from the latest email, for the online content, as I did in opening the post.

How to navigate to online archived "Buzz" items is what is presently unclear.

UPDATE: This link, for Buzz archived items:

http://sanders.enews.senate.gov/common/mailings/index.cfm

“When it comes to this, I’m sorry sir, but I firmly disagree that a biologist who is un-elected, no matter how great an expert he or she is, gets to make the rules,” Emmer said. “That’s not the way this constitutional republic was created and by abdicating that responsibility, Congress has literally given away that authority and looks what happens. There has to be a balance and I don’t think there is a balance at all. That’s what the elected officials are there for.”

And clergy should pronounce dogma on heliocentrism, in an Emmer-perfect world?

Sorensen on who Emmer the gentleman is, here; send her money to keep Bluestem Prairie publishing; here.

Sorensen links to this reporting by Eric Hagen about Emmer. It is the source of this post's headline.

While it is arguably easy to posterize each of the several GOP Presidential possibles for 2016, what policy should you expect from Hillary?

Posterization, this link.

Hillary? The Economist asks.

Official declared candidacies for President, and almost there to expecting a formal press session in a day.

Here and here, for contrast.

UPDATE: "Only 23 of 100 U.S. Senators saw the folly of allowing Bush/Cheney to invade Iraq. I am very proud to be one of the 23." From Chafee's Policy positions online, last of the list.

"He is the author of Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President (2008)." From here.

He is adept in hitting Jeb and Hillary with one shot, regardless of whatever else he brings to the contest. A "Compliant Congress" vs one of 23 who stood apart saying, "Plowshares, we need plowshares. Let's make plowshares. Pruning hooks. From swords and spears."

Who arguably was "compliant" to "a Reckless President" - that way - about entering and occupying Iraq - when having a Senate vote? Someone has a list, I will bet. Chafee early on is emphasizing his absence from any such list. Like Rand Paul in that dimension.

Larry Klayman v. City Pages. Klayman's filed his notice of appeal.

Timmer posts it on Scribd. And writes of it here. With an Avidor lead image. One thing about Klayman, he is not a quitter. Pursuing that case pro se, Klayman lacks a first rate lawyer representing his litigation interests who might objectively advise him when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em.

"Conservative activist Larry Klayman sues BakerHostetler, alleges racketeering in handling child custody case."

The headline is from here, and in terms of nutshell sufficiency, do you really want to read more?

Oh, sure you do:

Larry Klayman, the founder of activist groups Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, claims attorneys at BakerHostetler violated federal racketeering laws and intruded into his private affairs when they issued subpoenas to PayPal and obtained information about his personal finances.

He also claims the attorneys and his wife, Stephanie DeLuca of University Heights, falsely accused him of criminal conduct that was never substantiated.

photo credit

The lawsuit was filed March 6 in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida. It is at least the fifth that Klayman has pursued following Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Magistrate Judge Lawrence Loeb's decision five years ago to deny him custody of his children, now 15 and 17 years old.

BakerHostetler has been named in two other suits, and both were dismissed.

In the 2010 decision, the magistrate judge also ordered Klayman to pay $325,000 for his ex's attorney's fees, which records indicate he has not paid. Klayman is also arguing that those fees are excessive and inappropriate.

This is the private sector litigator claiming a right to force the State Department to produce all Clinton emails. And it was racketeering for a firm representing a spouse in a marriage dissolution to subpoena financial documents of the other spouse? Larry, you're only allowed one standard - for you, for others. You are not special.

Klayman defamation lawsuit against City Pages, Ken Avidor, and other defendants has been dismissed via granting of summary judgment in favor of defendants.

Sorensen reports, Daily Planet, online here. See this item. Sorensen posts the dismissal order and memorandum on Scribd, here.

UPDATE - PiPress coverage.

_____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Courthouse News Service, here. Larry seems to have a way with some judges.

"The $26 million project, [...], promises to bring residents and retail to Gladstone. It includes 222 luxury apartments and 10,000 square feet of street-level retail space. 'We are excited to unveil The Heights Linden Square to the residents and community of Gladstone,' David Flaherty, CEO of Flaherty & Collins Properties, said in a release. "This project will help transform the downtown Gladstone area of Linden Square." Gladstone City Manager Kirk Davis said The Heights Linden Square will have an estimated economic impact of $100 million over the next 20 years, in part through the purchasing power of the roughly 400 new Gladstone residents who will live there. "The Heights and Downtown Gladstone will be a place for people to gather and be proud of the community they live or work in," Davis said in a release."

The extended headline is a quote from mid-item, here.

Where's Gladstone? Who cares?

Met Council in the news.

This link , stating, mid-item:

“It’s not about simply griping about allocation of transportation or parks money or housing in any given particular funding cycle,” said Dakota County Commissioner Chris Gerlach.

“We look at it and say, there is a fundamental problem with the way the Met Council functions. You think it’s one thing, but it’s really not,” Gerlach said. “You think that a Met Council is made up of 16 individuals and a chair appointed by various districts and therefore you have a diverse group that is going to … advocate for the region. It’s not that at all. What it is, it’s a state agency.”

The counties say they have been particularly riled since seeing how the Met Council planned on scoring transit projects with weights given to nonmotorized transportation modes and to concentrated areas of poverty — issues that county officials say do not reflect suburban problems such as congested intersections.

“It seems as though everything is focused on the urban core at the expense of the suburbs,” said Rhonda Sivarajah, chairwoman of the Anoka County Board.

Dayton ‘appalled’

Quarrels between cities and suburbs about how to spend public dollars are as old as the cities and suburbs themselves. But the decision by the four counties to hire a federal lobbyist — before checking with the governor — is viewed by Dayton as a nuclear option.

“It’s really, really reprehensible on their part to be sneaking off to Washington behind the back of — I don’t know if the people on the Met Council were aware of it, but at least behind my back,” Dayton said. “And then come to the state of Minnesota for funding for their projects and the like? If we have a disagreement within our family, then the place to resolve that is within our family. … To go out to Washington behind our backs and trash our situation here in Minnesota, and denigrate Minnesota in front of federal authorities, and try to turn the federal government against Minnesota is really, really irresponsible. I’m appalled to just learn this.”

Anoka County will have spent at least $15,000 in the first quarter of 2015 to enlist the services of Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies, according to lobbyist disclosures. Filings show the three other counties also hired Miller/Wenhold and said they plan to spend $15,000 to $20,000 each in public dollars this year to research options for how to get around the Met Council. The lobbyist, Paul Miller, did not return calls or e-mails to comment for this story.

If I were that Paul Miller guy in DC, I'd not return calls or emails either. What with Strib sniffing all over the gentleman's firm's cash flow.

Which is the interesting point the reporting fully dodges addresssing? This firm, what are its talents, it's track record, and what were the dynamics of its choice?

Okay, they hire A lobbyist. Big deal? The story is why, THIS lobbyist?

The dynamics of choice making by the various county officials, in contact however they were, and a sub-question is whether inter/intracounty contacts might have breached open meeting law?

Any reader at a meeting where, "Let's hire this Paul Miller dude," was formally discussed is asked to provide a comment linking to online meeting minutes covering the choice(s) made and underlying rationales. Someone had to believe this individual would be successful in what he'd be tasked to do, and contract papers should shed great sunshine on what such tasking was. Or not? Sometimes not leaving a paper trail is an aim, rather than transparency of process and adherence to sound procedure being scrupulously and objectively documented (i.e., principally, in suitable detail - who said what, when, to whom, in open meetings or otherwise, ... what do the lobbyists' marching orders say, payment terms and project milestones, all that kind of stuff ... ).

____________UPDATE____________
Consonant with Glen Taylor's Strib's reporting; Gary Gross seems non-curious, why this lobbyist hired; and for what precise ends?

Nobody cares about the lobbyist's marching orders?

"Go forth, and sin no more," but keep lobbying?

What? What's that mean?

Why DC, why Paul Miller, toward what end?

You'd think journalism involved some question asking beyond publishing dueling quotes from some batch of politicians' press releases? Such as a public data disclosure request or two aimed at proactive county officials, acting miles apart, proactively leaving a paper trail on bargaining and signing a contract for professional services - somehow coordinated/centralized/spelled out - and not a void for vagueness vapid single page retainer split agreement. Having some manner of invoice and payment structure, presumably set out in advance.

Timeliness of filing a notice of appeal.

And why should anyone ever care if there is some slight timeliness oversight re a losing party at trial with a twelve million dollar judgment against the client?

Aren't court rules replete with exceptions and equities trumping deadlines? What of known absolute trap doors?

For the unwary - who's held responsible for meeting a timeliness requirement? Might it be a possible professional error or omission to fail to meet a deadline, but what damage might be caused - and remedied? What would be the correct handling of any question of how meritorious an appeal might have been preserved, if filed notice had been timely made, etc.?