Congressional Clerkship Act

To commemorate Constitution Day, consider the following legislation that is working its way through Congress.   H.R. 6475: Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Act of 2008 passed the House earlier this month and was introduced today in the Senate by Schumer (D-NY) and his co-sponsor Clinton (D-NY).  Below is a brief summary from the Congressional Research Service:
“Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Act of 2008 – Establishes the Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Program for the appointment of individuals who are graduates of accredited law schools to serve as Congressional Clerks in the Senate or House of Representatives.
Requires the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the House Committee on House Administration to each select at least six individuals for a one-year term to serve as employees in their respective chambers.
Specifies eligibility criteria for a Congressional Clerk, including that the selected candidate be a graduate of such a law school as of the starting date of his or her clerkship.
Requires the committees to ensure that Congressional Clerks selected under this Act are apportioned equally between majority and minority party offices.
Entitles each clerk selected to the same compensation as, and comparable benefits to, an individual who holds the position of a judicial clerkship for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia within three months of graduating from law school.”
To read more about this and discover the Stanford Law School connection to the legislation, read the Stanford Law School press release.

New Google Book Search Feature

Google just announced an exciting new feature — embedded previews:

“We’re launching a set of free tools that allow retailers, publishers, and anyone with a web site to embed books from the Google Book Search index. We are also providing new ways for these sites to display full-text search results from Book Search, and even integrate with social features such as ratings, reviews, and readers’ book collections. By providing tools that help sites connect readers with books in new and interesting ways, we hope publishers and authors will find even wider audiences for their works”

Hat tip to ReadWriteWeb