Government Pieces

•Robert’s Robert’s Rules rules A layperson’s irreverent take on parliamentary procedure for nonprofit organizations

•US Supreme Court jury trials There have been three of them. How could there possibly be a trial before nine judges with nine gavels?

•US Supreme Court & westward movement and updates Has the location of Justices kept up with the demographic shifts of our nation? Building on my classmate Ben Zuraw’s brilliant original insight

•Thunderbolts on Olympus What did the greatest judges in United States history have to say about one another? Thanks to my friend Rahwa Gebretnsaie for the deep research!

•Not not negotiating in hostage crises How do you not negotiate with terrorists but still get the kidnap victim home? Listen to Amy Otis

•Vincent Van Gogh’s Irises, 1990 Liberating the most expensive painting on the planet from junk bond purgatory

•Patty Hearst, 1974 (including YouTube conference video) If you are the Symbionese Liberation Army, what do you do with the most famous hostage ever taken?

•Birth of BART, 1971 The $992 million bond issue was undoubtedly engineered to avoid a vote on a billion dollars

•The evitable United Nations vetoes, 1945 (YouTube conference video) Why are there five Security Council vetoes, not four or six—or zero? How did the San Francisco conference affect this outcome and the postwar world?

•Preparedness Day bombing, 1916 A San Francisco terrorist bombing and a left-wing scapegoat found each other in an era of wartime paranoia

•SF earthquake & fire insurance, 1906 Was the city’s damage caused by the uninsured earthquake or the insured fires? The courts faced this question and ruled in sometimes surprising ways