Lance Armstrong’s wealth is estimated to be $100 million but after his confession in Oprah’s interview that will probably need to be recalculated. Read more about the real and potential lawsuits involving Armstrong in this NPR article.

Interested in learning more about Lance Armstrong’s legal woes and his career?  Take a look at ProQuest eLibrary for news articles, transcripts, and pictures. Don’t forget that WestlawNext and Lexis  also have legal and general news files.  Or, for assistance finding other authoritative news sources stop by the Legal Research Help Desk.

Image Source (morguefile.com)

We the people, in order to form a more perfect union...

On this day, September 17th, in 1787 (225 years ago!) the United States Constitution was finalized and signed. Here are some great websites to browse for more info:

• From the US National Archives
• A website dedicated to Constitution Day
• HeinOnline World Constitutions Library- for United States (if you're off campus, please log-in with your name and library barcode)

Any other websites you found useful for celebrating Constitution Day? Share with us in the comments below!

Reading my RSS feeds, I came across an interesting topic, which is timely: lawyers and marketing at the Olympics. This one blog post, led me on a quick adventure (seriously like 5 minutes), and I ended up pondering- could someone use this topic for their AWR paper? Anyone? Bueller? Here's what happened:

First I saw this blog post and thought what an interesting job for a lawyer: Olympic Lawyers Shadow Torch's Every Move to Prevent 'Ambush Marketing' (Legal Blog Watch).

Later I saw another blog post on a related note, marketing at the Olympics... and breaking the rules? See, Headphone Maker Beats Marketing Rules at Olympics (CNET.com) followed by a friendly reminder: U.K. Olympic Athletes Banned From Wearing Beats (CNET.com).

Curious about this topic, I Googled "lawyers marketing olympics" and found a law journal article from 1996! See, 3 Vill. Sports & Ent. L.J. 423 (1996) Ambushing the Olympic Games; Davis, Robert N., This article is in the HeinOnline database, and from there I wondered if anyone has written on the subject of ambush marketing since 1996... so I used their ScholarCheck feature. This showed me that there were several articles written since then (2003, 2005), but perhaps an update to these articles is in order?

Image from HeinOnline

In summary, I used an RSS feed of legal blogs to give me current news, which sparked an interest in a topic, which got me to use the HeinOnline database to search law journal articles, which showed me that this topic is in need of another updated article! A great process to find a topic and begin your research for your AWR paper.

What are you writing for your AWR? Do you need help with your research? Check out our AWR Liaison Librarian Program! Or just visit us at the Legal Research Help Desk in the Law Library on the 14th floor! Email us or call us at (602) 682-6898!

From the American Library Association (ALA)...

"Three copyright-related bills are currently in play at the start of 2012 – all of which take aim at any website beyond U.S. borders that distribute counterfeit or copyright infringing products. All three bills operate under the assumption that there is a problem that needs to be solved – and the best, or only, way to combat online infringement overseas is with more law targeted at foreign websites. These bills have the potential to negatively impact fundamental library principles. The following chart [link] is for quick reference (not meant to be comprehensive), and outlines the primary issues and concerns of interest to the library community and those who use the Internet."

~Corey Williams, American Library Association.

Hat tip to the Law Librarian Blog, and beSpacific

Are you interested in popular, media-worthy, case information from the Federal Courts of Appeals? Check out this resource from the ABA:

http://www2.americanbar.org/SCFJI/Pages/MediaAlertsOnFederalCircuitCourts.aspx

Here's the 9th circuit: http://www2.americanbar.org/SCFJI/Pages/CaseSummaries9thCircuit.aspx

Basically the cases chosen are ones that are more for the public interest- they are expected to be talked about in the news. They are summarized by law professors and law students. It doesn't yet cover all circuits but the majority are there.