The Goodson Blogson

"As extra precaution against too much confidence as a result of improvement in the situation, the board in its daily statement issued last night urges the people of the city not to celebrate Hallowe'en night in the usual manner (by congregating) owing to danger from crowding in rooms and on the sidewalks." While this statement could just as easily be written today, it comes from a 1918 influenza briefing by the Durham City and County Board of Health, published in the October 31 issue of the Durham Morning Herald ( available to the Duke community via Newspapers.com ). Durham was no outlier -- officials around the country restricted public gatherings and Halloween festivities during the influenza epidemic of 1918, as CNN and History.com have both explored recently. The discouragement wasn't entirely successful -- only days later, the Nov. 3 society page of the Herald highlighted the "very bright and attractive Hallowe’en party […] given by the nurses of the Wa...

Duke Law and food trucks go together like radishes on a taco (and if that simile is puzzling, you’ve never had a real taco). After all, the Law School’s Epicurean Society founded Carpe Durham , the local food blog which frequently reviews new trucks and recently released a beta map tracking current truck locations via Twitter . In 2009, two students enrolled in Entertainment Law used our Student Media Workshop to assist in the preparation of their class project: a short film called Tacomentary: The Durham Taco Story , which featured interviews with local truck vendors. And though they’ve mostly shifted to late-night hours parking on West Campus, the OnlyBurger truck used to be a common lunchtime choice for Law School students and staff. So it’s no surprise that the Goodson Blogson was interested to read yesterday’s Bull City Rising article, discussing current food truck legal controversies in the Triangle . Food truck vendors are subject to a dizzying number of local ordinances, ad...

This summer, the Goodson Blogson wrote about municipal codes , the county- and city-level laws which impact much of our daily lives. But even the valuable resources listed in that entry do not include some critical local legal materials: building codes and other industry standards . Property owners know the importance of keeping a home or business “up to code”: whether it’s electric wiring, plumbing, construction materials, or fire safety, there is a maze of administrative regulations and commercial industry publications which must be navigated. "No problem," thinks the seasoned legal researcher, grabbing the North Carolina Administrative Code from the library shelf (or from the virtual shelf ). But a search for the 'building code' returns only entries like this one: All applicable volumes of The North Carolina State Building Code , which is incorporated by reference , including all subsequent amendments, may be purchased from the Department of Insurance Engineering...

Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill famously declared “ All politics is local ,” meaning that even a national politician’s success was inextricably linked to his or her connection with local constituents and their concerns. The maxim is equally applicable to law—not only because of local constituents’ impact on their U.S. or state congresspersons’ votes, but also for the large amount of county, city, and other municipal legal materials which govern a good deal of daily life in America. Since legal education tends to focus mostly on the federal system, law students generally don’t learn how to research local and municipal legal materials until they enter full-time law practice. But no need to wait—knowing how to navigate local ordinances now can help you answer such burning questions as “ What time can I officially pull the plug on my neighbor’s heavy-metal music? ” (in Durham, NC: after 11 p.m. on weekdays) to “ Can I shoot the pesky squirrel that eats all my birdseed? ” (sorry, ...