Following on the success of last year's inaugural Conference on Workplace Mobbing at Niagara University (YouTube playlist), the 2025 conference has posted a call for proposals and opened for registration.
The founding of the World Association for Research on Workplace Mobbing was a key accomplishment of last year's event.
Dr. Steven Mueller, the intrepid geologist and my personal friend, has located the Guardian of Forever.
On earth, at present, the Guardian is located in Oman, where locals know it as the "Rock of Wishes."
Dr. Mueller's timing is impeccable (as usual, for those who know him), given the recent wrap of Discovery and release of a trailer for Section 31, as Captain Philippa Georgiou has a unique history (1, 2) with the Guardian.
Photos © Steven Mueller, used with permission. Contact author for license.
Fancy a new gig in 2025? The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) is hiring an analyst for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) mediation services.
Act fast. Sorry, I'm re-posting this just in time for the December 16 closing date. Even if you miss it, these positions open from time to time, so if you're interested, but the time's not now, check out the requirements for a future application.
Here is the job description.
As a MANAGEMENT AND PROGRAM ANALYST, you will:
Provide mediation services to FOIA requesters and federal agencies in accordance with the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996, 5 U.S.C. §§ 571-84, including its confidentiality provisions, and in an effort to prevent FOIA litigation.
Manage the OGIS case management system for mediation cases and processes, including information gathering, facilitating communication and counseling customers on best FOIA practice.
Prepare reports from case management for supervisors to monitor status of goals.
Deliver excellent customer service in carrying out the office's work including the ability to communicate effectively with various types of stakeholders both orally and in writing.
Assist with OGIS outreach efforts including teaching and/or training, writing and/or editing for a public audience, drafting and managing web content, and public presentations.
Assist with communication with external stakeholders including Congress, the FOIA requester community and the general public.
Assist with analyzing and evaluating the effectiveness with which OGIS program operations are meeting established goals and objectives, including analyzing OGIS's own mediation cases and compliance review.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Advisory Committee, serving the National Archives, held a public meeting yesterday via WebEx, and the recording is available on YouTube.
The 2024-26 committee has organized into three subcommittees: Statutory Reform, Volume and Frequency, and Implementation. I serve on the latter; yesterday, I contributed to our report on efforts to prioritize past committee recommendations and develop strategies to facilitate their implementation.
The Implementation Subcommittee grouped 18 of 64 past recommendations into priority categories of technology, for example, the implementation of AI to manage large volumes of records; workflow, for example, the implementation of strategies to manage voluminous first-person requests apart from other FOIA processing; training, for example, raising awareness about FOIA among all agency employees, not just FOIA officers; and engagement, for example, facilitating agency-requester dialog to improve efficiency and responsiveness for both parties.
The subcommittee listed 10 more recommendations as "not zero," meaning that the committee recognized them as higher than minimum priority, and doable, but they did not fall into one of the four priority categories. One such recommendation involves improving online agency instructions for FOIA requesters.
The Statutory Reform Subcommittee reported on its constitution of three working groups, focusing on processing, enforcement models, and transparency obligations. The latter is looking at the clarity of FOIA definitions, including "agency control" of records. That inquiry includes consideration of the private-prison problem, which interests me, when the federal government might have access to the records of a prison contractor.
The next public meeting of the committee is scheduled for March 6, 2025, and there will (again) be a public comment period.
Last week in Kraków, Poland, the main square, Rynek Główny, was packed with Poles and foreign tourists in the days before the Christmas Market's weekend opening. Even amid the festive atmosphere, a small group of demonstrators held flags and spoke through amplifiers about the war in Ukraine and demanded the release of prisoners of war. Passersby were supportive, and some paused to listen (though the speaker spoke Ukrainian rather than Polish when I went by) and to look at the faces of POWs and MIA.
Poles have been unwavering in support of Ukraine. Polish history engenders empathy with victims of Russian oppression. And there's the simple benefit of having at least one friendly neighbor to the east. Poland's Baltic Sea border abuts Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, and Poland has been besieged by passive-aggressive threats on its eastern border with Belarus.
Unfortunately for Krakovians, especially university students such as mine last week, the influx of Ukrainian refugees drove up the price of housing. Refugee populations have evened out, but, as these things go, housing prices have remained high. That's been a drag on university enrollment: just one more small way that the war burdens the region.
Image by RJ Peltz-Steele CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Here is the précis from the book jacket:
This study delves into the intricate succession landscape surrounding the medieval title of Prince of Achaea and the older associated dignity of King and Despot of Asia Minor, tracing their historical roots, and assessing its contemporary status if ever reclaimed by the Damalas family, senior direct-line heirs to the Genoese Zaccaria dynasty, last sovereign house to have used it as rulers of Achaea.
The multidisciplinary research method used incorporates the review of recent genealogical studies, analysis of historical sources and medieval accounts, like the Chronicle of Morea and the Chronicle of the Tocco, to establish the title's nature, antiquity and succession history, and the application of historical Roman, Byzantine and Frankish Greek feudal law (the Assizes of Romania, in particular) to assess the legitimacy of competing claims for the title over time, particularly within the Zaccaria family and later by the Tocco lineage, and ultimately of modern comparative nobiliary law and elements of private law to discuss its theoretical rehabilitation in favor of the Damalas descendants of the Zaccaria Princes of Achaea.
Stornaiolo, an Ecuadorean lawyer and my friend, colleague, and once student, is a true "Renaissance man." He has researched and written on economics for the Mises Institute and on society for The Libertarian Catholic. He holds two master's degrees in law, from Université d'Orléans and Catholic University of America. Stornaiolo visited my comparative law class via Zoom in 2023 to speak on the development of the Ecuadorean Constitutional Court, the subject of a previous book. He also writes poetry. This latest book draws on his expertise in law and classical studies. He lives presently in Kraków, Poland, where we reconnected in person last week.
My Thanksgiving featured craft beer with some ace Polish law students.
Thursday night I took the students to my favorite craft beer pub in Kraków, Multi Qlti Tap Bar. The beers always are top notch. I had a fruited gose, as well as a hazy IPA called "tank killer," or something like that that seemed appropriate to the times in central Europe.
Now that's a positive American food influence. Walking in Kraków, I saw the dark side of American food influence, too. A place called "Mr. Pancake" advertised the "American Pie-Cake." 🤢
Don't worry Poland; I'm sure appetite-suppressing injections are on their way next.
Images: "Massachusetts" from Restaurant Guru, translation by Google; "American Pie-Cake" by RJ Peltz-Steele CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, no claim to underlying works.
Twenty-eight-year-old heartthrob Timothée Chalamet, known best to me on the big screen as Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka and Dune's Paul Atreides, will play Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, a biopic due out at Christmas (IMDb, trailer).
A movie about the iconic singer-songwriter, now 83 years old, naturally will require a killer soundtrack. Much speculation has surrounded the hush-hush project. Morgan Steele, my daughter, based in Los Angeles, recently produced some promotional content with The Chalamet. The first fruit of that labor, "Becoming Bob Dylan," an interview with Zane Lowe, is out this week from Apple Music.
Photo: Timothée Chalamet by Somewhere in Toronto via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0.
 |
| Judith Faust |
Judith was a dear friend of mine and my wife's when we lived in Arkansas in the 20-aughts. I am sorry that, since moving to the northeast, we did a poor job staying in touch beyond the occasional greeting card. Judith died comfortably in hospice from cancer, a friend caring for her, Amy Freer, reported on Facebook.
Judith continued teaching in the Arkansas Public Administration Consortium (APAC) after retirement. Her personality juxtaposed an earnest commitment to good works and a light-hearted spirit. Here is her APAC biographical statement, which I suspect she wrote.
Judith Faust sometimes describes herself as "an organization junkie," having long been fascinated by how organizations work, and especially by what community-based nonprofits can accomplish. She's retired from the faculty at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, having for two decades taught graduate students in social work about nonprofit management and community practice. Her own work has included directing a program for runaway and homeless youth, a management-support organization for Arkansas nonprofits, and the state's Division of Children and Family Services. She volunteers presently with KUAR, the Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, and pretty much whomever asks her.
In case you wonder about such things, her undergraduate degree—a double major in journalism and philosophy—was earned from the University of Kansas, and her graduate degree—an MSW with a concentration in community organization and planning—from Tulane University.
We were privileged for many years to share a book group with Judith. She was thoughtful and insightful, and always we looked forward to delighting in her erudite company. Her home was packed with books, filling every available space, with shelves built into every corner and nook. You could pull down any title, and she could recall her impression of it, as well as the time of life in which she had read it and how it shaped her worldview.
With his permission, I share from Facebook (Nov. 10) the well stated sentiments of our friend Andrew Eshleman, now a philosophy professor at the University of Portland. Andrew succinctly captured my own experience, memory, and impression of Judith better than I can.
Just learned that a former colleague, Judith Faust, has died. We became friends while working together on the Faculty Senate at UALR, and she gets a good bit of the credit for showing me how that sort of work could be a rewarding and meaningful part of my career. But, oh!—then to see (from afar after moving away) her ongoing grit, honesty, thirst for understanding, and embrace of what's rich and beautiful in every nook and cranny of life during a long battle with cancer.
Here's Judith, from a few years back, to members of an email group following her difficult journey: "I think I'm finally coming out of the emotional woods. And those are the woods that count, aren't they? Life happens, in its glory and cruelty and ordinariness and all the uncounted shades between, and how we are, how we really are, is about how we experience it."
Then, with her signature honesty, she would acknowledge the ongoing struggle to experience things as she hoped as challenges multiplied. What a privilege to walk a little bit of life's path with such a soul.
Amy on Facebook wrote: "For those asking, while she did not outline wishes for a funeral service, donations on her behalf to one the following charities (hand-picked by Judith herself) would be most welcome:"
Judith touched many, many lives and left them better than she found them.
