Ebony Showcase Theatre Center's Online Law & Research Center

Examine the facts & weigh them before making decisions. All that glitters is not gold.

EBONY SHOWCASE THEATRE'S ONLINE LEGAL CENTER IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This section of our website was created as a result of our fight against unfair laws and government corruption in the form of redevelopment/eminent domain misuse.

We want you to be informed about the laws to have the tools and information to protect yourself in any situation, so we opened our law center online.

Click Here to Get a Free Computer

The City of Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) is attempting to use Federal HUD Northridge earthquake and other disaster money, totaling over $6 million, for the eminent domain and demolition of the complex which housed our theatre for nearly 40 years. Our theatre was located what is called the Mid-city Recovery Area, a mis-nomer.
Like the spider in Mary Howitt's (1789-1888) "Spider and the Fly" poem, Click to read, CRAs promise the world: jobs, economic development and recovery while they practice slash and burn techniques such as demolition, displacement and dispossession of disaster victims, forced closing and relocation of private businesses, and corporate welfare. (see the Time Magazine articles below about who REALLY benefits from corporate welfare.)We are providing educational resources and information to counter that printed in the LOS ANGELES TIMES and other newspapers about the benefits of redevelopment (corporate welfare) schemes which rob private induviduals of their property.
We filed a cross-complaint against the CRA for constructive Fraud and Undue Influence, Breach of Promise Without Intent to Perform, Breach of Trust, Conspiracy to Violate Civil Rights, Misappropriation of Trade Name...
Our goal is to educate citizens and to help others (renters or owners of businesses and homes) who are faced with redevelopment, eminent domain or with other violations of their rights.
Most citizens do not have resources to obtain accurate information to educate or to defend themselves against political and governmental corruption. The newspapers often publish slanted or subtle mis-information; or people are lured away from meaningful information by the preponderance sensationalized scandals in the headlines.

Citizens must be given the tools to conduct their own research in order to educate and protect themselves against those who would take advantage of an inability to afford expensive research tools.

I have done lots of research and the results of my research will be added as time allows. Links without descriptions will be described ASAP. Please email us if a link does not work.

Valarie Stewart Knight, WebWeaver

DOING RESEARCH?

Electric Library is an online archive allowing you to search through a collection of over 7 million published documents from thousands of newspapers, magazines, books and other authoritative sources. The high-quality information on electric Library is not available through anyother single-source print or online service. Never before has finding theinformation you need been so fast and so easy!
Click Here to Enter Electric Library

READ the "TIME MAGAZINE" SERIES: Corporate Welfare

This "TIME" investigation uncovers how hundreds of companies get on the dole--and why it costs every working American the equivalent of two weeks' pay every year By DONALD L. BARLETT AND JAMES B. STEELE who write... "How would you like to pay only a quarter of the real estate taxes you owe on your home? And buy everything for the next 10 years without spending a single penny in sales tax? Keep a chunk of your paycheck free of income taxes? Have the city in which you live lend you money at rates cheaper than any bank charges? Then have the same city install free water and sewer lines to your house, offer you a perpetual discount on utility bills--and top it all off by landscaping your front yard at no charge?"

According to Time Magazine "Two years after Congress reduced welfare for individuals and families, this other kind of welfare continues to expand, penetrating every corner of the American economy. It has turned politicians into bribery specialists, and smart business people into con artists. And most surprising of all, it has rarely created any new jobs."

Here is TIME MAGAZINE'S entire 4-part series on Corporate Welfare. Read it online or download the entire series.

EVALUATE and FINE-TUNE YOUR CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

Be on the alert! Watch out for logical fallacies in the newspapers and for statements made by people in power who don't REALLY have YOUR best interests in mind.

CLICK HERE for Mission Critical (at San Jose College) an interactive college-level Virtual Lab that teaches the basic concepts of critical thinking and informal logic, such as induction, deduction and fallacies. Evaluate and fine-tune your critical thinking skills.

Watch for the growth of this critical thinking section -- I will soon add other links which will sharpen your evaluative skills and help you watch out for logical fallacies in the things that you read and hear.

REDEVELOPMENT LINKS Read about the pros and cons of redevelopment and eminent domain of private property.

be sure to visit this site

Click Here for Free Advice

CLICK the banner. Voted the most useful legal site in a recent USA TODAY POLL, "freeadvice" has 100 legal topics for Law, Legal Advice and Free Information. Click on any topic and learn your legal rights, Find a lawyer or attorney. For information that can be used to fight redevelopment abuses, read the Environmental Law section.

Contracts Law at Cornell Law School

The above link is from the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institite A great site for research.

Click here for the 'Lecrtic Law Library A valuable collection of legal resources.

Click here for the 'Lecrtic Law Dictionary Welcome to what many consider the Net's Best Law Dictionary with Thousands of Definitions & Explanations of Legal Terms, Phrases & Concepts...Look up legal terms here.

LAW ONLINE provides a place to conduct online Research, its a section of THE LAW JOURNAL EXTRA

Take a look.

Visit Vessus Law Winner of several "Best of the Web" awards, including NetGuide Live’s five-star platinum site (its highest rating), VersusLaw is the only legal research service on the Web that provides access at one location to appellate-level opinions from all 50 states, all Federal circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court. VersusLaw’s archival library goes back to 1950 in a majority of jurisdictions and back to 1900 for its U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Click here to read an important Public Law Journal Feature Article from the State Bar of California's website: The Ten Most Significant Land Use Decisions of 1997, By John Eastman, who begins his article with the words "1997 was a notable year for land use law. In one case, the United States Supreme Court retreated from its well known penchant for finding as-applied regulatory takings challenges unripe. The California Supreme Court was active as well, redefining the regulatory takings test in one opinion, and interpreting the Permit Streamlining Act in another. This article summarizes these and other significant land use decisions from the past year."

Click here for Special Procedural Requirements in Litigation under the California Environmental Quality Act, by James G. Moose, and other articles, from the California State Bar Association's website. There's a link at the top of their page to the Home Page of their Environmental Law Section.

Click here to access the State Bar of California Website

Click here for Roger Beer's Environmental Litigation Pages.. These pages are devoted to environmental issues in litigation or headed there - and the litigation process, both in court and agency proceedings. 'Lots of good information.

Sprawl Busters. Is your community threatened by a MEGASTORE ? ... (Who ya gonna call?) ... SPRAWL-BUSTERS!

Click here for the Citizen's United for Redevelopment Education website. Read both the L.A. COUNTY GRAND JURY REPORT about redevelopment and "The UNKNOWN GOVERNMENT," an important report to the People of California (and the to rest of the world).

FORFEITURE

Think it can't happen to you?

Fight to save the historic Old General Hospital in Newfoundland. The fight to save the historic Old General Hospital on Forest Road in St. John's is now online, courtesy of the Newfoundland Historic Trust's website. The Trust has launched the "One-Minute Heritage Activist, an internet-based acvocacy site calling for the reuse of these historic buildings.

California Trial Courts

RESEARCH KNOWX KnowX.comTM is the most comprehensive source of public records on the Internet. KnowX.com(TM) provides comprehensive public records information at a consistently low price. KnowX.comTM public records databases contain millions of records, each compiled from official sources and updated regularly. Some of the searches are free. Most public records database searches are $0.50 during peak hours and FREE the rest of the day! (Peak Hours are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday.

The Practicing Attorney's Home Page provides links to many important resources for research purposes. I noticed a public records search link and more...

FINDLAW Legal web search, legal news, case law, federal and state laws, legal news, research, foreign and international resources, legal subject index, supreme Court decisions, US state laws: cases and codes, contact congress, government resources and more..

FINDLAW CALIFORNIA California case law, Supreme Court and Appellate court, California cases, California Codes, Rules, Federal section, and more..

FINDLAW CALIFORNIA CODES online.Property Law

California code. California Law consists of 29 codes, covering various subject areas, the State Constitution and Statutes. Information presented reflects laws currently in effect. To display the Table of Contents for a code, select a code and click on Search.

ROMINGER LEGAL Legal Resources, Federal Links, Professional Directories, State Legal Resources, Legal resources, News Online, and more... It even has the Blue Book...

NEW!! MINI FINDER......


AL	AK	AZ	AR	CA	CO	CT	DE	FL	GA
HI	ID	IL	IN	IA	KS	KY	LA	ME	MD
MA	MI	MN	MS	MO	MT	NE	NV	NH	NJ
NM	NY	NC	ND	OH	OK	OR	PA	RI	SC
SD	TN	TX	UT	VT	VA	WA	WV	WI	WY
U.S. SupremeCourt - CircuitCourts 1\|2 \| 3\|4 \| 5\|6 \| 7\|8 \| 9\|10 \| 11\|US \| DC
SearchRomingerLegal

State of California BOARD OF EQUALIZATON Sellers Permit verification & more. You can also call them at 1-888-225-5263.

UCLA - Neighborhod Knowledge Los Angeles (NKLA) - An interactive urban "blight" database site dedicated to community property tax delinquicy, building code violations, DWP arrearages, funding oportunities, research, free home pages, forums.

Poverty Law and more at National Clearing House for Legal Services. You can participate in a discussion of recent Supreme Court decisions.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS ARTICLES...

WIN The 'Win at All Costs' team: Investigative reporter Bill Moushey, and Bob Martinson, local news editor. Hundreds of times during the past 10 years, federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law. They lied, hid evidence, distorted facts, engaged in cover-ups, paid for perjury and set up innocent people in a relentless effort to win indictments, guilty pleas and convictions, a two-year Post-Gazette investigation found....

Fake Blight City declares blight to rehab Santa Clara Drive: This example shows that sometimes cities use the word "blight" simply to get $$$$$.

MEDIA LISTS (Radio, TV, and More...)
Click here Additional Radio and TV talk show, and other media links are included on the Constitution Society website.
CLICK here to read about the Los Angeles MTA's spending spree.
FOLLOW THE MONEY:
ENVIROLINK: CLICK here to research YOUR POLITICIANS:Campaign Contribution and Voting Records
Campaign Contributions by zipcode. The non-partisan Federal candidatecampaign money page."Knowledge is more than equivalent to force." Samuel Johnson: Rasselas, chap. xiii. Find Individual Contributors by Zip Code PageType in a 5 digit zip code and find everyone from that geographic area who has contributed to Federal campaign committees during the 1995-96 election cycle.
The non-partisan Federal candidatecampaign money page.FECInfo is a public service from Public Disclosure, Inc. * A place to discover who gave what to which Federal candidates when...*New: Public Disclosure's Soft Money Report - Issued October 15, 1998!
Coin-op CongressMOTHER JONES 400 top Campaign contributors. This list, covering the 1995-96 election cycle, provides clues to future campaign scandals. With gifts to the political parties virtually unregulated, huge donations have become outrageously common. The current rankings are based on such "soft money" gifts as well as contributions to federal candidates and political action committees. They do not include money spent on the renting of lobbyists or the fueling of sophisticated public relations campaigns through so-called independent expenditures.
The Mother Jones 400

Divining the Entrails: A Short Primer in Legal Process and Terminology by Robert W. Hunt
For valuable legal information and resources, visit this website. Law Offices of Richard H. Hallstrom - A law firm providing affordable estate planning services, including: wills, trusts, living trusts, health care directives, and more. Free consultation.
Send email to us:
Send email to talentscout@ebonyshowcase.org.
Click the left button for your own free email account.
CLICK HERE to go to our online theatre lobby.... Movie Memorabilia, Books, Videos, Gifts, Freebies, Reuters and AP News, Opportunities, and more! BE OUR GUEST...

Search for donors by industry category:
Search for particular donor by name:

Search for donors by industry category:
Search for particular donor by name: