Did you know that New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer has proposed taxing drug dealers' inventory to help balance the state's hemorrhaging budget? That's just one of the new things I learned from surfing some of the newer additions to BlogHer's list of law blogs.

Athena's Mom argues that the opportunity to tax the drug business is a reason to legalize it -- but she laments that Spitzer's plan doesn't go that far:

"Spitzer's perversion of my idea, however, demonstrates his enviable talent of proposing legislation that manages to piss off everyone. Drugs might be good enough to be taxed (pissing off anti-drug factions), but not enough to legalize (sorry NORML.) And we get a new tax (club for growth just fired up its email.)

"We could close a budget gap, and maybe provide better funding for schools and infrastructure. But we all know that much of that extra money will just go towards paying the salaries of agency heads and their staff."

Emergency contraceptive drugs are legal, but the bloggers from the National Women's Law Center at Womenstake.org finds that yet, again, pharmacists are refusing to dispense the medication. The latest news comes from a survey of pharmacists in Washington state, conducted by NARAL. NWLC is offering a webinar
next week for local activists who want to preserve access to emergency contraception in their area.

Brains on Purpose, an intriguing blog about neuroscience and law, pointed me to a new blog conflict mediation, Civil Negotiation and Mediation. There, I found this item noting that the benefits of a mediated divorce are not only psychic -- they're financial:

"[D]ivorcing couples spent 11 times more on litigated divorces than mediated divorces."

Finally, I found myself fascinated by In this case, a blog that collects interesting law-related stories. The center column is full of odd tales -- such as the Best Buy customer who sued for $54 million over a lost laptop. But it's the anecdotes in the left column, submitted by readers that are especially worth the visit. There's Kenny's tale about being held up at gunpoint in Washington, DC, Reuben's tale of repeated arrest at the hands of racist police, and Deborah, who couldn't get a child-support order:

"[W]hen we went to court, I wasn’t there. He said I didn’t have to go. So I didn’t go. And they ended up awarding him everything he asked for. I had no child support. I had no alimony. I walked away with my boys four days a week, the clothes on my back, and a car. He makes probably about $250,000 a year, he has a trust fund, and his house on the Hill is worth about $875,000. The judge said that unless he sees a huge discrepancy in pay, he can’t do anything. I signed a paper, and he doesn’t believe that I did it under duress. If you don’t know the system, and somebody else does, this is how screwed you can really get. You can walk away with nothing...."

Check out the amazing, insightful blogs and let me know what you think.