New London

Here is a peek into the private dwellings of London’s most exciting young talents from the worlds of music, fashion, design, and art. Their “new London style” takes many forms, but above all it expresses a creative sensibility against the backdrop of one of the world’s most exciting cities. The twenty-eight houses in the book are loosely arranged by neighborhood and reflect the cosmopolitan melting pot that influences the city’s design trends.

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut, could condemn fifteen residential properties in order to transfer them to a new private owner. Although the Fifth Amendment only permits the taking of private property for “public use,” the Court ruled that the transfer of condemned land to private parties for “economic development” is permitted by the Constitution—even if the government cannot prove that the expected development will ever actually happen. The Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London empowered the grasping hand of the state at the expense of the invisible hand of the market. In this detailed study of one of the most controversial Supreme Court cases in modern times, Ilya Somin argues that Kelo was a grave error. Economic development and “blight” condemnations are unconstitutional under both originalist and most “living constitution” theories of legal interpretation. They also victimize the poor and the politically weak for the benefit of powerful interest groups and often destroy more economic value than they create. Kelo itself exemplifies these patterns. The residents targeted for condemnation lacked the influence needed to combat the formidable government and corporate interests arrayed against them. Moreover, the city’s poorly conceived development plan ultimately failed: the condemned land lies empty to this day, occupied only by feral cats. The Supreme Court’s unpopular ruling triggered an unprecedented political reaction, with forty-five states passing new laws intended to limit the use of eminent domain. But many of the new laws impose few or no genuine constraints on takings. The Kelo backlash led to significant progress, but not nearly as much as it may have seemed. Despite its outcome, the closely divided 5-4 ruling shattered what many believed to be a consensus that virtually any condemnation qualifies as a public use under the Fifth Amendment. It also showed that there is widespread public opposition to eminent domain abuse. With controversy over takings sure to continue, The Grasping Hand offers the first book-length analysis of Kelo by a legal scholar, alongside a broader history of the dispute over public use and eminent domain and an evaluation of options for reform.

Vol. for 1922 includes Data on currents.

After more than 20 years of research, the author was finally able to pull together more than 70,000 descendants of William Morss (b. in the 1600s) and his wife Elizabeth. By tracking the descendants of Anthony Morse of Essex County, MA she can identify more than 70,000 descendants. Many of these lines had been lost to history, including a more recent one of Joseph Willis Morse, whose son founded the precursor to the magazine "Vanity Fair" in Atlantic City. His son had '9' sons, each with large families of their own, none of whom were listed in the traditional histories. And so the search began.. Browse the names of the first 6 generations of descendants of Stephen Morse of Essex Co., MA. More will be published in the future, but books can only be so many pages. Volume 2 will include the story of Hugo Von Mors, the descendant of a noble Flanders family and a Knights Templar.