Law

The University at Buffalo Regional Institute has issued a detailed analysis of Western New York's voting patterns in the 2008 presidential election. Among the key findings are that the region's most populated areas -- urban and suburban -- voted for Barack Obama, although 85 percent of the region's municipalities voted for McCain. The region also voted more Democratic in 2008 compared to 2004, especially rural areas, while the region's rank of registered Republicans shrank.

Law students from around the country will sharpen their courtroom techniques during Saturday's annual National Criminal Law Moot Court Competition hosted by the University at Buffalo Law School's Criminal Law Society held this year in the Erie County Courthouse.

The public will get an opportunity to watch one of the state's most influential courts in action next month when the University at Buffalo Law School hosts a full day of appellate judge arguments beginning 10 a.m. on April 9 in the Francis M. Letro Courtroom in John Lord O'Brian Hall on UB's North (Amherst) Campus.

Political scientists from the University at Buffalo and Texas State University have presented the first-ever comprehensive ranking of American states with regard to public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social and personal spheres.

In 2007, University at Buffalo computer scientist Sargur Srihari, Ph.D., one of the world's experts on pattern recognition and its application to fingerprints and handwriting, was selected by the National Academy of Sciences to serve with other national experts on its Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community. The NAS released the panel's findings in a report called "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward"

University at Buffalo researcher John Violanti, Ph.D., a specialist in suicide among police officers, is preparing to conduct a study on suicide risk among returning veterans. The U.S. Army yesterday reported a "stunning spike" in the number of soldiers taking their own lives.

Local governments are reeling from the current recession, but not far off is another fiscal crisis of potentially catastrophic proportions. Over the next 30 years, nine of the region's largest local governments will have to come up with nearly $4 billion to cover their retirees' non-pension benefits, according to the latest UB Regional Institute policy brief, "The End of Local Government as We Know It?"

Stuart Lazar, an associate professor in the University at Buffalo Law School concentrating in tax law, has expertise and insight into the new American nightmare: losing your home.

Six University at Buffalo law students and their professor will study how national law can help stabilize the chaos in countries struggling from war and civil strife during a four-week educational seminar to Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia.

A shoeprint etched in blood or dust can make a crucial difference in a criminal case, but it all depends on the ability of human examiners to identify a matching shoeprint pattern from thousands in their databases. It's a laborious, inefficient task. That's why University at Buffalo computer scientists are developing tools to make the search-and-match process more like a Google search and less like hunting for a needle in a haystack.