There is a humorous commercial that is shown from time to time in which a rather funny character does his pitch wearing a suit that is covered with question marks and dollar signs. The man is pretty funny looking in his own right. But the upshot of the pitch is that you can buy a book from him that will tell you how to get “free money from the government”.

Of course, the book itself is not free and the chances are that the business and/or the pitchman make their living from selling that book and not from free money from anyone. But the reason that advertisement is appealing is that we have an urban myth that the government is overflowing with money that it is looking to give away if we can just know how to punch the right buttons. This is the mystique of the system more formally known as government grants.

When you do your homework, it turns out that the truth about government grants reveals a much different situation than the windfall of funds that they funny man in the question mark suit might lead us to believe. Now, it’s true that the federal government does issue dozens and dozens of grants for research and other community related causes each year.

Many of these grants are used to help small businesses get off the ground that might otherwise flounder. This is one of our government’s methods of leveling the playing field in the business world to give the little guy a chance to get started. But it is also a way for the government to get funds to worthy nonprofit efforts that have a mission statement that benefits the community or the culture at large.

Another insider’s trick that the man in the question mark suit doesn’t want you to know is that you can find out all you could ever want to know about government grants for free. The government wants you to know about these funds so they can find the most qualified businesses or nonprofit charities to help out. You can go directly to the government web site on grants and use their search engine. Use the .gov domain search tool on Google and you will find ample resources to guide you. Another great resource on the web is the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance which has the tools to find grants by topic and by your area of expertise,

The misconception that we get in our heads is that because these are “grants”, there is no work to getting or using this governmental money. The process of applying for and competing to win a government grant can be just as much work as any job and perhaps even more frustrating because you are in competition with others for limited resources. Just as some people win at getting government grants, other people are not granted the money they seek. This is a part of the gamble of going after a government grant that you must reconcile yourself to before even you start the process.

Be prepared to be patient, learn about the steps and give each stage in the development of your application for the grant plenty of time and tender loving care. You will have to gain a good comprehension of the myriad of government agencies to find the one who would be most likely to look at you for a grant.

The process of filling out the grant paperwork and submitting your proposal is a discipline in its own right that you may even have to seek professional help to do well. But if you do well, use plenty of patience and your project is worthwhile, there is government out there to help you. You just have to take the time to learn how to go after it.

“Passing the Bar” in the legal profession means something different from walking by a drinking establishment. The Bar Association is the central regulating body by which we can be assured that the legal profession is living up to the highest of ethical and legal standards.

For those of us on the outside of the legal profession, the word “lawyer” often evokes a series of the latest lawyer jokes we got off the internet. The legal profession has taken it on the chin with such low jokes and under the breath implications that lawyers are unethical or greedy. This is strange because of all of the professions, the legal world is one that is held to a high standard of education and continuous performance of service and that is held in continuous scrutiny by their own internal police known as the Bar Association.

For a new law student, the Bar Association lies ahead as a daunting challenge that lies between them and a lucrative career as a lawyer. The Bar Exam is renowned for being exacting, difficult and taxing on a prospective lawyer. It is such a huge accomplishment to pass “The Bar” that it is very common for the prospective lawyer to take a few months or a year off to prepare for the exam and/or to have to take it several times before finally passing the test.

Once the student passes The Bar and has achieved that status of being able to conduct law legally, there is a lot that the Bar Association does for its membership. It isn’t easy to get a practice stated so the Bar Association can provide valuable advice, contacts in the legal world and even contacts for financing so a lawyer just out of law school can “hang out their shingle” and get their practice going.

The national Bar Association is responsible for the larger issues of certification, relationships with the government and what it means to be a “Bar certified” lawyer in this country. But on top of those services, there are local Bar Associations that lawyers in every community can join that offer many valuable services to their members.

Sometimes lawyers look at the local Bar Association with distain. This might be because the idea of associating with a lot of other lawyers doesn’t seem to make much sense. After all, they will not be your prospective customers. Moreover, that is the competition and you don’t want to spill your guts to the competition.

However, in practice is a brotherhood in the local legal professions that benefits everyone. By associating with other lawyers, legal firms and professionals associated with the legal world, there is a lot of value you can get just from attending the local Bar Association meetings.

Probably the greatest advantage to becoming an active member of your local Bar Association is the networking you will get done. On any given evening, you might find yourself networking with some of the judges you may be working with in court this year, with partners in your firm or competition firms who may have some valuable tips on upcoming cases or who may be looking for a bright attorney like yourself to recruit.

One the best ways to build your practice is to begin to pull in a roster of solid clients that can be the source of your long-term success as a lawyer. While we do see lawyers going on television to advertise for customers, the best way to find new clients is through pro bono work and through networking. Your local Bar Association offers a lot of community services to new businesses just getting started and to the local small business association. There is a method to this madness. These are the organizations future clients will come to with legal questions and problems. So if you are well known to your local Bar Association officers and members and they know what you can do for clients, they can give you as a reference, which can mean new customers for your practice.

You can make a lot of contacts this way and eventually connect with that “core client” who may be the ticket to your long-term success. These breakthroughs won’t happen by sitting in your office waiting for the phone to ring. Get out there and network and the best place in town to do that is at your local Bar Association meetings.

When you think about it for very long, you wonder if there is a good reason that the United States even has a Federal Communications Commission. But with a closer look at the value this important government department adds to our public life, we can get a good perspective on the reasons we need the FCC to be there to provide some guidance for how the public airwaves are used.

The FCC grew out of a need in the early thirties to have a regulatory body to assist with issues relative to the growing radio industry in regards to monopolies on the airwaves and how radio conglomerates were handling relationships with affiliates and employees. So in 1934, Congress passed the Communications Act which expanded the Federal Radio Commission that was already in existence and gave it a wider jurisdiction. The agency that came out of this reorganization and expansion became what we now know as the Federal Communications Commission.

Much of the work of the early FCC was to work to diversify ownership of radio stations and impose some control on the powerful communications conglomerates of NBC and CBS. So the early regulatory activity of the FCC accomplished three improvements in the radio industry?

* In a document issued in 1940 called Report on Chain Broadcasting, the FCC began the work of limiting the growth of conglomerate ownership of telecommunications facilities. It was believed then that diversification of ownership would foster competition and greater creative opportunity in the radio industry.

* The FCC introduced some limits on the extent that the large radio conglomerates could demand time of their affiliates. This control was necessary to establish a cooperative relationship between affiliates and the large networks and cut down on affiliate abuse which was harmful to local markets.

* Finally the FCC stepped in to put significant control over “artist bureaus” by which networks were able to function as both the agents and employers of artists they had under contract. Obviously this was not a situation that resulted in the best interests of the artists.

Notice that in none of these original goals of the FCC was there any jurisdiction over content or public decency implied in its powers or responsibilities. This doesn’t mean that taking an administrative role in the content of what goes out over the nation’s airwaves not a proper use of the FCC. But it is a change from the original charge that was given to the FCC to justify its creation.

The change in focus began in the Reagan administration. It was during this time in our history that much of the oversight of the large media conglomerates were removed. As a result the door was opened for large corporations to own a variety of media outlets and to take possession of a large possession of a majority of a particular media’s outlets which narrowed competition. The outcome was the concentration of ownership of radio stations in the hands of a few large corporations which has lead to a homogenization of that media. But the lifting of tight regulations also has resulted in the explosion of cable television the expansion of options for consumers and the proliferation of talk radio.

It was in the new century when the FCC began to shift its focus toward taking a greater control over content in broadcasting. Many say that it was the super bowl fiasco with Janet Jackson that set off the changes. But leading up to that event, there had already been some notable crackdowns such as greater fines for particularly offensive programs such as the Howard Stern radio broadcast.

It remains to be seen if the FCC will continue to serve as a moderator of content and obscenity in years to come. If that is the direction, there will be some very public discussion over the role of government versus the rights of people under the free speech protection provided by the constitution. But such dialog is healthy in a free society as we continue to redefine how far we will allow the agencies of our government to protect us while using the power of these agencies for the greatest public good.