MALS was formed here more than 30 years ago. Today, 14 staff attorneys, 26 office workers and 21 University of Memphis third- year law students work out of rented offices in the old Claridge Hotel building at 109 N. Main. Offices are spartan. There are no lush rugs or stylish furniture. The large table in the conference room is simple varnished wood. Offices are small and mostly plain, except for the eclectic mix of pop art, African statuary and neon that adorns litigation director Webb Brewer's space. Brewer, who has been at the agency 20 years, said there is a need for lawyers of all stripes to help with the problems of the poor. "The private bar could meet more of the need through pro bono work, but there are still cases that involve the systemic problems for low-income people that we would need to do," said Brewer. "The legal system marketplace just doesn't serve low-income people too well, except in fee-generat-ing type cases," Brewer said. "If a poor person gets run over by a bus, an attorney might take that case because they might be able to recover part of the damage award as attorney fees. But so many of the cases we handle have to do with basic rights and a decent life. There is just no profit motive." Larry Pivnick, law professor at the University of Memphis Law School and director of political programs at MALS, said Legal Services is a great learning laboratory for law students. "There are thousands and thousands of people who have problems that never get an opportunity to appear in court," Pivnick said. "Some people may not be particularly articulate. Courts have rules that clients don't always understand." Brewer said a major focus of the agency's work involves housing. "Although a lot of our work is grant-driven, we find that the lack of safe and decent affordable housing and the prevalence of predatory lending are the biggest problems in our client population," Brewer said, referring to clients such as James.

Question: "What does the MALS office look like?"

Response: "Small and mostly plain"
OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

A: yes

Problem: In remarks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony here on Wednesday, Gov. George E. Pataki said he expected the facility to generate thousands more jobs in the Hudson Valley area for contractors and suppliers catering to the factory. He praised IBM for being "a critical partner in our economic development efforts" in New York state. In a brief speech, Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM's chief executive, emphasized that it was important to make long-term investments despite the current slump in the technology business. "To play to win in technology, you innovate and you lead," he said. But manufacturing technology products is a costly and cyclical business. In June, IBM announced that it was taking a charge of more than $2 billion against earnings. The largest single reasons for the charge were the cost of getting out of the business of manufacturing hard disks for storage, which it sold to Hitachi, and closing down some of its older semiconductor operations. But Kelly said the demand for advanced chips, like those produced at IBM's facility in Burlington, Vt., is strong. "I need more capacity in that end of the market," he said, "and this is factory is critical to meeting that growing demand." If IBM has miscalculated the demand, it will suffer badly as both the high operating costs and depreciation on the huge capital investment for the East Fishkill factory drag down earnings. But industry analysts said the plant should be insulated from a falloff in one or a few segments of the semiconductor market.

Question: "What company did George Pataki praise for being a critical partner in economic development in New York?"

Answer: "Hitachi"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: no

Input: After the disruption of the plot in Amman, it had not escaped notice in Washington that Hijazi had lived in California and driven a cab in Boston and that Deek was a naturalized U.S. citizen who, as Berger reminded President Clinton, had been in touch with extremists in the United States as well as abroad. Before Ressam's arrest, Berger saw no need to raise a public alarm at home- although the FBI put all field offices on alert. Now, following Ressam's arrest, the FBI asked for an unprecedented number of special wiretaps. Both Berger andTenet told us that their impression was that more Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) wiretap requests were processed during the millennium alert than ever before. The next day, writing about Ressam's arrest and links to a cell in Montreal, Berger informed the President that the FBI would advise police in the United States to step up activities but would still try to avoid undue public alarm by stressing that the government had no specific information about planned attacks. At a December 22 meeting of the Small Group of principals, FBI Director Louis Freeh briefed officials from the NSC staff, CIA, and Justice on wiretaps and investigations inside the United States, including a Brooklyn entity tied to the Ressam arrest, a seemingly unreliable foreign report of possible attacks on seven U.S. cities, two Algerians detained on the Canadian border, and searches in Montreal related to a jihadist cell. The Justice Department released a statement on the alert the same day. Clarke's staff warned, "Foreign terrorist sleeper cells are present in the US and attacks in the US are likely." Clarke asked Berger to try to make sure that the domestic agencies remained alert." Is there a threat to civilian aircraft?"he wrote. Clarke also asked the principals in late December to discuss a foreign security service report about a Bin Laden plan to put bombs on transatlantic flights. The CSG met daily. Berger said that the principals met constantly. Later, when asked what made her decide to ask Ressam to step out of his vehicle, Diana Dean, a Customs inspector who referred Ressam to secondary inspection, testified that it was her "training and experience." It appears that the heightened sense of alert at the national level played no role in Ressam's detention. There was a mounting sense of public alarm. The earlier Jordanian arrests had been covered in the press, and Ressam's arrest was featured on network evening news broadcasts throughout the Christmas season. The FBI was more communicative during the millennium crisis than it had ever been.

Does the response "December 23rd" correctly answer the question "On what date did the warning "Foreign terrorist sleeper cells are present in the US and attacks in the US are likely." take place?"?

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
***
Output:
no