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Daily Archives: November 6, 2018

How to Track Specific Changes to Legislation with Email Alerts

In Custodia Legis – Congress.gov Search Tip – How to Track Specific Changes to Legislation with Email Alerts: “The Congress.gov team recently improved saved search alerts for legislation. This improvement applies to searches that are performed from the legislation homepage search form and the advanced search form. Initially, saved search alerts for legislation provided you with a list of new items added to your search results list, as well as of items already in your search results list that had changed. The improved saved search alerts for legislation not only indicate new items that match your search, they will also allow you to choose specific changes you want to track for items already in your search results list and receive an email that identifies those changes.

Amy brings us today’s search tip on how to take advantage of these powerful new saved search alerts for legislation.

Please keep in mind that the enhanced saved search alerts only apply to legislation, and the user must perform the search from the legislation homepage search form or the advanced search form, not the global search..”

Liberal Democrats more likely than other groups to be politically active on social media

Pew: “Many Americans have been politically active on social media, from encouraging others to take action to using issue-related hashtags. And liberal Democrats were more likely than other ideological and partisan groups to have engaged in these activities, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of survey data collected this summer. Liberal Democrats are… Continue Reading

Green’s Dictionary of Slang to Go Free

“GDoS Online [Green’s Dictionary of Slang] was launched two years ago, in October 2016. Since then there have been seven updates, the latest is forthcoming at the end of this month, and the dictionary has been expanded, improved and, not least corrected. There are now just over 55,000 headwords, within which can be found nested,… Continue Reading

Immigration Court Backlog Surpasses One Million Cases

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – “The Immigration Court backlog has jumped by 225,846 cases since the end of January 2017 when President Trump took office. This represents an overall growth rate of 49 percent since the beginning of FY 2017. Results compiled from the case-by-case records obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act… Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence Hits the Barrier of Meaning

The New York Times – Machine learning algorithms don’t yet understand things the way humans do — with sometimes disastrous consequences. “…As someone who has worked in A.I. for decades, I’ve witnessed the failure of similar predictions of imminent human-level A.I., and I’m certain these latest forecasts will fall short as well. The challenge of… Continue Reading

World Bank Opens 2017 Global Financial Inclusion Microdata

Via Gallup: “With the release of the World Bank’s 2017 Global Findex microdata last week, policymakers and researchers — for free — can now dig deeper into how billions of the world’s adults use bank accounts, mobile money, digital payments, savings and credit. In April, the World Bank published its country-level data and released its… Continue Reading

Study – Barriers to Using Government Data

Bipartisan Policy Center – Barriers to Using Government Data: Extended Analysis of the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking’s Survey of Federal Agencies and Offices – “Policymakers face many demands from constituents, budgetary processes, and their commitment to providing good services for the American people. This last concern is made easier when policymakers have access to reliable… Continue Reading

Your Airline Travel Survival Guide

Consumer Reports: How to snag deep discounts, get the best seat for your money, avoid nasty surprises, increase your comfort, and more – “In September, American Airlines began service from Miami to Los Angeles—a flight of just under 6 hours—on its Boeing 737 Max aircraft. The plane is a feat of aviation engineering that Boeing… Continue Reading