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Daily Archives: May 20, 2019

Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress

“The Library of Congress’s mission is to engage, inspire, and inform the Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity. To accomplish that mission, the Library is adopting a digital-forward strategy that harnesses technology to bridge geographical divides, expand our reach, and enhance our services. This document describes how we will secure the Library’s position in an increasingly digital world as we realize our vision that all Americans are connected to the Library of Congress.

The Digital Strategy complements the Library’s 2019-2023 strategic plan, Enriching the User Experience, which enumerates four high-level goals: expand access, enhance services, optimize resources, and measure results. The Digital Strategy describes what the Library plans to accomplish, in terms of digital transformation, over the next five years to achieve these goals. The transformation we describe below applies to all of the Library’s programs, including our collections, researcher services, the United States Copyright Office, the Congressional Research Service, and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

Digital technology enables us to sustain and expand services to all users, bridging gaps and strengthening connections. The Digital Strategy describes how we will use each interaction as an opportunity to move users along a path from awareness, to discovery, to use, and finally to a connection with the Library through three main goals: throwing open the treasure chest, connecting, and investing in our future.”

May Federal Prosecutors Take Direction From the President?

Bruce A. Green and Rebecca Roiphe, May Federal Prosecutors Take Direction From the President?, 87 Fordham L. Rev. 1817 (2019). [h/t Mary Whisner] “Suppose the president sought to serve as prosecutor-in-chief, telling prosecutors when to initiate or dismiss criminal charges in individual cases and making other discretionary decisions that are normally reserved to trained professionals… Continue Reading

Recession Ready: Fiscal Policies to Stabilize the American Economy

This volume [256 pages] —a joint project by The Hamilton Project and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth—focuses on the workhorse antirecession programs known as “automatic stabilizers.” “The Great Recession is remembered, and properly so, for its massive destruction of household wealth and job losses that reached over 800,000 in a single month. In just… Continue Reading

House Intel Committee releases transcripts of Michael Cohen’s 2 day closed-door testimony

Cohen’s February 2019 testimony can be found here. Cohen’s March 2019 testimony can be found here. [May 20, 2019], the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence voted to release Michael Cohen’s testimony and related exhibits to the public by a vote of 12 – 7. Afterwards, Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) made the following statement: “With… Continue Reading

Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy.

CNN – “…Finland has faced down Kremlin-backed propaganda campaigns ever since it declared independence from Russia 101 years ago. But in 2014, after Moscow annexed Crimea and backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, it became obvious that the battlefield had shifted: information warfare was moving online. Toivanen, the chief communications specialist for the prime minister’s office,… Continue Reading

The Lack of Diversity on the Magistrate Judge Bench

Jennifer L. Thurston, Black Robes, White Judges: The Lack of Diversity on the Magistrate Judge Bench, 82 Law and Contemporary Problems 63-102 (2019) [h/t Mary Whisner] “…From 2009 to 2016, females on the district court bench increased 13.2%, from 19.4% to 32.6%, and non-white district judges increased 10.6%, from 16.4% to 27.0%.24 During this same… Continue Reading

Skunkworks: Inside the Innovation Labs of 3 Fortune 500 Companies

Fortune – Go behind the scenes at Facebook, Levi’s, and Ford. At the Facebook AI Research lab, the online publisher is teaching robots how to learn. It promises to share the results with its friends…. Levi’s Eureka Innovation Lab in San Francisco uses lasers, pigments, and ingenuity to keep the jeansmaker technologically fashion-forward… At the… Continue Reading

16-Year-Olds Want a Vote. Fifty Years Ago, So Did 18-Year-Olds

The New York Times – “Stuart Goldstein still has the red-and-white bumper stickers and other artifacts from 1969, when he helped persuade New Jersey lawmakers that 18-year-olds should be able to vote. He was 18 himself then, working with two other college students, David DuPell and Ken Norbe, to build a political network that grew… Continue Reading

US District Judge in DC rules Congress may subpoena records from Trump accounting firm

BuzzFeedNews: ” A federal judge in Washington, DC, on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s efforts to block a subpoena issued by House Democrats to his longtime accounting firm. US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in a 41-page opinion that the House Oversight Committee had presented “facially valid legislative purposes” in subpoenaing Mazars LLP for financial… Continue Reading