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Daily Archives: June 25, 2019

‘A Lot Of Gray Area’: A Legal Expert Explains ‘How To Read The Constitution’

NPR – “What is the president actually allowed to do under the U.S. Constitution? It’s a question that’s comes up from time to time at NPR, and when it does, we’ve turned to experts such as Kim Wehle, now a law professor and CBS News legal commentator. Now, she’s written a book about it. It’s called How to Read the Constitution — and Why. Wehle says that all the debates around the constitutionality of various Trump administration policies inspired her to write the book. She says she originally had a contract to write a book for an academic audience, but found herself writing for laypeople.

“I think it’s really important for people to be educated about not only about their constitutional rights, which is one part of the Constitution, but the structure — the structure of our government,” Wehle says. “And if we allow the government to consolidate power in one branch, one man, one party, then our individual rights break down. So it’s that message that I think is often lost in the day-to-day discourse about whatever that latest tree that’s on fire in the forest. I like to focus on the forest.”…

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues June 22, 2019

Via LLRX – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish… Continue Reading

Sens. Warner, Hawley Team on Social Media Data Monetization Dashboard

“Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) will introduce the Designing Accounting Safeguards to Help Broaden Oversight And Regulations on Data (DASHBOARD) Act, bipartisan legislation that will require data harvesting companies such as social media platforms to tell consumers and financial regulators exactly what data they are collecting from consumers, and how… Continue Reading

ICE Focus Shifts Away from Detaining Serious Criminals

“As of December 31, 2018, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had 47,486 individuals in its custody. The number of ICE detainees was up 22 percent from the 38,810 persons ICE held at the end of September 2016. Results are based on case-by-case records recently obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at… Continue Reading

Need an Expert? GAO Launches Database to Help

“The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched a new one-stop database where the news media, congressional staff, and the public can locate GAO subject matter experts. The new Find-an-Expert section on the GAO website is designed to improve access to the wealth of non-partisan, fact-based information GAO has developed over the years through its… Continue Reading

Following the Paper Trail of Federal Retirement Processing

WatchBlog: Official Blog of the U.S. GAO – “The Office of Personnel Management receives over 100,000 federal retirement applications each year. But the time it takes to process these applications can often be delayed. In fact, between 2014 and 2017, OPM didn’t meet its goal of processing most applications within 60 days. Today’s WatchBlog explores… Continue Reading

New England Is Losing Its Native Plants. Researchers Say It’s Time To Stop And Smell The Wildflowers

wbur – 90.9 – “Where have all the wild orchids gone? A recent study finds that about one quarter of native New England wildflower species have been lost in the last 150 years. This means that purple-fringed orchids and pink lady slippers — once abundant in the region — are disappearing from some areas, often… Continue Reading

Discovery and the Disciplines: An Inquiry into the Role of Subject Databases through Citation Analysis

College and Research Libraries Vol 80, No 2 (2019) – Discovery and the Disciplines: An Inquiry into the Role of Subject Databases through Citation Analysis – Alexa L. Pearce “Libraries have adopted web scale discovery services with the goal of providing their users with a streamlined research experience. However, the single search box that characterizes web… Continue Reading