U.S Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure, Revised September 2016 [DISCLAIMER: The purpose of the document is to disseminate relevant information and general guidance on Government Ethics issues at the Department of Defense. This document should not be cited as DoD authoritative guidance, policy or law.] “The Standards of Conduct… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Government Documents
Judge Orders Sep. 8 Deadline for Mar-a-Lago Visitor Records Release
National Security Archive: “The Department of Homeland Security will release the visitor logs for President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort by September 8, according to a court order filed on July 14, 2017, by federal judge Katherine Polk Failla. The order is in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by the National Security… Continue Reading
Research – States with right-to-carry concealed handgun laws experience increases in violent crime
Stanford News: “States that have enacted right-to-carry (RTC) concealed handgun laws have experienced higher rates of violent crime than states that did not adopt those laws, according to a Stanford scholar. Right-to-carry laws are linked with higher violent crime rates according to research by Stanford Law School Professor John Donohue. Examining decades of crime data,… Continue Reading
CRS – Democracy Promotion: An Objective of U.S. Foreign Assistance
Democracy Promotion: An Objective of U.S. Foreign Assistance, May 31, 2017. R44858. “Promoting democratic institutions, processes, and values has long been a U.S. foreign policy objective, though the priority given to this objective has been inconsistent. World events, competing priorities, and political change within the United States all shape the attention and resources provided to… Continue Reading
NYT As Elites Switch to Texting Watchdogs Fear Loss of Transparency
As Elites Switch to Texting, Watchdogs Fear Loss of Transparency, Kevin Roose – “Lawmakers, executives and other leaders are turning to encrypted chat apps to keep their communications under wraps, causing problems in industries where careful record-keeping is standard procedure…Secure messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Confide are making inroads among lawmakers, corporate executives and other… Continue Reading
Pew – Globally, More Name U.S. Than China as World’s Leading Economic Power
“The past decade has witnessed significant changes in the global economy as many nations around the world have struggled with the Great Recession and its aftereffects. While the United States and other relatively wealthy Western nations have slowly bounced back from the crisis, economic growth rates have been low compared with those of China, India… Continue Reading
2017 Annual Report – Board of Trustees of Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds
The 2017 OASDI Trustees Report, officially called “The 2017 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds,” [other wise known as Social Security] presents the current and projected financial status of the trust funds.” The bad news just continues to grow – US… Continue Reading
Another week another Senate health care bill
Follow up to multiple previous postings included here – Senate version of House health care repeal and replace bill eliminates coverage for 22 million Americans – today via the Washington Post – Revised Senate health-care bill still lacks the votes to pass: “The Senate GOP’s latest attempt to rewrite the Affordable Care Act showed few signs… Continue Reading
Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009-2015 – Statistical Tables
Erika Harrell, Ph.D., BJS Statistician July 11, 2017. NCJ 250632 “Presents 2009-2015 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) estimates of nonfatal violent crime (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) against persons age 12 or older with disabilities. Disabilities are classified according to six limitations: hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, and independent living.… Continue Reading
First Article of Impeachment Filed Against President Trump
The Hill: “Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) formally introduced an article of impeachment against President Trump on Wednesday that accuses the president of obstructing justice during the federal investigation of Russia’s 2016 election interference. This is the first time a lawmaker has offered an impeachment article against Trump, and it comes as Democrats have debated whether it… Continue Reading
GPO’s beta website research update for July 2017
July 6, 2017 – Links to related bills on Congressional Record details pages, RSS notifications, link service “Highlights from this release include links from Congressional Record Details pages to related bills, a variety of enhancements based on feedback from users, thumbnails in search results, pagination for optimized browsing, in-context help information, new developer tools including… Continue Reading
IG Audit of OPM IT Systems – Follow on to massive breach of employee data
Follow up to previous posting of November 2016 – Audit of OPM Security Systems Shows Continued Material Weakness – an update via NextGov: “More than two years after suffering a massive data beach [of over 20 million current and past federal employee personal data], the Office of Personnel Management still isn’t sufficiently vetting many of… Continue Reading
