“Brent Walls, Upper Potomac Riverkeeper, has become an expert on the growing issue of PFAS – toxic “legacy” chemicals – which we are finding in more and more places. He has created a map which identifies monitoring locations where Maryland’s Department of the Environment (MDE) collected fish tissue samples from various species, oyster sampling and… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
Buried But Not Forgotten: Coal Ash in the Chesapeake
Waterkeepers Chesapeake – “The Chesapeake Bay region has a problem it thought it could bury and forget. But the solution for coal ash is not so simple. Coal ash, also referred to as coal combustion residuals or CCRs, is produced primarily from the burning of coal in coal-fired power plants. Coal ash contains hazardous pollutants… Continue Reading
How a Good Government Bill Becomes a Law
PopVox – “On Thursday, the House of Representatives did something unusual: it passed a small, bipartisan bill with a substantive and positive impact on policy. The PRESS Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Kevin Kiley [R, CA], Jamie Raskin [D, MD], and eighteen others, is a reporter shield law. The District of Columbia and every state except… Continue Reading
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms That Texas Book Ban Law is Unconstitutional
Association of American Publishers: “The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit today affirmed the preliminary injunction of the “Reader Act” (formerly HB 900) granted by Judge Alan D. Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division in a written opinion issued on September 18, 2023. The law would have required independent bookstores, national… Continue Reading
Politico’s new feature creates AI-generated summaries of federal bills for subscribers
“Politico Pro paid subscribers will now see “thousands more Federal bill summaries” generated by AI. The new Legislative Compass feature delivers both brief and in-depth bill summaries of federal bills, which Politico says should help public policy professionals respond to legislative changes faster. The news comes after Politico’s parent company, Axel Springer, and OpenAI announced… Continue Reading
Abolishing a Federal Agency: The Interstate Commerce Commission
CRS – Abolishing a Federal Agency: The Interstate Commerce Commission, January 10, 2024. “Congress has, from time to time, enacted legislation to discontinue a federal agency and either redistribute or discontinue its functions. Abolishment of an agency or its functions has often been politically challenging because of the potential impact on stakeholders with competing interests.… Continue Reading
OpenAI warns copyright crackdown could doom ChatGPT
Telegraph: “The maker of ChatGPT has warned that a ban on using news and books to train chatbots would doom the development of artificial intelligence. OpenAI has told peers that it would be “impossible” to create services such as ChatGPT if it were prevented from relying on copyrighted works, as it seeks to influence potential… Continue Reading
‘Major Win’ in Fight Against Dictionary-Yanking School District
Newser: Federal judge allows lawsuit against Florida’s Escambia County School District to proceed – “A Florida school district is keeping students from accessing dictionaries which, in defining sex and other concepts, are considered to violate the state law prohibiting materials in schools that depict or describe sexual conduct, per the Messenger. Escambia County School District… Continue Reading
A New Kind of AI Copy Can Fully Replicate Famous People
Politico – The Law Is Powerless. “…AI-generated digital replicas illuminate a new kind of policy gray zone created by powerful new “generative AI” platforms, where existing laws and old norms begin to fail. In Washington, spurred mainly by actors and performers alarmed by AI’s capacity to mimic their image and voice, some members of Congress… Continue Reading
Meet ‘Link History,’ Facebook’s New Way to Track the Websites You Visit
Gizmodo: “Facebook recently rolled out a new “Link History” setting that creates a special repository of all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app. Users can opt-out, but Link History is turned on by default, and the data is used for targeted ads. As lawmakers introduce tech regulations and Apple and Google… Continue Reading
Protecting Students from Faulty Software and Legislation: 2023 Year in Review
EFF: “Lawmakers, schools districts, educational technology companies and others keep rolling out legislation and software that threatens students’ privacy, free speech, and access to social media, in the name of “protecting” children. At EFF, we fought back against this overreach and demand accountability and transparency. Bad bills and invasive monitoring systems, though sometimes well-meaning, hurt… Continue Reading
International Threats to Freedom of Expression: 2023 Year in Review
EFF: “2023 has been an unfortunate reminder that the right to free expression is most fragile for groups on the margins, and that it can quickly become a casualty during global conflicts. Threats to speech arose out of the ongoing war in Palestine. They surfaced in bills and laws around the world that explicitly restrict… Continue Reading
