The Office of Professional Responsibility Can Do More to Effectively Identify and Act Against Incompetent and Disreputable Tax Practitioners Report, prepared by the Department of the Treasury Office of the Inspector General, March 31, 2006. (43 pages, PDF) “The overall objective of this review was to determine whether the IRS has an effective process to… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2006
CRS Legal Analysis of Patriot Act
USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005: A Legal Analysis (74 pages, PDF): “This report describes the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 (the Act) and, where appropriate, discusses the modifications to law made by the USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006.” Continue Reading
Testimony of Detainees Before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal
DOD press release, April 3, 2006: “The Defense Department today released hundreds’ more pages of unredacted detainee hearing transcripts taken at the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility, a senior Pentagon official said here today. DoD spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters the newly released documents included 2,000 pages of detainee administrative review board transcripts… Continue Reading
TRAC Launches Immigration Project
“The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) today launched a unique new website providing extensive information about one of most important and politically sensitive subjects in America today — immigration control… The purpose of the site…is to provide the American people, Congress, immigration groups, reporters and others with the authoritative information they need to judge the… Continue Reading
House Report on NSA Domestic Surveillance
House Report Report 109-382, March 2, 2006. Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Directing the Attorney General to Submit to the House of Representatives All Documents In the Possession of the Attorney General Related to Warrantless Electronic Surveillance of Telephone Conversations and Electronic Communications of Persons in the United States Conducted… Continue Reading
EC Publishes Study on Scientific Publication System in Europe
Press release, April 3, 2006: “The European Commission is today publishing a study which examines the scientific publication system in Europe. Scientific publication ensures that research results are made known, which is a pre-condition for further research and for turning this knowledge into innovative products and services. Scientific publication is also an important part of… Continue Reading
European Competition Network Launches One-Stop Access Website
“The European Competition Network – the European Commission together with the national competition authorities in the EU has launched a website providing businesses, their advisors, and citizens with information about antitrust enforcement, annual reports and background documents about the Network. The ECN website will inter alia provide one-stop access to news releases from all… Continue Reading
Pixsy Visual Search
http://pixsy.com/ A picture can be worth a thousand words, but an RSS feed is worth a million pictures. That’s the virtual promise of Pixsy, a visual search engine that scours syndication feeds (in the format of Really Simple Syndication) for up-to-date images and then makes them searchable. On Tuesday, the company will relaunch its engine… Continue Reading
GPO Provides Access to Final Report on the Response to Hurricane Katrina
Following up on my February 20, 2006 posting, Report on the Response to Hurricane Katrina, today GPO made available a PDF copy of the Final Report. Congressional Reports: H. Rpt. 109-377 A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. The Select… Continue Reading
IRS Hearing on Privacy Standards and Sale of Taxpayer Data
The IRS held a public hearing today on proposed regs that will require taxpayers to specifically consent to the sale of their data as supplied to tax preparers. Proposed Regulation Proposed Consent and Warning Requirements Current Regulation Consumer Groups to Testify before the IRS on Plan to Weaken Taxpayer Privacy Rules Citing concerns about privacy… Continue Reading
GAO Report on Quality Control Issues With Commercial Tax Preparers
Paid Tax Return Preparers: In a Limited Study, Chain Preparers Made Serious Errors, Full-text GAO-06-563T, April 4, 2006. Highlights. “In GAO visits to commercial preparers, paid preparers often prepared returns that were incorrect, with tax consequences that were sometimes significant.” Continue Reading
Data Brokers Supplying Gov’t Don’t Consistently Protect Privacy of Citizen Info
Personal Information: Agencies and Resellers Vary in Providing Privacy Protections, Full-text GAO-06-609T, April 4, 2006. Highlights. “In fiscal year 2005, the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and State and the Social Security Administration reported that they used personal information obtained from resellers for a variety of purposes, including performing criminal investigations, locating witnesses and fugitives,… Continue Reading
