Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: January 18, 2009

UK: Government to Help Banks Boost Lending

News release: “The Prime Minister and the Chancellor have announced new measures to bring stability to the banking sector and ensure the resumption of lending to families and businesses across the UK…the PM said that a new asset protection scheme would allow the Government to provide insurance cover to banks looking to expand their lending. The Government will also negotiate binding “lending responsibility agreements” with banks with “precise and clear quantitative targets” around lending levels..”

  • Read the Treasury press release on the Government’s financial intervention
  • Read the detailed Treasury press release on the Asset Protection Scheme
  • Related postings on financial system
  • Report: The Accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Justice, 2001-2009

    Follow up to January 7, 2009 posting, Bush Administration Releases Highlights of Accomplishments and Results, the next report in what appears to be a series, The Accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Justice, 2001-2009 “Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Department made combating terrorism its top priority. This shift required a significant revision… Continue Reading

    Treasury Announces New Policy To Increase Transparency in Financial Stability Program

    News release: “Building on President Barack Obama and Secretary Tim Geithner’s commitment to increase transparency and accountability in the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), the U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced a new policy of posting investment contracts for future completed transactions to the Department’s website within five to 10 business days. For contracts… Continue Reading

    Museums, Zoos, After-School Programs Boost Science Learning

    News release: “Each year, tens of millions of Americans, young and old, choose to learn about science in informal ways — by visiting museums and aquariums, attending after-school programs, pursuing personal hobbies, and watching TV documentaries, for example. There is abundant evidence that these programs and settings, and even everyday experiences such as a walk… Continue Reading

    The Troubled Asset Relief Program: Report on Transactions Through December 31, 2008

    Congressional Budget Office (CBO): The Troubled Asset Relief Program: Report on Transactions Through December 31, 2008 “This is the first of CBO’s statutory reports on the TARP’s transactions. Through December 31, 2008, those transactions totaled $247 billion. Valuing those assets using procedures similar to those specified in the Federal Credit Reform Act (FCRA), but adjusting… Continue Reading

    UNICEF The State of the World's Children 2009

    The State of the World’s Children 2009: Maternal and Newborn Health “The divide between industrialized countries and developing regions – particularly the least developed countries – is perhaps greater on maternal mortality than on almost any other issue. This claim is borne out by the numbers: Based on 2005 data, the average lifetime risk of… Continue Reading

    DOD OIG Report: Examination of Allegations Involving DoD Office of Public Affairs Outreach Program

    Inspector General, Department of Defense: Examination of Allegations Involving DoD Office of Public Affairs Outreach Program, Jauary 14, 2009. “We initiated this review to further examine issues that were raised in an April 2008 New York Times article entitled, Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand. The article documented a DoD public affairs outreach program that… Continue Reading

    Report: Nuclear Bomb Materials Can Be Eliminated From Production Of Medical Supplies

    News release: “Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the incoming Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, and the founder of the House Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, today praised a new report by the National Academies of Sciences entitled Medical Isotope Production Without Highly Enriched Uranium. The report concludes… Continue Reading

    Bureau of Justice Statistics: Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2007-08

    News release: “In the first 21 months of operation, the Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS) recorded information on more than 1,200 alleged incidents of human trafficking, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced. The HTRS contains data collected by 38 federally funded human trafficking task forces on alleged incidents of human… Continue Reading

    National Archives Opens 9/11 Commission Textual Materials

    News release: The National Archives…open[ed] more than 150 cubic feet of records of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, an independent, bipartisan commission created by Congress. The Commission’s mandate was to provide a “full and complete accounting” of the attacks of September 11, 2001, and recommend… Continue Reading