News release: “As part of the Obama Administration’s aggressive efforts to enforce U.S. tax laws and reduce offshore tax evasion, the U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Swiss Ambassador to the United States Urs Ziswiler signed a protocol updating the current income tax treaty between the United States… Continue Reading
Peek: Mobile E-Mail On A Budget – Conrad J. Jacoby discusses his experiences using the Peek mobile e-mail device (Time Magazine’s 2008 Gadget of the Year), which he believes is genuinely useful and an excellent value for its cost. Continue Reading
High School Dropouts and The Economic Losses from Juvenile Crime in California. California Dropout Research Project Report #16, September 2009, By Clive R. Belfield Queens College, City University of New York and Henry M. Levin Teachers College, Columbia University [thanks to Dan Mitchel] “California’s juvenile crime rate is high. Juveniles commit one-in-six violent crimes and… Continue Reading
ILTA 2009: Smaller, Cheaper… Better? – Attorney and legal IT expert Conrad J. Jacoby believes participants in this year’s conference were hungry for the knowledge available there, for the ability to see in-depth presentations of products, and to attend personal briefings with high-level vendor-side programmers and product directors. Continue Reading
News release: “A judge ordered the government Thursday to release more records about the lobbying campaign to provide immunity to the telecommunications giants that participated in the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White ordered the records be provided to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) by October 9, 2009. The decision is… Continue Reading
News release: “Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), author of the credit card reform bill signed earlier this year by President Obama, and Barney Frank (D-MA), Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, today introduced legislation which changes the effective date for the reforms in that bill to December 1, 2009. H.R. 3639, the Expedited CARD Reform… Continue Reading
CRS Report – Social Networking and Constituent Communication: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Week Period in the 111th Congress Continue Reading
“Federal Computer Week has compiled lists of the top 10 federal agencies using Facebook and Twitter.” Continue Reading
Sanitization and Disposal of Excess Information Technology Equipment (Report No. D-2009-104) “We determined whether DOD Components sanitized and disposed of excess unclassified information technology (IT) equipment in accordance with Federal and DOD requirements. We also determined whether the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) disposed of excess IT equipment in accordance with security requirements; and… Continue Reading
DCAA Audits: Widespread Problems with Audit Quality Require Significant Reform, GAO-09-468, September 23, 2009 DCAA Audits: Widespread Problems with Audit Quality Require Significant Reform, GAO-09-1009T, September 23, 2009 See also Government Executive article: “The Defense Contract Audit Agency needs a complete overhaul, including new leadership and more independence from the Pentagon, according to testimony from… Continue Reading
CBO: Additional Information on Insurance Coverage for Unauthorized Immigrants Under Proposed Health Care Legislation, September 22, 2009 – Letter to the Honorable Chuck Grassley “Under current law, CBO projects that the non elderly unauthorized immigrant population will total about 14 million in 2019. Of those individuals, nearly 60 percent (about 8 million) will be uninsured.… Continue Reading