News release: “National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson today released her annual report to Congress, identifying the need for tax reform as the number one priority in tax administration. The Advocate expressed continuing concern that the IRSs increasing use of hard-core enforcement actions, particularly tax liens, is inflicting unnecessary harm on financially struggling taxpayers. The report also examines challenges the IRS is facing in implementing the new health care law.”
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Daily Archives: January 5, 2011
Commission Releases Chapter on BP Well Blowout Investigation in Advance of Full Report
Follow up to previous postings on the Deepwater oil spill, this news release: “The National Oil Spill Commission today is releasing in advance the chapter from its upcoming full report that contains the key findings from its extensive investigation into the causes of the blowout of BPs Macondo well. On April 20, 2010, that disaster… Continue Reading
Census Bureau Releases Research on the Supplemental Poverty Measure
News release: “The Census Bureau is releasing the research paper, Who is Poor? A New Look With the Supplemental Poverty Measure, plus a number of other technical working papers on the topic. The research paper applies methodology recommended by a federal interagency technical working group to present supplemental poverty estimates. The supplemental poverty measure is… Continue Reading
Google Wins Injunction in Cloud Computing Bid Protest Against Interior
Follow up to Google Files Bid Protest Against Dept. of Interior Over Hosted Email and Collaboration Services, news that Google wins: Interior forbidden to award noncompetitive contract to Microsoft – “U.S. Federal Claims Court Judge Susan Braden ruled on Jan. 3 that negotiations for a sole source contract with Microsoft commenced many months prior to… Continue Reading
2010 Law School Survey of Student Engagement
2010 Law School Survey of Student Engagement: “Findings reveal that students who interacted with faculty more often were significantly more likely to report substantial gains in key areas related to professionalism and ethics compared to students with less faculty contact. Despite the benefit to students, opportunities for student-faculty interaction often are missed. Results also indicate… Continue Reading
U.S. Census Bureau Reports State Government Revenues Decline Nearly 31 Percent
News release: “Total state government revenue dropped to $1.1 trillion in 2009, a decline of 30.8 percent from $1.6 trillion in 2008, according to the latest findings from the U.S. Census Bureau. The large decrease in total revenue was mainly caused by the substantial decrease in social insurance trust revenue. Social insurance trust revenue is… Continue Reading
California Supreme Court Affirms Warrantless Search of Suspects Cell Phone Text Messages
PEOPLE v. DIAZ, Criminal Appeal, Start Date: 09/09/2008. Opinion issued – Petition for review after the Court of Appeal affirmed a judgment of conviction of a criminal offense. This case presents the following issues: (1) Was defendant’s cell phone an item “immediately associated with the person of the arrestee” within the meaning of United States… Continue Reading
Google Refine, a power tool for working with messy data
“Google Refine is a power tool for working with messy data, cleaning it up, transforming it from one format into another, extending it with web services, and linking it to databases like Freebase.” Continue Reading
Majority of Federal Employees Go Beyond Mandatory IT Security Requirements
News release: “Most Federal employees go beyond baseline IT security requirements, according to a new survey by the Government Business Council, the research division of Government Executive Media Group, and CDW Government LLC (CDW-G), a leading provider of technology solutions to government, education and healthcare customers. While 97 percent of Federal employees are required by… Continue Reading
Top Issues Facing Social Security Administration Management – Fiscal Year 2011
Top Issues Facing Social Security Administration Management – Fiscal Year 2011, December 2010 “The Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 requires that we summarize for inclusion in the Social Security Administrations (SSA) Performance and Accountability Report, our perspective on the most serious management and performance challenges facing SSA. We have determined that the top management issues… Continue Reading
