Via Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, this new memorandum on technology neutrality: “Each year, the U.S. Government spends almost $80 billion dollars buying information technology (IT); the software, computer equipment and network devices that help the Government run efficiently. It is important that those purchases be fair, neutral and based on an… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2011
Next Steps to Enhance Online Security, Planned National Office for Identity Trust Strategy
News release: “At a forum with Silicon Valley business and academic leaders at Stanford University, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard A. Schmidt announced plans to create a National Program Office to help foster an environment in which sensitive online transactions can be carried out with greater levels of trust.… Continue Reading
Digital Think Tank and GW University Publish first Digital IQ Index: Public Sector
Government Technology: “A new study ranking government, nonprofit and industry trade groups for their use of social media and online strategies revealed that more than 50 percent of the organizations polled are not using these digital avenues as effectively as they could be. The first L2 Digital IQ Index: Public Sector was co-authored by digital… Continue Reading
Study: More Than 3,000 WTC Survivors Suffer Post-Traumatic Stress
News release: “Nearly 10 years after the greatest human-made disaster in U.S. history– the destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers — there has been little research documenting the attacks consequences among those most directly affected — the survivors who escaped the World Trade Center towers. In a study just released by Columbia Universitys… Continue Reading
FCC Announces Open Internet Apps Challenge
News release: “…the FCC announced a challenge to researchers and software developers to engage in research and create apps that help consumers foster, measure, and protect Internet openness. The Open Internet Challenge is part of the FCCs efforts to empower end users to help preserve Internet openness. Details of the challenge are posted at openinternet.gov/challenge.… Continue Reading
World Bank Ranking of Global Economies
Economic Rankings: “Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1 183. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. This index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 9 topics, made up of a… Continue Reading
DOJ Subpoena's Twitter for WikiLeaks Customer Documents
Follow up to previous postings on WikiLeaks, Salon posted a copy of the December 14, 2010 subpoena to Twitter Inc. from DOJ, U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Virginia, for information relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation. Salon: Court probes WikiLeaks Twitter info Continue Reading
CBO: Monthly Budget Review January 2011
Monthly Budget Review – January 2011 – Based on the Monthly Treasury Statement for November and the Daily Treasury Statements for December: “The federal budget deficit was $371 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, CBO estimates, $18 billion less than the shortfall in the same period of fiscal year 2010. Revenues were… Continue Reading
GAO: DOD's 2010 Comprehensive Inventory Management Improvement Plan
DOD’s 2010 Comprehensive Inventory Management Improvement Plan Addressed Statutory Requirements, But Faces Implementation Challenges, GAO-11-240R, January 07, 2011 “The Department of Defense (DOD) spends billions of dollars to purchase, manage, store, track, and deliver spare parts and other supplies needed to keep military equipment ready and operating. Given the need to support ongoing U.S. military… Continue Reading
HHS and EPA announce new scientific assessments and actions on fluoride
News release: “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today are announcing important steps to ensure that standards and guidelines on fluoride in drinking water continue to provide the maximum protection to the American people to support good dental health, especially in children. HHS is proposing… Continue Reading
"scientific research . . . suggests that dolphins are non-human persons who qualify for moral standing as individuals"
LMU Professor Presents Case for Dolphins as Nonhuman Persons at Science Conference: “Are dolphins nonhuman persons? Loyola Marymount University professor Thomas White insists they are, and presented his research this week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Diego. White, the author of In Defense of Dolphins: The New Frontier,… Continue Reading
Unemployment rate falls to 9.4% in December; payroll employment increases by 103,000
News release: The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 9.4 percent in December, and nonfarm payroll employment increased by 103,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in leisure and hospitality and in health care but was little changed in other major industries. The number of unemployed persons decreased by… Continue Reading
