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Daily Archives: July 5, 2011

TRAC Report – Social Security Administration Disparities Extensive, Overall Problem Increasing

“A new and very detailed analysis of close to two million Social Security Administration (SSA) cases has found extensive and hard to explain disparities in the granting and denial of disability benefits. Because the widespread disparities were found within the agency’s separate offices, the data indicate that the outcomes for individual claims often are more determined by the particular judge who decides them than by their underlying facts and circumstances. The data — analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) — also show that the disparity problem today is somewhat worse than it was four and a half years ago when the SSA launched an ambitious program to reduce the vast numbers of individuals awaiting a hearing and to speed up the process. Embedded in this report is a special interactive table that allows the public to obtain counts and rates documenting the degree of disparity among individual judges in a Social Security hearing office as well as disparity measures for each office as a whole.”

FFIEC – Supplement to Authentication in an Internet Banking Environment

“The purpose of this [June 22, 2011] Supplement to the 2005 Guidance (Supplement) is to reinforce the Guidance’s risk management framework and update the Agencies’ expectations regarding customer authentication, layered security, or other controls in the increasingly hostile online environment. The Supplement reiterates and reinforces the expectations described in the 2005 Guidance that financial institutions… Continue Reading

2011 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff

“Since 1995, the White House has been required to deliver a report to Congress listing the title and salary of every White House Office employee. Consistent with President Obama’s commitment to transparency, this report is being publicly disclosed on our website as it is transmitted to Congress. In addition, this report also contains the title… Continue Reading

Move underway to replace commercial and charter airline flight manuals with iPads

New York Times: “The Federal Aviation Administration has authorized a handful of commercial and charter carriers to use the tablet computer as a so-called electronic flight bag. Private pilots, too, are now carrying iPads, which support hundreds of general aviation apps that simplify preflight planning and assist with in-flight operations…Alaska Airlines received F.A.A. approval in… Continue Reading

American Bar Association – Initial Draft Proposals on Lawyers' Use of Technology and Client Development

Jamie S. Gorelick and Michael Traynor, Co-Chairs – ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 – Re: For Comment: Initial Draft Proposals on Lawyers’ Use of Technology and Client Development. Date: June 29, 2011 “The Commission is pleased to release its initial proposals relating to lawyers’ use of technology-based client development tools. As the accompanying report explains,… Continue Reading

Report – Twenty-Five Years After Federal Pension Reform

Twenty-Five Years After Federal Pension Reform, Employee Benefit Research Institute, July 2011 “Congress created the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) in 1986, in the most sweeping overhaul of retirement benefits for civilian workers in modern times. The law is now 25 years old, has changed little (other than modest expansion of investment choices), and remains… Continue Reading

Commentary – Information Literacy On Campus

Benjamin Rossi – analyst at Basex: “For students, doing research is the bread and butter of their academic life. Conducting research doesn’t just mean searching for information effectively; it means being able to judge the reliability of sources, place information within various contexts, and synthesize different information sources while developing one’s thesis. Encompassing a wide… Continue Reading