“Today the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) release From Fingerprints to DNA: Biometric Data Collection in U.S. Immigrant Communities and Beyond. The paper outlines the current state of U.S. government collection of biometric information and the problems that could arise from these growing databases of records. It also points out how immigrant communities are immediately affected by the way this data is collected, stored, and shared.”
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Daily Archives: May 23, 2012
Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People Strategy
“The Digital Government Strategy complements several initiatives aimed at building a 21st century government that works better for the American people. These include Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service), Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient, Effective, and Accountable Government), the Presidents Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open… Continue Reading
Horizontal drilling boosts Pennsylvanias natural gas production
Follow up to previous postings on fracking, from EIA, Horizontal drilling boosts Pennsylvanias natural gas production: “Between 2009 and 2011, Pennsylvania’s natural gas production more than quadrupled due to expanded horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing. This drilling activity, which is concentrated in shale formations that cover a broad swath of the state, mirrors trends… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – 401(k) Plans, Military Disability System, Public Service, Streamlining Government, VA Dialysis Pilot
401(k) Plans – Increased Educational Outreach and Broader Oversight May Help Reduce Plan Fees, GAO-12-325, Apr 24, 2012 401(k) Plans – Survey of 401(k) Plan Sponsors on Fees (GAO-12-550SP, April 2012), an E-supplement to GAO-12-325 GAO-12-550SP, Apr 24, 2012 Military Disability System – Preliminary Observations on Efforts to Improve Performance, GAO-12-718T, May 23, 2012 Public… Continue Reading
Energy prices jump while food prices show modest increases
Energy prices jump while food prices show modest increases, Jonathan Church “The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Produced monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the CPI uses a market… Continue Reading
CRS – Intelligence Authorization Legislation: Status and Challenges
Intelligence Authorization Legislation: Status and Challenges – Richard F. Grimmett, Specialist in International Security. May 21, 2012 Continue Reading
CRS – Table Egg Production and Hen Welfare: The UEP-HSUS Agreement and H.R. 3798
Table Egg Production and Hen Welfare: The UEP-HSUS Agreement and H.R. 3798, May 14, 2012 “The United Egg Producers (UEP), the largest group representing egg producers, and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the largest animal protection group, have been adversaries for many years over the use of conventional cages in table egg… Continue Reading
Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization
Ohm, Paul, Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization (August 13, 2009). UCLA Law Review, Vol. 57, p. 1701, 2010; U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 9-12. Available at SSRN “Computer scientists have recently undermined our faith in the privacy-protecting power of anonymization, the name for techniques for… Continue Reading
Census Bureau Releases Estimates of Undercount and Overcount in the 2010 Census
News release: “The U.S. Census Bureau released today results from its post-enumeration survey, providing a measure of the accuracy of the 2010 Census. The results found that the 2010 Census had a net overcount of 0.01 percent, meaning about 36,000 people were overcounted in the census. This sample-based result, however, was not statistically different from… Continue Reading
May 2012 Economic and Housing Outlook
News release: “Housing activity indicated a promising start for the first quarter of 2012 that substantially outpaced performance during the same period last year. However, the monthly pattern suggests some loss of momentum late in the quarter. According to Fannie Maes (FNMA/OTC) Economic & Strategic Research Group, a slowdown in momentum may be mirroring many… Continue Reading
