Paying Too Much for Energy? The True Costs of Our Energy Choices, Michael Greenstone & Adam Looney, Brookings, May 2012 “Energy consumption is critical to economic growth and quality of life. Americas energy system, however, is malfunctioning. The status quo is characterized by a tilted playing field, where energy choices are based on the visible… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: May 2012
Sunlight Foundation Reports on U.S. Embassies and Social Media
Sunlight Labs: “The U.S. State Department encourages the use of social media and actively tweets as part of a new 21st Century Statecraft initiative, with diplomats required to undergo Twitter training. But why do 121 U.S. embassies have Twitter accounts, and 54 do not? What do they say through these accounts? And who listens?” Twitter… Continue Reading
Myspace Settles FTC Charges That It Misled Millions of Users About Sharing Personal Information with Advertisers
News release: “Social networking service Myspace has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misrepresented its protection of users’ personal information. The settlement, part of the FTC’s ongoing efforts make sure companies live up to the privacy promises they make to consumers, bars Myspace from future privacy misrepresentations, requires it to implement a… Continue Reading
FTC Seeks Return of $52 Million Worth of Bogus Phone Bill Cramming Charges
News release: “The Federal Trade Commission is seeking a civil contempt ruling against the nation’s largest third-party billing company, alleging that it placed more than $70 million in bogus “cramming” charges on consumers’ phone bills in violation of a previous court order. The FTC is asking a federal court to make the company pay more… Continue Reading
FTC Joins DOJ and CFPB in Filing Brief Supporting the Constitutionality of Fair Credit Reporting Act
News release: “The Federal Trade Commission has joined the Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in filing a memorandum brief in support of the constitutionality of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the 1970 law that is designed to protect the privacy of credit report information and ensure that the information supplied… Continue Reading
TRAC: ICE Charges Criminal Activity in Fewer Deportation Proceedings
TRAC: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to cite criminal activity as grounds for deportation less often than it used to, according to the latest Immigration Court data on new deportation proceedings. During the most recent quarter (January – March 2012), ICE sought to deport a total of 5,450 individuals on criminal grounds. While this… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports: Border Patrol Strategy, DHS Acquisition Authority
Border Patrol Strategy – Progress and Challenges in Implementation and Assessment Efforts, GAO-12-688T, May 8, 2012 Department of Homeland Security – Further Action Needed to Improve Management of Special Acquisition Authority, GAO-12-557, May 8, 2012: “When DHS was created in 2002, Congress granted it special acquisition authority to use other transaction agreements, which are special… Continue Reading
EC Database on transnational company agreements
Database on transnational company agreements: “The database contains all transnational company agreements and texts identified and catalogued by the European Commission. It also contains sheets with details on every company and agreement. You can only download texts and agreements for which we obtained an authorization to publish by at least one signatory. There are two… Continue Reading
Shades of Gray: A Cross-Country Study of Health and Well-Being of the Older Populations in SAGE Countries, 20072010
Shades of Gray: A Cross-Country Study of Health and Well-Being of the Older Populations in SAGE Countries, 20072010, By Wan He, Mark N. Muenchrath, and Paul Kowal. Issued May 2012 “Health levels varied greatly among people 50 and older in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa, but hypertension and arthritis were the two… Continue Reading
BLS – Young adult employment during the recent recession
Issues in – Young adult employment during the recent recession. Labor Statistics, Summary 12-02 / May 2012 “The recent recession lasted from December 2007 to June 2009, with the unemployment rate increasing from 5.0 percent at the beginning of the recession to 9.6 percent at the end.1 The recession had different consequences for various demographic… Continue Reading
Inclusive Social Media Project: Participatory Evaluation
E-Democracy.org: “Our 2010-11 Inclusive Social Media pilot funded by the Ford Foundation built a foundation for taking our inclusive online engagement work to the next stage. Knowing what we are experiencing requires a reflective evaluation. Today, we are sharing the executive summary from our participatory evaluation and publishing the entire 60 page review (PDF). Continue Reading
CoreLogic Reports 69,000 Completed Foreclosures Nationally in March
News release: “CoreLogic, a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, released its National Foreclosure Report for March, which provides monthly data on completed foreclosures, foreclosure inventory and 90+ day delinquency rates. There were 69,000 completed foreclosures in March 2012 compared to 85,000 in March 2011 and 66,000* in February 2012. Through the first… Continue Reading
