News release: “Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 155,000 in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in health care, food services and drinking places, construction, and manufacturing.” Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Monthly Archives: January 2013
Army Drawdown and Restructuring: Background and Issues for Congress
Army Drawdown and Restructuring: Background and Issues for Congress by Andrew Feickert, Specialist in Military Ground Forces. January 3, 2013 “On January 26, 2012, senior DOD leadership unveiled a new defense strategy based on a review of potential future security challenges, current defense strategy, and budgetary constraints. This new strategy envisions a smaller, leaner Army… Continue Reading
Emerging Consensus Shows Climate Change Already Having Major Effects on Ecosystems and Species
USGS news release: “Plant and animal species are shifting their geographic ranges and the timing of their life events such as flowering, laying eggs or migrating at faster rates than researchers documented just a few years ago, according to a technical report on biodiversity and ecosystems used as scientific input for the 2013… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports: Tax Gap, Flood Insurance
Tax Gap – IRS Could Significantly Increase Revenues by Better Targeting Enforcement Resources, GAO-13-151, Dec 5, 2012 Flood Insurance – Participation of Indian Tribes in Federal and Private Programs, GAO-13-226, Jan 4, 2013 Continue Reading
Transocean Agrees to Plead Guilty to Environmental Crime and Enter Civil Settlement to Resolve U.S. Clean Water Act Penalty Claims from Deepwater Horizon Incident
News release: “Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) and to pay a total of $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties, for its conduct in relation to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Department of Justice announced today. The criminal information and a proposed partial… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Causes and Consequences of Recent Bank Failures, Border Security
Financial Institutions – Causes and Consequences of Recent Bank Failures. GAO-13-71, Jan 3, 2013. “Ten states concentrated in the western, midwestern, and southeastern United Statesall areas where the housing market had experienced strong growth in the prior decadeexperienced 10 or more commercial bank or thrift (bank) failures between 2008 and 2011. The failures of the… Continue Reading
Google Agrees to Change Its Business Practices to Resolve FTC Competition Concerns
News release: “Google Inc. has agreed to change some of its business practices to resolve Federal Trade Commission concerns that those practices could stifle competition in the markets for popular devices such as smart phones, tablets and gaming consoles, as well as the market for online search advertising. Under a settlement reached with the FTC,… Continue Reading
Proposed Rulemaking – IRS Truncated Taxpayer Identification Numbers
“This document contains proposed regulations that create a new taxpayer identifying number known as an IRS truncated taxpayer identification number, a TTIN. As an alternative to using a social security number (SSN), IRS individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), or IRS adoption taxpayer identification number (ATIN), the filer of certain information returns may use a TTIN… Continue Reading
Employment and unemployment experience of the U.S. population in 2011
BLS: “A total of 153.5 million persons worked at some point during 2011. The proportion of workers who worked full time, year round in 2011 was 65.8 percent, up from 64.7 percent in 2010. Among those who worked in 2011, men were more likely than women to work full time, year round.” Includes charts and… Continue Reading
State employment and unemployment, November 2012
BLS: “From November 2011 to November 2012, nonfarm employment increased in 45 states and decreased in 5 states and the District of Columbia. The largest over-the-year percentage increase occurred in North Dakota (+4.7 percent); the largest decrease occurred in West Virginia (−1.8 percent). Over the year, 29 states experienced statistically significant changes in employment; only… Continue Reading
U.S. Periods of War and Dates of Current Conflicts
U.S. Periods of War and Dates of Current Conflicts, Barbara Salazar Torreon, Information Research Specialist, December 28, 2012 “Many wars or conflicts in U.S. history have federally designated periods of war, dates marking their beginning and ending. These dates are important for qualification for certain veterans pension or disability benefits. Confusion can occur because beginning… Continue Reading
UN – Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in the Syrian Arab Republic
Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in the Syrian Arab Republic. Megan Price, Jeff Klingner, and Patrick Ball. The Benetech Human Rights Program. January 2, 2013. “this report presents findings integrated from six databases built by Syrian human rights monitors and one database collected by the Syrian government. The databases collect information about conflict-related… Continue Reading
