Hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs – The Homeland Threat Landscape and U.S. Response – November 14, 2013 – The Honorable Matthew G. Olsen Director National Counterterrorism Center. “Homegrown Violent Extremists (HVEs) remain the most likely global jihadist threat to the Homeland. While the threat posed by HVEs probably will broaden… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: November 2013
New GAO Reports – DHS Financial Management, DC Opportunity Scholarship, Information Resellers
DHS FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT – Continued Effort Needed to Address Internal Control and System Challenges, GAO-14-106T, Nov 15, 2013 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM – Actions Needed to Address Weaknesses in Administration and Oversight, GAO-13-805, Sep 30, 2013 INFORMATION RESELLERS – Consumer Privacy Framework Needs to Reflect Changes in Technology and the Marketplace – GAO-13-663, Sep 25, 2013 Continue Reading
EPIC – Government Audit Finds TSA’s Behavioral Analysis Program “Ineffective”
“The Government Accountability Office issued a report to Congress finding that the Transportation Security Administration’s behavioral analysis program, known as “Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques” (SPOT), is ineffective. The GAO determined that there is no scientifically valid evidence for behavior indicators, and that TSA screeners cannot reliably interpret passenger behavior. The GAO report also notes that… Continue Reading
New England Journal of Medicine – Preventing Gun Deaths in Children
Preventing Gun Deaths in Children – Judith S. Palfrey, M.D., and Sean Palfrey, M.D. N Engl J Med 2013; 368:401-403 January 31, 2013 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1215606 “As practicing pediatricians who have lost patients to gun violence, we join our colleagues in mourning the 20 children and their teachers who were killed in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012. Our sadness is… Continue Reading
UMD, Google and gov. create first detailed map of global forest change
News release: “A University of Maryland-led, multi-organizational team has created the first high-resolution global map of forest extent, loss and gain. This resource greatly improves the ability to understand human and naturally-induced forest changes and the local to global implications of these changes on environmental, economic and other natural and societal systems, members of the… Continue Reading
Commentary on Google’s latest transparency report – what is missing that they cannot reveal
Rebecca J. Rosen – The Atlantic: “Today brings the release of the first Transparency Report since the Snowden revelations about widespread government surveillance, and Google’s tone has changed dramatically. In contrast with the warm glow of corporate benevolence Google has tended to exude in these moments, today’s Google Blog post announcing the new Report is a touch surly,… Continue Reading
THOMAS will now redirect to congress.gov
Via Jennifer Manning on GovDoc – “Starting Tuesday, November 19, the main URLs for THOMAS [http://www.thomas.gov, http://thomas.gov and http://thomas.loc.gov] will be redirected to the new beta congress.gov system [ http://beta.congress.gov ]. Permanent links (e.g. “handles”) and links to subpages (for example: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/nomis.html), will not be affected. THOMAS will remain fully operational and updated, and available at the following URL: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php These changes will remain in effect until late… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – TSA, DHS Financial Management, Federal Employees, Aviation Security, Defense Logistics, Info Tech
AVIATION SECURITY- TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities, GAO-14-158T, Nov 14, 2013 DHS FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT – Additional Efforts Needed to Resolve Deficiencies in Internal Controls and Financial Management Systems, GAO-13-561, Sep 30, 2013 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES – Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Performance Management Pilot, GAO-13-755, Sep 12, 2013 GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR BANK HOLDING COMPANIES – Statutory Changes to Limit… Continue Reading
Boosting Adult Educational Skills Can Grow the Middle Class
“An educated workforce is one of the bedrocks of not only the American middle class but also the U.S. economy as a whole. Our economy is the most productive in the world because of the investments workers make in their own skills and civil society makes in education. However, anew report from the Organisation for Economic… Continue Reading
McKinsey – QE and ultra-low interest rates: Distributional effects and risks
“A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute examines the distributional effects of these ultra-low rates. It finds that there have been significant effects on different sectors in the economy in terms of income interest and expense. From 2007 to 2012, governments in the eurozone, the United Kingdom, and the United States collectively benefited by… Continue Reading
New Reports TracK Financial Health of U.S. Largest Law Firms
Patrick J. Lamb: “Just days apart, Wells Fargo and Citibank released their commentary on the financial performance of the Am Law 200 law firms. The news was not pretty. Characterizations like “underproductivity” and “anemic” and “margins squeezed” littered the two reports. What do we learn from these two reports? We learn that demand from clients is dropping, there is compression… Continue Reading
Europe’s budgetary surveillance moves into full gear
News release: “The European Commission today presented a major package of budgetary surveillance announcements, covering 13 euro area Member States and 3 non-euro Member States, with a special focus also on the euro area as an economic entity in its own right. For the first time, the Commission has issued opinions on euro area Member… Continue Reading
