Lisa Rein at the Washington Post: “One team of federal agents led Medicare investigations that resulted in more than 600 convictions in South Florida, recovering hundreds of millions of dollars. Another official boosted access to burial sites for veterans across the country. And one guided an initiative to provide safe drinking water to 5 million people… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: May 2014
New GAO Reports – Defense Acquisitions, Defense Contracting, Uranium Contamination
DEFENSE ACQUISITIONS: Military Services Consistently Held Required Configuration Steering Boards That Actively Reviewed Requirements Changes, GAO-14-466R: Published: May 5, 2014. Publicly Released: May 5, 2014. DEFENSE CONTRACTING: Early Attention in the Acquisition Process Needed to Enhance Competition, GAO-14-395: Published: May 5, 2014. Publicly Released: May 5, 2014. URANIUM CONTAMINATION: Overall Scope, Time Frame, and Cost Information Is Needed for Contamination Cleanup on… Continue Reading
Fitch – Fracking Water Supply Risk Would Fall On US Utilities
Fitch Ratings-New York-02 May 2014: “Despite more stringent state laws, water and sewer utilities must comply with EPA water regulations and would bear much of the financial burden if hydrofracking (fracking) operations lead to contamination of a water supply, Fitch Ratings says. This week the state of Michigan joined a growing list of states that… Continue Reading
Commentary Argues for Expanded Transparency via FOIA Releases Online
Lauren Harper [snipped]: “The US was the first country to enact a modern Freedom of Information Act, and was the model other countries looked towards when crafting their own FOI laws. Now, however, the US lags behind the world’s transparency leaders, and, if the US hopes to catch up, it must embrace the technology mandates… Continue Reading
The State of the U.S. Labor Market: Pre-May 2014 Jobs Release
Michael Madowitz and Matt Markezich | May 1, 2014: “Since the end of the Great Recession, the economy has added 8.3 million jobs, and the unemployment rate has fallen from 10 percent to 6.7 percent. But beneath these top-line numbers, the labor market is still quite fragile. In March, the Federal Reserve tacitly acknowledged the widening gap between the… Continue Reading
50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons Today
“Their number and role in U.S. security have been reduced, but nuclear weapons still provide important security benefits to the United States and its allies. While the prospects for moving to lower levels than those in New START now appear limited, the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative at Brookings put together an updated list of 50 Facts… Continue Reading
Blogs as an Alternative Public Sphere
Etling, Bruce and Roberts, Hal and Faris, Robert, Blogs as an Alternative Public Sphere: The Role of Blogs, Mainstream Media, and TV in Russia’s Media Ecology (April 22, 2014). Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2014-8. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2427932 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2427932 “Applying a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, we investigate whether Russian blogs represent an alternative public… Continue Reading
WHO commits to open access by joining Europe PubMed Central
News release: “WHO supports open access to the published output of its activities as a fundamental part of its mission and a public benefit to be encouraged wherever possible. The new WHO policy on open access applies to all articles or chapters published in non-WHO publications that are authored or co-authored by WHO staff or produced… Continue Reading
Restatement of Place
Kuykendall, Mae, Restatement of Place (May 2, 2014). Brooklyn Law Review, Vol. 79, 2014; MSU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 12-09. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2432212 “Images and intuitions of place are ubiquitous in human thought. Dominion over place is one of the first anchors of the conception of law, providing a rationale for sovereign control over… Continue Reading
The USPTO Trademark Assignment Dataset: Descriptions, Lessons, and Insights
Graham, Stuart J. H. and Marco, Alan C. and Myers, Amanda F., The USPTO Trademark Assignment Dataset: Descriptions, Lessons, and Insights (April 1, 2014). USPTO Working Paper No. 2014-2. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2430962 “Attention to the asset value of intellectual property (IP) has traditionally concentrated on high-value patent sales and licenses. This narrow focus neglects non-patent… Continue Reading
New Study – Merely observing stressful situations can trigger a physical stress response
Engert, V., Plessow, F., Miller, R., Kirschbaum, C., & Singer, T. Cortisol increase in empathic stress is modulated by social closeness and observation modality. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 17 April 2014. “Stress is contagious. Observing another person in a stressful situation can be enough to make our own bodies release the stress hormone cortisol. This is the conclusion reached by… Continue Reading
Smart phone thefts rose to 3.1 million last year, Consumer Reports finds
“About 3.1 million American consumers were victims of smart phone theft in 2013, Consumer Reports projects, based on our latest nationally representative survey of adult Internet users. That’s nearly double the number we previously projected had been stolen during 2012. The survey also projects that 1.4 million smart phones were lost and never recovered last… Continue Reading
