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Daily Archives: August 30, 2014

Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment – July 2014

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BLS news release: “Unemployment rates were lower in July than a year earlier in 348 of the 372 metropolitan areas, higher in 16 areas, and unchanged in 8 areas, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Fifteen areas had jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent and 68 areas had rates of less than 5.0 percent. Nonfarm payroll employment increased over the year in 327 metropolitan areas, decreased in 41 areas, and was unchanged in 4 areas. The national unemployment rate in July was 6.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted, down from 7.7 percent a year earlier.”

  • See also America’s Disappearing Jobs: 24/7 Wall St., includes a list of jobs and categories as well as descriptions of the jobs that have seen a severe decline. Number one on this list, taken from data in the above mentioned BLS release, are logging workers that cut down trees, with an anticipated decline in jobs of approximately 43%.

EPIC FOIA Case – Army Blimps over Washington Loaded with Surveillance Gear, Cost $1.6 Billion

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“EPIC has received substantial new information about the surveillance blimps, now deployed over Washington, DC. The documents were released to EPIC in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of the Army. The documents also reveal that the Army paid Raytheon $1.6 billion. EPIC will receive more documents about the controversial program In October. For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. Army… Continue Reading

The State of the World’s Rivers Interactive Database

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Mapping the Health of the World’s Fifty Major River Basins: “The State of the World’s Rivers interactive mapping database compares ecological health indicators within the world’s 50 major river basins. To start navigating the maps, click to close this dialogue. Then, on the left panel, select among the fourteen ecological indicators to visualize corresponding values… Continue Reading

ProPublica, Satellites and The Shrinking Louisiana Coast

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“At the heart of the story is the fact that the Louisiana coastline loses land at a rate equivalent to a football field each hour. That comes to 16 square miles per year. The land south of New Orleans has always been low-lying, but since the Army Corps of Engineers built levees along the Mississippi after the huge 1927… Continue Reading

NOAA lists 20 coral species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act

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News release: “NOAA announced [August 27, 2014 that] it will afford Endangered Species Act protections to 20 coral species. All 20 species will be listed as threatened, none as endangered. Fifteen of the newly listed species occur in the Indo-Pacific and five in the Caribbean. “Coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems… Continue Reading

The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni

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Cyrus Farivar – Ars Technica: [Executive Order] 12333 is used to target foreigners abroad, and collection happens outside the US,” whistleblower John Tye, a former State Department official, told Ars recently. “My complaint is not that they’re using it to target Americans, my complaint is that the volume of incidental collection on US persons is unconstitutional.” The document, known in… Continue Reading