“Employer-provided medical care was available to 86 percent of full-time private industry workers in the United States in March 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. By contrast, only 23 percent of part-time workers had medical care benefits available. Access, or availability, also varied by establishment size: 57 percent for workers in small establishments (those with… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: September 2014
Social Security Reform: Legal Analysis of Social Security Benefit Entitlement Issues
CRS – Social Security Reform: Legal Analysis of Social Security Benefit Entitlement Issues. Emily M. Lanz, Legislative Attorney; Thomas J. Nicola, Legislative Attorney. September 17, 2014 “Calculations indicating that the Social Security program will not be financially sustainable in the long run under the present statutory scheme have fueled the current debate regarding Social Security reform. This report addresses selected… Continue Reading
Legislative Actions to Repeal, Defund, or Delay the Affordable Care Act
CRS – Legislative Actions to Repeal, Defund, or Delay the Affordable Care Act, C. Stephen Redhead, Specialist in Health Policy; Janet Kinzer, Information Research Specialist. September 12, 2014. “Congress is deeply divided over implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health reform law enacted in March 2010. Since the ACA’s enactment, lawmakers opposed to specific provisions… Continue Reading
New Report on Combating Antibiotic Resistance
White House: “Today, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report to the President, Combating Antibiotic Resistance. The report was released simultaneously with a National Strategy on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria as well as with a Presidential Executive Order, emphasizing to the Nation the importance of addressing this growing challenge. The evolution of antibiotic resistance… Continue Reading
IG Report – Millions Wasted on Communication Towers in Afghanistan
Jessica Murphy – POGO: “According to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the State Department paid $6.5 million for six communication towers that were never used as intended. This high cost exceeded the State Department’s initial recommended limit of $2 million per contract. In 2010, the State Department began constructing a network of communication… Continue Reading
Government reliance on private data collections leaves gap when information disappears
FCW.com – Colby Hochmuth: “By the end of the month, data collected on federal stimulus spending over the past five years will disappear from public view — not because the website, which always had an expiration date, will be gone, but because the government doesn’t own the data. Dun & Bradstreet does. The Recovery.gov website tracks federal… Continue Reading
The Treasure of Diverted Trash – Report
“Landfills are a significant source of heat-trapping GHGs in the United States. They are the nation’s third-largest source of methane emissions, producing 18 percent of that pollutant. Since methane has 34 times more global warming potential than CO2, and since landfill size is only increasing, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, must take action on this issue. On September 15,… Continue Reading
Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out?
CRS – Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out? Noah P. Meyerson, Analyst in Income Security. August 28, 2014. “The Social Security Trustees project that, under their intermediate assumptions and under current law, the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund will become exhausted in 2016 and the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund will become… Continue Reading
Declassified Articles from Studies in Intelligence: CIA’s In-House Intelligence Journal
CIA Library: ” This collection of released documents consists of a selection of declassified Studies in Intelligence articles from the 1970s to 2000s. The documents reveal the CIA’s place in conducting U.S. foreign policy. The Agency cannot plan or act today without being influenced in some way by its collective past or the historical experiences that these documents… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports: Depot Maintenance, Healthcare.gov, IGs, Large Partnerships, Secure Flight, VA Health Care
DEPOT MAINTENANCE: Accurate and Complete Data Needed to Meet DOD’s Core Capability Reporting Requirements, GAO-14-777: Published: Sep 18, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 18, 2014. HEALTHCARE.GOV: Information Security and Privacy Controls Should Be Enhanced to Address Weaknesses, GAO-14-871T: Published: Sep 18, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 18, 2014. INSPECTORS GENERAL: Improvements Needed in the Office of Inspector General’s Oversight of the Denali Commission, GAO-14-320: Published: Sep… Continue Reading
Poverty: 2012 and 2013
“The poverty rate is a key economic indicator often used by policy makers to evaluate current economic conditions within communities and to make comparisons between sectors of the population. It measures the percentage of people whose income fell below the poverty threshold. Federal and state governments use poverty estimates to allocate funds to local communities.… Continue Reading
Patent Citations and Stock Performance: Constructing a Dynamic Industry Classification
Gay, Sebastien and Karger, Ezra, Patent Citations and Stock Performance: Constructing a Dynamic Industry Classification (September 15, 2014). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2496414 “Researchers in academia and the private sector use industry classifications to compare growth across and between industries, to construct industry indices, and to control for industry-level correlations of stocks over time. But… Continue Reading
