“This report presents SIGAR’s final assessment of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) use of incinerators and open-air burn pits to dispose of solid waste in Afghanistan. The facts and concluding observations contained in this report are based on inspections conducted by SIGAR between October 2012and June 2014 at Camp Leatherneck, Forward Operating Base Salerno, Forward… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: February 2015
Unprecedented 21st century drought risk in the American Southwest and Central Plains
Benjamin I. Cook, Toby R. Ault, Jason E. Smerdon. Science Advances 01 Feb 2015: Vol. 1 no. 1 e1400082. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1400082. “In the Southwest and Central Plains of Western North America, climate change is expected to increase drought severity in the coming decades. These regions nevertheless experienced extended Medieval-era droughts that were more persistent than… Continue Reading
Understanding the Federal Government’s “IT Insecurity” Crisis
February 5, 2015 Report From the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers – “U.S. taxpayers have paid $59 billion for data protection since Fiscal Year 2010, including $10.3 billion in the most recent year under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). This week, the Obama Administration proposed a $14 billion cybersecurity budget for… Continue Reading
The Taxation of Social Security Benefits
“About 60 million people received Social Security benefits in 2014, CBO estimates. Up to 85 percent of a recipient’s benefits are subject to the individual income tax, depending on the recipient’s overall income. CBO estimates that income taxes on Social Security benefits totaled $51 billion in 2014, an amount that will be credited to the… Continue Reading
2012 Statistics of U.S. Businesses – Employment and Payroll Summary Report
“A new report will present industry and geography highlights from the Statistics of U.S. Businesses program. These data allow comparisons between business establishments that do similar work but are part of different-sized enterprises.” Continue Reading
Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Improving U.S. Educational Outcomes
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth – report by Robert Lynch: “This study addresses a key challenge confronting the United States—how to promote both widely shared and faster economic growth. It does so by analyzing and describing the effects of raising educational achievement, especially for those not at the top of the economic ladder.The results of… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – African Growth, Environmental Satellites, Financial Audit, Small Business Contracting
African Growth and Opportunity Act: Eligibility Process and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, GAO-15-300: Published: Feb 12, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 12, 2015. Environmental Satellites: Improvements Needed in NOAA’s Mitigation Strategies as It Prepares for Potential Satellite Coverage Gaps, GAO-15-386T: Published: Feb 12, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 12, 2015. Financial Audit: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation… Continue Reading
UN Human Rights Office launches a major online database of treaty body case law
“The UN Human Rights Office has launched a major public online database, http://juris.ohchr.org, that contains all case law issued by the UN human rights expert committees, the Treaty Bodies. “The database is designed to be a key reference tool for scholars, lawyers, civil society organisations, governments and civil servants, our UN partners and the general… Continue Reading
Monetary Policy, Bank Bailouts and the Sovereign-Bank Risk Nexus in the Euro Area
Fratzscher, Marcel and Rieth, Malte, Monetary Policy, Bank Bailouts and the Sovereign-Bank Risk Nexus in the Euro Area (February 2015). DIW Berlin Discussion Paper No. 1448. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2563000 “The paper analyses the empirical relationship between bank risk and sovereign credit risk in the euro area. Using structural VAR with daily financial… Continue Reading
New dosages of old drugs are used to raise their prices
New York Times (02/11/15) Meier, Barry: “Over the last 2 years, states nationwide have moved to crack down on so-called physician dispensing of prescription drugs, a practice largely limited to doctors who treat injured workers. Recent studies suggest that doctors and companies have responded by exploiting loopholes in those rules and adopting new strategies to… Continue Reading
Presidential Task Force Releases Implementation Plan for National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking
“Recognizing that wildlife trafficking is an urgent conservation and national security threat, the Departments of State, Justice, and the Interior today unveiled the Implementation Plan for the U.S. National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. The agencies are Co-Chairs of the President’s Task Force on Combating Wildlife Trafficking, which comprises 17 federal agencies and offices. The… Continue Reading
Helping Families Involved in the Child Welfare System Achieve Housing Stability
Urban Institute Report – Mary K. Cunningham, Mike Pergamit, Abigail Baum, Jessica Luna. February 11, 2015. “The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)‘s Family Unification Program (FUP) provides low-income families involved in the child welfare system with housing vouchers. FUP is an important vehicle for understanding three issues: (1) the overlap between the child welfare system,… Continue Reading
