“State government tax revenue increased 2.2 percent, from $847.1 billion in fiscal year 2013 to $865.8 billion in 2014, the fourth consecutive increase, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections. General sales and gross receipts taxes drove most of the revenue growth, increasing from $258.9 billion to $271.3… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2015
The Problem of Publication-Pollution Denialism
Mayo Clinic Proceedings – The Problem of Publication-Pollution Denialism, Arthur L. Caplan, PhD, Division of Medical Ethics, Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York, NY, Published Online: April 03, 2015 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.02.017 “The world is facing a huge threat from pollution. The scientific community seems unable or unwilling to do anything about the problem… Continue Reading
EPA Fracking Waste Dumping Permits in Wyoming Challenged
Elizabeth Shogren – High Country News – April 14, 2015 – “The Environmental Protection Agency last month issued revised permits for oil companies to dump literally rivers of wastewater—including hydraulic fracturing fluids—on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. When the companies pump oil, water from deep in the earth comes up too. This water can… Continue Reading
Research Shows Financial Success Starts Early
Louisa Quittman is the Director of the Office of Financial Education at the U.S. Treasury Department 4/16/2015 – “As part of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission’s (Commission) efforts to share information and research that can help prepare young people for their financial lives, we recently worked with the Journal of Consumer Affairs to solicit… Continue Reading
The Role of Policy in Achieving Shared, Sustainable Economic Prosperity
“GrowthPolicy.org pulls together recent research by Harvard faculty about economic growth. Our goal is to disseminate Harvard research to a broad audience in order to inform debate about the role of policy in achieving stability in our financial systems and shared, sustainable economic prosperity. GrowthPolicy.org is a project of: The Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business &… Continue Reading
Geospatial Resolution of Human and Bacterial Diversity with City-Scale Metagenomics
“Afshinnekoo et al. describe a city-scale molecular profile of DNA collected from a city’s subway system, public surfaces, and one waterway. These data enable baseline analysis of bacterial, eukaryotic, and aracheal organisms in the built environment of mass transit and urban life.” Afshinnekoo et al., 2015, CELS 1, 1–15 July 29, 2015. Highlights: Almost half… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – BLM, Federal Workforce, Information Technology, Persons with HIV
Bureau of Land Management: More Information Needed to Implement the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013, GAO-15-394: Published: Apr 16, 2015. Publicly Released: Apr 16, 2015. Federal Workforce: Preliminary Observations on Strengthening Employee Engagement During Challenging Times, GAO-15-529T: Published: Apr 16, 2015. Publicly Released: Apr 16, 2015. Information Technology: Additional OMB and Agency Actions Needed to… Continue Reading
Boomer Expectations for Retirement 2015
Fifth Annual Update on the Retirement Preparedness of the Boomer Generation April 2015 – Insured Retirement Institute “Boomer Expectations for Retirement 2015 – Each year the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) conducts a survey to measure the retirement preparedness of the Boomer generation. This report, the fifth in the series, summarizes the results of the 2015… Continue Reading
E-cigarette use triples among middle and high school students in just one year
“Current e-cigarette use among middle and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Findings from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey show… Continue Reading
NYT – American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest
By David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy: “The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction. While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises… Continue Reading
CityLab – Gorgeous Atlas of New York Tree Species
John Metcalfe: “Though New York can sometimes seem like a drab warren of chain-link fence and oily pavement, the city actually has an impressive number of trees. On the streets alone—not counting private properties and parks—there were 592,130 at last reckoning, a leafy explosion you can now peruse in this great visualization of tree species.… Continue Reading
Toward a Social Compact for Digital Privacy and Security
Global Commission on Internet Governance -“The Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) was established in January 2014 to articulate and advance a strategic vision for the future of Internet governance. In recent deliberations, the Commission discussed the potential for a damaging erosion of trust in the absence of a broad social agreement on norms for… Continue Reading
