Great news via GM: “Ten years ago GM reached a significant milestone in our waste reduction journey when our Flint Engine plant in Michigan became landfill-free. With 122 such facilities under our belt now, we now aspire to send zero of our manufacturing waste to landfills. We produce vehicles in 30 countries, so this commitment… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: August 2015
World Bank Launches Green Bond Impact Report
“The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD, Aaa/AAA) released today a Green Bond Impact Report with detailed information about the environment and social results expected from projects supported by its green bonds through June 30, 2015. These projects target low carbon and climate-resilient growth in IBRD’s member countries. “The report is another… Continue Reading
Assuring Accountability Through Mission
Wegner, Judith W., Assuring Accountability Through Mission (June 1, 2015). Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal Education in a Changing World (Deborah Maranville, Lisa Radtke Bliss, Carolyn Wilkes Kaas & Antoinette Sedillo Lopez eds., 2015), chapter 2. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2637068 “This chapter of Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal Education in a… Continue Reading
EPIC, Coalition Urge FCC to End Call Record Data Retention
“EPIC and a coalition of leading consumer rights, human rights, and civil liberties organizations, along with members of the EPIC Advisory Board, have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to end the FCC’s rule requiring mass retention of phone records. Currently, the FCC requires phone companies to retain sensitive information on all customers, including name, address,… Continue Reading
Comparison of U.S. and International Global Systemically Important Banks
Office of Financial Research (OFR Brief Series 15-7) Paul Glasserman and Bert Loudis – “Among global systemically important banks (G-SIBs), U.S. banks rank high in systemic importance relative to foreign banks. G-SIBs with higher systemic importance scores do not consistently have higher risk-based capital ratios, despite the importance of capital as a buffer against failure.” Continue Reading
Mapping Heat in the U.S. Financial System
Mapping Heat in the U.S. Financial System – David Aikman, Michael T. Kiley, Seung Lee, Michael G. Palumbo, and Missaka N. Warusawitharana, August 2015, Federal Reserve. “Abstract: We provide a framework for assessing the build-up of vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system. We collect forty-four indicators of financial and balance-sheet conditions, cutting across measures of… Continue Reading
GAO Reports – Environmental Litigation, Disability Insurance, DOD Financial Management, Army Reserve Components
Environmental Litigation: Information on Cases against EPA and FWS and on Deadline Suits on EPA Rulemaking, GAO-15-803T: Published: Aug 4, 2015. Publicly Released: Aug 4, 2015. Disability Insurance: Actions Needed to Help Prevent Potential Overpayments to Individuals Receiving Concurrent Federal Workers’ Compensation, GAO-15-531: Published: Jul 8, 2015. Publicly Released: Aug 3, 2015. DOD Financial Management:… Continue Reading
Google’s Waze road alert map of America
US states ranked by % of alerts reported by users for each issue. Press the buttons below to see different alerts. ‘Accident’, ‘Traffic Jams’ and ‘Hazard on road’ are ranked as % of total user alerts, all others within the ‘Hazard’ category Waze is the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app. Continue Reading
Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action
“From this page, you can download a PDF version of the complete report, Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action. You can also download sections of the report, the technical appendix, and an overview fact sheet.” “This report summarizes and communicates the results of EPA’s ongoing Climate Change Impacts and Risk Analysis (CIRA) project.… Continue Reading
Consumer and Credit Reporting, Scoring, and Related Policy Issues
CRS Report – Consumer and Credit Reporting, Scoring, and Related Policy Issues, Darryl E. Getter, Specialist in Financial Economics. July 30, 2015. “The consumer data industry collects and subsequently provides information to firms about the behavior of consumers when they participate in various financial transactions. Firms use consumer information to screen for the risk that… Continue Reading
Delta bans shipment of lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, buffalo trophies
Delta issued the following statement today: “Effective immediately, Delta will officially ban shipment of all lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo trophies worldwide as freight. Prior to this ban, Delta’s strict acceptance policy called for absolute compliance with all government regulations regarding protected species. Delta will also review acceptance policies of other hunting trophies with… Continue Reading
Historically unprecedented global glacier decline in early 21st century
Journal of Glaciology – available online: July 30, 2015 – DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3189/2015JoG15J017 – Full text PDF free. “Observations show that glaciers around the world are in retreat and losing mass. Internationally coordinated for over a century, glacier monitoring activities provide an unprecedented dataset of glacier observations from ground, air and space. Glacier studies generally select specific… Continue Reading
