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Daily Archives: December 14, 2015

CRSReports.com – free access to CRS Reports

CRSReports.com is a free web based repository of Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports. This digital library is dedicated to hosting an extensive collection of CRS documents. All information provided by CRSReports.com is publicly available and can be accessed for free without sign-up or registration. This growing collection of CRS reports is made freely available to policy makers (including Hill staffers who while off of the Hill may decide not to login into the Capitol intranet) and other users for purposes beneficial to our political system and the public…CRSReports.com hosts but does not author CRS documents. CRS documents are written by the Congressional Research Service an information resource within the US Library of Congress. CRS does not serve members of the public directly, they focus solely on assisting and informing Congress. CRS serves the US federal legislative branch and in this manner indirectly serves the public.”

  • CRSReports.com – “The Internet’s largest free and public collection of Congressional Research Service Reports.”

NISO Releases Set of Principles to Address Privacy of User Data in Library, Content-Provider, and Software-Supplier Systems

“NISO [National Information Standards Organization] has published a set of consensus principles for the library, content-provider and software-provider communities to address privacy issues related to the use of library and library-related systems. This set of principles developed over the past 8 months focus on balancing the expectations library users have regarding their intellectual freedoms and… Continue Reading

GAO Reports – Defense Acquisition Workforce, Recreational Fisheries Management, Women in STEM Research

Defense Acquisition Workforce: Actions Needed to Guide Planning Efforts and Improve Workforce Capability, GAO-16-80: Published: Dec 14, 2015. Publicly Released: Dec 14, 2015. Recreational Fisheries Management: The National Marine Fisheries Service Should Develop a Comprehensive Strategy to Guide Its Data Collection Efforts, GAO-16-131: Published: Dec 8, 2015. Publicly Released: Dec 14, 2015. Women in STEM… Continue Reading

EPA – Application of Publicity or Propaganda and Anti-Lobbying Provisions

Environmental Protection Agency–Application of Publicity or Propaganda and Anti-Lobbying Provisions. B-326944: Dec 14, 2015 “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated publicity or propaganda and anti-lobbying provisions contained in appropriations acts with its use of certain social media platforms in association with its “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rulemaking in fiscal years 2014 and 2015.… Continue Reading

Visualizing 20 Years of Contractor Misconduct

POGO – “The Project On Government Oversight is celebrating the holiday season by sharing a colorful display of federal contractor misconduct over the last twenty years. Using the new download feature on our Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD), data visualization developer Tamara Tershakovec created a JavaScript graph of the FCMD. The graph lists contractors in… Continue Reading

A Victory for Privacy and Transparency: HRW v. DEA

EFF – “A Victory for Privacy and Transparency: HRW v. DEA – In a victory for millions of people in the U.S. who have placed telephone calls to locations overseas, EFF and Human Rights Watch have confirmed that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s practice of collecting those records in bulk has stopped and that the only… Continue Reading

Altmetric – Top 100 academic research articles of 2015

“The Christmas tree is up in the Altmetric office and it’s Top 100 time again. We’ve queried the Altmetric database to find out which academic articles got the most attention from the mainstream media, blogs, Wikipedia and social networks, as well as amongst a more academic audience in post-publication peer-review forums and research highlights. Data… Continue Reading

Working Paper – Mortgage risk and the yield curve

Mortgage risk and the yield curve. Aytek Malkhozov, Philippe Mueller, Andrea Vedolin and Gyuri VenterWorking. Papers No 532. December 2015. Bank for International Settlements. “We study the feedback from the risk of outstanding mortgage-backed securities (MBS) on the level and volatility of interest rates. We incorporate the supply shocks resulting from changes in MBS duration… Continue Reading

FAA Announces Small Drone Registration Rule

“The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced a streamlined and user-friendly web-based aircraft registration process for owners of small unmanned aircraft (UAS) weighing more than 0.55 pounds (250 grams) and less than 55 pounds (approx. 25 kilograms) including payloads such as on-board cameras. The Registration Task Force delivered recommendations to FAA… Continue Reading

CFPB Releases Tool to Help Measure Financial Well-Being

“Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is releasing a tool to measure consumer financial well-being, based on a definition that the Bureau released in January 2015. This first-of-its-kind tool provides questions that educators and others working to build financial capability can use to accurately and consistently quantify the financial well-being of consumers…In January 2015,… Continue Reading