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Monthly Archives: February 2016

Encryption and Evolving Technology: Implications for U.S. Law Enforcement Investigations

Via FAS – CRS Report – Encryption and Evolving Technology: Implications for U.S. Law Enforcement Investigations, Kristin Finklea Specialist in Domestic Security February 18, 2016. “Because modern-day criminals are constantly developing new tools and techniques to facilitate their illicit activities, law enforcement is challenged with leveraging its tools and authorities to keep pace. For instance,… Continue Reading

Mutual Fund Holdings of Credit Default Swaps: Liquidity Management and Risk Taking

Zhu, Zhongyan and Jiang, Wei, Mutual Fund Holdings of Credit Default Swaps: Liquidity Management and Risk Taking. Melbourne Business School, 2016 Financial Institutions, Regulation & Corporate Governance (FIRCG) Conference. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2736633 “Using a comprehensive dataset of mutual funds’ quarterly holdings of credit default swap (CDS) contracts during 2007–2011, we analyze the… Continue Reading

CBO, the Budget Process, and the Outlook

Presentation by Keith Hall, CBO Director, at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, February 23, 2016: “Since 1975, CBO has produced nonpartisan analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process. Each year, the agency’s economists and budget analysts produce dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates… Continue Reading

Free tool to visualize Supreme Court cases

Via Robert Ambrogi, LawSites – SCOTUS Visualization Project Shows Lines of Cases — Literally “As lawyers, we’re all accustomed to talking about the lines of cases that create bodies of precedent for legal principles. A new tool launched this week lets you visualize lines of Supreme Court cases so that you can better analyze and… Continue Reading

GAO Reports – Department of Energy, Nuclear Nonproliferation, Unaccompanied Children

Department of Energy: Observations on Efforts by NNSA and the Office of Environmental Management to Manage and Oversee the Nuclear Security Enterprise, GAO-16-422T: Published: Feb 23, 2016. Publicly Released: Feb 23, 2016. Nuclear Nonproliferation: Preliminary Observations on IAEA’s Role in Verifying the Iran Agreement, GAO-16-417: Published: Feb 12, 2016. Publicly Released: Feb 23, 2016. Unaccompanied… Continue Reading

Pew – Smartphone Ownership and Internet Usage Continues to Climb in Emerging Economies

“As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, both economically and socially, technology adoption remains one of the defining factors in human progress. To that end, there has been a noticeable rise over the past two years in the percentage of people in the emerging and developing nations surveyed by Pew Research Center who say that they… Continue Reading

CDC Statement regarding Formaldehyde in Laminate Flooring Report

CDC Statement, February 18, 2016: “CDC/ATSDR [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry] was notified February 13 of an error in its report released February 10, 2016, about the possible health effects from exposure to formaldehyde emitted from select laminate flooring samples. Health risks of people who have the laminate… Continue Reading

Download 448 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Via OpenCulture: “You could pay $118 on Amazon for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s catalog The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. Or you could pay $0 to download it at MetPublications, the site offering “five decades of Met Museum publications on art history available to read, download,… Continue Reading

Answers to your questions about Apple and security

Follow up to posting – NPR reports on DOJ motion to compel Apple to unlock iPhone – via Apple Customer Letter – “The government asked a court to order Apple to create a unique version of iOS that would bypass security protections on the iPhone Lock screen. It would also add a completely new capability… Continue Reading

Treasury Announces Release of 2016 U.S. Model Income Tax Treaty

[February 17, 2016] the Treasury Department issued a newly revised U.S. Model Income Tax Convention (the “2016 Model”), which is the baseline text the Treasury Department uses when it negotiates tax treaties.  The U.S. Model Income Tax Convention was last updated in 2006…Many of the 2016 Model updates reflect technical improvements developed in the context… Continue Reading

Fast Food Restaurants Lead Franchised Businesses in Employment

“Franchised limited-service restaurants (NAICS 722513), sometimes called fast-food restaurants, employed 2.6 million people in 2012 and had sales of $129.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. New car dealers (NAICS 441110), an industry solely comprised of franchises, employed 973,745 people and had sales of $672.5 billion in 2012. The 2012 Economic Census Franchise Report is… Continue Reading