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Daily Archives: May 9, 2016

DOJ Files Complaint Against the State of North Carolina to Stop Discrimination Against Transgender Individuals

“Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced [May 9, 2016] that the Justice Department has filed a complaint against the state of North Carolina, the University of North Carolina (UNC) and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (DPS) alleging that they are discriminating against transgender individuals in violation of federal law as a result of the state’s compliance with and implementation of House Bill 2 (H.B. 2).  H.B. 2 requires public agencies to treat transgender individuals, whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth, differently from similarly situated non-transgender individuals. The complaint, filed in the Middle District of North Carolina, follows the department’s notice to the defendants on May 4, 2016, that they are in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA).”

Sovereign Credit Rating Determinants: The Impact of the European Debt Crisis

Reusens, Peter and Croux, Christophe, Sovereign Credit Rating Determinants: The Impact of the European Debt Crisis (April 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2777491 “This paper compares the importance of different sovereign credit rating determinants over time, using a sample of 90 countries for the years 2002-2015. Applying the composite marginal likelihood approach, we estimate… Continue Reading

Report – Opportunities to Reduce Vulnerability to Drought are Within Reach

“As extreme drought continues to hit much of Sub-Saharan Africa, leaving millions of people in need of emergency assistance, a new report led by the World Bank focuses on interventions that could increase long term resilience to drought. Launched at the First Great Green Wall Conference held in Dakar, the report Confronting Drought in Africa’s… Continue Reading

Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society

Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society May 9, 2016 The following summary was written by Samantha Bates: “The second “Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society” workshop took place on February 19, 2016 at Harvard Law School.  Marin Soljačić, Max Tegmark, Bruce… Continue Reading

H.R. 4894, a bill to repeal title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

CBO: “H.R. 4894 would repeal title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act of 2010. That title provides the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) with the authority and funding through the Orderly Liquidation Fund (OLF) to liquidate large, systemically important financial firms (including banks and nonbank firms) that become or are in danger of… Continue Reading

Trends in the Joblessness and Incarceration of Young Men

CBO: “In 2014, there were 38 million men in the United States between the ages of 18 and 34; about 5 million of those young men were jobless, and 1 million were incarcerated. Those numbers and some related longer-term trends have significant economic and budgetary implications. Young men who are jobless or incarcerated can be… Continue Reading

GAO Report – Smartphone Data: Information and Issues Regarding Surreptitious Tracking Apps That Can Facilitate Stalking

Smartphone Data: Information and Issues Regarding Surreptitious Tracking Apps That Can Facilitate Stalking, GAO-16-317: Published: Apr 21, 2016. Publicly Released: May 9, 2016. “GAO found that the majority of the reviewed websites for smartphone tracking applications (apps) marketed their products to parents or employers to track the location of their children or employees, respectively, or… Continue Reading

Twitter blocks government access to third party data mining service

Via Kevin McCoy, USA Today – “Twitter has moved to block U.S. intelligence agencies from access to a widely used data-mining service it partly owns. The social media company told Dataminr, the business partner that sifts through and provides access to the full output of Twitter’s social media postings known as tweets, that it didn’t want the service provided to… Continue Reading

Panama Papers Database Goes Live

Follow up to previous posting – ICIJ to Release Panama Papers Offshore Companies Data – today’s news – Offshore Leaks Database – Find out who’s behind almost 320,000 offshore companies and trusts from the Panama Papers and the Offshore Leaks investigations – accompanied by the following warning: “There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and… Continue Reading