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Daily Archives: July 27, 2016

Texas Justice Initiative – More than 6900 people died in custody in Texas in 2005-2015

“The Texas Justice Initiative is a project spearheaded by Amanda Woog, postdoctoral legal fellow at the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis at the University of Texas at Austin. The Initiative seeks to build narratives around who is dying in Texas’ criminal justice system, bring attention to the lives that have been lost, and provide a foundation for research toward solutions that will save lives. The Texas Justice Initiative is made possible through generous funding and support from The Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis at The University of Texas at Austin, the France-Merrick Foundation and the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Texas School of Law….Each time a person in Texas dies in police, jail or prison custody, or as the result of a police officer’s use of force, the death must be reported to the Texas Attorney General. Since 2005, the Attorney General’s office has been collecting the information contained in those reports into a single database.  That database was obtained using the Texas Public Information Act and provides the basis for this website’s content. Explore the data to learn more about who is dying in Texas state custody.”

First Release of the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating on Hospital Compare

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid: “Today, we are updating the star ratings on the Hospital Compare website to help millions of patients and their families learn about the quality of hospitals, compare facilities in their area side-by-side, and ask important questions about care quality when visiting a hospital or other health care provider. Today’s update… Continue Reading

A New Era for Expungement Law Reform? Recent Developments at the State and Federal Levels

Murray, Brian M., A New Era for Expungement Law Reform? Recent Developments at the State and Federal Levels (June 21, 2016). 10 Harvard Law and Policy Review 361. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2782940 In the past decade, due to heightened interest in criminal law reform, several states have enacted specific laws attempting to expand… Continue Reading

Climate change in your county: Plan with this new tool

NOAA – “Residents, communities and businesses now have easy access to climate projections, through a few easy keystrokes, for every county in the contiguous United States. NOAA’s newly updated Climate Explorer offers downloadable maps, graphs, and data tables of observed and projected temperature, precipitation and climate-related variables dating back to 1950 and out to 2100.  … Continue Reading

NY Fed – Monetary Policy Transmission before and after the Crisis

Monetary Policy Transmission before and after the Crisis, Alexander Kroeger and Asani Sarkar, June 29, 2016. “The Federal Open Market Committee implements monetary policy by raising or lowering its target for the federal funds rate, the interest rate banks charge each other for overnight loans. Because the Federal Reserve has no direct control over most… Continue Reading

Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement July 27, 2016

“Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June indicates that the labor market strengthened and that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate rate. Job gains were strong in June following weak growth in May. On balance, payrolls and other labor market indicators point to some increase in labor utilization in… Continue Reading