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Daily Archives: August 2, 2016

New Commitments to Accelerate the Safe Integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems

White House Fact Sheet, August 2, 2016: “Since President Obama took office in 2009, developments in aviation, sensing, and software technology have powered a revolution in unmanned flight. In the next decade, the burgeoning commercial drone industry is projected to generate more than $82 billion for the U.S. economy and, by 2025, could support as many as 100,000 new jobs. Today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is announcing new steps, sustained by public and private support, to promote the safe integration and innovative adoption of unmanned aircraft systems across the United States. These announcements build on the Administration’s efforts over the past seven and a half years to support the safe integration of unmanned aircraft into the highly-complex network that comprises the National Airspace System, including: air navigation and air traffic control facilities, airports, technology, and the appropriate rules and regulations. Most notably, these announcements expand on the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s  “Small UAS” rule announced earlier this summer to provide national guidelines for the operation of non-recreational unmanned aircraft under 55 pounds…”

New initiative from Privacy International tracks the global surveillance industry

“A new initiative launched today by Privacy International aims to track the growth and scale of the global surveillance industry, a shadowy sector consisting of companies selling a wide range of electronic surveillance technology to government agencies across the world. Made available today is the world’s largest publicly available educational resource of data and documents… Continue Reading

The Robustness of EU Financial Crimes Legislation

Herlin-Karnell, Ester and Ryder, Nicholas, The Robustness of EU Financial Crimes Legislation: A Critical Review of the EU and UK Anti-Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme (May 2016). European Business Law Review, 2017, Forthcoming. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2816980 “The paper investigates the European Union’s (EU) fight against crime as partly one of establishing the… Continue Reading

Cognitive Emotion and the Law

Lloyd, Harold Anthony, Cognitive Emotion and the Law (August 1, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2817201 “Many wrongly believe that emotion plays little or no role in legal reasoning. Unfortunately, Langdell and his “scientific” case method encourage this error. A careful review of analysis in the real world, however, belies this common belief. Emotion… Continue Reading

Regulated Institutions to Submit Self-Assessments of Diversity Policies and Practices

“The federal banking agencies today provided information on how the financial institutions they regulate may begin to submit self-assessments of their diversity policies and practices as of year-end 2015, and issued Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the process. Financial institutions are strongly encouraged to disclose on their websites their diversity policies and practices, as well… Continue Reading

Interest Costs in The Long-Term Budget Outlook

“Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office published The 2016 Long-Term Budget Outlook, describing the agency’s projections of federal spending, revenues, deficits, and debt over the next 30 years. Yesterday we highlighted key factors underlying the projected growth in spending for Social Security and the major health care programs. Today we’ll focus on interest costs.… Continue Reading

Options to Improve the Financial Condition of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Multiemployer Program

“The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a government-owned corporation responsible for insuring the benefits of 41 million people who participate in defined benefit pension plans provided by private employers. About 10 million of those participants are covered by plans offered by groups of employers; such plans are insured by PBGC’s multiemployer program. That program… Continue Reading

Hospital Uncompensated Care: Federal Action Needed to Better Align Payments with Costs

Hospital Uncompensated Care: Federal Action Needed to Better Align Payments with Costs, GAO-16-568: Published: Jun 30, 2016. Publicly Released: Aug 1, 2016: “Key sources of federal support for hospitals incurring costs for services provided to uninsured and other low-income individuals (uncompensated care costs) include multiple types of Medicaid and Medicare payments totaling about $50 billion… Continue Reading

Obama Administration Announces Nearly 50 Percent Decline in Veteran Homelessness

“The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) today announced the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in the United States has been cut nearly in half since 2010. The data revealed a 17 percent decrease in veteran homelessness between January… Continue Reading