“In the wake of the 2016 election, everyone from President Obama to Pope Francis has raised concerns about fake news and the potential impact on both political life and innocent individuals. Some fake news has been widely shared, and so-called “pizzagate” stories led a North Carolina man to bring a gun into a popular Washington,… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: December 2016
CRS – The Federal Food Safety System: A Primer
Via FAS – The Federal Food Safety System: A Primer. Renée Johnson, Specialist in Agricultural Policy, December 16, 2016. “Numerous federal, state, and local agencies share responsibilities for regulating the safety of the U.S. food supply. Federal responsibility for food safety rests primarily with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of… Continue Reading
CRS Insight – Restrictions on Lobbying the Government: Current Policy and Proposed Changes
Via FAS – Restrictions on Lobbying the Government: Current Policy and Proposed Changes, December 15, 2016 (IN10625). Jacob R. Straus, Specialist on the Congress “During the 2016 presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump proposed a series of ethics measures, including several lobbying-related provisions. They are:extending “cooling off” periods on lobbying the government for five years after… Continue Reading
CRS report – U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians
Via FAS – U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians, Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs. December 16, 2016. “Since the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed more than $5 billion in bilateral economic and non-lethal security assistance to the Palestinians,… Continue Reading
A history of global living conditions in 5 charts
“A recent survey asked “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?”. In Sweden 10% thought things are getting better, in the US they were only 6%, and in Germany only 4%. Very few people think that the world is getting better. What is… Continue Reading
Report – Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy
Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy – Executive Office of the President, December 2016 “Accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities will enable automation of some tasks that have long required human labor. These transformations will open up new opportunities for individuals, the economy, and society, but they have the potential to disrupt the current livelihoods of… Continue Reading
GAO Report – Social Security Offsets and Older Student Loan Debt Collection
Social Security Offsets: Improvements to Program Design Could Better Assist Older Student Loan Borrowers with Obtaining Permitted Relief, GAO-17-45: Published: Dec 19, 2016. Publicly Released: Dec 20, 2016. “Older borrowers (age 50 and older) who default on federal student loans and must repay that debt with a portion of their Social Security benefits often have… Continue Reading
Uber V. Regulation: ‘Ride-Sharing’ Creates a Legal Gray Area
Crespo, Yanelys, Uber V. Regulation: ‘Ride-Sharing’ Creates a Legal Gray Area (December 1, 2016). 25 U. Miami Bus. L. Rev. 79 (2016). Available for download at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2887791 “Technological innovations are quickly re-shaping our world and even changing the way we travel from place to place. Although the concept of “ride-sharing” only just emerged in… Continue Reading
Terrorism Financing Task Force Releases Results of Two-Year Investigation
“The House Financial Services Committee’s Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing on Tuesday released a bipartisan report of its 12 month long probe into the threat terror financing poses to the U.S. financial system…“For the last two years, the Task Force has been examining ways to improve the federal government’s approach to combatting the flow… Continue Reading
EFF – How to Enable Two-Factor Authentication on PayPal
“For the ninth day of the 12 Days of 2FA, we’ll look at how to enable two-factor authentication on PayPal. No matter where on the web you are doing your last-minute online holiday shopping, you are likely to run into the option to pay with PayPal. PayPal calls 2FA and the associated verification codes “Security… Continue Reading
GAO Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2016
GAO Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2016 – GAO-17-314SP: Dec 15, 2016 “This letter responds to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, 31 U.S.C. 3554(e)(2) (CICA), that the Comptroller General report to Congress each instance in which a federal agency did not fully implement a recommendation made… Continue Reading
Post election reveal – laptop of Clinton aid searched without valid warrant
In the ‘and why now that it is all over moment of the post election coverage’ – “The warrant connected to the FBI search that Hillary Clinton says cost her the election shouldn’t have been granted, legal experts who reviewed the document released on Tuesday told The Huffington Post. FBI Director James Comey shook up… Continue Reading
