Joshua Miller via White House – “At the end of October, we shared our plans for preserving and passing on the digital history of the Obama administration, and invited the American people to “come up with creative ways to archive this content and make it both useful and available for years to come.” From the… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2017
WaPo reports US intel documents Russian geopol jubilation at Trump win
Follow up to previous posting today – President-elect plans to restructure US intelligence agencies – via Washington Post – U.S. intercepts capture senior Russian officials celebrating Trump win – “Senior officials in the Russian government celebrated Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton as a geopolitical win for Moscow, according to U.S. officials who said that… Continue Reading
Report focuses on debt of older student loan borrowers
CFPB: “Today, we released a report that shows that older Americans now carry an unprecedented amount of student loan debt into retirement. The report shows that over the last decade, the number of older student loan borrowers has quadrupled in the United States. The amount that these borrowers owe has also dramatically increased. Between 2005… Continue Reading
Newsweek – Why President Obama Can’t Pardon Edward Snowden
Newsweek – Edward Jay Epstein, January 7, 2017: “A president can pardon anyone from any crime for any reason, or no reason at all, but, as the hours tick away on his presidency, it is unimaginable that Obama, a former law lecturer, will ignore all he knows about what Snowden did and absolve him of… Continue Reading
MIT News – Computer learns to recognize sounds by watching video
MIT News office, December 2016: “In recent years, computers have gotten remarkably good at recognizing speech and images: Think of the dictation software on most cellphones, or the algorithms that automatically identify people in photos posted to Facebook. But recognition of natural sounds — such as crowds cheering or waves crashing — has lagged behind.… Continue Reading
Cancer Facts and Figures: Death Rate Down 25% Since 1991
Stacy Simon, January 5, 2017 – “The death rate from cancer in the US has declined steadily over the past 2 decades, according to annual statistics reporting from the American Cancer Society. The cancer death rate for men and women combined fell 25% from its peak in 1991 to 2014, the most recent year for… Continue Reading
President-elect plans to restructure US intelligence agencies
WSJ – President-elect works on restructuring Office of the Director of National Intelligence, tweets again his doubts that Russia hacked Democrats – “President-elect Donald Trump, a harsh critic of U.S. intelligence agencies, is working with top advisers on a plan that would restructure and pare back the nation’s top spy agency, people familiar with the… Continue Reading
Report – The Cost of Full Repeal of the Affordable Care Act
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, January 4, 2017 – “The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare,” includes a number of provisions to expand health care coverage, as well as several offsets that raise taxes and slow the growth of Medicare spending. According to our latest estimates, repealing the ACA in its entirety… Continue Reading
House moves forward rules to ease constraints to sell federal lands
Washington Post: “House Republicans on Tuesday changed the way Congress calculates the cost of transferring federal lands to the states and other entities, a move that will make it easier for members of the new Congress to cede federal control of public lands. The provision, included as part as a larger rules package the House approved… Continue Reading
US Department of Labor sues Google Inc. for compensation data
Data requested as part of routine audit of a federal contractor: “The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit to require Google Inc. to provide requested compensation data and documents for the multinational company’s Mountain View headquarters as part of a routine compliance evaluation. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs asked the technology… Continue Reading
The Transparency Reporting Toolkit: Guide & Template
“The Transparency Reporting Toolkit is a joint project by New America’s Open Technology Institute and Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. The purpose of the Toolkit is to make it easier for companies to create better transparency reports about government requests for user data. Similarly, by providing a template and best practices,… Continue Reading
Pew – Animal Drug Companies Fulfill Commitment to Change Antibiotic Labels
Pew Charitable Trusts: “The Food and Drug Administration announced an important milestone today in efforts to ensure that antibiotics are used responsibly in food animals. The agency said that all affected companies have voluntarily complied with Guidance for Industry #213 that called for them to make two key modifications to the labels of medically important… Continue Reading
