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Monthly Archives: January 2017

CourtListener – free legal research website – millions of legal opinions from federal and state courts

“Search millions of opinions by case name, topic, or citation. 418 Jurisdictions. Sponsored by the Non-Profit Free Law Project. With CourtListener, lawyers, journalists, academics, and the public can research an important case, stay up to date with new opinions as they are filed, or do deep analysis using our raw data.” Continue Reading

Summary Report on Audits of Security Controls for TSA Information Technology Systems at Airports

DHS OIG – Summary Report on Audits of Security Controls for TSA Information Technology Systems at Airports, December 30, 2016. OIG-17-14. “Our previous reports identified numerous deficiencies in security controls for TSA’s IT systems and equipment at airports. These deficiencies included inadequate physical security for TSA server rooms at airports, unpatched software, missing security documentation,… Continue Reading

NY Fed – Measuring Americans’ Expectations Following the 2016 Election

Liberty Street Economics – “While consumer confidence as measured by various surveys has increased sharply since the national election, the New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) has shown little notable change in expectations. In this post, we show that the difference may partly reflect systematic compositional changes whereby respondents who answer a survey… Continue Reading

The State of Digitization in US Public and State Libraries

Advancing the National Digital Platform: The State of Digitization in US Public and State Libraries – Highlights: Ninety-two percent of public libraries have locally significant, unique physical collections More than 37.6% of libraries have engaged in digitization activities in the last three years In addition to the common barriers of time and ongoing funding, 61.4%… Continue Reading

FTC Releases New Report on Cross-Device Tracking

“The Federal Trade Commission has released Cross-Device Tracking: An FTC Staff Report that describes the technology used to track consumers across multiple Internet-connected devices, the benefits and challenges associated with it, and industry efforts to address those challenges. The report concludes by making recommendations to industry about how to apply traditional principles like transparency, choice,… Continue Reading

Panel on End-of-term crawl and collection of vulnerable government information

James A. Jacobs – FreeGovInfo: ” Panel on End-of-term crawl and the collection of vulnerable government information – January 23, 2017 “I was honored last week to be part of a panel hosted by OpenTheGovernment and the Bauman Foundation to talk about the End of Term project. Other presenters included Jess Kutch at Coworker.org and… Continue Reading

Report – Amplifying Human Potential Towards Purposeful Artificial Intelligence

Via Infosys: “For the purposes of this research, AI was defined as an area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans. Some of the activities that computers with AI are designed for include image and speech recognition, learning, planning and problem-solving. Examples of applied AI technologies… Continue Reading

Report on Distributed Ledger Technology: Implications of Blockchain for Securities Industry

FINRA – “This paper provides an overview of distributed ledger technology, highlights some key applications being explored in the securities industry and potential impact of the technology, and discusses key implementation and regulatory considerations for broker-dealers.  FINRA welcomes an open dialogue with market participants to help proactively identify and address any potential risks or hurdles in… Continue Reading

NYT – Trump’s Health Plan Would Convert Medicaid to Block Grants

Robert Pear – Trump’s Health Plan Would Convert Medicaid to Block Grants, Aide Says – “President Trump’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will propose giving each state a fixed amount of federal money in the form of a block grant to provide health care to low-income people on Medicaid, a top adviser to… Continue Reading

Justice Department blesses White House post for Kushner

“Justice Department blesses White House post for Kushner,” by Josh Gerstein, Politico: “In a reversal of legal advice given to prior presidents, the Justice Department has concluded that it is lawful for President Donald Trump to appoint his son-in-law Jared Kushner to a White House post. A 14-page opinion dated Friday from Justice’s Office of… Continue Reading

Application of the Anti-Nepotism Statute to a Presidential Appointment in the White House Office

Opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel January 20, 2017 – “Section 105(a) of title 3, U.S. Code, which authorizes the President to appoint employees in the White House Office “without regard to any other provision of law regulating the employment or compensation of persons in the Government service,” exempts positions in the White House… Continue Reading