Digital Privacy at the U.S. Border: Protecting the Data On Your Devices and In the Cloud by Sophia Cope, Amul Kalia, Seth Schoen, and Adam Schwartz – ‘The U.S. government reported a five-fold increase in the number of electronic media searches at the border in a single year, from 4,764 in 2015 to 23,877 in… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: March 2017
Perspective on WikiLeaks CIA Cache
The New York Times – The Truth About the WikiLeaks C.I.A. Cache – “On Tuesday morning [March 7, 2017] WikiLeaks released an enormous cache of documents that it claimed detailed “C.I.A. hacking tools.” Immediately afterward, it posted two startling tweets asserting that “C.I.A. hacker malware” posed a threat to journalists and others who require secure… Continue Reading
International Comparisons of Corporate Income Tax Rates
“In the United States, the top federal statutory corporate income tax rate (the rate set by law that applies to the highest corporate income tax bracket) has been 35 percent since 1993. Most corporate income is taxed at that rate. With state taxes added in, the top statutory rate is even higher; on average, that… Continue Reading
CBO – Federal Debt and the Statutory Limit, March 2017
“Under current law, as of March 16, the Treasury will be at the statutory borrowing limit and will need to use “extraordinary measures” to continue raising cash. Those measures would probably be exhausted sometime this fall.” “The debt limit—commonly referred to as the debt ceiling—is the maximum amount of debt that the Department of the… Continue Reading
U.S. States Renamed for Countries With Similar GDPs
Visual Capitalist – This Map Shows U.S. States Renamed for Countries With Similar GDPs – “We’ve previously tried to put America’s $18 trillion economy in perspective using different maps – and we’ve also shown it in the context of the world’s $74 trillion economy. Today’s map, which comes from the Carpe Diem blog at the… Continue Reading
Politico – All of Trump’s Russia Ties, in 7 Charts
“…These charts illustrate dozens of those links, including meetings between Russian officials and members of Trump’s campaign and administration; his daughter’s ties to Putin’s friends; Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant; and his short-lived mixed martial arts venture with one of Putin’s favorite athletes. The solid lines mark established facts, while… Continue Reading
Over Half Of States With Initiative Process Governed By GOP
State Net Capitol Journal: “Twenty-four states have a process allowing citizens to propose and submit statutes and/or constitutional amendments for approval by the electorate or legislature, according to the Initiative & Referendum Institute. Republicans control the legislature and governor’s office in 13 of those states, while Democrats control those two branches in just three states,… Continue Reading
2017 Plants of the Year
“We are happy to share in this journal a collection of plants that have received the status of ‘Plant of the Year’ as recognized by various entities based on their botanical merits. We have also included links to some of the plants as documented by members of our community.” Continue Reading
Chaffetz, Cummings Urge Compliance with Federal Recordkeeping Laws
Letter to White House and agencies requests information on procedures for proper preservation – “House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) sent a letter to the White House and 55 federal agencies requesting information on how each entity is complying with the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and… Continue Reading
Welcome to the New InfrastructureReportCard.org
“Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Report Card for America’s Infrastructure depicts the condition and performance of American infrastructure in the familiar form of a school report card—assigning letter grades based on the physical condition and needed investments for improvement.” Continue Reading
Mapping the Global Legal Landscape of Blockchain Technologies
Maupin, Julie A., Mapping the Global Legal Landscape of Blockchain Technologies (February 14, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2930077 “Blockchain technologies are beginning to push a broad array of global economic activities away from centralized and toward decentralized market structures. Governments should tackle the new regulatory conundrums of an increasingly disintermediated global economy by focusing on… Continue Reading
Hawaii v. Trump
“Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin announced today that the state of Hawaii has filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in its federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump, following the new executive order banning travel from six Muslim-majority nations issued earlier this week. Today’s filings ask the court to declare that sections 2 and… Continue Reading
