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Monthly Archives: April 2017

CA Top Three Spots in Employment Growth Among Large Counties

“San Francisco, Riverside and San Bernardino led the nation in annual employment growth among the top 50 U.S. counties with the most employees, according to new U.S. Census Bureau economic statistics released today. Overall, these 50 counties accounted for 34.6 percent of employment of all establishments defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).… Continue Reading

Estimates of U.S. Population by Age and Sex

“A downloadable file containing estimates of the resident U.S. population by single year of age and sex is available on the Population and Housing Unit Estimates webpage at <www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest.html>. In the coming months, the U.S. Census Bureau will release 2016 population estimates for cities and towns, as well as national, state and county population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin.” Continue Reading

DATA Act: OIG Reports Help Identify Agencies’ Implementation Challenges

DATA Act: Office of Inspector General Reports Help Identify Agencies’ Implementation Challenges, GAO-17-460: Published: Apr 26, 2017. Publicly Released: Apr 26, 2017: “As of January 31, 2017, 30 Offices of Inspector General (OIG) had completed Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) readiness reviews for their respective agencies, most of which were completed… Continue Reading

New Executive Order on Federal Control of Education Identifies Power of States Rights

Presidential Executive Order on Enforcing Statutory Prohibitions on Federal Control of Education EXECUTIVE ORDER – April 26, 2017 – – – – – – – ENFORCING STATUTORY PROHIBITIONS ON FEDERAL CONTROL OF EDUCATION By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in… Continue Reading

2017 Tax Reform for Economic Growth and American Jobs

The White House released a one page document pertaining to the new tax reform plan. The the only official document currently available – not including news articles reporting on the plan, is a photograph of the White House document, via @ZekeJMiller. See Tax Policy Center analysis – Trump’s Familiar Tax Plan Would Add Trillions To… Continue Reading

GPO releases digital Congressional Record from 1961-1970

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the Library of Congress to release the digital version of the bound Congressional Record from 1961-1970 on GPO’s govinfo (www.govinfo.gov). This release covers debates and proceedings of the 87th thru the 91st Congresses. Spanning approximately 380,000 Congressional Record pages, this era covers historical topics such as: The… Continue Reading

CRS – Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Background and Summary

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Background and Summary. Baird Webel, Coordinator, Specialist in Financial Economics. April 21, 2017. [via FAS] Beginning in 2007, U.S. financial conditions deteriorated, leading to the near-collapse of the U.S. financial system in September 2008. Major commercial banks, insurers, government-sponsored enterprises, and investment banks either failed or… Continue Reading

States Investing the Most and Least in Children

Wall St 24/7: “Most Americans agree that it is important to provide children with ample opportunities for success, regardless of where they live. To this end, state and local government budgets include provisions for children’s basic education, health care, social services, and other support programs. Still, children receive widely varying amounts of resources depending largely… Continue Reading

Gallup – Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace After Trump Election

Ella Washington and Frank Newport, April 25, 2017: “The election of Donald Trump resulted in highly visible expressions of concern and tensions among a number of specific groups of the U.S. population, leading to questions about the possible impact on issues of worry and inclusion in the workplace. To help answer these questions, we asked… Continue Reading

Can Facebook counter its own creation – a massive ecosystem of fake news

Farhad Manjoo, New York Times Magazine, April 25, 2017: Can Facebook Fix Its Own Worst Bug? “After studying how people shared 1.25 million stories during the campaign, a team of researchers at M.I.T. and Harvard implicated Facebook and Twitter in the larger failure of media in 2016. The researchers found that social media created a… Continue Reading

DOJ defends USDA take-down of massive animal abuse database

Follow up to previous postings – Animal welfare information wiped from USDA website and Some animal welfare data removed from USDA site is restored – via Josh Gerstein – Politico – “The Justice Department is mounting a legal defense of one of the most-publicized counter-transparency moves of the new Trump administration: the Agriculture Department’s decision… Continue Reading

Pew – With Budget Debate Looming, Growing Share of Public Prefers Bigger Government

Most back more spending for veterans, education, infrastructure. “As Congress faces an April 28 deadline to fund government operations, the public is now split in their general preferences on the size and scope of government: 48% say they would rather have a bigger government providing more services, while 45% prefer a smaller government providing fewer… Continue Reading