Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) – “The backlog of unprocessed FOIA requests to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continues to climb. In just a two-year period, the backlog of unanswered FOIA requests has tripled, climbing from 17,998 at the end of December 2014 to 46,550 at the end of December 2016. This means… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Monthly Archives: May 2017
New on LLRX – Little Free Libraries don’t have to be narcissistic self-promotion
Via LLRX.com – Little Free Libraries don’t have to be narcissistic self-promotion – Chris Meadows discusses the kerfuffle about the demographic location of branded “Little Free Libraries,”‘ whether they truly serve a wide range of users, and more to the point, that they represent another outreach mechanism to promote reading and literacy. Continue Reading
Amnesty International – How private are your favourite messaging apps?
“We’ve ranked 11 companies that run the world’s most popular messaging apps – including Skype, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger – on how well they’re using encryption to protect your online privacy. In particular, we’ve looked at whether they apply end-to-end encryption – a way of making your photos, videos and chats unintelligible to anyone but… Continue Reading
Chicago mayor Emanuel posts EPA’s deleted climate change page
Politico: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s response to the Trump administration pulling down its website detailing information about climate change: putting up his own. “The new section of the City of Chicago’s website, launched this weekend, pulls data from the archived Environmental Protection Agency page, noting, “while this information may not be readily available on the… Continue Reading
Consumer Reports – How the Affordable Care Act Drove Down Personal Bankruptcy
How the Affordable Care Act Drove Down Personal Bankruptcy Expanded health insurance helped cut the number of filings by half by Allen St. John May 02, 2017: “As legislators and the executive branch renew their efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act this [past] week, they might want to keep in mind a… Continue Reading
Bill in NY legislature seeks release of Trump tax returns
CNN Money: “Some Democratic state senators in New York are trying an end run to get Donald Trump’s taxes into the public view by introducing legislation that would reveal his state tax returns for the last five years. The legislation — dubbed the Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public Act (or TRUMP Act) — would require… Continue Reading
Google big data reveals who we are in stark contrast to Facebook posts
Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable – Raw Google search data proves that we are not who we say we are on social media by Tim Lahan “It is now official. Scholars have analyzed the data and confirmed what we already knew in our hearts. Social media is making us miserable. We are all dimly… Continue Reading
Report – High Finance, Political Money, and the U.S. Congress Report
The Roosevelt Institute: “Social scientists have traditionally struggled to identify clear links between political spending and congressional voting, and many journalists have embraced their skepticism. A giant stumbling block has been the challenge of measuring the labyrinthine ways money flows from investors, firms, and industries to particular candidates. Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen directly tackle that… Continue Reading
24/7 Wall St – 9 Ways to Deal With Robocalls
Have you terminated your land line to end unwanted spam calls only to have them move to your cell phone? Some good ideas to help you minimize the invasion of robocals Via 24/7 Wall St: “According to the Federal Communications Commission, 2.4 billion automated marketing calls are made every month, the equivalent of the more… Continue Reading
Ex libris: Books Recently Published with NEH Support
Funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is targeted to be eliminated in Trump’s new budget proposal, among a group of 19 agencies deemed to be unnecessary that focus on the arts, humanities, libraries, museums, economic development in Appalachia, and peace. On the list of NEH’s current publication are 6 prize winning books… Continue Reading
Fed Chair Yellen on women and workplace equal opportunity past and present
So We All Can Succeed: 125 Years of Women’s Participation in the Economy – Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet L. Yellen At “125 Years of Women at Brown Conference,” sponsored by Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. “…The gap in earnings between women and men, although smaller than it was years ago, is still significant; women… Continue Reading
Trump budget would effectively end work of Office of National Drug Control Policy
Trump budget would effectively kill drug control office, Dan Diamond, Politico: “President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget would cut about 95 percent of funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, effectively ending its mission as the lead agency in charge of combating the opioid crisis and other drug epidemics, according to an internal… Continue Reading
