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Monthly Archives: August 2017

Congressional Research Service Reports on Disaster Response

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Via FAS [many thanks as always to Steven Aftergood] – a complement of new and recent applicable critical CRS resources on subject matter pertinent to Hurricane Harvey, including flood response and recovery, oils and chemical spills, flood insurance, disaster assistance and housing, and dam safety. These documents are especially important in light of this report – AccuWeather predicts Hurricane Harvey to be more costly than Katrina, Sandy combined and this one from BloombergBusinessWeek – “…The impact on taxpayers is more serious, because Harvey is likely to generate tens of billions of dollars in emergency federal aid and claims on the money-losing National Flood Insurance Program…Above all, Harvey is a humanitarian disaster.”

Other new or newly-relevant publications from the Congressional Research Service on disaster response include the following.

Beyond Fintech: A Pragmatic Assessment Of Disruptive Potential In Financial Services

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World Economic Forum – Beyond Fintech: A Pragmatic Assessment Of Disruptive Potential In Financial Services – Part of the Future of Financial Services series | Prepared in collaboration with Deloitte August 2017. “Consistent with the World Economic Forum’s mission of applying a multistakeholder approach to address issues of global impact, creating this report involved extensive… Continue Reading

2016 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey

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“The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) is a tool that measures employees’ perceptions of whether, and to what extent, conditions characterizing successful organizations are present in their agencies. Survey results provide valuable insight into the challenges agency leaders face in ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce and how well they are responding.”… Continue Reading

US Office Of Personnel Management 2017 SES Exit Report

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Office of Personnel Management, Office Of Personnel Management 2017 SES Exit Report, July 2017. “In April 2013, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a new exit survey for standard distribution by all agencies across the Federal Government to departing members of the Senior Executive Service (SES). The SES Exit Survey is designed to… Continue Reading

WaPo analysis focuses on extent of Washington lobbying by tech companies

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“…A Washington Post analysis shows just how broad tech companies’ interests have become in the nation’s capital. According to corporate disclosures that were submitted to the Senate Office of Public Records and screened by the Center for Responsive Politics, some of these tech giants are regularly setting records in their spending on lobbying and are… Continue Reading

Schema.org 3.3 released

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schema blog: “Schema.org 3.3 has been released. As always, the release was prepared, debated and finalized by the schema.org community group, and features a range of additions, adjustments, bugfixes and clarifications to improve the expressiveness and usability of our schemas. See the release notes for full details, but of particular note are some changes made… Continue Reading

Propublica lifts the veil on unreported Trump appointees

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ProPublica report [note – the site launched a terrific redesign that helps to highlight the strength of their investigative reporting] “President Donald Trump has left hundreds of government jobs unfilled that require a vote by the Senate. Yet his administration has installed more than 1,000 people through political appointments at every major federal agency, handing… Continue Reading

Immigration Court Backlog Climbs to 617,527 Cases

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Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “The latest available case-by-case court records show that as of the end of July 2017, the Immigration Court’s backlog continued to rise, reaching an all-time high of 617,527. For the first time, individuals with pending cases from El Salvador surpassed the numbers from Mexico in the court’s pending workload. There were… Continue Reading

Powering Science: NASA’s Large Strategic Science Missions

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“NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) currently operates over five dozen missions, with approximately two dozen additional missions in development. These missions span the scientific fields associated with SMD’s four divisions—Astrophysics, Earth Science, Heliophysics, and Planetary Sciences. Because a single mission can consist of multiple spacecraft, NASA-SMD is responsible for nearly 100 operational spacecraft. The most… Continue Reading

Washington Monthly Annual Rankings Measure What Colleges Do For Their Country

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Kevin Carey – The Washington Monthly: “…Instead of rewarding colleges for the number of applications they reject, we give them credit for enrolling unusually large numbers of low-income and first-generation students. Instead of assuming that the most expensive schools are also the best, we recognize universities that produce research, train the next generation of scientists… Continue Reading

Roll Call’s 2018 Election Guide

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“Your road map to the state-by-state battles that will decide the balance of power in Washington. Inside Elections with Nathan Gonzales/Roll Call ratings are categorized to reflect the degree to which one party or the other is projected to win and do not reflect the closeness of the contest.” Continue Reading

These are the roads that are closed in Houston due to Hurricane Harvey

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Thanks to the outstanding work, expertise, and a remarkable history of outreach, support and knowledge sharing, via NewsLib, the Houston Chron posted a crowdsourced map of flooded streets and neighborhoods – updated regularly. The digital version of the Houston Chronicle shows an inundated neighborhood. Please also see Disaster.gov – and via FEMA – the National… Continue Reading