Federal Pay: Opportunities Exist to Enhance Strategic Use of Special Payments, GAO-18-91: Published: Dec 7, 2017. Publicly Released: Dec 14, 2017. “Federal agencies can tap an array of incentives when they need to recruit or retain experts in cyber security, engineering, or some other in-demand field. Seven special payment authorities allow agencies to pay higher… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: December 2017
Here come the drones
December 19, 2017 – 8% of Americans say they own a drone, while more than half have seen one in operation: “Drones are catching on as consumer goods. As of mid-2017, 8% of Americans say they own a drone and 59% say they have seen one in action, according to a Pew Research Center survey.… Continue Reading
Commentary – Law’s Emerging Global Community and What It Means
Mark A. Cohen, Forbes, December 18, 2017: “There is an emerging global legal community that is reshaping the culture, face, contours, composition participants, skillsets, and priorities of the legal industry. It is forging a culture that is transparent, collaborative, diverse, cross-border, data-driven, problem solving, tech and process centric, diverse, inter-disciplinary, merit-centric, flat, pedigree-agnostic, and innovative.… Continue Reading
Report – The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration
“The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration finds that the long-term impact of immigration on the wages and employment of native-born workers overall is very small, and that any negative impacts are most likely to be found for prior immigrants or native-born high school dropouts. First-generation immigrants are more costly to governments than are the… Continue Reading
The new ice free Arctic?
Let it go: The Arctic will never be frozen again By Eric Holthaus on Dec 18, 2017: “Last week, at a New Orleans conference center that once doubled as a storm shelter for thousands during Hurricane Katrina, a group of polar scientists made a startling declaration: The Arctic as we once knew it is no… Continue Reading
ClinicalTrials.gov: Further Enhancements to Functionality
“On December 18, 2017, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) released a new set of updates to ClinicalTrials.gov as part of its ongoing effort to enhance the usability of the database (see ClinicalTrials.gov: First in a Series of Changes to Improve Usability for Stakeholders). Most of the features provided in the current release were previously… Continue Reading
ProPublica Lobbying Registration Database
ProPublica Lobbying Registration Database Updated daily. By Jeremy B. Merrill “It can seem like lobbyists run Washington from behind the scenes. But their work isn’t completely opaque. They’re required to register with the House and the Senate when they lobby for a new client. Former members of Congress, former congressional staffers and former high-level regulators… Continue Reading
Facebook Announces New Tools to Prevent Harassment
FB news release: “Today we are announcing new tools to prevent harassment on Facebook and in Messenger – part of our ongoing efforts to build a safe community.Based on feedback from people who use Facebook, as well as organizations representing groups who disproportionately experience harassment like women and journalists, we are introducing new features that:… Continue Reading
House Office of Compliance – Additional Statistics on Harassment in Congressional Workplace
“As part of the Committee on House Administration’s extensive review of sexual harassment and discrimination in the congressional workplace, Chairman Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) received additional information on the statistics of settlements and awards from the Office of Compliance (OOC). The OOC provided the Committee with additional statistics of settlements and awards paid by type of… Continue Reading
Normative Challenges of Identification in the Internet of Things: Privacy, Profiling, Discrimination, and the GDPR
Wachter, Sandra, Normative Challenges of Identification in the Internet of Things: Privacy, Profiling, Discrimination, and the GDPR (December 6, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3083554 “In the Internet of Things (IoT), identification and access control technologies provide essential infrastructure to link data between a user’s devices with unique identities, and provide seamless and linked up services.… Continue Reading
Misleading and unidentified country of origin postings no longer acceptable for Google
Bloomberg: “Google moved to strip from its news search results publications that mask their country of origin or intentionally mislead readers, a further step to curb the spread of fake news that has plagued internet companies this year. To appear in Google News results, websites must meet broad criteria set out by the company, including… Continue Reading
FTC Releases FY 2017 National Do Not Call Registry Data Book and DNC Mini Site
“The Federal Trade Commission today issued the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2017. The FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry lets consumers choose not to receive most telemarketing calls. Now in its ninth year of publication, the Data Book has been redesigned and contains a wealth of information about the… Continue Reading
