Slate – Mark Joseph Stern: “On Tuesday, a federal district court made history by striking down North Carolina’s congressional map. The decision marks the first time a court has invalidated a congressional redistricting scheme as illegally gerrymandering along partisan lines. It arrives at a critical moment for the development of a legal theory that requires… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2018
Gardening: The Wonderdrug
“In a world of instant communication, we are constantly exposed to the latest cures for whatever ails us – the latest wonderdrugs. Most are costly and many come with dire risks and side effects. Yet sometimes age-old simple cures can work wonders too. Gardening is turning out to be one of the best drugs available… Continue Reading
Rebecca B. Rankin: Early Advocate for Public Access to Government Information
NYPR Archives & Preservation: “Rebecca B. Rankin was the Director of the Municipal Reference Library for the City of New York. Her work included the promotion of resources and services of the library to its clients. When budget cuts forced her to curtail the traditional publications used for publicity and outreach, Rankin took the pioneering… Continue Reading
1980-2017 Q4 – U.S. Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters
“NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) tracks U.S. weather and climate events that have great economic and societal impacts (www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions). Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 219 weather and climate disasters where the overall damage costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (including adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index, as of December 2017). The… Continue Reading
Bill Would Establish Cybersecurity Inspections, Impose Mandatory Penalties, and Compensate Consumers for Stolen Data
“United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) today introduced the Data Breach Prevention and Compensation Act to hold large credit reporting agencies (CRAs) – including Equifax – accountable for data breaches involving consumer data. The bill would give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) more direct supervisory authority over data security at CRAs,… Continue Reading
50 Places Raising the Minimum Wage in 2018
24/7 Wall St: 50 Places Raising the Minimum Wage in 2018 “Several dozen American cities, counties, and states raised local minimum wages on January 1. In a few California cities, the minimum wage increased by $2.00 or more per hour. In places like Berkeley, San Francisco, and Mountain View — the latter famously home to the… Continue Reading
LIS News – Ten Stories That Shaped 2017
LIS NEWS – Can you believe it’s almost 2018? That means it’s time to look back at some of the notable library-related stories from the past year. 10. Librarians Fight Fake News The problems with fake news caused many of us to revamp our web evaluation handouts into guides for spotting bogus information sources. 9.… Continue Reading
U.S. Waterways Are Getting Saltier, With Possible Effects on Drinking Water
Science: U.S. rivers are getting saltier, potentially compromising drinking water: “The bomb cyclone that hit the northeastern United States last week left roadways and vehicles caked in a white film of road salt and grime. Those salts might be washing into the region’s fresh waterways, a new study reveals. A 50-year-long analysis of hundreds of… Continue Reading
Community-Owned Fiber Networks: Value Leaders in America
Community-Owned Fiber Networks: Value Leaders in America. Pricing Review Shows They Provide Least-Expensive Local “Broadband”. January 10, 2018. “By one recent estimate about 8.9 percent of Americans, or about 29 million people, lack access to wired home “broadband” service, which the U.S. Federal Communications Commission defines as an internet access connection providing speeds of at… Continue Reading
Google Street View Now Has A Soundtrack, Thanks To AI
fastcodesign: “Google Street View has never felt so enchanting. In New York’s Botanical Garden, children shout and play in the distance. On a highway in Shibuya, Tokyo, cars whoosh by with so much detail, you can hear the first drops of rain on the street. At Gaudi’s famous Barcelona cathedral, La Sagranda Familia, a priest… Continue Reading
Wielding Data, Women Force a Reckoning Over Bias in the Economics Field
Wielding Data, Women Force a Reckoning Over Bias in the Economics Field – “Longstanding complaints about the barriers women face in the economics profession are beginning to resonate within the male-dominated field. It is not difficult to find an all-male panel at the annual January mega-gathering of American economists. They are as common as PowerPoint… Continue Reading
Health Care Just Became the U.S.’s Largest Employer
The Atlantic – “This moment was inevitable. It just wasn’t supposed to happen so soon. Due to the inexorable aging of the country—and equally unstoppable growth in medical spending—it was long obvious that health-care jobs would slowly take up more and more of the economy. But in the last quarter, for the first time in… Continue Reading
