Summary – “Section 710 of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017 (section 710) prohibits an agency from obligating an amount in excess of $5,000 to furnish, redecorate, purchase furniture for, or make improvements for the office of a presidential appointee during the period of appointment without prior notification to the appropriations committees… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2018
CRS – Regulatory Reform 10 Years After the Financial Crisis
Via FAS – Regulatory Reform 10 Years After the Financial Crisis: Systemic Risk Regulation of Non-Bank Financial Institutions. Jay B. Sykes, Legislative Attorney. April 12, 2018. “When large, interconnected financial institutions become distressed, policymakers have historically faced a choice between (1) a taxpayer-funded bailout, and (2) the destabilization of the financial system—a dilemma that commentators… Continue Reading
Update: After Congress complains, USDA restores animal welfare reports
Science: “Following Congress’s request for greater transparency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has apparently restored detail in its most recent animal welfare inspection reports. Reports published on the agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website since last August have omitted inventories that list the number and species of animals housed at facilities within… Continue Reading
Visualizing the Pay Gap Between Men and Women in the UK
Center for Data Innovation – “The Financial Times (paywall) has created a collection of data visualizations showing that 89 percent of women in the United Kingdom work at companies with a pay gap favoring men. The newspaper analyzed data from firms with more than 250 employees, which were required to submit data comparing men and… Continue Reading
Proposed rulemaking by LC to include ebooks in mandatory depository program
FCW.com: “The world’s largest collection of literature is expanding into e-books. In a notice of proposed rulemaking to be published April 16, the Library of Congress will begin including published e-books under its mandatory deposit rule, but only on a by-request basis. Mandatory deposit requires publishers to submit two copies of the work’s “best edition”… Continue Reading
LA Times – Trump lawyers urge high court to bolster his power to fire executive officials
David Savage – LA Times: “The Supreme Court is set to hear a seemingly minor case later this month on the status of administrative judges at the Securities and Exchange Commission, an issue that normally might only draw the interest of those accused of stock fraud. But the dispute turns on the president’s power to… Continue Reading
The premise that AI will save Facebook is – false
Quartz: “…Facebook’s challenge is finding all these permutations of hate speech, bullying, threats, and terrorism, in order to train its AI to look out for similar examples. The problem gets messier because not everyone can agree what makes a post harmful or abusive. Facebook faced this problem in 2016 when the social media platform was… Continue Reading
New on LLRX – Can Legal Research Be Taught? Part 3: Pushing Ourselves Further
Via LLRX – Can Legal Research Be Taught? Part 3: Pushing Ourselves Further – In the conclusion of his three part series, Paul Gatz joins the themes of the first two articles, the teaching of metacognition, legal bibliography, and legal analysis and argument to his conclusion that “to be the experts in legal research we… Continue Reading
Study – older people want the same things from a job as millennials
A new study says older people want the same things from a job as millennials: A good boss and a chance to change the world – “Older workers are more likely to look for work where they can have a positive impact, new data shows. The study also found that regardless of age, workers want a… Continue Reading
What if a nuke goes off in Washington, D.C.? Simulations of artificial societies help planners cope with the unthinkable
Science – M. Mitchell Waldrop, Apr. 12, 2018: “…Known as National Planning Scenario 1 (NPS1), that nuclear attack story line originated in the 1950s as a kind of war game, a safe way for national security officials and emergency managers to test their response plans before having to face the real thing. Sixty years later,… Continue Reading
Editorial – Obfuscating with transparency
Obfuscating with transparency, Jeremy Berg. Science 13 Apr 2018: Vol. 360, Issue 6385, pp. 133. DOI: 10.1126/science.aat8121 “Transparency is critical when it comes to decision-making that broadly affects the public, particularly when it comes to policies purported to be grounded in scientific evidence. The scientific community has been increasingly focused on improving the transparency of… Continue Reading
Google loses landmark ‘right to be forgotten’ case in UK
The Guardian: “A businessman has won his legal action to remove search results about a criminal conviction in a landmark “right to be forgotten” case that could have wide-ranging repercussions. The ruling was made by Mr Justice Warby in London on Friday. The judge rejected a similar claim brought by a second businessman who was… Continue Reading
