Reveal – Center for Investigative Reporting: “National Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans’ role in causing climate change in drafts of a long-awaited report on sea level rise and storm surge, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science. The research for the first time… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2018
ABA Section of Legal Education releases comprehensive report on bar passage data
ABA news release: “The Managing Director’s Office of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar released today a comprehensive set of data on bar passage outcomes for ABA-approved law schools, showing that in the aggregate nearly 9 of 10 law graduates in 2015 who took the bar exam passed it within… Continue Reading
Vermont Legislature Passes Gun-Control Bill
WSJ: “The Vermont Senate passed a bill Friday that will heighten restrictions on firearms, including raising the purchasing age to 21 for many people and banning high-capacity magazines. The bill, sent to Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s desk, marks the latest move to tighten regulations after a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in… Continue Reading
DOJ IG special report sheds light on FBI seeking backdoor access to shooter’s iPhone
EFF: “The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last week released a new report that supports what EFF has long suspected: that the FBI’s legal fight with Apple in 2016 to create backdoor access to a San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone was more focused on creating legal precedent than it was on accessing… Continue Reading
Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States
The Guardian – John Abraham: “In order to combat climate change, we need to rapidly move from fossil fuel energy to clean, renewable energy. The two energy sources I am most interested in are wind and solar power; however, there are other sources that have great potential. Some people doubt how much wind and solar… Continue Reading
New OPM federal diversity report shows little improvement
Washington Post: “If Uncle Sam is committed to increasing the level of racial, ethnic and gender diversity in his government, particularly at the highest levels of the civil service, you sure can’t tell it from the latest statistics. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) figures show diversity levels have improved little, stayed flat or, in some… Continue Reading
Mapping the Modern Death Sentence
“Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Law have collaborated on a new website that uses a data-driven, interactive map to illustrate the rapid decline of the issuance of the death sentence in the United States since 1991. The website is a supplement to law professor Brandon Garrett’s 2017 book, “End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death… Continue Reading
Google providing WiFi and Chromebooks to school buses in rural areas
The Verge: “Google today announced an expansion of its Rolling Study Halls initiative to over 16 additional school districts, giving “thousands” of students access to Wi-Fi and Chromebooks on their buses. Google has piloted the program in North Carolina and South Carolina over the last couple years, focusing its efforts on rural communities where some… Continue Reading
Chrome Cleanup Tool on Windows PCs is scanning for malware
Motherboard: “As the head of Google Chrome security Justin Schuh explained on Twitter, the [Chrome Cleanup Tool’s] “sole purpose is to detect and remove unwanted software manipulating Chrome.” Moreover, he added, the tool only runs weekly, it only has normal user privileges (meaning it can’t go too deep into the system), is “sandboxed” (meaning its… Continue Reading
District Court Judge rules Pacer fees misused by judiciary
Law.com: “The federal judiciary misused millions of dollars in fees derived from an electronic public web portal for court documents to fund certain programs that federal law did not allow, a Washington judge ruled on Saturday. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said the United States is liable for certain improper expenses that violated the… Continue Reading
Claims to EEOC for age discrimination continue steady growth in number
USA Today: “In 2016, the most recent full year available, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 20,857 claims of violations under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. It was the ninth year in a row that the number of claims has exceeded 20,000, with the highest number in 2008 as the effects of… Continue Reading
Hand-crafted fact-checking matters in an algorithmic world
Inside Higher Education: “It’s International Fact-Checking Day, a project of the Poynter Institute. What a quaint concept! It’s intrinsic to good journalism, but it can’t be done by algorithm or en masse – it’s lovingly hand-crafted work in pursuit of nailing down something that’s often ambiguous and needs to be considered in context and without… Continue Reading
