American Bar Association Journal: “Following a reported 13% increase in law school applications, five of 196 ABA-accredited law schools expanded their first-year classes by more than 50% for the 2021 admissions cycle, and 36 saw growth between 20% and 41%. Overall, there was an increase of almost 12% for students admitted during the 2021 law… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: March 2022
The Supreme Court Just Came Perilously Close to Blowing Up Federal Elections
Slate: “The Supreme Court will not overturn a century of pro-democracy precedent and two centuries of historical practice to give state legislatures unlimited power over elections—yet. That’s the upshot of the court’s orders on Monday in two huge redistricting cases out of Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The court refused to block new congressional maps drawn… Continue Reading
Twitter quietly launches Tor service in the face of Russian censorship
Mashable: “Twitter just struck a blow against government censorship, even if the tech giant won’t come out and say so directly. On Tuesday morning, Alec Muffett, a cybersecurity professional with a long history of working with the Tor network, announced he’d brought skills to bear at Twitter. Specifically, Muffett wrote that he’d helped the company… Continue Reading
Benchmarking Diversity and Inclusion in Media and Entertainment: The Audience Representation Index
“The World Economic Forum’s Power of Media Initiative has developed a first-of-its-kind Audience Representation Index, providing a benchmark for how well consumers see themselves represented in film and TV, gaming, news and magazines, and sport – and whether those industries are contributing to community and society. This report, produced in collaboration with Accenture, Ipsos and… Continue Reading
IRS Audits Poorest Families at Five Times the Rate for Everyone Else
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC): “A large increase in federal income tax audits targeting the poorest wage earners allowed the Internal Revenue Service to keep overall audit numbers from further declines for Americans as a whole during FY 2021. That resulted in these low-income wage earners with less than $25,000 in total gross receipts being… Continue Reading
Is This the End of the Trail Map?
The New York Times: “At ski resorts around the country, the familiar paper map is disappearing, as mountains push skiers to use apps and other digital resources. But some skiers are pushing back…Mr. Niehues, who retired last year, said that his maps aren’t just about “guiding you down the mountain but showing you its potential… Continue Reading
Live monitoring of all sanctions against Russia
NiemanLab: “The German investigative nonprofit Correctiv just launched a tracker to monitor worldwide sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. It’s available in English and German and updated several times a day. “This creates transparency around the most important tool the West has in the current crisis,” Justus von Daniels, editor-in-chief of Correctiv, told… Continue Reading
The Economist’s glass-ceiling index
Our annual measure of the role and influence of women in the workforce: “The Economist’s glass-ceiling index measures the role and influence of women in the workforce across the OECD club of mostly rich countries. Four Nordic countries—Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway—top the index as the best places for working women. Japan and South Korea,… Continue Reading
The 20th-Century History Behind Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Smithsonian Magazine – “During WWII, Ukrainian nationalists saw the Nazis as liberators from Soviet oppression. Now, Russia is using that chapter to paint Ukraine as a Nazi nation…The “historical reality” of modern-day Ukraine is more complex than Putin’s version of events, encompassing “a thousand-year history of changing religions, borders and peoples,” according to the New… Continue Reading
You Need to Be Using a VPN on Your Phone
CNET – “Here’s How to Set it Up in Under 10 Minutes Protecting your privacy on your phone with a VPN is essential, and it’s easier to set up than you may think…VPNs are easier to use on your phone than you may think, and most are less expensive than you might expect. Here’s how… Continue Reading
The secret police: Cops built a shadowy surveillance machine in Minnesota after George Floyd’s murder
“An investigation by MIT Technology Review reveals a sprawling, technologically sophisticated system in Minnesota designed for closely monitoring protesters. Law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have been carrying out a secretive, long-running surveillance program targeting civil rights activists and journalists in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Run under a consortium… Continue Reading
You still probably have to wear a mask while traveling
Popular Science: “On February 25, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its COVID-19 community spread level criteria and its mask guidelines. The changes have allowed 70 percent of Americans to go unmasked indoors, in theory. However, this does not apply to the vast majority of public transportation, even in areas where general… Continue Reading
