“According to a recent audit report by the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Inspector General (IG), SSA contractor employees had access to the agency’s information technology (IT) systems even after they stopped working on the contract. The IG found nearly a dozen instances when SSA failed to terminate contractor employees’ privileges to access sensitive data when they left… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
Americans Purchasing More Efficient Vehicles
“The nation’s passenger vehicle marketplace is in the midst of a major transformation according to new research undertaken by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). More than ever before consumers are purchasing, and planning to purchase, vehicles with increased fuel economy. Car manufacturers, in the meantime, are making improvements both to meet this demand and to… Continue Reading
Federal Appeals Court Releases “Drone Killing” Memo, EPIC Filed Amicus
EPIC – “The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today made public the legal analysis justifying the Administration’s controversial “targeted killing” drone program. The action follows an earlier ruling by the federal appeals court in New York Times v. Department of Justice. The government had argued that this memo could not be disclosed under the Freedom of… Continue Reading
Coverage Effects of Limiting the Tax Exclusion for Employment-Based Health Insurance
Presentation at the Fifth Biennial Conference of the American Society of Health Economists, June 23, 2014 by Allison Percy, Health, Retirement, and Long-Term Analysis Division, Congressional Budget Office. Continue Reading
Elections Administration Research Database
National Conference of State Legislatures – “The Elections Administration Research Database contains elections administration reports published between 2000 and the present. The reports span a range of topics from election costs to voter ID to online voter registration and reflect a variety of perspectives, ranging from election administrators to nonprofit organizations to academic researchers. Each… Continue Reading
Are We Killing the Rain? Meditations on the Water Cycle and, More Particularly, on Bioprecipitation
Cohen, Jane M., Are We Killing the Rain? Meditations on the Water Cycle and, More Particularly, on Bioprecipitation (April 30, 2012). Water International, iFirst, 2012, pp. 1–13; Energy Center Research Paper No. 2014-02. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2458027 “Multi-disciplinary research on “bioprecipitation” advances the hypothesis that atmospheric ice nucleators of biological origin may be a highly-adapted causal… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Advanced Reactor Research, Debt Management, DOD Financial Management, Maritime Security, Medicaid, Telecommunications, Spina Bifida
ADVANCED REACTOR RESEARCH: DOE Supports Multiple Technologies, but Actions Needed to Ensure a Prototype Is Built, GAO-14-545: Published: Jun 23, 2014. Publicly Released: Jun 23, 2014. DEBT MANAGEMENT: Floating Rate Notes Can Help Treasury Meet Borrowing Goals, but Additional Actions Are Needed to Help Manage Risk, GAO-14-535: Published: Jun 16, 2014. Publicly Released: Jun 23, 2014. DEBT MANAGEMENT: Survey of Investors in… Continue Reading
Iraq: Politics, Governance, and Human Rights
CRS – Iraq: Politics, Governance, and Human Rights, Kenneth Katzman, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs. June 13, 2014 “Since the 2011 U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, sectarian and ethnic divisions have widened, fueling a revival of a Sunni Muslim insurgent challenge to Iraq’s stability. Iraq’s Sunni Arab Muslims resent Shiite political domination and perceived discrimination by the government of… Continue Reading
Trafficking in Persons Report 2014
“What trafficking victims endure is incomparable to what most of us confront in a lifetime and should put into context the small injustices and frustrations of our daily work and lives. The same can be said of their courage and strength, both during their exploitation and recovery. Of the tens of thousands of victims identified… Continue Reading
The Dynamics of Political Interest and News Media Consumption: A Longitudinal Perspective
“For democracy to function correctly, citizens need to have an adequate level of political knowledge on which to judge political representatives. Media use is generally regarded as being one of the key factors affecting the distribution of this information, but how has the greater media choice provided through the Internet and other mediums affected the… Continue Reading
State & Trends Report Charts Global Growth of Carbon Pricing
“Globally, 39 national and 23 sub-national jurisdictions have implemented or are scheduled to implement carbon pricing instruments, including emissions trading systems and taxes. The world’s emissions trading schemes are valued at about $30 billion, with China now housing the world’s second largest carbon market, covering the equivalent of 1,115 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.… Continue Reading
Securities Lending and the Untold Story in the Collapse of AIG
“American International Group Inc. (AIG), a worldwide insurance powerhouse, avoided bankruptcy in 2008 thanks to generous bailouts from the federal government. Understanding what happened to AIG is critical in evaluating the regulatory reforms enacted since the crisis, and ascertaining whether earlier implementation of those reforms would have prevented the AIG bailout and whether the reforms… Continue Reading
