“EPIC and a coalition of 25 organizations urged the President and the Attorney General to end the NSA’s bulk record collection program when the current authority expires on June 20. In January, the President committed to “end the Section 215 bulk metadata program as it currently exists.” The coalition letter states, “[t]he NSA’s Bulk Metadata program is simply not… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros
Smart Growth America – Foot Traffic Ahead: Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros, this report, conducted by LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, a coalition of Smart Growth America, in conjunction with The George Washington University’s Center for Real Estate & Urban Analysis, identifies each metro’s WalkUPs and ranks the top 30 U.S. metropolitan… Continue Reading
The Highway Trust Fund and the Treatment of Surface Transportation Programs in the Federal Budget
June 2014 – CBO Report – “The federal government spends more than $50 billion per year on surface transportation programs, mostly in the form of grants to state and local governments. Much of this spending is for highways and mass transit programs financed through the Highway Trust Fund. Those programs have an unusual treatment in… Continue Reading
Regulatory Consistency Assessment Programme Assessment of Basel III regulations
“The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has today published a report assessing Canada’s implementation of the Basel capital framework. Overall, Canada’s implementation was found to be “compliant” with the standards prescribed under the Basel framework. Thirteen of the 14 components assessed were graded as “compliant”, while one component – the definition of capital – was assessed as being… Continue Reading
2012 ZIP Code Business Patterns
“Provides data on the number of business establishments by employment-size class for detailed industries. Statistics are provided for about 40,000 ZIP codes nationwide.” County Business Patterns (CBP) is an annual series that provides subnational economic data by industry. This series includes the number of establishments, employment during the week of March 12, first quarter payroll,… Continue Reading
Mobility Progress Report: Are Federal Agencies Passing the Test?
Download the survey here via the Mobile Work Exchange: “It’s been two years since OMB’s Digital Government Strategy and nearly four years since the passage of the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. Is the Federal government making the grade in mobility and telework or is it barely passing? So where are we? Mobile Work Exchange interviewed 154… Continue Reading
On Privacy, New Survey Places US Attitudes Among EU Countries
EPIC – “One of the most comprehensive surveys of privacy ever undertaken finds US attitudes toward privacy remarkably similar to those of Europeans. The survey of 15 countries on privacy, and tradeoffs consumers are prepared to make, placed the US squarely in the middle of European countries, roughly between France and Italy on one side and Germany and… Continue Reading
Inventor tests theories – Vermeer’s paintings might be 350 year-old color photographs
Via boing boing – “Tim Jenison, a Texas-based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in the art world: How did Dutch master Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography? Here’s how he conducted his experiment…Looking at Vermeer’s paintings, it seemed to me that he must… Continue Reading
Ars tests Internet surveillance – by spying on a willing NPR reporter
Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica [snipped] “On a bright April morning in Menlo Park, California, I became an Internet spy. This was easier than it sounds because I had a willing target. I had partnered with National Public Radio (NPR) tech correspondent Steve Henn for an experiment in Internet surveillance. For one week, while Henn researched a story, he… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Coast Guard, Pesticide Safety, Retirement Security, School Meals Programs, Defense Health Care, Corporate Tax Noncompliance
COAST GUARD: Resources Provided for Drug Interdiction Operations in the Transit Zone, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, GAO-14-527: Published: Jun 16, 2014. Publicly Released: Jun 16, 2014. PESTICIDE SAFETY: Improvements Needed in EPA’s Good Laboratory Practices Inspection Program, GAO-14-289: Published: May 15, 2014. Publicly Released: Jun 16, 2014. RETIREMENT SECURITY: Oversight of the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust, GAO-14-312: Published: May… Continue Reading
Emerging Markets Face Tough Climb Back to Past Growth Levels
IMF – “As the global environment turns less supportive and productivity gains of the last decade fade, growth in emerging markets will have to come from new engines, supported by a new wave of structural reforms, a new IMF study says. Emerging Markets in Transition: Growth Prospects and Challenges sheds light on the factors behind last decade’s… Continue Reading
International Banking Research Network
“The International Banking Research Network (IBRN) brings together central bank researchers from around the world to analyze issues pertaining to global banks. It was established in 2012 by Austrian, German, U.S., and U.K. researchers who saw a need for joint analysis of key questions, such as the role of cross-border banking in the transmission of… Continue Reading
