What went wrong with HealthCare.gov? by Adam Mazmanian “A four-hour hearing on Capitol Hill confirmed that pre-launch testing of HealthCare.gov was inadequate given the size and scope of the project. Two IT contractors deeply enmeshed in the launch, CGI Federal and Quality Software Services Inc. (QSSI), confirmed reports that end-to-end testing was conducted only in the… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
140 Characters or Less: An Experiment in Legal Research
140 Characters or Less: An Experiment in Legal Research, Patrick M. Ellis – Michigan State University College of Law – October 1, 2013 “In 1995, Robert Ambrogi, former columnist for Legal Technology News, wrote about the Internet’s potential to revolutionize the accessibility and delivery of legal information. Almost 20 years later, Ambrogi now describes his initial optimism as a… Continue Reading
CDC Survey – Total and High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Adults
Total and High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2012 “Key findings – Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2012 In 2011–2012, an estimated 12.9% of U.S. adults aged 20 and over (11.1% of men and 14.4% of women) had high total cholesterol, which is unchanged since 2009–2010. Approximately… Continue Reading
Commentary – The Decline of Wikipedia
Tom Simonite – MIT Technology Review: “The sixth most widely used website in the world is not run anything like the others in the top 10. It is not operated by a sophisticated corporation but by a leaderless collection of volunteers who generally work under pseudonyms and habitually bicker with each other. It rarely tries… Continue Reading
The Fight Over Financial Literacy
Bloomberg.com reports on an issue vital to all Americans in an ongoing series of articles, videos, slideshows: “Many Americans, burdened by a lack of retirement savings and more than one trillion dollars in student loans, are desperate to know how to make smarter financial decisions. Educators, financial institutions and even some savvy parents have come… Continue Reading
CFPB – Making regulations easier to use
“We write rules to protect consumers, but what actually protects consumers is people: advocates knowing what rights people have, government agencies’ supervision and enforcement staff having a clear view of what potential violations to look out for; and responsible industry employees following the rules…we’re releasing a new open source tool we built, eRegulations, to help… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Electronic Health Records, Federal Real Property, Joint Military Education, FHFA
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS – Number and Characteristics of Providers Awarded Medicare Incentive Payments for 2011-2012, GAO-14-21R, Oct 24, 2013 FEDERAL REAL PROPERTY – Greater Transparency and Strategic Focus Needed for High-Value GSA Leases, GAO-13-744, Sep 19, 2013 JOINT MILITARY EDUCATION – Actions Needed to Implement DOD Recommendations for Enhancing Leadership Development, GAO-14-29, Oct 23, 2013 FEDERAL HOUSING ADMINISTRATION – Analysis of Options… Continue Reading
Mapping the Expansion of Google’s Serving Infrastructure
Mapping the Expansion of Google’s Serving Infrastructure – Matt Calder, University of Southern California; Xun Fan, USC/ISI; Zi Hu, USC/ISI; Ethan Katz-Bassett, University of Southern California; John Heidemann, USC/ISI; Ramesh Govindan; University of Southern California “Modern content-distribution networks both provide bulk content and act as “serving infrastructure” for web services in order to reduce user-perceived latency. Serving infrastructures such as Google’s are now critical to the online economy,… Continue Reading
Women, Men and Working Conditions in Europe
Women, Men and Working Conditions in Europe – A report based on the fifth European Working Conditions Survey – October 24, 2013. Smith, Mark; Piasna, Agnieszka; Burchell, Brendan; Rubery, Jill; Rafferty, Anthony; Rose, Janna; Carter, Laura “Despite much legislative progress in gender equality over the past 40 years, there are still gender gaps across many aspects of… Continue Reading
TRAC – Immigration Court Backlog Up 85% From Five Years Ago
“The number of cases awaiting resolution before the Immigration Courts climbed to 344,230 by the end of fiscal year 2013, according to very timely government enforcement data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. The case backlog, which has risen 5.9 percent since September 2012, is now 85 percent higher than… Continue Reading
UK Guardian – NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after US official handed over contacts
Jason Ball – The NSA memo suggests that such surveillance was not isolated as the agency routinely monitors world leaders. [snipped] “The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward… Continue Reading
CBO – Snapshot of Corporate Income Tax Receipts
“Since 2008, receipts from corporate income taxes have been smaller, relative to the size of the economy, than their historical average of 1.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—largely because the recent recession substantially reduced taxable corporate profits. Temporary provisions in tax laws also played a role, particularly provisions that let firms accelerate deductions for… Continue Reading
