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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici

Evaluation of Biomonitoring Data from the CDC National Exposure Report in a Risk Assessment Context

Evaluation of Biomonitoring Data from the CDC National Exposure Report in a Risk Assessment Context: Perspectives across Chemicals – March 1, 2013 “Biomonitoring data reported in the National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals [NER; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012)] provide information on the presence and concentrations of > 400 chemicals in… Continue Reading

Cenus – Estimates of Income and Earnings by Selected Demographic Characteristics

“Using data collected by the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this table package presents income and earnings estimates at the individual, family and household level for the third quarter (July, August and September) of 2011. The tables also include quarterly estimates by selected demographic characteristics, such as gender, race/ethnicity, age, marital status and highest… Continue Reading

Pew – Teens and Technology 2013

Teens and Technology 2013 – by Mary Madden, Amanda Lenhart, Maeve Duggan, Sandra Cortesi, Urs Gasser. March 13, 2013 “Smartphone adoption among American teens has increased substantially and mobile access to the internet is pervasive. One in four teens are “cell-mostly” internet users, who say they mostly go online using their phone and not using… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Budget Issues, Information Sharing, Modernizing the Nuclear Security Enterprise, Renewable Energy, Water Infrastructure

Budget Issues – Effects of Budget Uncertainty from Continuing Resolutions on Agency Operations, GAO-13-464T, Mar 13, 2013 Information Sharing – Additional Actions Could Help Ensure That Efforts to Share Terrorism-Related Suspicious Activity Reports Are Effective, GAO-13-233, Mar 13, 2013 Modernizing the Nuclear Security Enterprise – Observations on DOE’s and NNSA’s Efforts to Enhance Oversight of… Continue Reading

Freedom of Information Act Performance, 2012: Agencies Are Processing More Requests but Redacting More Often

Freedom of Information Act Performance, 2012: Agencies Are Processing More Requests but Redacting More Often. Center for Effective Government, March 13, 2013 “A building block of American democracy is the idea that citizens have a right to information about how their government works and what it does in their name. However, citizen access to public… Continue Reading

POGO – Federal Government’s Largest Contractors Have Paid Billions in Fines, Penalties

“The federal government’s largest suppliers of goods and services have accumulated more than $59 billon in fines, penalties, and settlements since 1995 according to the Project On Government Oversight’s (POGO) Federal Contractor Misconduct Database. POGO has added 12 new entities to the database, including telecom giant Verizon Communications and health insurer Highmark. Verizon has 24… Continue Reading

Using Metadata as the Foundation for a Government-Wide FOIA Library

News release: “The Justice Department’s Open Government Plan version 2.0 (PDF) announced a variety of new Department initiatives concerning the administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A key initiative of this plan was the development of metadata standards that would “facilitate the ability of interested persons to search and retrieve documents across websites… Continue Reading

Research – Digital records could expose intimate details and personality traits of millions

“New research, published today in the journal PNAS, shows that surprisingly accurate estimates of Facebook users’ race, age, IQ, sexuality, personality, substance use and political views can be inferred from automated analysis of only their Facebook Likes – information currently publicly available by default. In the study, researchers describe Facebook Likes as a “generic class”… Continue Reading

The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information

The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information, David Pozen, Columbia Law School. March 2013, Harvard Law Review, Forthcoming “The United States government leaks like a sieve. Presidents denounce the constant flow of classified information to the media from unauthorized, anonymous sources. National security professionals decry the consequences. And yet… Continue Reading

Google Webmasters help for hacked sites

Videos and articles for hacked site recovery – Posted by Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead: “We created a new Help for hacked sites informational series to help all levels of site owners understand how they can recover their hacked site. The series includes over a dozen articles and 80+ minutes of informational videos –… Continue Reading