Freedom House – The festering problems that erupted after the last presidential election are still unresolved. “As the United States heads toward midterm elections on November 8, the political environment remains haunted by the coup attempt that culminated in a violent attack on the Capitol in January 2021. Social and mainstream media are overrun with… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Congress
Exploring gaps in city climate planning and the need for regional action
Brookings: “The growing threats from climate change leave the global population no choice: We must decarbonize human activity as soon as possible. That includes changing how we build, travel, generate power, and more to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Achieving such transformative change will require a mix of policy reforms, new technologies, and significant capital… Continue Reading
Capitol rioters face legal fates
AP – Track the legal paths of the people arrested in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. “There have been 885 people charged with offenses related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.” Search allow users to: Find defendant or see data for sentences (most defendants received more than one type… Continue Reading
Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out?
CRS Report – RL33514| Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out?: “Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund. Under their intermediate assumptions and undercurrent law, the Social Security trustees project that the OASI trust fund will become depleted in 2034 and the DI… Continue Reading
Climate Change: Enhancing Federal Resilience
GAO – Climate Change: Enhancing Federal Resilience GAO-22-106061 Published: Sep 19, 2022. Publicly Released: Sep 19, 2022. “Between fiscal years 2015 and 2021, selected appropriations for disaster assistance totaled $315 billion. Disaster costs are projected to increase as certain extreme weather events like drought or extreme rainfall become more frequent and intense because of climate… Continue Reading
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation: CRS Products
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation: CRS Products, September 20, 2022: “…CRS selected its products below by searching CRS.gov using the terms climate and greenhouse gas and through discussion with CRS subject matter experts. Products were selected from the search results and included here if they met the search criteria, contained substantial discussion of GHG mitigation, and have… Continue Reading
US politicians tweet far more misinformation than those in the UK and Germany
The Conversation: “Politicians from mainstream parties in the UK and Germany post far fewer links to untrustworthy websites on Twitter and this has remained constant since 2016, according to our new research. By contrast, US politicians posted a much higher percentage of untrustworthy content in their tweets, and that share has been increasing steeply since… Continue Reading
CREW urges Judicial Conference to implement judicial ethics rules
CREW: “The Judicial Conference—a national policymaking body for the federal courts…should implement a comprehensive prohibition on all federal judges and Supreme Court Justices owning or trading individual securities and develop a strong code of conduct for the Supreme Court. In a letter sent [September 20, 2022], CREW urges the Judicial Conference to act swiftly to… Continue Reading
How Social Media Sites Have Amplified False Claims of U.S. Election Fraud
NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights: “As the 2022 midterms approach, falsehoods about election fraud continue to spread via social media. The Big Lie that Joseph Biden did not legitimately win the presidency in 2020 has mutated into a forward-looking belief among many Republicans that American democracy more generally no longer functions fairly.… Continue Reading
January 6th on the Record: The Investigation into the Attack on the U.S. Capitol
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) “is pleased to announce the release of January 6th on the Record: The Investigation into the Attack on the U.S. Capitol, a free ebook compendium of materials related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the subsequent hearings held by the House Select Committee investigating the attack. At… Continue Reading
The Supreme Court’s new term could be even more consequential than its last one
Vox – The Republican justices who overruled Roe v. Wade are only getting started. “The headline of this piece is likely to turn a few heads. The Supreme Court’s last term, after all, was an orgy of conservative excess unlike any since the Court’s Great Depression-era attacks on the New Deal. And it culminated in… Continue Reading
Study: Americans Own More Than 415 Million Firearms
English, William, 2021 National Firearms Survey: Updated Analysis Including Types of Firearms Owned (May 13, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4109494 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4109494 “This report summarizes the findings of a national survey of firearms ownership and use conducted between February 17th and March 23rd, 2021 by the professional survey firm Centiment. This survey, which is part… Continue Reading
