Via FedBizOpps: “The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Office of Security Capabilities is presenting the Strategic Five-Year Technology Investment Plan. The Plan was prepared pursuant to a requirement in Section 1611 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-296), as amended by Section 3 of the Transportation Security Acquisition Reform Act (P.L. 113-245). It presents… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
Dietary Supplements Are Not All Safe and Not All Food
Sax, Joanna, Dietary Supplements Are Not All Safe and Not All Food: How the Low Cost of Dietary Supplements Preys on the Consumer (September 1, 2015). American Journal of Law and Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 2&3, 2015. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2654494 “Dietary supplements are regulated as food, even though the safety and efficacy… Continue Reading
Continued Bipartisan Support for Expanded Background Checks on Gun Sales
“Two years after the failure of Senate legislation to expand background checks on gun purchases, the public continues to overwhelmingly support making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks. Currently, 85% of Americans – including large majorities of Democrats (88%) and Republicans (79%) – favor expanded background checks, little changed… Continue Reading
Census Data Used For Comprehensive Visualization of Segregation in American Cities
Wired – “This is the most comprehensive map of race in America ever created [by Dustin Cable at University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service]. White people are shown with blue dots; African-Americans with green; Asians with red; and Latinos with orange, with all other race categories from the Census represented by brown.… Continue Reading
How Many Employers Could be Affected by the Cadillac Plan Tax?
Kaiser Family Foundation Issue Brief, August 2015: “As fall approaches, we can expect to hear more about how employers are adapting their health plans for 2016 open enrollments. One topic likely to garner a good deal of attention is how the Affordable Care Act’s high-cost plan tax (HCPT), sometimes called the “Cadillac plan” tax, is… Continue Reading
CRS – Effectiveness of the Community Reinvestment Act
The Effectiveness of the Community Reinvestment Act, Darryl E. Getter, Specialist in Financial Economics, January 7, 2015. “This report informs the congressional debate concerning the CRA’s effectiveness in incentivizing bank lending and investment activity to LMI borrowers. After a discussion of the CRA’s origins, it presents the CRA’s examination process and bank activities that are… Continue Reading
U.S. Investigations Services Agrees to Forego at Least $30 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations
DOJ news release: “The Justice Department announced today that U.S. Investigations Services Inc. (USIS) and its parent company, Altegrity, have agreed to settle allegations that USIS violated the False Claims Act (FCA) for conduct involving a contract for background investigations that USIS held with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The companies have agreed… Continue Reading
POGO – Former CRS Researcher Calls for Public Access
“Despite bipartisan support from many organizations, Capitol Hill still hesitates to grant public access to taxpayer-funded formal reports from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The Project On Government Oversight has long reported on the importance of opening these reports to the public. POGO worked with many open-government allies to urge Members of Congress to change the… Continue Reading
CRS – National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations
National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: A Glimpse at the Legal Background, Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist in American Public Law. July 31, 2015. “Five federal statutes authorize intelligence officials to request certain business record information in connection with national security investigations. The authority to issue these national security letters (NSLs) is comparable to the… Continue Reading
Binaryedge Report – more than petabyte of data on unsecured servers
Via Digital Guardian – “The research firm Binaryedge says it found more than a petabyte of data stored in high performance databases like MongoDB is exposed to the public Internet.” Continue Reading
State Legislature Online Tech Landscape
A comparison of legislature and SaaS websites shows stark differences: “An analysis of 54 state legislature websites shows that the technology they utilize trails industry standards significantly. A majority, 35 (65%), are programmed in ASP.NET and running on IIS servers – both, usually paired, are Microsoft technologies. This differs greatly from standards seen in leading… Continue Reading
GAO Report – Facial Recognition Technology
Facial Recognition Technology: Commercial Uses, Privacy Issues, and Applicable Federal Law, GAO-15-621: Published: Jul 30, 2015. Publicly Released: Jul 30, 2015. “Facial recognition technology can be used in numerous consumer and business applications, but the extent of its current use in commercial settings is not fully known. The technology is commonly used in software that… Continue Reading
