Center for Data Innovation: “The New York Times has created a series of visualizations depicting the effects different government climate change pledges will have on global temperatures. The visualizations use data on government pledges from Climate Action Tracker, an environmental advocacy organization in Germany. For example, one visualization shows that greenhouse gas emissions under current… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
How to fix social media? Start with independent research.
Brookings: “…The system of APIs set up by Twitter over the past decade—most of which were set up for business purposes as opposed to research—led to a flowering of academic research using Twitter data. And to be very clear, Twitter deserves kudos for making so much data available, including specialized collections around Russian Internet Research… Continue Reading
CRS – Compilation of Federal Whistleblower Protection Statutes
CRS Report – Compilation of Federal Whistleblower Protection Statutes November 24, 2021: “This report provides information regarding federal whistleblower and employee protection statutes and their text…” Continue Reading
The Rise of Plain Language Laws
Blasie, Michael, The Rise of Plain Language Laws (October 1, 2021). University of Miami Law Review, 2022 Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3941564 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3941564 “When lawmakers enacted 778 plain language laws across the United States, no one noticed. Apart from a handful, these laws went untracked and unstudied. Without study, large questions remain about these… Continue Reading
Statement in Support of the Freedom to Vote Act
Democracy Letter November 2021: “We, the undersigned, are scholars of democracy writing in support of the Freedom to Vote Act, the most important piece of legislation to defend and strengthen American democracy since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This bill would protect our elections from interference, partisan gerrymandering, dark money, and voter suppression. We… Continue Reading
The Lumen database collects and analyzes legal complaints and requests for removal of online materials
Lumen.org: “Lumen collects and studies online content removal requests, providing transparency and supporting analysis of the Web’s takedown “ecology,” in terms of who sends requests, why, and to what ends. Lumen seeks to facilitate research about different kinds of complaints and requests for removal – legitimate and questionable – that are being sent to Internet publishers,… Continue Reading
OSC Issues Hatch Act Report Documenting Violations by 13 Senior Trump Administration Officials, Including at the 2020 Republican National Conventio
“The U.S. Office of Special Counsel November 9, 2021 issued a report outlining the investigative findings of its career Hatch Act Unit staff in response to Hatch Act complaints filed with OSC regarding senior Trump administration officials’ participation in the 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) and their political activities leading up to the presidential election.… Continue Reading
Study Warns of ‘Educational Gag Orders’
Inside Higher Education: “A new report from PEN America, “Educational Gag Orders: Legislative Restrictions on the Freedom to Read, Learn, and Teach,” says that in the first nine months of 2021, 24 state legislatures introduced 54 bills that would restrict the teaching and training of subjects including race in K-12 schools, higher education or state… Continue Reading
The car becomes the weapon
Boston Globe (paywall) – Demonstrators around the country have been injured and killed by vehicle rammings, but there’s been precious little justice. And new laws could make accountability even scarcer…Given the choice between defending the safety of pedestrians protesting a police murder and the drivers of the vehicles running them down, prosecutors and lawmakers here… Continue Reading
Federal Firearms Laws
CRS Report – Federal Firearms Law: Selected Developments in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches. November 3, 2021 [42 pages]: “Firearm regulation in the United States is an area of shared authority between the federal, state,and local governments. At the federal level, firearm commerce, possession, and transfers are governed largely by two statutory regimes: the… Continue Reading
55 corporations paid no federal income tax in 2020
“Senators Warren, King, and Wyden Announce Updated Proposal To Prevent The Biggest And Most Profitable Corporations From Paying Nothing In Federal Taxes. The Corporate Profits Minimum Tax Would Raise Hundreds of Billions in Revenue While Creating a Fairer Tax System. Updated Proposal to be Included as a Pay-for in the Build Back Better Plan…” Legislative… Continue Reading
Supreme Court set to hear arguments in two challenges to Texas law that bans most abortions
SCOTUS Blog – Supreme Court set to hear arguments in two challenges to Texas law that bans most abortions: “Two months ago, Texas put in place the most restrictive abortion law since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. The law, which prohibits almost all abortions in the state, has dramatically reduced access… Continue Reading
