WSJ.com [article is paywalled but the 5 minute accompanying video is not, and well worth listening for the specificity of the explanation] “In a rare bipartisan achievement, Congress has moved to combat the scourge of robocalls inundating Americans. Just don’t stop the calls to stop coming any time soon..” Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
Trump Policy ‘Clarification’ All but Ends Punishment for Bird Deaths
The New York Times: “A new interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 2017 means that as of now, companies are no longer subject to prosecution or fines even after a disaster like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 that destroyed or injured about one million birds and for which BP paid $100… Continue Reading
An investigation into the smartphone tracking industry from Times Opinion
The New York Times – Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy – By Stuart A. Thompson and Charlie Warzel, December 19, 2019. “Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized — are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and… Continue Reading
Meet the American animals that bounced back in 2019
National Geographic – This year, a gecko, a songbird, and a minnow joined the short list of recovered American endangered species. “…The list of 27 (plus specific recovered populations of an additional five animal species) is modest when put into context. Since the Endangered Species Act took effect in 1973, 719 animal species native to… Continue Reading
Are you sharing too much about your kids online? Probably
Fast Company – “To save Neverland, Peter Pan fought the pirates. To save their childhood, youth today need us, their parents, to fight against our “sharenting” habits. Our kids need us to protect their privacy and, along with it, their protected space to play so that they can make mischief, make mistakes, and grow up… Continue Reading
Developing Systems to Summarize Legislation
Center for Data Innovation: “Researchers from FiscalNote Research, a technology firm based in Washington, DC, have released a dataset of U.S. Congressional and California state bills to advance the development of systems that can summarize legislation. The dataset contains more than 22,000 U.S. Congressional bills and summaries from 1993 through 2018 and more than 1,200… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues December 7, 2019
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues December 7, 2019 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the… Continue Reading
Internet Archive and Boston Public Library to digitize and preserve over 100,000 vinyl LPs
Internet Archive Blogs – “Imagine if your favorite song or nostalgic recording from childhood was lost forever. This could be the fate of hundreds of thousands of audio files stored on vinyl, except that the Internet Archive is now expanding its digitization project to include LPs. Earlier this year, the Internet Archive began working with… Continue Reading
Opinion: Workers Deserve a Say in Automation
Opinion – By Sherrod Brown, Ohio’s senior US senator and Liz Schuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO: “The Workers’ Right to Training Act allows employees to evolve as their employers adopt new tech. When the global economy shifted in the late 19th century, working people were the first to adapt. They moved to cities like Cincinnati,… Continue Reading
Congressional Participation in Litigation: Article III and Legislative Standing
CRS Report – Congressional Participation in Litigation: Article III and Legislative Standing Updated November 8, 2019 – Since the founding, the federal courts have played a critical role in adjudicating legal disputes, including ones involving executive action. As the Supreme Court stated in Marbury v. Madison, “where a specific duty is assigned by law .… Continue Reading
Senate Hearing on Modernizing Library of Congress
C-SPAN – “Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress, testified before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee on modernizing the library. She updated committee members on efforts to digitize and secure documents and described how the public would have more access to the library’s collections. Also testifying at the hearing was Karyn Temple,… Continue Reading
GPO has digitized more than 1,300 historical Congressional Hearings dating back to 1958
“The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has digitized more than 1,300 historical Congressional Hearings dating back to 1958 and made them available on govinfo, GPO’s one-stop site to authentic, published Government information. Through these digitization efforts, the public can access records of Congressional Hearings for free. These include the transcripts from meetings or sessions of… Continue Reading
