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Daily Archives: October 2, 2013

DOJ opposes tech company requests to publish surveillance statistics

“The U.S. Department of Justice has opposed requests by Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other companies to publish the number of surveillance requests they receive from the National Security Agency and other agencies. Requests from five Internet companies, also including Yahoo and LinkedIn, would hurt the NSA’s ability to conduct surveillance on “particular” Internet communications, the DOJ said in a brief filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Monday. If Internet communications providers publish statistics about surveillance requests, that information could drive terrorists to other providers, the DOJ said.

“Releasing information that could induce adversaries to shift communications platforms in order to avoid surveillance would cause serious harm to the national security interests of the United States,” DOJ lawyers wrote in the brief.”

Measuring What We Spend: Toward a New Consumer Expenditure Survey (2013)

“The Consumer Expenditure (CE) surveys are the only source of information on the complete range of consumers’ expenditures and incomes in the United States, as well as the characteristics of those consumers. The CE consists of two separate surveys: (1) a national sample of households interviewed five times at three-month intervals; and (2) a separate… Continue Reading

Pew – The New Library

“Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project presents his organization’s latest findings about what people do at libraries and what they’d like libraries to become. He describes the services patrons say they want libraries to offer and he describes the big issues that new libraries are resolving.” Continue Reading

Internet Archives Maintaining copies of offline e-gov sites

Via Jeff J. Berns: “Per http://blog.archive.org/2013/10/02/governmentblackout/, the Internet Archive grabbed copies of a number of federal agency websites just before they were taken offline due to the lapse in appropriations. You can access the archives through the links on the blog entry. The databases, search engines, etc. may not work, but the static pages should… Continue Reading

Partial List of Government Websites That are Offline

THOMAS.gov and beta.congress.gov remain online. FEMA.gov is partially available. BLS.gov and BEA.gov are closed. Via Gretchen Gould: a list of government websites that were completely offline or “dark” as of the evening of October 1, 2013: Bureau of Economic Analysis (bea.gov) Business.gov Census.gov Copyright.gov Data.gov Disability.gov ED.gov ERIC (eric.ed.gov) FCC.gov FTC.gov FTC.gov Library of Congress… Continue Reading

ADP National Employment Report®, September 2013

ADP National Employment Report Shows 166,000 Jobs Added in September 2013 Private-sector employment increased by 166,000 from August to September, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Highlights: Small businesses (1-49 employees) +74,000 Medium businesses (50-499 employees) +28,000 Large businesses (500 or more employees) +64,000″ View this infographic Continue Reading

New FAQs and Explainers Help Consumers Understand How Obamacare May Affect Them

“With open enrollment for the new health insurance marketplaces underway, many Americans will be looking for information about what the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will mean for them. Today the Kaiser Family Foundation released an expanded list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to help consumers better understand the ACA, also known as Obamacare. Through more… Continue Reading

Insecure & Unequal: Poverty Among Women and Families 2000-2012

“This report, Insecure & Unequal: Poverty Among Women and Families 2000-2012, provides a gender analysis of national and state poverty and income data for 2012, released by the Census Bureau in September 2013. The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) supplies this analysis, as it has for several years, because little information broken out by gender is… Continue Reading