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Daily Archives: April 27, 2016

Economist – Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2016

The Economist Intelligence Unit [reg req’d]: “The Worldwide Cost of Living is a twice yearly Economist Intelligence Unit survey that compares more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services. These include food, drink, clothing, household supplies and personal care items, home rents, transport, utility bills, private schools, domestic help and recreational costs. The survey itself is a purpose-built internet tool designed to help human resources and finance managers calculate cost-of-living allowances and build compensation packages for expatriates and business travellers. The survey incorporates easy-to-understand comparative cost-of-living indices between cities. The survey allows for city-to-city comparisons, but for the purpose of this report all cities are compared to a base city of New York, which has an index set at 100. The survey has been carried out for more than 30 years. Download the report to find out which cities topped the list of the most expensive places to live and which are the cheapest…”

New Health Data Available in Social Explorer Maps

Via Social Explorer: “County level health data from 2010 to 2015 are available on our site are now available as maps, in addition to reports. Start exploring a variety of health factors including obesity, smoking, excessive drinking, access to healthy foods and medical care. These data were compiled by the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps… Continue Reading

Spring Cleaning? Start with Your Medicine Cabinet Right Away

“Have you checked on your medications lately? Are they expired or are you no longer taking them? This Saturday, April 30 is National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Collect your leftover prescription drugs and take them to a local site for a safe way to dispose of medication. Learn more about why discarding old or unused medication is important.” Continue Reading

Employment as Fiduciary Relationship

Bodie, Matthew T., Employment as Fiduciary Relationship (April 25, 2016). Georgetown Law Journal, 2017. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2770072 “Under traditional agency law doctrine, employees are agents of their employers and owe an agent’s concomitant fiduciary duties. Employers, in turn, are merely principals and have no corresponding fiduciary duties. A new wave of thinking… Continue Reading

Graphic: Bike to Work Day

“To commemorate Bike to Work Week (May 16-20) and Bike to Work Day (May 20), the U.S. Census Bureau presents a graphic showing the percentage of people biking to work in cities with a population of 100,000 or more. The percentages are derived from the 2014 American Community Survey. Internet address: www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2016/comm/bike2work.html.” Continue Reading

Sydney Opera House on the Google Cultural Institute

Via Google Blog: “Experience 60 years of history and stories through 50 online exhibits, a new online archive of 1,000 rare and rarely seen materials, and 360° panoramic imagery. The story begins here: https://goo.gl/Oturtl. Download our Google Arts & Culture app to enjoy more Sydney Opera House from your mobile: Android (https://goo.gl/UoVxfe) / iOS (https://goo.gl/3GIXBa).” Continue Reading

DoD Proposes Increasing Employee Micro-purchase Spending Limits

Via POGO: “The Department of Defense has proposed legislation to increase the “micro-purchase threshold” from $3,000 to $10,000. The micro-purchase threshold is essentially the maximum amount that government employees can charge to their government issued credit cards—called purchase cards—without being required to go through a more rigorous acquisition process. The micro-purchase threshold also applies to… Continue Reading

Harvard Institute of Politics Poll Spring 2016

“A new national poll of America’s 18- to 29-year-olds by Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, finds Hillary Clinton the clear front-runner over Donald Trump to win the White House in 2016. Among likely voters, Clinton has 61% of young voters and Trump 25%, with 14% of… Continue Reading

Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement April 27 2016

“Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March indicates that labor market conditions have improved further even as growth in economic activity appears to have slowed. Growth in household spending has moderated, although households’ real income has risen at a solid rate and consumer sentiment remains high. Since the beginning of the… Continue Reading

EFF – House Advances Email Privacy Act, Setting the Stage for Vital Privacy Reform

Sophia Cope – EFF: “The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) today, which would require the government to get a probable cause warrant from a judge before obtaining private communications and documents stored online with companies such as Google, Facebook, and Dropbox. The bill provides a long-overdue update to the… Continue Reading