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Daily Archives: September 25, 2016

District Court Judge releases list of more than 200 cases veiled in secrecy of Patriot Act

Washington Post – This judge just released 200 secret government surveillance requests
“U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell, a former Senate aide who helped draft the Patriot Act, has defied easy labeling throughout a decades-long career spent charting the frontier of technology and law in the nation’s capital….In ordering the first-ever release by a full federal district court of a year’s worth of secret government surveillance requests, U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington this week added to a decades-long career spent charting the frontier of technology and the law in the nation’s capital. Howell on Wednesday stepped into the fierce debate over the limits of secrecy and law enforcement searches in a digital age by releasing a list of more than 200 cases in which U.S. prosecutors in the District sought court orders for data about individuals’ phone, email…”

New on LLRX – Visiting Interlaken and Madrid

Via LLRX.com – Visiting Interlaken and Madrid – Research Assistant and world traveler Ryan Davis shares another travelogue installment – this time to Interlaken and Madrid. Ryan includes effective strategies for flexible ground and air travel, recommends the value of free guided walking tours, and includes shopping and dining tips, as well as fun and budget… Continue Reading

Twitter and UN Global Pulse Announce Data Partnership

News release, September 23, 2016: “Twitter and UN Global Pulse today announced a partnership that will provide the United Nations with access to Twitter’s data tools to support efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted by world leaders last year. Every day, people around the world send hundreds of millions of Tweets… Continue Reading

Paper – Looking for a Smarter Government (and Administrative Law) in the Age of Uncertainty

Napolitano, Giulio, Looking for a Smarter Government (and Administrative Law) in the Age of Uncertainty (September 23, 2016). Forthcoming, Comparative administrative law, edited by Susan Rose-Ackerman and Peter Lindseth, II edition, Edward Elgar. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2842495 “The paper analyzes to what extent the crisis erupted in 2008 and the subsequent age of… Continue Reading

Paper – European Citizenship after Brexit

Mindus, Patricia, European Citizenship after Brexit (September 29, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2842500 “This paper investigates European citizenship after Brexit, in light of the functionalist theory of citizenship. No matter its shape, Brexit will impact significantly on what has been labelled as ‘one of the major achievements of EU integration’: citizenship of the… Continue Reading

Class Action suit against Wells Fargo filed in Utah

ABCNews.com – “Three Utah residents have filed what may be the first class-action lawsuit brought by customers against Wells Fargo in the ongoing fallout over allegations that more than 2 million bank accounts or credit cards were opened or applied for without customers’ knowledge or permission. Wells Fargo declined to comment on the suit which… Continue Reading

Will FAA take over non-military control of space traffic control

FCW.com: “The Federal Aviation Administration might be extending its commercial air traffic control responsibilities into space. The House passed a bill Sept. 22 by a vote of 425-0 to investigate what role the FAA might play in directing commercial and foreign space traffic. The bill would authorize a study of the impact such a shift… Continue Reading

Fight For The Future launched HelloVote

BusinessInsider: “Registering to vote may now be a lot easier for a portion of the roughly 90% of Americans who own a cellphone. The nonprofit group Fight For The Future launched HelloVote on [the morning of September 22, 2016] with the goal of boosting voter registration in several key battleground states by allowing voters to… Continue Reading

Network World – preliminary map of government open source laws

Jon Gold – NetworkWorld: “As the institutional use of open-source software continues to expand like an octopus, the public sector remains a key target market. Government users like Linux and other open-source software for several reasons, but the most important ones are probably that total cost of ownership is often lower than it is for… Continue Reading

Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder

Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder. Key questions for improving your organization’s cybersecurity performance. Draft September 2016, National Institute of Standards and Technology. “The Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder is a voluntary self-assessment tool that enables organizations to better understand the effectiveness of their cybersecurity risk management efforts. It helps leaders of organizations identify opportunities for improvement based… Continue Reading

Scientists working to deliver nanoparticles directly through patients skin to treat illnesses

“Scientists are investigating a way to use temporary tattoos that deliver nanoparticles to treat autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis. “Placed just under the skin, the carbon-based particles form a dark spot that fades over about one week as they are slowly released into the circulation,” says Christine Beeton, a scientist at Baylor College of Medicine.… Continue Reading