"Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy, a report from the McKinsey Global Institute, cuts through the noise and identifies 12 technologies that could drive truly massive economic transformations and disruptions in the coming years. The report also looks at exactly how these technologies could change our world, as well as their benefits and challenges, and offers guidelines to help leaders from businesses and other institutions respond. We estimate that, together, applications of the 12 technologies discussed in the report could have a potential economic impact between $14 trillion and $33 trillion a year in 2025. This estimate is neither predictive nor comprehensive. It is based on an in-depth analysis of key potential applications and the value they could create in a number of ways, including the consumer surplus that arises from better products, lower prices, a cleaner environment, and better health."

Google Official Blog: "The Galapagos Islands are some of the most biologically unique ecosystems in the world. Explorers and scientists alike have long studied and marveled at these islands—made famous by Charles Darwin. The Ecuadorean Government, local conservation groups and scientists are working to protect the Galapagos from threats posed by invasive species, climate change and other human impacts. It’s critical that we share images with the world of this place in order to continue to study and preserve the islands’ unique biodiversity. Today we’re honored to announce, in partnership with Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Parks Directorate (GNPD), that we’ve collected panoramic imagery of the islands with the Street View Trekker. These stunning images will be available on Google Maps later this year so people around the world can experience this remote archipelago."

Just Released: The New York Fed Staff Forecast—May 2013, Jonathan McCarthy and Richard Peach - "As we did last year around this time, we’re presenting the New York Fed staff outlook for the U.S. economy to the Bank’s Economic Advisory Panel at today’s meeting. It provides an opportunity to get valuable feedback from leading economists in academia and the private sector on the staff forecast; such feedback helps us evaluate the assumptions and reasoning underlying our forecast and the risks to it. It’s important to open the staff forecast to periodic evaluation to inform the staff’s discussions with New York Fed President Bill Dudley about economic conditions. In the same spirit of inviting feedback, we’re sharing a short summary of our forecast; for more, see the material from the Panel’s meeting."

• Defense Acquisitions - Continued Management Attention Needed to Enhance Use and Review of DOD's Inventory of Contracted Services, GAO-13-491, May 23, 2013
• Defense Infrastructure - Navy's Analysis of Costs and Benefits Regarding Naval Station Mayport Demonstrated Some Best Practices and Minimally Addressed Other Requirements, GAO-13-501, May 23, 2013
• Emergency Alerting - Capabilities Have Improved, but Additional Guidance and Testing Are Needed, GAO-13-375, Apr 24, 2013
• Export-Import Bank - More Detailed Information about Its Jobs Calculation Methodology Could Improve Transparency, GAO-13-446, May 23, 2013

News release: "Eight of the 15 fastest-growing large U.S. cities and towns for the year ending July 1, 2012 were in Texas, according to population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Lone Star State also stood out in terms of the size of population growth, with five of the 10 cities and towns that added the most people over the year. The fastest-growing municipalities are spread across Texas, from the High Plains of West Texas to the Houston suburbs. San Marcos, along the Interstate 35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio, had the highest rate of growth among all U.S. cities and towns with at least 50,000 people. Its population rose 4.9 percent between 2011 and 2012. Completing the top five nationwide were Midland and Cedar Park, both in Texas; South Jordan, Utah; and Clarksville, Tenn. No state other than Texas had more than one city on the list of the 15 fastest-growing large cities and towns. However, all but one were in the South or West. The Texas cities that added the most people included Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth. New York, the nation's largest city, topped the list and was the only city among the top 15 outside the South or West. It added 67,058 people over the year. Three cities were in California: Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose. New York continued to be the nation's most populous city by a wide margin, with 8.3 million residents in 2012, followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. The composition of the list of the 15 most populous cities has remained unchanged since last year; however, the list's order has changed slightly. Between 2011 and 2012, Austin moved up from 13th to 11th in total population, supplanting Jacksonville, Fla., while Indianapolis moved down from 12th to 13th. Texas and California each had four cities on the list in both years."

Bridging the Higher Education Divide: Strengthening Community - Colleges and Restoring the American Dream. By The Century Foundation Task Force on Preventing Community Colleges from Becoming Separate and Unequal, May 23, 2013

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), joined by the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is recognizing the Friday before Memorial Day as “Don’t Fry Day”, to encourage Americans to take a few simple steps to protect their health and prevent skin cancer throughout the summer...According to the CDC, the states with the highest melanoma death rates include Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and West Virginia. Americans are encouraged to learn more about skin cancer in their states at www2.epa.gov/sunwise/skin-cancer-facts-your-state."

"The Condition of Education 2013 [May 2013] summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 42 indicators on the status and condition of education, in addition to Spotlights that look more closely at 4 issues of current interest. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available."

Lessons at the Zero Bound: The Japanese and U.S. Experience, May 21, 2013. William C. Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer/NY Fed. Remarks at the Japan Society, New York City.

"Welcome to the New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery. This ever-expanding gallery is your entry point into the vast visual holdings of the Archives. The Online Gallery provides free and open research access to over 800,000 items digitized from the Municipal Archives’ collections, including photographs, maps, motion-pictures and audio recordings. The holdings are arranged by collection; or you may search “All Collections” by keyword or any of the advanced search criteria. Patrons may order prints or digital files, and license images or film clips for commercial use."

Library of Congress Magazine: "The Law Library and CRS, working with the Library's web services experts, maintain THOMAS, the Internet-accessible database that makes legislative information-bills, resolutions, treaties and the Congressional Record-available to Congress and the public. Congress.gov, a beta website operated jointly by the Library of Congress, the House, the Senate and the other legislative branch sources, provides the same information through mobile devices and eventually will replace THOMAS. The Law Library responds to all queries related to THOMAS and the Congress.gov beta site. "Since the launch of the public legislative information system known as THOMAS in 1995, Congress has relied on the Library to make the work of Congress available to the public in a coherent, comprehensive way," said Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) at the September 2012 launch of the Congress.gov beta site. "The Library staff has a strong working relationship with the House, Senate and the Government Printing Office, which will enable the Library to successfully develop the next generation legislative information website."

• Government Efficiency and Effectiveness - Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication through Enhanced Performance Management and Oversight, GAO-13-590T, May 22, 2013
• Hazardous Waste Cleanup - Observations on States' Role, Liabilities at DOD and Hardrock Mining Sites, and Litigation Issues, GAO-13-633T, May 22, 2013
• Spectrum Management - Federal Relocation Costs and Auction Revenues, GAO-13-472, May 22, 2013
• VA Education Benefits - VA Needs to Improve Program Management and Provide More Timely Information to Students, GAO-13-338, May 22, 2013

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: "Of the 1,500 individuals taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a typical work day, the latest ICE data record that about 1,000 were eventually "removed" -- deported and barred from returning to the U.S. for years. About 360 individuals were released after posting bond, on their own recognizance, or for other reasons. Of these only 20 were placed under ICE's electronic monitoring program. The ultimate outcome -- removal or release -- varied in surprising ways from one state to the next. For those initially picked up in Arizona, 84 percent were removed, whereas the removal rate in neighboring California was only 50 percent, lower than New York's 59 percent. In Texas the removal rate was 70 percent, which more nearly matched what happened to those initially detained in Massachusetts (69%) than in the adjacent state of New Mexico (88%). Those picked up in Virginia, Illinois or Florida experienced particularly low removal rates -- only 37, 43 and 45 percent, respectively. For more details, including state-by-state rankings and details, go to the report."

The 2011 FDIC assessment on banks managed liabilities: interest rate and balance-sheet responses by Lawrence L Kreicher, Robert N McCauley and Patrick McGuire, Working Papers No 413, May 2013

"Today, EFF filed a motion in a secret court. This secret court isn’t in a developing nation, struggling beneath a dictatorship. It’s not in a country experimenting for the first time with a judiciary and the rule of law. And, as Wired recently noted, it’s “not in Iran or Venezuela, as one might expect.” No, the court is here, in the United States (it’s in Washington, D.C., in fact). It’s called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (or the FISC), and it reviews the federal government’s applications to conduct surveillance in national security cases. It’s comprised of 11 district court judges from around the country, and its opinions and orders are the law of the United States, like other federal courts. But the FISC is different from typical courts in one fundamental way: almost everything about the FISC is secret. In fact, just being able to publicly say that we filed a motion with the FISC is unusual. Most proceedings are done ex parte (in this context, meaning just with the government and the judge), and any non-governmental parties involved in proceedings are typically forbidden from ever disclosing it. Even when the FISC finds that the government has acted illegally, so far, that illegality has been been kept hidden from public scrutiny and accountability. EFF is trying to change that. We filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) after the Department of Justice refused to disclose a FISC opinion we requested. The FISC opinion held that the government engaged in surveillance that was unconstitutional and violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws. We only know the opinion exists because Senators, like Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, essentially forced the government to publicly acknowledge its existence."