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Monthly Archives: May 2014

Staying safe this hurricane season

Google Official Blog – “Since 2010, we’ve been working to make disaster-related information immediately available and useful in a crisis, through tools like Public Alerts, Crisis Map and Person Finder. And since next week marks the start of hurricane season in the North Atlantic, we thought we’d provide a few tips to help you prepare for potential summer disasters—from… Continue Reading

International Journal of Central Banking

The International Journal of Central Banking (IJCB) is an initiative of the central banking community. Published quarterly, the journal features articles on central bank theory and practice, with a special emphasis on research relating to monetary and financial stability. The main objectives of the International Journal of Central Banking are: to disseminate widely the best policy-relevant and applied… Continue Reading

Report – Half of American Adults Data Hacked So far This Year

EPIC:  “A new report finds that 432 million online accounts in the US have been hacked this year, concerning about 110 million Americans. In the last year, 70 million Target customers, 33 million Adobe users, 4.6 million Snapchat users, and potentially all 148 million eBay users had their personal information exposed by database breaches. Earlier this month, the President’s science advisors found… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – DOD Financial Management, DOE Loan Programs, Info Security, Treasury IG, Public Transit, SBA, Trusted Travelers

DOD FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: Improvements Needed in Army’s Efforts to Ensure the Reliability of Its Statement of Budgetary Resources, GAO-14-60: Published: May 30, 2014. Publicly Released: May 30, 2014. DOE LOAN PROGRAMS: DOE Has Made More Than $30 Billion in Loans and Guarantees and Needs to Fully Develop Its Loan Monitoring Function, GAO-14-645T: Published: May 30, 2014. Publicly Released: May 30, 2014.… Continue Reading

New federal database will track Americans’ credit ratings, other financial information

Washington Examiner, Richard Pollock: “As many as 227 million Americans may be compelled to disclose intimate details of their families and financial lives — including their Social Security numbers — in a new national database being assembled by two federal agencies. The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted an April 16 Federal Register notice of an expansion of their joint National… Continue Reading

Corpus of Contemporary American English

“The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) is the largest freely-available corpus of English, and the only large and balanced corpus of American English. The corpus was created by Mark Davies of Brigham Young University, and it is used by tens of thousands of users every month (linguists, teachers, translators, and other researchers). COCA is also related to other large corpora that we have… Continue Reading

New Carbon Pollution Standards Can Save Americans $37.4 billion on Electric Bills

“The first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants can save American households and business customers $37.4 billion on their electric bills in 2020 while creating more than 274,000 jobs, a Natural Resources Defense Council analysis shows. Those are among the tangible potential benefits of the anticipated limits on carbon pollution spewing from the nation’s coal-… Continue Reading

The Condition of Education 2014

“The Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual Condition of Education report to help inform policymakers about the progress of education in the United States. This year’s report presents 42 indicators on important topics and trends in U.S. education. These indicators focus on population characteristics, participation in education, elementary and… Continue Reading

Implementation monitoring for the PFMIs: first update to Level 1 assessment report

“The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) continue to closely monitor the implementation of the Principles for financial market infrastructures (PFMIs). The PFMIs (published by CPSS-IOSCO in April 2012) are international standards for payment, clearing and settlement systems, and trade repositories. They are designed to ensure that the… Continue Reading

Online Shopping and Mail Order Businesses Jump 27 Percent

“Electronic shopping is showing rapid growth compared to the rest of the retail trade sector, with the number of establishments growing 27.4 percent between 2011 and 2012, according to new U.S. Census Bureau statistics released today. Drawn from County Business Patterns: 2012, the new data provides the only detailed annual information on the number of establishments,… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Army Networks, Defense Acquisitions, Defense Research, Foster Care, Foster Children

ARMY NETWORKS: Select Programs Are Utilizing Competition to Varying Degrees, GAO-14-460: Published: May 29, 2014. Publicly Released: May 29, 2014. DEFENSE ACQUISITIONS: Assessment of Institute for Defense Analyses’ C-130 Avionics Modernization Program Analysis, GAO-14-547R: Published: May 29, 2014. Publicly Released: May 29, 2014. DEFENSE RESEARCH: Improved Management of DOD’s Technical Corrosion Collaboration Program Needed, GAO-14-437: Published: May 29, 2014. Publicly Released: May 29, 2014.… Continue Reading