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Daily Archives: January 28, 2016

Unmanned Aircraft Operations in Domestic Airspace : U.S. Policy Perspectives and the Regulatory Landscape

Via FAS – CRS report – Unmanned Aircraft Operations in Domestic Airspace: U.S. Policy Perspectives and the Regulatory Landscape. Bart Elias, Specialist in Aviation Policy. January 27, 2016.

“…Many of the commercial applications envisioned for UAS, such as express package delivery, remote monitoring of utilities and infrastructure, and imagery collection and analysis to support precision agriculture, most likely will not be viable without development of technological capabilities that allow for the complete integration of UAS in the national airspace. These include technologies to enable drones to sense and avoid other air traffic ; manage low-altitude airspace and detect and prevent unauthorized use of airspace; mitigate risks to persons and property on the ground; provide secure command and control linkages between drone aircraft and their operators; and enable automated operations. There are also issues related to operator training and operator qualification standards. A number of bills introduced in the 114th Congress address UAS safety, and these topics may be considered in further detail in forthcoming FAA reauthorization debate…”

Paper – Linking ‘toxic outliers’ to environmental justice communities

Linking ‘toxic outliers’ to environmental justice communities. Mary B Collins, Ian Munoz and Joseph JaJa. Published 26 January 2016 © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd • Environmental Research Letters, Volume 11, Number 1 “Several key studies have found that a small minority of producers, polluting at levels far exceeding group averages, generate the majority of overall… Continue Reading

Report – Freedom in the World 2016: Anxious Dictators, Wavering Democracies

Freedom House – “Freedom in the World 2016 – Global freedom declined for the 10th consecutive year in 2015, as economic pressures and fear of unrest led authoritarians to crack down on dissent, while migration and terrorism fueled xenophobia in democracies.” “Economic downturns and fear of social unrest have led Russia, China, and other authoritarian… Continue Reading

Harvard Berkman Center Releases Amber – Tool for Bloggers and Website Owners

“The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is pleased to release Amber, a free software tool for WordPress and Drupal that preserves content and prevents broken links. When installed on a blog or website, Amber can take a snapshot of the content of every linked page, ensuring that even if those pages… Continue Reading

Federal Reserve Board releases supervisory scenarios for 2016 Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review

“The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday, January 28, 2016 released the supervisory scenarios for the 2016 Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) and Dodd-Frank Act stress test exercises and also issued instructions to firms participating in CCAR. This year, CCAR will include 33 bank holding companies with $50 billion or more in total consolidated assets.… Continue Reading

30th Anniversary of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

30th Anniversary of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Congressional Report on the Investigation. H. Rept. 99-1016 – Investigation of the Challenger Accident. October 29, 1986. 450 pages. PDF. Via NPR – Remembering Roger Boisjoly: He Tried To Stop Shuttle Challenger Launch 30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself Continue Reading

FTC Announces Significant Enhancements to IdentityTheft.gov

“For the first time, identity theft victims can now go online and get a free, personalized identity theft recovery plan as a result of significant enhancements to the Federal Trade Commission’s IdentityTheft.gov website. The new one-stop website is integrated with the FTC’s consumer complaint system, allowing consumers who are victims of identity theft to rapidly… Continue Reading

Report to the President, Congress by National Commission on the Future of the Army

National Commission on the Future of the Army – Report to the President and the Congress, January 28, 2016. “The American people expect their Army to be trained and ready whenever called upon to achieve national objectives. In an increasingly complex world with an increasing array of diverse threats at home and abroad, America’s Army… Continue Reading

2016 Survey of the States: Economic and Personal Finance Education in Our Nation’s Schools

“The 2016 Survey of the States shows that there has been slow growth in personal finance education in recent years and no improvement in economic education.  2016 Key Findings Since 2014, two additional states include personal finance in their K-12 standards and require those standards to be taught. While more states are implementing standards in… Continue Reading

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Monthly Complaint Report January 2016

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is the first federal agency solely focused on consumer financial protection and consumer complaints are an integral part of that work. The CFPB’s Office of Consumer Response hears directly from consumers about the challenges they face in the marketplace, brings their concerns to the attention of companies, and assists… Continue Reading

ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey – Big Growth in Legal Operations Staffing

ACC news release: “Corporate law departments are spending more on internal budgets than on law firms or other external legal service providers, and the percentage of general counsel (GCs) stating that their companies have designated legal operations staff has more than doubled, the ACC Chief Legal Officers (CLO) 2016 Survey reports. The study, released today… Continue Reading

The U.S. Bilateral Repo Market: Lessons from a New Survey

Office of Financial Research – Brief 16-01, January 13, 2016:  The U.S. Bilateral Repo Market: Lessons from a New Survey by Viktoria Baklanova, Cecilia Caglio, Marco Cipriani, Adam Copeland. “We provide aggregate statistics on U.S. dealers’ bilateral repurchase agreements and economically equivalent securities lending activities. The data were collected from the U.S.-affiliated securities dealers of nine… Continue Reading