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Daily Archives: May 9, 2017

Treasury launches upgraded federal spending website

Beta.USAspending.gov is the new official source of accessible, searchable and reliable spending data for the U.S. Government. Treasury released this new version of the USAspending.gov site in accordance with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) requirements. The “Beta” site will run concurrently with the previous version of the USAspending.gov website over the summer to minimize disruptions to users’ data access and provide more time to add user-centered enhancements. The new Beta.USAspending.gov site tracks agency expenditures and for the first time, links relevant agency expenditure data with awards distributed by the government. The U.S Treasury Department brings together data from hundreds of federal agencies and systems to make federal spending data readily available to the public.”

CRS – Job Creation in the Manufacturing Revival Marc Levinson Section

Job Creation in the Manufacturing Revival, Marc Levinson, Section Research Manager. May 5, 2017. [via FAS] “The health of the U.S. manufacturing sector is of ongoing interest to Congress. Numerous bills aimed at promoting manufacturing are introduced in each Congress, often with the stated goal of creating jobs. Implicit in many of these bills is… Continue Reading

Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research team published research on neural machine language

Facebook blog – “Language translation is important to Facebook’s mission of making the world more open and connected, enabling everyone to consume posts or videos in their preferred language — all at the highest possible accuracy and speed. Today, the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) team published research results using a novel convolutional neural network… Continue Reading

CRS – Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects

Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects. May 5, 2017. [via FAS] “Then federal agencies and programs lack funding after the expiration of full-year or interim appropriations, the agencies and programs experience a funding gap. If funding does not resume in time to continue government operations, then, under the Antideficiency Act, an agency… Continue Reading

Cardozo School of Law Trains Students as Advocates For Shifting Legal Landscape

“In response to unprecedented legal uncertainty in the first weeks of the Trump administration, Cardozo School of Law is offering new classes to prepare future lawyers for a shifting legal and political landscape…Cardozo School of Law is offering students a 10-week course called The First 100 Days: The Trump Administration and the Rule of Law.… Continue Reading

TRAC Sues ICE on Withholding Data on Detainers

“The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) filed a suit today under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) charging Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with unlawfully withholding records related to ICE’s immigration enforcement actions and its interaction with other law enforcement agencies. At issue are ICE’s use of detainers. These are requests from ICE to federal,… Continue Reading

Trump Fires FBI Director Comey after Congressional testimony on election investigations – with updates

Follow up to previous postings included in Comey Asks Justice Dept. to Reject Trump’s Wiretapping Claim – tonight via CNN – Trump’s letter firing FBI Director James Comey – (Comey was appointed for a 10 year term.) Update – Politico – The Problems With the FBI’s Email Investigation Went Well Beyond Comey – “…the FBI… Continue Reading