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Daily Archives: November 16, 2017

Membership of the 115th Congress: A Profile

CRS report – Membership of the 115th Congress: A Profile, Jennifer E. Manning, Senior Research Librarian. November 13, 2017.
“This report presents a profile of the membership of the 115th Congress (2017-2018) as of November 13, 2017. Statistical information is included on selected characteristics of Members, including data on party affiliation, average age, occupation,education, length of congressional service, religious affiliation, gender, ethnicity, foreign births, and military service.In the House of Representatives, there are 242 Republicans (including 1 Delegate and the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico), 198 Democrats (including 4 Delegates), and 1 vacant seat. The Senate has 52 Republicans, 46 Democrats, and 2 Independents, who both caucus with the Democrats. The average age of Members of the House at the beginning of the 115thCongress was 57.8 years; of Senators, 61.8 years, among the oldest in U.S. history. The overwhelming majority of Members of Congress have a college education. The dominant professions of Members are public service/politics, business,and law. Most Members identify as Christians, and Protestants collectively constitute the majority religious affiliation. Roman Catholics account for the largest single religious denomination, and numerous other affiliations are represented, including Jewish, Mormon, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Greek Orthodox, Pentecostal Christian, Unitarian Universalist, and Christian Science.”

Best Places to Shop on Black Friday

24/7 Wall St: Best Places to Shop on Black Friday – “Black Friday, the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, has lost its frenetic edge as holiday sales promotions creep into Thanksgiving, and some stores plan to open on Thanksgiving Day. Retailers such as Amazon and Target are offering deals even earlier than Black Friday.… Continue Reading

Welcome to VinylHub

“Welcome to VinylHub! It’s like Discogs, for Record Shops & Record Events. Our mission is to document every physical record shop and record event on the planet. With your help, we can create an accurate listing of all record shops & record events, useful to diggers and travelers everywhere. VinylHub is brought to you by… Continue Reading

OPEN Government Data Act Passes the House for the First Time

“Today, for the first time, the OPEN Government Data (OPEN) Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The House unanimously approved the bill under suspension of the rules. The OPEN Government Data Act is included as Title II in Speaker Ryan’s Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (FEBP) (HR 4174). The OPEN Government Data Act sets… Continue Reading

Leading News Outlets Establish Transparency Standards to Help Readers Identify Trustworthy News Sources

Google, Facebook, Bing and Twitter to use these “Trust Indicators” to highlight credible journalism: “At a time when the public’s trust in news is declining in much of the world, the news industry is launching a new set of transparency standards that help people easily assess the quality and reliability of journalism. Leading media companies… Continue Reading

House or Senate Tax Bills Would Still Add to Debt

JCX-58-17 (November 16, 2017) – Distribution Effects Of The Chairman’s Modification To The Chairman’s Mark Of The “Tax Cuts And Jobs Act,” Scheduled For Markup By The Committee On Finance On November 16, 2017. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Budget – Dynamic Scoring Confirms: House or Senate Tax Bills Would Still Add to Debt:… Continue Reading

CBO – Trends in the Distribution of Household Income

Presentation by Kevin Perese, an analyst in CBO’s Tax Analysis Division, at the University of Michigan’s 65th Annual Economic Outlook Conference. November 16, 2017. “Using CBO’s new distributional framework and improved estimates of income from means-tested transfers, this presentation examines the distribution of household income and how means-tested transfers and federal taxes affect that distribution.… Continue Reading

Beyond GDPR: The Challenge of Global Privacy Compliance

TechPrivacy – Daniel Solove: “For multinational organizations in an increasingly global economy, privacy law compliance can be bewildering these days. There is a tangle of international privacy laws of all shapes and sizes, with strict new laws popping up at a staggering speed. Federal US law continues to fade in its influence, with laws and regulators… Continue Reading

How Artificial Intelligence Will Affect the Practice of Law

Alarie, Benjamin and Niblett, Anthony and Yoon, Albert, How Artificial Intelligence Will Affect the Practice of Law (November 7, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3066816 “Artificial intelligence is exerting an influence on all professions and industries. We have autonomous vehicles, instantaneous translation among the world’s leading languages, and search engines that rapidly locate information anywhere on… Continue Reading