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Daily Archives: July 17, 2018

American Democracy in Crisis: The Challenges of Voter Knowledge, Participation, and Polarization

American Democracy in Crisis: The Challenges of Voter Knowledge, Participation, and Polarization – PPRI – Alex Vandermaas-Peeler, Daniel Cox, PhD, Molly Fisch-Friedman, Rob Griffin, PhD, Robert P. Jones, PhD, 07.17.2018

State of the Country – The Direction of the Country – “Despite a strong economy, Americans remain relatively pessimistic in their outlook on the direction of the country. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the public believe things in the country have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track, while about one-third (35%) say things are generally moving in the right direction. Americans are far more likely to believe the country has gone off course in just the last few years than to say this has been happening for a long time. Four in ten (40%) Americans say the country has gotten off on the wrong track recently, while about one-quarter (24%) say the U.S. has been on the wrong track for a long time. Among partisans, views about the direction of the country have flipped since 2016. Today, seven in ten (70%) Republicans say the country is headed in the right direction, while nearly three in ten say that the country has gotten off on the wrong track in the last few years (10%) or has been on the wrong track for a long time (19%). In contrast, in the fall of 2016, only seven percent of Republicans said the U.S. was headed in the right direction, while more than nine in ten Republicans said the country had been on the wrong track for a long time (42%) or had gotten off on the wrong track in just the last few years (49%). Similarly, views among Democrats have shifted recently. Today, only eight percent of Democrats believe the U.S. is headed in the right direction. About nine in ten Democrats say things have gotten off on the wrong track in the last few years (72%) or the U.S. has been on the wrong track for a long time (19%). In 2016, more than four in ten (42%) Democrats said the U.S. was headed in the right direction. Less than six in ten said the country had gotten off on the wrong track in the last few years (21%) or had been off track for a long time (36%)…”

IMF – The Global Expansion: Still Strong but Less Even, More Fragile, Under Threat

IMF: “Amid rising tensions over international trade, the broad global expansion that began roughly two years ago has plateaued and become less balanced. In our latest World Economic Outlook Update, we continue to project global growth rates of just about 3.9 percent for both this year and next, but judge that the risk of worse… Continue Reading

Gov Doc Blog provides background and historical context to Russian interference in 2016 US election

Via GOVDOC-L: “On Friday, the Department of Justice announced indictments against 12 officers of the Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravlenie (GRU), the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff. While unfamiliar to most Americans, the GRU has a long history of operating within and against the United States, dating back to the 1920s. In… Continue Reading

Updating Government Auditing Standards – The 2018 Yellow Book

GAO WatchBlog: “Today we issued a new revision of the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards, also known as the “Yellow Book,” which supersedes the 2011 revision of the standards. What kind of training and experience make a competent auditor? How is audit quality control to be maintained? How can an auditor tell if he or… Continue Reading

Hearing – Facebook, Google and Twitter: Examining the Content Filtering Practice

“House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today delivered the following statement during the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on “Facebook, Google, and Twitter: Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants.” …Today, we continue to examine how social media companies filter content on their platforms. At our last hearing, which we held April, this… Continue Reading

Justice Anthony Kennedy: His Jurisprudence and the Future of the Court

CRS report via FAS: Justice Anthony Kennedy: His Jurisprudence and the Future of the Court, Andrew Nolan, Section Research Manager; Kevin M. Lewis, Legislative Attorney; Valerie C. Brannon, Legislative Attorney. July 11, 2018. “On June 27, 2018, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced that, effective July 31, 2018, he would retire from active service as an… Continue Reading

Wildfires In The U.S. Are Getting Bigger

FiveThirtyeight: “A California wildfire that started on Friday doubled in size over the weekend, killing a firefighter and threatening Yosemite National Park. And it’s not the only blaze burning. It’s looking like 2018 could be another big year for wildfires in the United States: 3,362,431 acres have already burned to date in 2018 — an… Continue Reading

Health Insurers Increasing Data Collection on Patients and Rates are Rising

Joint reporting – ProPublica and NPR: “Without any public scrutiny, insurers and data brokers are predicting your health costs based on data about things like race, marital status, how much TV you watch, whether you pay your bills on time or even buy plus-size clothing…With little public scrutiny, the health insurance industry has joined forces… Continue Reading