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Monthly Archives: October 2019

“The People Who Helped Me the Most Were the Librarians” – Rep. Elijah Cummings

Via SJL – “Congressman Elijah Cummings, in this brief clip, recalls the time he spent as a child at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. “The people who helped me the most were the librarians,” Cummings told Steve Kroft in a 60 Minutes interview broadcast in January of this year, adding that the public library was the only integrated… Continue Reading

Congressional Access to Information in an Impeachment Investigation

CRS Report via LC – Congressional Access to Information in an Impeachment Investigation, October 25, 2019 – “Committee investigations in the House of Representatives can serve several objectives. Most often, an investigation seeks to gather information either to review past legislation or develop future legislation, or to enable a committee to conduct oversight of another branch… Continue Reading

Divided by Design Findings from the American South

“Incubated at Emerson Collective and led by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, E Pluribus Unum is an initiative created to fulfill America’s promise of justice and opportunity for all by breaking down the barriers that divide us by race and class….What We’ve Learned – we’ve coded every word of what we’ve heard to help… Continue Reading

Crushing Immigration Judge Caseloads and Lengthening Hearing Wait Times

“The current policies of the Trump Administration have been unsuccessful in stemming the rise in the Immigration Court’s backlog. Overcrowded dockets create lengthening wait times for hearings. At some locations, immigrants with pending cases now wait on average 1,450 days or more – over four years! – before their hearing is scheduled. Despite promises to… Continue Reading

Most of the political tweets you see are from a minority of users

National Politics on Twitter: Small Share of U.S. Adults Produce Majority of Tweets – “Those who strongly disapprove of Trump produce majority of tweets from U.S. adults that mention national politics – “The social media platform Twitter plays a prominent role in how politicians, media outlets and advocacy organizations promote their agendas and engage with… Continue Reading

Coca-Cola Named Most Polluting Brand in Global Audit of Plastic Waste

The Intercept: “Coca-Cola was found for the second year in a row to be the most polluting brand in a global audit of plastic trash conducted by the Break Free From Plastic global movement. The giant soda company was responsible for more plastic litter than the next top three polluters combined. More than 72,000 volunteers fanned out onto… Continue Reading

Trump to Tell Federal Agencies to Cut NYT and WaPo Subscriptions

WSJ.com – White House plans to direct government staffers to not renew orders with the newspapers, whose coverage he has disparaged as ‘fake’ – “The White House is planning to instruct federal agencies to not renew their subscriptions to the New York Times and the Washington Post, administration officials said, escalating President Trump’s attacks on the… Continue Reading

$35B class action case against Facebook on use of facial recognition data

Courthouse News Service: “Rejecting arguments that Facebook users suffered no “concrete harm” by having their facial data mapped and stored, the Ninth Circuit advanced a $35 billion class action against the social media giant Thursday. Facebook sought to swat down the lawsuit last year after U.S. District Judge James Donato ordered it to alert users… Continue Reading

Open Access Resources for Legal Research

Via Lyonette Louis-Jacques, The University of Chicago | D’Angelo Law Library – “In honor of International Open Access Week, our library created an “Open Access Resources for Legal Research” LibGuide. These are some representative free law sources. The focus is on U.S. law, but there’s a foreign and international law section.” Continue Reading