Day archives: November 9th, 2021

Eagles, Beavers, Sea Turtles: Why N.Y.C. Is Humming With Wildlifere

The New York Times: “…New York City is experiencing a surprising return of native wildlife, in numbers and diversity remarkable even to local ecologists and parks officials. “You are seeing miraculous occurrences of wildlife right in the middle of the city,” Mr. Benepe said. It would be easy to surmise that nature blossomed and the …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Government Documents

Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology

“Even in a polarized era, deep divisions in both partisan coalitions. Partisan polarization remains the dominant, seemingly unalterable condition of American politics. Republicans and Democrats agree on very little – and when they do, it often is in the shared belief that they have little in common. Yet the gulf that separates Republicans and Democrats …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Education, Health Care

Powell’s Books Survived Amazon. Can It Reinvent Itself After the Pandemic?

The New York Times: ” As much as any city, Portland, Ore., has been through hell. Its landmark store, Powell’s Books, must finally build a viable online business while recapturing its downtown success…A quirky, old-school enterprise, Powell’s has retained its traditional aura in the digital era, while standing as a hero in a now-familiar tale …

Subjects: Economy, Health Care, Libraries

Facebook allows stolen content to flourish its researchers warned

WSJ [paywall – this link may be free]: “Facebook has allowed plagiarized and recycled content to flourish on its platform despite having policies against it, the tech giant’s researchers warned in internal memos. About 40% of the traffic to Facebook pages at one point in 2018 went to pages that stole or repurposed most of …

Subjects: Copyright, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

OSC Issues Hatch Act Report Documenting Violations by 13 Senior Trump Administration Officials, Including at the 2020 Republican National Conventio

“The U.S. Office of Special Counsel November 9, 2021 issued a report outlining the investigative findings of its career Hatch Act Unit staff in response to Hatch Act complaints filed with OSC regarding senior Trump administration officials’ participation in the 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) and their political activities leading up to the presidential election. …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

ABA – Law School Student Debt

The Upshot—and Solutions to—Crushing Law Student Debt, ABA (Nov. 8, 2021) One-hour webcast: Student Debt: The Holistic Impact on Today’s Young Lawyer 21-page PDF: ABA & AccessLex Inst., Student Debt: The Holistic Impact on Today’s Young Lawyer: Selected Findings from the American Bar Association (ABA) Young Lawyers Division Student Loan Survey (2021) [all via Mary …

Subjects: Economy, Education

UVA Law Librarian Sues DOJ to Force Release of List of Corporate Crime Settlements

Corporate Crime Reporter – The Justice Department maintains a comprehensive list of corporate crime settlements. The Trump Justice Department refused to make the list public. And now the Biden Justice Department is refusing to release the list. So last week, Jon Ashley filed a lawsuit to force the Biden Justice Department to release it. Ashley …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Libraries

Bipartisan bill would force Big Tech to offer algorithm-free feeds, search results

Ars Technica: “A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced a bill that would force social media platforms to allow people to use the site without algorithms that filter or prioritize the content that users see. The bill joins a similar act proposed in the Senate, and together, the bills suggest that …

Subjects: AI, Congress, E-Commerce, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media