Monthly archives: April, 2025

AI secretly helped write California bar exam, sparking uproar

Ars Technica – A contractor used AI to create 23 out of the 171 scored multiple-choice questions: “On Monday, the State Bar of California revealed that it used AI to develop a portion of multiple-choice questions on its February 2025 bar exam, causing outrage among law school faculty and test takers. The admission comes after …

Subjects: AI, Education, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

What to do if your phone is lost or stolen: practical steps to restore peace of mind

The Guardian – “From remotely locking your phone to changing passwords, do this quickly to protect yourself and restore peace of mind: “Smartphones contain the entirety of our modern lives, from photos, messages and memories to credit cards, bank accounts and all life admin, so when one gets lost or stolen it can be far …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Records, Privacy

The Dispatch Buys SCOTUSblog, a Supreme Court Mainstay

The New York Times [no paywall]: “…The site is being acquired by The Dispatch, a right-of-center political news and commentary start-up founded by the conservative journalists Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes. The deal is part of a strategy to “double down on rigorous reporting and analysis in topic areas where we already have meaningful advantages,” …

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

DOGE Worker’s Code Supports NLRB Whistleblower

Krebs on Security: “A whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleged last week that denizens of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) siphoned gigabytes of data from the agency’s sensitive case files in early March. The whistleblower said accounts created for DOGE at the NLRB downloaded three code repositories from GitHub. Further …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research

Law Students Signing Pledge To Refuse Offers From Collaborating Biglaw Firms

Follow up to Big Law Preys On Itself – Above the Law: “As more Biglaw firms sell out their integrity in exchange for relief from illegal retaliation from the Trump administration, lawyers and clients are distancing themselves from the settling firms. Some law students have already walked away from recruiting efforts by these firms. A …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Legal Research

State of the Air 2025

“The “State of the Air” 2025 report finds that even after decades of successful efforts to reduce sources of air pollution, 46% of Americans—156.1 million people—are living in places that get failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. This is nearly 25 million more people breathing unhealthy air compared to last year’s …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Health Care, Legal Research, Medicine

Preprint alternative to ERIC

Via Ben Amata: “A colleague offered this non-government source as an alternative. EdArXiv: a preprint server for the education research community. Education researchers now have their own community developed preprint service! EdArXiv (Education Archive) is a free, open source, non-profit service that allows researchers to post and search working papers, unpublished work, conference materials, and …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism

NPR: “A survey of more than 500 political scientists finds that the vast majority think the United States is moving swiftly from liberal democracy toward some form of authoritarianism. In the benchmark survey, known as Bright Line Watch, U.S.-based professors rate the performance of American democracy on a scale from zero (complete dictatorship) to 100 …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Legal Research

More than a third of world’s top law firms exacerbating climate crisis

Global Legal Post: “More than a third of top law firms are exacerbating the climate crisis by supporting some of the world’s biggest polluters through their advisory work, according to the latest Law Students for Climate Accountability report. The sixth annual climate scorecard found that while the number of firms receiving a top A grade …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Financial System, Legal Research

National Criminal Justice Reference Service Virtual Library is no more

Via Vicki Tate, Senior Librarian, University of South Alabama: “The NCJRS National Criminal Justice Reference Service Virtual Library is no more. The easy access to publications to NCJRS no longer exists. The only thing available, that I could find, is two screens of 38 random documents from NIJ” Formerly the Virtual Library housed over 235,000 …

Subjects: Censorship, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

A treasure trove of education reports and studies is under threat

The Hechinger Report: Funding for the Education Department’s online library, ERIC, is slated to end this week – “When you’re looking for research on four-day school weeks or how to teach fractions, or trying to locate an historical document, such as the landmark Coleman Report of 1966, you might begin with Google. But the reason …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries