Author archives

Most U.S. doctors are quietly using this AI tool. Few patients know about it

NBC News: “Over the past two years, medical providers across America have quietly embraced a new AI tool called OpenEvidence to help them make clinical decisions, brush up on medical knowledge and even prepare for their licensing exams. The service, a sort of chatbot for doctors, was used by about 65% of U.S. doctors across …

Subjects: AI, Education, Health Care, Medicine

Bits of history…

Tristan Davey’s Punch Card Archive: “Punched cards were once a ubiquitous part of accounting, data collection and early computing. At their peak of use, in the 1950s and 60s, hundreds of companies around the world printed millions of punch cards every month. Yet within a few years of their obsolescence they all but disappeared from …

Subjects: Education, Knowledge Management

Who Paid, and Who Stayed? Early 2026 Enrollment Trends in the Individual Market

“A new report from Wakely Consulting Group, an HMA Company, models changes to the 2026 ACA market enrollment due to the loss of federal subsidies. Findings suggest a larger drop in ACA marketplace enrollment – lower than some feared, but higher than the CBO analysis.  Download Full Report – “Based on unique data collection from …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Health Care, Legislation, Medicine

Nonprofit Explorer

“Browse millions of annual returns filed by tax-exempt organizations with ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer. See details like executive compensation, revenue, expenses and more. Search for an organization or a person, or search the full text of filings…Nonprofit Explorer includes summary data for nonprofit tax returns and full Form 990 documents, in both PDF and digital formats. …

Subjects: E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Search Engines

How The Heck Do Solar Panels Work?

Per Thirty Six: “How a giant nuclear reactor in the sky and some silicon makes electricity, and why that’s the easy part. How The Heck?, a series of interactive explanations of everyday technology designed primarily for curious, non-technical readers.  Every hour, the Earth receives enough sunlight to power all of human civilization for a year. …

Subjects: Climate Change, Congress, Education, Energy, Environmental Law

RFK Jr.’s department to make it easier to fire career staff

Politico: “The Health and Human Services Department is moving hundreds of senior career staff to a new civil service classification that will make it easier to fire them. President Donald Trump tinkered with the idea late in his first term and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, recommended the reclassification of career staff with …

Subjects: Censorship, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Medicine

FBI Wants to Buy Nationwide Access to License Plate Readers

404 Media: “The FBI is seeking up to $36 million for nationwide access to automated license plate reader (ALPRs) data, which could let it query vehicle movements across the U.S. and its territories through a commercial database. 404 Media reports: “The FBI has a crucial need for accessible LPRs to provide a diverse and reliable …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Records, Legal Research, Privacy, Transportation

New WIPO Lex Collection Brings Trade Secrets Case Law into Focus

“The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has launched the WIPO Lex Trade Secrets Case Law Collection, a new online resource designed to improve access to judicial decisions relating to trade secret protection across jurisdictions. In an increasingly interconnected and innovation-driven global economy, effective intellectual property (IP) protection plays a vital role in promoting economic growth, …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Intellectual Property, Legal Research

$1.8 Billion Fund Could Funnel Money to Trump Allies

The New York Times: “The Trump administration announced on Monday the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department and Democrats, forging a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s allies. The highly unusual “anti-weaponization” fund — denounced by critics as a political …

Subjects: Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Agencies won’t hand over records for investigation into how DOGE accessed data

Washington Post [no paywall]: “It’s been nearly a year since Elon Musk left the federal government, and while there have been a few recent revelations, there is still plenty about how the U.S. DOGE Service operated and what its members did in government that remains shrouded in mystery. For months, the Government Accountability Office has …

Subjects: Censorship, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Data Governance, E-Mail, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research

Trump’s ICE Dragnet Has Hauled Parents Away From 146,635 American Children

Brookings: Editor’s note: The key findings presented in this article were produced using a new interactive tool that generates estimates of the number of children likely affected by parental detention. These figures are estimates and should be interpreted accordingly. To learn more about the methodology and explore the tool yourself, click here. The Trump administration …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research