Author archives

White House Fact Sheet: What Climate Change Means for Your Health and Family

Via the White House: “Today, delivering on another commitment in the President’s Climate Action Plan, the Obama Administration released a new final report called The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, which significantly advances what we know about the impacts of climate change on public health, and …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Health Care

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, March 15-16, 2016

“The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the  minutes of the Committee meeting held on March 15-16, 2016. The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the Committee ordinarily are made available three weeks after the day of the policy decision and subsequently are published in the Board’s Annual …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

GAO Reports – FY 2015 US Government Financial Statements, Compacts of Free Association, State Marijuana Legalization

Fiscal Year 2015 U.S. Government Financial Statements: Need to Address the Government’s Remaining Financial Management Challenges and Long-Term Fiscal Path, GAO-16-541T: Published: Apr 6, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 6, 2016. Compacts of Free Association: Issues Associated with Implementation in Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands, GAO-16-550T: Published: Apr 5, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 5, 2016. …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

FCC Unveils Consumer Broadband Labels to Provide Greater Transparency to Consumers

“With this Public Notice, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs, Wireline Competition, and Wireless Telecommunications Bureaus (Bureaus) approve, with modifications, the consumer broadband labels proposed by the Commission’s Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC proposed the labels pursuant to the 2015 Open Internet Order and, as required by the Commission, the labels will operate as a …

Subjects: E-Commerce, Economy, Government Documents, Internet, Privacy

Recent Trends in Prescription Drug Costs

Kaiser Family Foundation: “This Visualizing Health Policy infographic spotlights national spending on prescription drugs and the public’s views on pharmaceutical prices. Prescription drug spending rose sharply in 2014, driven by growth in expenditures on specialty drugs, including medications to treat cancer and hepatitis C. Medicare’s spending on prescription pharmaceuticals also has risen, largely due to …

Subjects: Economy, Health Care, Medicine

Lorcan Dempsey on Libraries, Services and Networks

Via OCLC – “The Network Reshapes the Library shows where libraries have been in the last decade and where they’re heading now, covering such keystone topics as: networked resources; network organization; the research process and libraries’ evolving role, featuring the seminal post “In the Flow”; resource discovery; library systems and tools such as search indices …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries

Free Expression on Campus: A Survey of U.S. College Students and U.S. Adults

Report by Gallup, The Knight Foundation and the Newseum Institute: “The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and the right to petition the government without retribution. The ways in which the First Amendment has been interpreted and applied over time …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Treasury Announces Additional Action to Curb Inversions, Address Earnings Stripping

“Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued temporary and proposed regulations to further reduce the benefits of and limit the number of corporate tax inversions, including by addressing earnings stripping. By undertaking an inversion transaction, companies move their tax residence overseas to avoid U.S. taxes without making significant …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

NWLC Analysis – Wage Gap Costs Women More Than $430,000 Over a Career

National Women’s Law Center – “Based on today’s wage gap, a woman starting her career now will lose $430,480 over a 40-year career, new NWLC analysis shows. For Latinas, this lifetime wage gap totals $1,007,080, and for African American women, the losses are $877,480. The new analysis features an interactive map and state-by-state rankings of …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Financial System, Legal Research

New Website Explores National Effort to Better Understand Marine Life, Ecosystem Change

Via NOAA: “The U.S. Marine Biodiversity Observing Network (U.S. MBON), an effort to improve our understanding of changes and connections between marine biodiversity and ecosystems, recently launched a new website. In addition to exploring the vision and themes of the network’s demonstration projects, the site offers profiles of projects in progress and outlines future goals …

Subjects: E-Government, Environmental Law, Government Documents