Author archives

The Iran War Worsens America’s Democratic Erosion

The New York Times The Editorial Board: “The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom. President Trump’s war with Iran is the most significant military action in American history that a president has undertaken without any …

Subjects: Congress, Defense, Economy, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Each Side Claims the Same Recent Ruling Supports Its Position in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Appeal

LawSites: “The long-running copyright litigation between legal research giant Thomson Reuters and now-shuttered legal research startup ROSS Intelligence took another interesting turn this week, following the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ order that the parties file supplemental briefs addressing the impact of its recent ruling in American Society for Testing & Materials v. UpCodes, …

Subjects: Copyright, Courts, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research

NewsGuard’s Reliability Ratings Now Appear in ChatGPT and Gemini Responses

“NewsGuard today announced that it has upgraded its browser extension, (available for download here) to work inside ChatGPT and Google Gemini — displaying its nonpartisan trust scores and providing access to its “Nutrition Labels” next to every source those AI tools cite. The upgrade enables users to see, at a glance, whether the websites on …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

New Judiciary Democrats Report Reveals Trump Deportation Policies Are Undermining State and Local Criminal Prosecutions

Press release: “…The report, “Acquittal by Removal: How Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda Abandons Crime Victims and Allows Perpetrators to Avoid Justice,” finds that in its push to meet deportation quotas, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has deported victims, witnesses, and even criminal defendants before trials could be completed—derailing prosecutions and leaving serious crimes unresolved. As …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Copyright, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

How traffic through the Strait of Hormuz shrank to a trickle – a visual deep dive

CNN: “As the war in Iran enters its tenth week with no clear end in sight, shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz has been completely reshaped, heavily disrupting global markets and supply chains for oil, natural gas, fertilizer and other essential products. Before the United States and Israel launched their …

Subjects: Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Food and Nutrition, Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines, Transportation

Pomiferous

“Welcome to the world’s most extensive apples (pommes) database. Information on over 7,000 apples is available here, all carefully researched and provided in a way that is easy to navigate. They’re organized by name, pollination group, harvest period, and other characteristics.” [BoingBoing]

Subjects: Education, Food and Nutrition, Search Engines

When the Librarians Fought the Archivists Over Who Gets the Declaration of Independence

Michael Auslin on the Final Battle to Control the Declaration of Independence, LitHub – “In the summer of 1951, a month after the Declaration celebrated its 175th anniversary, an unmarked panel truck pulled into the basement of the Library of Congress. Once loaded, it drove to the Maryland campus of the National Bureau of Standards, …

Subjects: Government Documents, Legal Research, Libraries

Your name in Landsat

Type your name [or any name] and see it spelled out in stunning Landsat satellite imagery. The satellite images used in this interactive are part of Landsat’s extensive record, spanning more than 50 years. The Landsat series of Earth-observing satellites are jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Subjects: E-Records, Environmental Law

Trump’s Complaints About Iran War Leaks Prompt Aggressive DOJ Investigations WSJ

Wall street Journal Gift Article – “President Trump privately complained to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about media leaks in the wake of the Iran war last month, according to administration officials familiar with the matter, prompting an aggressive push at the Justice Department to pursue those investigations. Blanche vowed to secure subpoenas specifically targeting the …

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

The World Press Freedom Index 2025

Press Freedom Index, over half of the world’s countries now fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom. In 25 years, the average score of all 180 countries and territories surveyed in the Index has never been so low. Since 2001, the expansion of increasingly restrictive legal arsenals — particularly those linked …

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

ICE Agents Have List of 20 Million People on Their iPhones Thanks to Palantir

404 Media – Palantir is making ICE faster. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) use of Palantir systems now means agency officials effectively have a list of 20 million people readily accessible on their iPhones, increasing the speed at which ICE can find houses to raid and people to arrest, according to comments made by a …

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy