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The New York Times Gift Article – “President Trump’s declaration that he wants to “nationalize” voting in the United States arrives at a perilous moment for the relationship between the federal government and top election officials across the country. While the executive branch has no explicit authority over elections, generations of secretaries of state have …
Cato Institute: “Recent increases in immigration have rekindled concerns about their effects on government budgets. This paper updates a model of these effects first developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to shed light on how immigrants, both legal and illegal, and their children affect government budgets. This analysis is the …
Data is Beautiful: “Power sources are historically tied to local resources. With so much variation in climate and geology across the US and Canada, there are several key energy regions. Coal Country spans much of the US northeast, historically powering the country with its abundant coal reserves. While coal’s decline has reshaped the region, natural gas …
The New York Times: “Scrutiny of university classrooms is being formalized, with new laws requiring professors to post syllabuses and tip lines for students to complain. College professors once taught free from political interference, with mostly their students and colleagues privy to their lectures and book assignments. Now, they are being watched by state officials, …
Virginia Tech: “Water powers our lives. It feeds our crops, keeps factories running, generates electricity, and fills our taps. But until now, no one had a clear, national picture of how much water we’re using — and for what. Landon Marston, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and his doctoral student Yunus Naseri are …
We are pleased that over 500 access professionals tuned in on January 29 to listen to Michael Heise and Dick Huff review the most recent FOIA court cases. ASAP received numerous emails thanking us for such an informative session. For the FOIA Court Case Update Presentation Materials including link to the video recording, visit NEWS …
“The Cambridge Online Trust & Safety Index (COTSI) tracks the dynamics of the fake SMS-verifications market across different platforms and countries. The Index aims to answer the following questions: How easy (and cheap) is it to engage in online manipulation? Is the situation with fake accounts improving or worsening over time? Which online platforms are …
The Atlantic [no paywall]: Even the administration’s budget proposals read like Truth Social posts. “…No one better exemplifies the clicktatorship than the president himself. Trump routinely makes policy announcements via social media. Consider when, in August, he attempted to fire the Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook on Truth Social. When a government lawyer was …
Literary Hub: “Russia has a new official dictionary. The Explanatory Dictionary of the State Language of the Russian Federation, compiled by St. Petersburg State University, with the assistance of the legal department of the Russian Orthodox Church, has joined the list of official reference materials within the Russian Federation. The dictionary, which defines authoritarianism as …
ChatGPT is Eating the World: Elon Musk and Sam Altman are at war. “Musk’s two lawsuits against OpenAI could impair its defense in copyright lawsuits. Elon Musk’s tort lawsuit against Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI for alleged fraud (in soliciting his funds and help in starting a nonprofit only later to convert to a …
Ars Technica: “Nearly half of the databases that public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were updating on a monthly basis have been frozen without notice or explanation, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study—led by Janet Freilich, a law expert at Boston University, and …
PCMag: “The next time you’re standing in a checkout line, imagine the cashier asking, “Would you like me to keep your credit card on file for future purchases?” That would feel odd—maybe even unsettling. Yet online, we agree to the same thing all the time when a browser offers to save our card details or …
