Category «Congress»

Rand Report – Politically Polarized, Ideologically Complicated

Politically Polarized, Ideologically … Complicated Mapping America’s Ideological Terrain, Part 1 by Joshua Mendelsohn, Michael Pollard – “In April, the Washington Post published an article titled “The Coming Republican Demographic Disaster, in 1 Stunning Chart.” It discusses one of the most notable trends in American politics over the past decade: Republican candidates do consistently worse …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Knowledge Management

CRS – When Are Violent Crimes Federal Hate Crimes?

CRS Reports & Analysis Legal Sidebar When Are Violent Crimes Federal Hate Crimes? 06/14/2016 “The shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando has generated interest in the scope of the federal hate crime statute, 18 U.S.C. 249, enacted in 2009. Section 249 establishes two distinct federal crimes. Section 249(a)(1) outlaws violence committed because of the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Legislation

CRS – Sifting Domestic Terrorism from Hate Crime and Homegrown Violent Extremism

CRS Insight – Sifting Domestic Terrorism from Hate Crime and  Homegrown Violent Extremism, Jerome P. Bjelopera, Specialist in Organized Crime and Terrorism, June 13, 2016 (IN10299). “Domestic terrorism cases differ from ordinary criminal activity in key ways. Most importantly, unlike ordinary criminals—who are often driven by self-centered motives such as profit and tend to opportunistically …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research

LLSDC announces new sources and tools to research the Federal Register and CRF

Via Rick McKinney – “The Legislative Research Special Interest Section of the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C. is pleased to announce the availability of two new items on its Legislative Source Book entitled “Sources and Tools to the Federal Register and Sources and Tools to the Code of Federal Regulations. The new websites attempt …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Libraries

Freedom of Information Improvement Act passed by House and Senate

Secrecy News – “The House of Representatives yesterday approved the Freedom of Information Act Improvement Act, which had previously been adopted by the Senate. If signed by President Obama, as expected, it will strengthen several provisions of the FOIA and should enhance disclosure of government records. The bill “reaffirms the public’s right to know and …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Did your representatives accept campaign contributions from the NRA?

Enter your zip code via http://whoismyvoice.com/ – and your address – data will follow that includes the name of your representative and a statement indicating whether or not your Representative and Senators accepted any money from the NRA (and if so, how much) in this election cycle. You will also be provided with respective email, …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Social Media

The Cost of ACA Repeal

Urban Institute Study, June 2016- “Six years after its enactment, many are still calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In January 2016, Congress passed a bill for the first time, repealing the ACA without a replacement, but this was vetoed by the president. Because considerable controversy exists among ACA opponents on …

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

Gallup – Americans’ Confidence in Institutions Stays Low

Gallup – Jim Norman: “…Banks, Organized Religion, News Media, Congress Fell Most Over Past Decade” Confidence in institutions stays near historical lows Confidence in newspapers, organized religion now at record lows Confidence in institutions has slumped for a decade “Americans’ confidence in the nation’s major institutions continues to lag below historical averages, with two institutions …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Knowledge Management

Paper – Trust, tribalism and tweets: has political polarization made science a “wedge issue”?

Brian Helmuth, Tarik C. Gouhier, Steven Scyphers and Jennifer Mocarski – Climate Change Responses 2016 3:3 DOI: 10.1186/s40665-016-0018-z ©  Helmuth et al. 2016 Received: 5 February 2016 Accepted: 13 May 2016 Published: 30 May 2016 “Background – Political polarization remains a major obstacle to national action on global climate change in the United States Congress, and acceptance of anthropogenic drivers strongly differs between Republicans and Democrats. But …

Subjects: Climate Change, Congress, Energy, Environmental Law, Social Media

Sunlight Foundation is using IFTTT to make the government more open

“Want to know when the president signs a bill into law? When congress votes on a bill? When a new legislator is representing you? Since 2014, The Sunlight Foundation has been connecting its massive trove of government data to IFTTT, the popular web service that connects things on the internet to other things…For those unfamiliar …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, E-Mail, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Social Media