Category «Congress»

The Capitol Riot: Documents You Should Read

The National Security Archive – “The January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol is now the subject of systematic National Security Archive Freedom of Information Act campaign. The First installment and The Second Installment of new Document Sourcebook features a Pentagon timeline, State Department dissent, Homeland Security warning, FBI alert, and first court indictment… The January …

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

New Duke paper calls Washington to increase transparency around online political ads

Washington Post – “Major social platforms put new limits on political ads in the run-up to the controversial 2020 election due to concerns they amplify misinformation. But a new Duke University paper published today [J. Scott Babwah Brennen & Matt Perault, March 2, 2021 Breaking Blackout Black Boxes: Roadblocks to Analyzing Platform Political Ads] says a …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System

Pentagon report cites threat of extremism in military

AP: “Domestic extremist groups pose a serious threat to the military by seeking to recruit service members into their ranks and, in some cases, joining the military to acquire combat experience, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday [March 3, 2021]. Report to Armed Services Committees on Screening Individuals Who Seek to Enlist in the …

Subjects: Congress, Defense

CRS – Banking Policy Issues in the 117th Congress

Banking Policy Issues in the 117th Congress, March 2, 2021: “Over the past 14 years, banking has experienced significant events and changes and has regularly been the subject of policymaker initiatives and debates. In response to the 2007-2009 financial crisis, Congress—primarily through the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act; P.L. …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation

Zombie Laws

Wasserman, Howard, Zombie Laws (February 2, 2021). Florida International University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-02, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3778122 “Zombie laws” are the statutory remainder from constitutional litigation. Neither a judicial declaration of constitutional invalidity nor an injunction prohibiting enforcement removes or erases a challenged law from the books. The court stops the defendant …

Subjects: Congress, Legal Research, Legislation

The Little Magazine That Incubated Team Biden

The New York Times: “It has only 500 subscribers. And yet Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, a 15-year-old quarterly run by a three-person staff out of a small office blocks from the White House, may be one of the most influential publications of the post-Trump era. Six of President Biden’s 25 Cabinet-level officials and appointees, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

What is an “algorithm”? It depends whom you ask

MIT Technology Review – “…In statistics and machine learning, we usually think of the algorithm as the set of instructions a computer executes to learn from data. In these fields, the resulting structured information is typically called a model. The information the computer learns from the data via the algorithm may look like “weights” by …

Subjects: AI, Congress, Knowledge Management, Legislation

Lizard People in the Library

Project Information Literacy Provocation Series – By Barbara Fister February 3, 2021: “As “research it yourself” becomes a rallying cry for promoters of outlandish conspiracy theories with real-world consequences, educators need to think hard about what’s missing from their information literacy efforts. Information systems that we use in our daily lives map the divisions that have …

Subjects: Congress, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Washington’s Most Influential People

Washingtonian – “The 250 experts and advocates—outside the government—who’ll be shaping the policy debates of the years to come. Contents: Antitrust Banking and Finance Business and Labor Civil Rights and Criminal Justice Climate/Environment Economic Policy Education Energy Foreign Affairs Good Government Healthcare Immigration Infrastructure and Transportation Legal Intelligentsia National Security and Defense Tech and Telecom

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Defense, Economy, Financial System, Health Care, Internet, Legal Research, Legislation

46,218 news transcripts show ideologically extreme politicians get more airtime

Via LLRX – 46,218 news transcripts show ideologically extreme politicians get more airtime – Professors Joshua Darr, Jeremey Padgett and Johanna Dunaway research how changes in the media have shifted the incentives of elected officials and the considerations of voters, and what that means for American democracy. In recent work, they showed that extremely conservative …

Subjects: Congress, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President

CRS – Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020:Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President, Updated February 23, 2021: “The process of appointing Supreme Court Justices has undergone changes over two centuries, but its most basic feature, the sharing of power between the President and Senate, has remained unchanged. To receive a lifetime …

Subjects: Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

The 5 Trump Amendments to the Constitution

The Atlantic: “…Presidents have been the authors of many informal amendments. George Washington set enduring precedents such as the two-term limit on presidential service (a norm so embedded that after Franklin D. Roosevelt broke it, it was written into the formal Constitution). Andrew Jackson reimagined the president as the direct representative of the people. Abraham …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Government Documents, Legal Research