Category «Government Documents»

16 Agencies Create One Confidential Data Process to Rule Them All

NextGov: “Through three years, 16 federal agencies, more than 1,300 datasets and a cascade of privacy laws and interagency agreements underpinned by decades-old entrenched processes, a team of federal employees launched the Standard Application Process in December, creating for the first time a single portal for U.S. researchers to request access to the mountains of …

Subjects: E-Records, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

FCC orders phone companies to block scam text messages

Ars Technica: “The Federal Communications Commission today finalized rules requiring mobile carriers to block robotext messages that are likely to be illegal. The FCC described the rules as the agency’s “first regulations specifically targeting the increasing problem of scam text messages sent to consumers.” Carriers will be required to block text messages that come from …

Subjects: Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

Authors risk losing copyright if AI content is not disclosed, US guidance says

Ars Technica: “As generative AI technologies like GPT-4 and Midjourney have rapidly gotten more sophisticated and their creative use has exploded in popularity, the US Copyright Office has issued guidance today to clarify when AI-generated material can be copyrighted. Guidance comes after the Copyright Office decided that an author could not copyright individual AI images …

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Digital Rights, Government Documents

Thomson Reuters Adds UK Supreme Court Dockets to Westlaw

“Thomson Reuters is providing legal professionals with more comprehensive coverage of UK courts and access to real-time updates, expert editorial case analysis, and content sets unique to Westlaw UK. With the addition of UK Supreme Court Dockets on Westlaw available March 22, legal researchers will have easier access to High Court and Supreme Court proceedings, …

Subjects: Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Hate crimes in U.S. rose to highest level in 2021, FBI says

Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer: “Hate Crime data for the nation are derived from National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and Summary Reporting System (SRS) reports voluntarily submitted to the FBI. The 2021 FBI Hate Crime statistics for the nation are based on data received from 11,883 of 18,812 law enforcement agencies in the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Legal Research

Current Causes of Death in Children and Adolescents in the United States

New England Journal of Medicine: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released updated official mortality data that showed 45,222 firearm-related deaths in the United States in 2020 — a new peak. Although previous analyses have shown increases in firearm-related mortality in recent years (2015 to 2019), as compared with the relatively stable …

Subjects: Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation

ClearGov Launches ChatGPT Tool for Municipal Budgets

Government Technology: “ChatGPT is getting a chance to prove itself in municipal budgeting via a new tool from Massachusetts-based government technology vendor ClearGov. AI is perhaps the hottest new thing in gov tech, poised to play a role in everything from education to transit to public agency communications. Few tasks are more important to government …

Subjects: AI, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the United States: A Focus on Six Impacts

EPA. 2021. Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the United States: A Focus on Six Impacts. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA 430-R-21-003. “Climate change affects all Americans—regardless of socioeconomic status—and many impacts are projected to worsen. But individuals will not equally experience these changes. This report  improves our understanding of the degree to which four …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Legal Research

Key Agencies Missing from Central Freedom of Information Act Portal

Congress Required Common FOIA Website in 2016, We’re Still Waiting. National Security Archive Sunshine Week Audit Names and Shames Delinquent Agencies. Justice Department and Office of Management and Budget Must Act Decisively to Ensure Portal’s Success National Security Archive: “The public still cannot submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the CIA or other …

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

NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research

“Open science is a priority at NIH and across the U.S. Federal Government. Earlier this year, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) declared 2023 to be the Year of Open Science. This OSTP announcement included details on actions being taken across the Federal Government to advance national open science policy, provide …

Subjects: Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care

Freedom in the World 2023

Freedom House – Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy – Key Findings Global freedom declined for the 17th consecutive year.  Moscow’s war of aggression led to devastating human rights atrocities in Ukraine. New coups and other attempts to undermine representative government destabilized Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Peru, and Brazil. Previous years’ coups and ongoing …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Free Speech, Government Documents, Internet, Poverty

The privacy loophole in your doorbell

Politico: “…As networked home surveillance cameras become more popular, Larkin’s case, which has not previously been reported, illustrates a growing collision between the law and people’s own expectation of privacy for the devices they own — a loophole that concerns privacy advocates and Democratic lawmakers, but which the legal system hasn’t fully grappled with. Questions …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy