Category «Housing»

ICE Plans Central Database of Health, Labor, Housing Agency Data to Find Targets

404 Media: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to bring together data from a wide variety of other U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to make a centralized database to identify immigration targets, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Records, Economy, Government Documents, Housing, Legal Research, Privacy

Public lands, private profits: Inside the Trump plan to offload federal land

Grist: “The Trump administration is poised to begin offloading public land, achieving a long-held conservative goal of reducing the government’s footprint in the West. Federal agencies manage around 640 million acres, or about 28 percent of the nation’s land, an invaluable resource Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has called “America’s balance sheet.” His membership in a …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents, Housing, Legal Research

DOGE Put a College Student in Charge of Using AI to Rewrite Regulations

Wired [no paywall] – A DOGE operative has been tasked with using AI to propose rewrites to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s regulations—an effort sources are told will roll out across government…A young man with no government experience who has yet to even complete his undergraduate degree is working for Elon Musk’s so-called …

Subjects: AI, E-Government, E-Records, Education, Financial System, Government Documents, Housing, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Angelo Carusone on tracking Project 2025 and right-wing media

PBS News: “Project 2025, the conservative policy project, became a flashpoint during the presidential campaign. Angelo Carusone of Media Matters studied the 900-page document and spoke with Geoff Bennett for our series, On Democracy, where we hear a range of perspectives on how government should function, what led to this moment in American history and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Health Care, Housing, Internet, Legal Research, Social Media

Trump targeting libraries, museums, community development and the press

In yet another punitive executive action, the Trump regime is explicitly targeting our communities – libraries, museums, scholars, families, minority business, community development, and the press. This action shits down the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), a federal body that has coordinated efforts across multiple government agencies to address homelessness since 1987. ALA statement …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Government Documents, Housing, Legal Research, Libraries

Donald Trump, Revenge Junkie

Mother Jones, David Corn: “Now that he’s back in the White House—after his humiliating 2020 defeat—Trump has embarked on a revenge-a-thon that goes beyond what we might have expected even from a vengeance junkie. He has removed security protection from past aides who pissed him off—including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Congress, Courts, Cybercrime, Defense, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Housing, Internet, Legal Research

Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data

“Managed by the Geospatial Management Office, HIFLD curates and provides access to geospatial data on U.S. critical infrastructure. Users can view data and download CSV, KML, and Shapefiles for visualization and application development.” HIFLD houses 400+ data layers. Many have robust summaries and metadata that document the source, update cadence, most recent update, and field …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Housing, Legal Research, Transportation

Fast fires

Reuters Graphics: “Fires are growing faster in the western United States. The fastest of them – termed “fast fires” – often erupt near towns and account for most structural wildfire damage according to researchers who analyzed over 60,000 fires from 2001 to 2020. Fast fires grow about 4,000 acres or more on their fastest day, …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Health Care, Housing, Transportation

More Americans Than Ever Are Living in Wildfire Areas. L.A. Is No Exception

“The New York Times has created a series of maps visualizing wildfire and smoke risk for the different parts of Los Angeles County [gift article], where several devastating wildfires have been ravaging since early January. The newspaper used wildfire risk scores data from CoreLogic, a California-based business and property analytics company, and spatial data from …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Environmental Law, Health Care, Housing, Legal Research

What Homeowners Insurance Actually Covers

Lifehacker: “While Los Angeles County continues to battle devastating wildfires, you may be wondering about the safety of your own home. More specifically, how are you covered when the unthinkable happens? Unfortunately, insurance doesn’t function like a gas or electric company; even in the face of disaster, insurers aren’t obligated to service your home. And …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Housing

The home insurance crisis can’t be fixed with money alone

Semafor: “The devastating wildfires that are sweeping Los Angeles may accelerate the flight of home insurance companies from California in spite of recent regulatory changes aimed at retaining them, the state’s previous top insurance official told Semafor. At least two major fires are still raging largely uncontained, aided by ongoing high winds, and 24 people …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents, Housing