Category «Legislation»

The World’s Power Grids Are Failing as the Planet Warms

Bloomberg [unpaywalled] – Outages from Albania to Texas show how electricity networks aren’t ready for climate change. “…The climate crisis exposes electricity networks to flash floods ripping down transmission towers, droughts drying up hydro reservoirs and demand spikes from cooling during searing heat. “The whole power system was built and designed in one climatic era …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Health Care, Legislation

Answers – What’s Project 2025?

Unpacking the Pro-Trump Plan to Overhaul US Government “…The Forces Behind Project 2025 – Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts launched Project 2025 in April 2022, a few months before Trump officially announced his reelection campaign. Since then, the number of groups backing the initiative has grown. As of now, Project 2025’s advisory board and so-called …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Congress, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

No surprises act

ProPublica:  “In 2020, Congress passed the No Surprises Act to protect patients from exorbitant medical bills that had burdened Americans with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. The law was designed to decrease the charges for patients treated by an out-of-network doctor during medical emergencies. Such ER visits often left people vulnerable to so-called …

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

Illegal Immigrant Murderers in Texas, 2013–2022

CATO Institute: “Crime committed by illegal immigrants is an important and contentious public policy issue, but it is notoriously difficult to measure and compare their criminal conviction rates with those of other groups such as legal immigrants and native‐​born Americans. This policy analysis is the latest paper that attempts to resolve those data disputes by …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

Inside the US government’s brilliantly boring websites

MIT Technology Review – You may not notice it, but your experience on any US government website is a carefully crafted experience. “The United States has an official web design system and a custom typeface. This public design system aims to make government websites not only good-looking but accessible and functional for all. Before the …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

Project 2025, Election 2024, and America’s Future

TIME: “…Project 2025 led by the right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a presidential transition operation—basically a government-in-waiting if former President Donald Trump returns to office on Jan. 20, 2025. The $22 million effort does not say it is specifically intended for Trump, but that it wants a conservative as the next …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation, Medicine

South Carolina poised to impose draconian censorship regime on school libraries

Popular Information: “On Tuesday, the South Carolina State Board of Education will impose a centralized and expansive censorship regime on every K-12 school library in the state. The new regulations could result in the banning of most classic works of literature from South Carolina schools — from The Canterbury Tales to Romeo and Juliet to …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Freedom of Information, Legal Research, Legislation

What policy makers need to know about AI (and what goes wrong if they don’t)

Answer.AI: “Many policy makers in the US are being lobbied to introduce “AI safety” legislation by various well-funded groups. As a result, a number of pieces of legislation are now being drafted and voted on. For instance, SB 1047 is a bill currently working it’s way through the process in California, and introduces a number …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Legal Research, Legislation

A Detailed Analysis of Article 50 of the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act

Gils, Thomas, A Detailed Analysis of Article 50 of the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act (June 14, 2024). Chapter to appear in an upcoming commentary on the EU AI Act (Q3-4 2024)., https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4865427 – “Article 50 of the EU’s AI Act contains transparency requirements for (i) interactive AI systems; (ii) synthetic content (including synthetic audio, image, …

Subjects: AI, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

There’s a Trump Presidential Library at the National Archives and It’s Hiring

No words for this via Washingtonian – “Now here’s a fun job listing: This position is part of the National Archives and Records Administration. Incumbent serves as the Deputy Director of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library within the National Archives and Records Administration. Serves as a principal advisor to the Library Director. At the …

Subjects: E-Mail, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Libraries, Social Media

New Dataset of State Interest Group Policy Positions in the United States

“Research on the activities and influence of interest groups in state legislatures faces a data problem: we are missing a comprehensive, systematic dataset of interest groups’ policy preferences on state legislation. We address this gap by introducing the Dataset on Policy Choice and Organizational Representation in the United States (CHORUS). This dataset compiles over 13 …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

States are already collecting more abortion data. And HIPAA won’t always keep it private.

Nebraska Examiner: “Years before the Dobbs decision, providers like Dr. Kylie Cooper were already uncomfortable with some of the reporting requirements for abortion procedures in states where they practiced. Cooper was a maternal-fetal medicine specialist for several years in Idaho before she reluctantly left the state in 2023 because of the near-total abortion ban that …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy