What Should Be in Your Emergency Kit Before Disaster Strikes?

Wired: ” You never know when you’re going to have to bug out on short notice. The politics of the moment are less than predictable. Disasters never strike on schedule, and few stores stay open for a hurricane or an insurrection. That’s why it’s important to make plans well in advance and put together gear …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Environmental Law, Food and Nutrition, Health Care

The State of Local News 2025

Northwestern Medill Local News Initiative 2025 State of Local News Report: Two Decades of Data, Deserts and Dynamic Change. “Twenty years of data, one overarching headline: transformation. With this State of Local News Report, Medill has two decades of data on local news outlets across America. And over the span of that time, the historic …

Subjects: Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

OpenAI launches Atlas browser to compete with Google Chrome

AP News: “OpenAI introduced its own web browser, Atlas, on Tuesday, putting the ChatGPT maker in direct competition with Google as more internet users rely on artificial intelligence to answer their questions. Making its popular AI chatbot a gateway to online searches could allow OpenAI, the world’s most valuable startup, to pull in more internet …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing is nearly complete

Law Dork: “Photos obtained exclusively by Law Dork on Tuesday show that President Donald Trump is completely demolishing the East Wing of the White House as part of his stated plan to build a ballroom befitting his standards on the White House grounds. Although Trump earlier had said the ballroom “won’t interfere with the current …

Subjects: Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Social Media

How Trump Is Using Fake Imagery to Attack Enemies and Rouse Supporters

The New York Times Gift Article includes dozens of images: “…Mr. Trump has posted A.I.-generated images or videos at least 62 times on his Truth Social account since late 2022, according to a review by The New York Times of his posts to the social network. The fake imagery has included blistering attacks on his …

Subjects: AI, Censorship, Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Internet, Social Media

The Best Ad Blockers for 2025

PCMag: “Real ads from legitimate companies are annoying on their own, but some online advertisements can be downright dangerous. For example, you may have encountered malicious scareware ads that look like antivirus alerts. Other ads impersonate law enforcement and demand hefty fines. You should also want advertisers to know less about you. Ad blockers not …

Subjects: E-Commerce, E-Records, Internet, Marketing, Privacy

The Great Scrape: The Clash Between Scraping and Privacy

Solove, Daniel J. and Hartzog, Woodrow, The Great Scrape: The Clash Between Scraping and Privacy (July 03, 2024). 113 California Law Review 1521 (2025), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4884485 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4884485 Artificial intelligence (AI) systems depend on massive quantities of data, often gathered by “scraping”—the automated extraction of large amounts of data from the internet. A …

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

The hidden way using a rewards card can cost you more

Washington Post Gift Article: “Scanning a loyalty card might be costing you money. Companies say they’re rewarding your devotion with points, discounts and perks. But behind the scenes, many are using these programs to monitor your behavior and build a profile — then charge you what they think you’ll pay. “Companies say they’re rewarding your …

Subjects: Cybercrime, E-Commerce, Financial System, Legal Research

Updated Map of US Copyright Suits v. AI companies

(Oct. 19, 2025) – “We added Woulard v. Uncharted Labs d/b/a Udio, a case filed by independent music artists against the music generator company Uncharted Labs. This is the 3rd lawsuit against Uncharted Labs in the United States (others filed by UMG Recordings and Justice). DOWNLOAD PDF OF MAP WITH CLICKABLE LINKS TO EACH DOCKET

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Generative AI for Data Visualisation

Can generative AI create good data visualisations? – Nicola Rennie: “This blog post compares the performance of ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini when presented with a generic request to visualise a dataset. Nicola Rennie October 8, 2025. “Generative AI tools have been around for a little while now, and they’re mostly advertised as being able …

Subjects: AI, Climate Change, Environmental Law, Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines

The Government Is Shut Down. But Not for Fossil Fuels

The New York Times [read free]: Federal workers who issue permits for oil, gas and mining operations are on the job, along with those working to repeal pollution limits. More than 700,000 federal employees have been sidelined and thousands more are at risk of being fired as the government shutdown drags on. But the workers …

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

AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers

AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers  Approved by the ACRL Board of Directors, October 2025 PDF Version Knowledge & Understanding Analysis & Evaluation Use & Application Notes In July 2024, the ACRL AI Competencies for Library Workers Task Force was created to develop comprehensive AI competencies for library workers that align with the evolving needs …

Subjects: AI, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries