HHS OIG Advisory Opinion on Medigap Policy
HHS OIG, Advisory Opinion 07-15 (concerning the use of a preferred hospital network as part of a Medicare Supplemental Health Insurance (Medigap) policy), posted December 10, 2007.
DoD Evaluates Military Service Academies' Sexual Harassment and Violence Programs
Press release: “The Department of Defense today released key findings from this years Military Service Academy Assessment report. The report is the first such assessment to combine an evaluation of the academies new sexual assault prevention and response programs, an evaluation of sexual harassment programs, and feedback from cadet and midshipmen focus groups. DoD officials …
Report Describes Systematic White House Effort to Manipulate Climate Change Science
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee: “For the past 16 months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration. During the course of this investigation, the Committee obtained over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental …
Nobel Lecture given by The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2007, Al Gore
The Nobel Lecture given by The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2007, Al Gore (Oslo, December 10, 2007): “…In the last few months, it has been harder and harder to misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter. Major cities in North and South America, Asia and Australia are nearly out of water …
New CRS Reports: FCC and Media Ownership, China, THUD, State Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Pension Protection, RFS
The FCC’s 10 Commissioned Economic Research Studies on Media Ownership: Policy Implications, December 5, 2007 China’s 17th Communist Party Congress, 2007: Leadership and Policy Implications, December 5, 2007 State Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Comparison and Analysis, December 5, 2007 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2008 Appropriations, December 4, 2007 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, …
EU Study – Trafficking in human beings: Internet recruitment
Trafficking in human beings: Internet recruitment. Misuse of the Internet for the recruitment of victims of trafficking in human beings, prepared by Athanassia P. Sykiotou, Lecturer in Criminology, Faculty of Law, Democritus University of Thrace (Greece). Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs Council of Europe 2007. (150 pages, PDF) The Campaign: Human being …
CRS Report – Open Source Intelligence
Via OpenCRS – CRS Report, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Issues for Congress, December 5, 2007 (27 pages, PDF). “Open source information (OSINT) is derived from newspapers, journals, radio and television, and the Internet. Intelligence analysts have long used such information to supplement classified data, but systematically collecting open source information has not been a priority …
Pew Hispanic Center Report on 2008 Elections
Hispanics and the 2008 Election: A Swing Vote?, by Paul Taylor and Richard Fry, Pew Hispanic Center, December 6, 2007: “After spending the first part of this decade loosening their historic ties to the Democratic Party, Hispanic voters have reversed course in the past year, a new nationwide survey of Latinos by the Pew Hispanic …
PQ Media Report: Campaign Media Spending to Grow 64.1% in 2008 to All-Time High of $4.50 Billion
Press release: “Political campaign spending on advertising media and marketing services is expected to rocket to an all-time high of $4.50 billion in the 2008 election cycle, as an acrimonious political environment, record fundraising and the high number of presidential candidates are driving an unprecedented media spending splurge, according to a preliminary forecast analysis released …
New CBO Reports: Monthly Budget Review, Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments, Cost Estimate for Energy Independence and Security Ac
Monthly Budget Review, December 2007: “The federal budget deficit was $157 billion during the first two months of fiscal year 2008, CBO estimates, $35 billion more than the shortfall recorded through November of last year. Close to half of that difference is the result of shifts in the timing of certain payments and a difference …
Role of Health Insurance Coverage in Women's Access to Prescription Medicines
Role of Health Insurance Coverage in Women’s Access to Prescription Medicines: “This article presents findings from the 2004 Kaiser Women’s Health Survey examining how health insurance coverage affects access to prescription medicines for non-elderly women. Results from the nationally representative telephone survey indicate that a lack of health insurance coverage is significantly associated with experiencing …
Joint DOJ and CIA Investigation into Destruction of Interrogation Videotapes
Follow up to Conyers, House Judiciary Members Question CIA, DOJ on Destroyed Interrogation Tapes, from the New York Times: Inquiry Begins Into Tapes Destruction: “The Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agencys internal watchdog on Saturday began a joint preliminary inquiry into the spy agencys destruction of hundreds of hours of videotapes showing interrogations of …