Enhancing Transparency of Airline Ancillary Service Fees

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – Enhancing Transparency of Airline Ancillary Service Fees: The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing a rule which would significantly strengthen protections for consumers by ensuring any fees charged to seat a young child with an accompanying adult, change or cancel a flight, or travel with a first checked bag, …

Subjects: Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Transportation

Study: Americans Own More Than 415 Million Firearms

English, William, 2021 National Firearms Survey: Updated Analysis Including Types of Firearms Owned (May 13, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4109494 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4109494 “This report summarizes the findings of a national survey of firearms ownership and use conducted between February 17th and March 23rd, 2021 by the professional survey firm Centiment. This survey, which is part …

Subjects: Congress, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation

You can ban a book, but can you stop teens from finding it online?

Washington Post – Online resources are at the center of the national battle between limiting and expanding book access for teenagers: “Books are being banned in U.S. school libraries in record numbers, led largely by conservative lawmakers and activists. This week, libraries and anti-censorship groups are among those hosting Banned Books Week to call attention …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Internet, Libraries

House GOP Agenda Signals Push for Social Security and Medicare Cuts

Common Dreams – “House Republicans on [September 21, 2022] unveiled parts of a policy agenda that indicates the party would push for cuts to Social Security and Medicare if it retakes the majority in November. A one-page summary of the agenda that House Republicans, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), are expected to formally …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Food and Nutrition, Government Documents, Health Care, Legislation

This site tells you if photos of you were used to train the AI

Tech Crunch: “Deepfakes, AI-generated porn and a thousand more innocent uses — there’s been a lot of news about neural network-generated images. It makes sense that people started getting curious; were my photos used to train the robots? Are photos of me in the image-generating training sets? A brand new site tries to give you …

Subjects: AI, E-Records, Health Care, Internet, Privacy, Social Media

4-Day Workweek Brings No Loss of Productivity, Companies in Experiment Say

The New York Times: “Most of the companies participating in a four-day workweek pilot program in Britain said they had seen no loss of productivity during the experiment, and in some cases had seen a significant improvement, according to a survey of participants published on Wednesday. Nearly halfway into the six-month trial, in which employees …

Subjects: Economy, Health Care, Knowledge Management

Where Online Hate Speech Can Bring the Police to Your Door

The New York Times: “Battling far-right extremism, Germany goes further than other Western democracies in policing online behavior, testing the limits of free speech on the internet…Hate speech, extremism, misogyny and misinformation are well-known byproducts of the internet. But the people behind the most toxic online behavior typically avoid any personal major real-world consequences. Most …

Subjects: Censorship, Free Speech, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Injection and Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide: Federal Role and Issues for Congress

CRS Report – Injection and Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide: Federal Role and Issues for Congress, September 22, 2022: “For several decades, the federal government has funded efforts to explore the feasibility of mitigating the release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) while burning fossil fuels as a source of energy. Carbon capture and storage (CCS)—the process …

Subjects: Climate Change, Congress, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Legislation

Bay Area ship voyage recovers 96 tons of plastic from Pacific ocean

ABC7: “Nearly every day cargo ships arrive here in the Bay Area, carrying everything from cars to consumer goods. But one ship that just docked in Sausalito is delivering cargo that’s probably more valuable, at least for the environment. Striding across the deck of the recovery ship KWAI, is like taking a voyage straight into …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Food and Nutrition

Remote workers are wasting their time proving they’re actually working

Vox: “People who work from home say they’re working, and numerous objective studies show that’s true. But many managers are still worried that they aren’t. In a new study by Microsoft, nearly 90 percent of office workers reported being productive at work, and objective measures — increased hours worked, meetings taken, and amount and quality …

Subjects: Knowledge Management

The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools

Pen America – Banned in the USA: “Key Findings: More books banned; More districts; More states; More students losing access to literature. “More” is the operative word for this report on school book bans, which offers the first comprehensive look at bans throughout the 2021–22 school year.  This report offers an update on the count …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries