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Supreme Court Week on C-SPAN
C-SPAN is offering a week of special programming about the Supreme Court October 4-11, each night at 9pm (EST).
This Sunday night, Supreme Court Week kicks off on C-SPAN with the premiere of our new feature-length documentary The Supreme Court: Home to America's Highest Court. Hear directly from all 11 current and retired Supreme Court Justices about the role of the Court, its traditions, and history. Tour the building and see the grand public spaces of this historic building, including the Great Hall and Supreme Court Chamber, and spaces only accessible to the Justices and their staff, such as the Robing Room and the John Marshall Dining Room. The rest of the week features more original Supreme Court programs, including interviews with the sitting and retired Justices, Supreme Court staff, historians, and journalists at 9 pm ET, Oct. 5 - 11. For video clips, a trailer, bonus material about the Supreme Court, and series information, visit www.c-span.org/supremecourt.Some highlights: Friday, Oct. 9 9 - 11:30 pm Interviews with Justices Kennedy (9 pm), Ginsburg (9:40 pm), Scalia (10:20 pm), and O'Connor (10:55 pm) Saturday, Oct. 10 9 pm - midnight Interviews with Justices Sotomayor (9 pm), Thomas (9:40 pm), Breyer (10:30 pm), and Alito (11:25 pm) Sunday, Oct. 11 9 - 10:40 pm Interviews with Justices Roberts (9 pm) and Stevens (10 pm) See the complete schedule for the week here: http://supremecourt.c-span.org/TVPrograms.aspx . Continue reading
Authoritative Resources on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
This new CRS report has lots of links to state and federal websites:
- Authoritative Resources on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). by Kim Walker Klarman and Julie Jennings, Congressional Research Service, R40244 (September 10, 2009) [11 pages. PDF].
The following list of authoritative resources is designed to assist in responding to a broad range of constituent questions and concerns about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), P.L. 111-5. Links to the full text of the act, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, White House fact sheets, and federal, state, and municipal government websites are included, along with other useful information. This list reflects information that is currently available on the Internet. It will be updated regularly as other relevant material becomes available.Here's a thought for CRS reports like this one that are largely lists of links that CRS intends to update regularly: Why not put this online and make it (and all the updates) available for everyone? Is there any reasonable reason not to do so? Continue reading
CRS report on use of Twitter by Congress
Social Networking and Constituent Communication: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Week Period in the 111th Congress, by Matthew Eric Glassman, Jacob R. Straus, and Colleen J. Shogan, Congressional Research Service 7-5700, R40823 (September 21, 2009). [posted on politico.com] See also:
- For GOP, revenge is tweet, by KENNETH P. VOGEL Politico (9/23/09)
- Tweet All About It: New Stats On Hill Usage, By Andrew Noyes, Congress Daily "Tech Daily Dose" (Sept. 23, 2009).
Cloudy Daze
There has been a recent uptick in the movement toward and the hype about cloud computing. The federal government's embrace of cloud computing with its apps.gov store for agencies to easily obtain cloud computing resources is, perhaps, the most visible. A couple of recent articles provide context and realism to the hyperbole.
- Legal Implications of Cloud Computing - Part One (the Basics and Framing the Issues), By David Navetta, InfoSecCompliance Blog (September 12, 2009). (Also available on LLRX).
Bottom line: this is not your father's outsourcing relationship, and trying to protect clients with contracts may be very difficult or impossible unless the cloud computing community begins to build standards and processes to create trust. ...there is going to be incredible financial pressure on organizations to take advantage of the pricing and efficiency of cloud computing and if attorneys fail to understand the issues ahead of time there is a serious risk of getting "bulldozed" into cloud computing arrangements without time or resources to address some serious legal issues that are implicated.
- Demystifying Cloud Computing for Higher Education, by Richard N. Katz, Philip J. Goldstein, and Ronald Yanosky, ECAR Research Bulletin, Volume 2009, Issue 19 (September 22, 2009) [membership required].
Public clouds are profit-driven and are most effective with those services that are highly commodified. If an IT service can be offered in a standardized fashion without special regard to end user variations, or to local, state, regional, or even national regulatory differences, then that service can be offered as an undifferentiated commodity service—presumably at a great price. In such a case, the dominant legal principle is likely to be caveat emptor—buyer beware—backed by standard contract language shielding the provider from any significant liabilities for process failures or data corruption and loss. ...The challenges and risks that will constrain higher education’s adoption of cloud computing relate to trust, confidence, and surety. ...Notwithstanding the near unanimous belief that cloud computing is an important enabler of a fundamental shift in the organization and economics in enterprise IT, the (non-hyperbolic) literature and the discussion with community leaders also make clear that at present the topic is mired in hype and near-utopian optimism.
Employer Health Benefits 2009 Annual Survey
A recent non-government health care survey is a good complement to the recent Current Population Report P60 series report (see: Health Insurance Coverage: 2008):
- Employer Health Benefits: 2009 Annual Survey, Kaiser Family Foundation (Kaiser) and the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET).
Among those that offer benefits, large percentages of firms report that in the next year they are very or somewhat likely to increase the amount workers contribute to premiums (42%), increase deductible amounts (36%), increase office visit cost sharing (39%), or increase the amount that employees have to pay for prescription drugs (37%).See also: You Have No Idea What Health Costs By Ezra Klein, Washington Post (September 20, 2009). "The most important health-care document released this week was not Sen. Max Baucus's Healthy Future Act. It was the Kaiser Family Foundation's 2009 Employer Benefits Survey." Continue reading
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