Win for public domain information
Title 17, section 105 of the US code forbids the federal government from claiming copyright over its own publications. No such restriction exists for state governments, however, and many states have asserted copyright over things that one would think couldn’t possibly be treated as private property: legal codes, case law, the very stuff that government […]
Flynn Documents Released
Trump blasts ‘scam’ Michael Flynn investigation after new FBI documents released By https://www.politico.com/staff/quint-forgey 04/30/2020 07:50 AM EDT, Updated: 04/30/2020 08:59 AM EDT https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/30/trump-blasts-scam-michael-flynn-investigation-after-new-fbi-documents-released-225509 “President Donald Trump vented outrage Thursday over the FBI’s treatment of Michael Flynn following the release of government records and recent media reports regarding the bureau’s 2017 investigation into his former national […]
Mapping the Trump administration’s corruption across the executive branch
One of the things that most scares me about the current administration is the terrible — and possibly long-term — erosive effect it is having on the entire executive branch. One of the best books to document this systemic tragedy is Michael Lewis’ Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy (many libraries have access to it via Overdrive […]
The Evolution of the Decennial Census
The classic publication to learn about the history of the US Census and trace the questions asked through time is Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses From 1790 to 2000. I refer to this frequently when teaching students about the census. But check out this incredibly handy visual look at the history of the US census […]
Dr. Bright
On Politics: ‘Politics and Cronyism Ahead of Science’. New York: New York Times Company. Apr 23, 2020. “Is President Trump putting “politics and cronyism ahead of science”? Those were the words chosen by Rick Bright, the doctor who had been leading the federal effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine. This week he was removed from […]