There are opportunities and challenges in implementing public–private partnerships at airports. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's Conference Proceedings on the Web 26: Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Lessons Learned? is a summary of the presentations and discussions at an ACRP Insight Event held July 10-11, 2019, in Washington, DC.  These in-depth, face-to-face gatherings are designed to promote communication and collaboration, foster innovation, and help identify areas of fut...

There are opportunities and challenges in implementing public–private partnerships at airports. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's Conference Proceedings on the Web 26: Public–Private Partnerships: What Are the Lessons Learned? is a summary of the presentations and discussions at an ACRP Insight Event held July 10-11, 2019, in Washington, DC.  These in-depth, face-to-face gatherings are designed to promote communication and collaboration, foster innovation, and help identify areas of fut...

Although general aviation airports have historically been funded by federal, state, and local entities, the private sector is increasingly playing a larger role. This involvement has ranged on a continuum from service and management contracts to singular projects at airports that involve leasing mechanisms to long-term leases and the whole-scale private development of general aviation airports. In an era of declining resources and increasingly scrutinized public expenditures, private-sector involvement i...

EPA announces the availability of the All-Ages Lead Model (AALM), Version 2 software with updated supporting documentation (External Review Draft). The AALM Model is scheduled to undergo an independent peer review by EPA's Science Advisory Board in October 2019. For more information related to scheduling and peer reviewers for this new tool, please visit the SAB AALM Project website. [Federal Register Notice Sep 24, 2019]

EPA announced the availability of the Guidelines for Human Exposure Assessment (hereafter "Guidelines"). The Guidelines present the current policies and practices of exposure assessors across the Agency and supersede the 1992 Guidelines for Exposure Assessment Edition.

The government loves its secrets. It loves them so much it does stupid things to, say, "secure the nation..." or "protect the integrity of deliberative processes" or whatever the fuck. We should not trust the government's reasoning when it chooses to redact information from documents it releases to FOIA requesters. These assertions should always be challenged because the government's track record on redactions is objectively awful.

Here's the latest case-in-point: Emma Best -- someone the government feels is a "vexatious" FOIA filer -- just received a completely stupid set of redactions from the Secret Service. Best requested documents mentioning darknet market Hansa, which was shut down (along with Alpha Bay) following an investigation by US and Dutch law enforcement agencies.

The documents returned to Best contained redactions. This is unsurprising given the nature of the investigation. What's surprising is what the Secret Service decided to redact. As Best pointed out on Twitter, the Secret Service decided public press releases by the DOJ were too sensitive to be released to the general public.

Here's one of the redactions [PDF] the Secret Service applied to a press release that can be found unaltered and unedited at the Justice Department's publicly-accessible website:

And here's what the Secret Service excised, under the bullshit theory that a publicly-released press statement is somehow an "inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letter which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency."

“This is likely one of the most important criminal investigations of the year – taking down the largest dark net marketplace in history,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “Make no mistake, the forces of law and justice face a new challenge from the criminals and transnational criminal organizations who think they can commit their crimes with impunity using the dark net. The dark net is not a place to hide. The Department will continue to find, arrest, prosecute, convict, and incarcerate criminals, drug traffickers and their enablers wherever they are. We will use every tool we have to stop criminals from exploiting vulnerable people and sending so many Americans to an early grave. I believe that because of this operation, the American people are safer – safer from the threat of identity fraud and malware, and safer from deadly drugs.”

Um. Is Jeff Sessions being Yezhoved by the Secret Service? Does the agency consider him to be enough of a persona non grata after his firing by Trump to be excised from the Secret Services' official recollection of this dark web takedown? This insane conspiracy theory I just made up makes as much sense as anything the Secret Service could offer in explanation for this redaction. The redaction removed nothing but the sort of swaggering statement Attorney Generals always make after a huge bust.

Needless to say, Emma Best is challenging the Secret Service's redactions. Pithily.

I am appealing the integrity of the redactions, as you withheld public press releases under b5, which is grossly inappropriate.

Yeah. That's an understatement. The Secret Service has no business redacting publicly-available info. Even if this was a clerical error, it's so bad it's insulting. And that's why you can't trust the government on things like this: when it's not being malicious, it's being stupid.

There has been a lot of talk about how this moment in history is going to be remembered -- and as Professor Jay Rosen has been saying, a key part is going to be an effort by the many people who failed to respond properly to rewrite the history of everything that happened:

There is going to be a campaign to prevent Americans from understanding what happened within the Trump government during the critical months of January to April, 2020. Many times Donald Trump told the nation that it has nothing to worry about because he and his people have the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus well in hand. They did not. He misled the country about that.

“It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control,” he told CNBC on January 22. “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China,” he told Sean Hannity on February 2. On February 24, Trump tweeted that “the Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”

He misled the country. This basic fact is so damning, the evidence for it so mountainous, and the mountain of evidence so public — and so personally attached to Donald Trump — that the only option is to create confusion about these events, and about the pandemic generally, in hopes that people give up and conclude that the public record does not speak clearly and everything is propaganda.

The battle over rewriting history is going to take many forms in many different ways -- and so it's good to see a company like Twitter making it easier for researchers to look at the actual history of the public conversation during these months.

To further support Twitter’s ongoing efforts to protect the public conversation, and help people find authoritative health information around COVID-19, we’re releasing a new endpoint into Twitter Developer Labs to enable approved developers and researchers to study the public conversation about COVID-19 in real-time.

This is a unique dataset that covers many tens of millions of Tweets daily and offers insight into the evolving global public conversation surrounding an unprecedented crisis. Making this access available for free is one of the most unique and valuable things Twitter can do as the world comes together to protect our communities and seek answers to pressing challenges. 

It would be interesting to see if others (cough Facebook cough) would do the same thing as well. How the history of these times is written is going to be important in seeing how we deal with the next such crisis.

Linda McMahon is running for the US Senate in Connecticut. For twenty (20) years, she ran World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) with her husband, Vince McMahon. A few years ago, a documentary film examined the WWE's celebration of violence against women. Her campaign doesn't want Connecticut voters to see that film. Watch these excerpts from the film to see why. Continue reading →

This is the natural progression, this is the natural endgame of the Bill Clinton Democratic Party when he decided to change the Democratic Party from a party of workers and blue-collar people to a party of Silicon Valley and Wall Street. And Democrats have to acknowledge that. And if they don't, they ain't going nowhere. Continue reading →

Connecticut General Assembly Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz speaking at the 2014 CEUI Convention. Joe Aresimowicz, in speaking to a governmental employee union group in 2014, assured governmental union employees that he would be looking out for them: "You guys have one of your own that sits in the caucus room of the General Assembly. You cannot replicate that." "I will never allow an anti-collective bargaining bill to be called to the House floor. I'm the majority leader. I can make that guarantee." "Please, stand together, stand as brothers and sisters, and be a family. And make sure we are looking out for our own." Continue reading →

The U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center and IBM today issued a new report that explores how efforts by businesses to be a positive force in communities – commonly referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR) – influences public perception of those companies.

A l’occasion du CES de Las Vegas, IBM annonce le lancement d’Advertising Accelerator with Watson, une solution unique de prédiction d’audiences pour annonceurs.

Dr. Anthony S Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and just...

What’s Missing From the Coronavirus Bill

The public health and economic crises we’re experiencing are closely related. They reveal in stark terms the dangerous mythology of trickle-down self-sufficiency and the need for policies that respond to the real needs of people who are or will soon be affected.

But Trump doesn’t seem to understand that. Before agreeing to an actual coronavirus relief bill, his administration was considering more corporate tax cuts, tax cuts targeted to the airlines and hospitality industries, and a temporary payroll tax cut. 

But tax cuts will be useless. They’ll be too slow to stimulate the economy, and won’t reach households and consumers who should be the real targets. And they’ll reward the rich, who don’t spend much of their additional dollars, without getting money into the hands of the poor and middle-class, who do.

Thankfully, Congress has moved forward on some of the most urgent priorities like free coronavirus testing, strengthening unemployment insurance and food security programs. But it doesn’t go far enough.

Instead, Congress must immediately provide an emergency $500 billion to help all Americans protect themselves and their families, and keep the economy going.

The money should be used for:

Coronavirus testing and treatment. Diagnostic tests should be mandatory and universal, and free. And everyone with the virus should have access to treatment and to any future vaccines, regardless of ability to pay.

Guaranteed paid sick leave for ALL employees. The current relief bill does cover paid sick leave for some but has huge carve-outs, exempting all companies with over 500 employees and some small businesses under 50 employees. That exclusion could affect up to 20 million Americans. Without guaranteed paid sick leave and family leave, workers who are sick will not remain home and will end up exposing others.

Extended unemployment insurance. Without it, large numbers of Americans will be furloughed or laid off without adequate income to support themselves and their families. As it is, unemployment insurance reaches a measly 27 percent of the unemployed. 

Extended Medicaid. No one should avoid seeing a doctor because of fears about out-of-control medical bills. Right now, 28 million Americans have no health insurance, and countless more are reluctant to see a doctor because of large deductions or co-payments. Especially in a health emergency, health care should be available to all regardless of ability to pay. 

Immediate one-time payments of $1,500 to every adult and $500 per child, renewable if necessary. Some consumers might spend the money right away to meet rent if they lose their regular paycheck. Others might have stronger balance sheets and spend the money at whatever uncertain date the virus is contained. 

Suspension of the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule that enables federal officials to deny green cards to immigrants who use social safety net programs. Programs like, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and Women Infants and Children are more important than ever.

For the same reason, testing and treatment should be available to undocumented immigrants, without fear of deportation.

Trickle-down economics and trickle-down public health are deeply flawed. Corporate tax cuts won’t save us. The coronavirus doesn’t distinguish between rich and poor. We are in this imminent health and economic emergency together, and our own health and wellbeing are dependent on the health and wellbeing of everyone else. 

Each of us is only as healthy as the least-healthy among us.

Dick Kovacevich, former CEO of Wells Fargo bank, thinks most Americans should return to work in...

'Think outside the box': How public transport will change as lockdowns are eased  Yahoo News Australia

The benefits of open access (OA) are undeniable and increasingly evident across all academic disciplines and scientific research: making academic publications1 freely and openly accessible and reusable provides broad visibility for authors, a better return on investment for funders, and greater access to knowledge for other researchers and the general public. And yet, despite OA’s obvious … Read More "Why Sharing Academic Publications Under “No Derivatives” Licenses is Misguided"

The post Why Sharing Academic Publications Under “No Derivatives” Licenses is Misguided appeared first on Creative Commons.

This publication presents information on support to carers and in particular respite care services provided or purchased by local authorities in Scotland over the financial years 2007 / 2008 to 2014 / 2015.

These challenging times require fierce, broad, and intersectional activism – which is just what Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) has been doing for the past four decades. This now-independent nonprofit, which used to be affiliated with Hampshire College, continues its unique movement-building work preparing younger activists to work on the front lines of today’s struggle for reproductive justice. Please consider supporting CLPP today with a generous donation. 

As we know, the Covid-19 pandemic is disproportionately harming those in our communities who were already facing ... More

The post Please Support Civil Liberties and Public Policy During the Covid-19 Crisis: An Appeal from Judy Norsigian appeared first on Our Bodies Ourselves.

Australian architect Marshall Blecher and Danish design studio Fokstrot have unveiled plans for a new type of public space in the heart of Copenhagen — a “parkipelago” of floating islands. Dubbed the Copenhagen Islands, this non-profit initiative follows the success of CPH-Ø1, the first prototype island that launched in 2018 and was anchored in various parts of the city harbor. Copenhagen Islands plans to launch three more human-made islands in 2020, with more planned in the future.[...]

As of May 5, more than 3.5 million people in 215 countries around the world have been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization. While the world continues to socially distance, designers and creatives are beginning to imagine different ways to protect people from the virus; case in point, this futuristic bubble shield by DesignLibero.[...]

Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions. As the head of the intelligence […]

This morning, I attended a meeting of a coalition of local organizations who provide services for people who are unstably housed. I was glad for the opportunity to listen to how the members of these organizations are supporting our community, and I was especially touched by how a couple of these members reached out to... Continue Reading →

Princeton this week endorsed new guidelines aimed at accelerating the transition of the University's COVID-19 discoveries into solutions to protect health care workers and prevent, diagnose, treat and contain the pandemic.

WASHINGTON (29 de abril de 2020) —  Hoy, la Agencia de Protección Ambiental (EPA, por sus siglas en inglés) y los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC) publicaron una 

BOSTON – The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making grants available for New England communities to support EPA's goals of reducing environmental risks, protecting human health and improving the quality of life. 

LOS ANGELES – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced they have prevented a significant number of shipments of illegal health products from entering the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced they have prevented a significant number of shipments of illegal health products from entering the San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

DENVER -- The U.S.

Environmental News  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Germany's federal and state governments have agreed to further tighten restrictions on public life. Here's an overview of what's now allowed and what's not.

We study the impact of non-pharmaceutical policy interventions (NPIs) like “stay-at-home” orders on the spread of infectious disease. NPIs are associated with slower growth of Covid-19 cases. NPIs “spillover” into other jurisdictions. NPIs are not associated with significantly worse economic outcomes measured by job losses. Job losses have been no higher in US states that implemented “stay-at-home” during the Covid-19 pandemic than in states that did not have “stay-at-home”. All of these results demonstrate that the Covid-19 pandemic is a common economic and public health shock. The tradeoff between the economy and public health today depends strongly on what is happening elsewhere. This underscores the importance of coordinated economic and public health responses.

Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk publicly corrects girlfriend Grimes on Twitter after she explains the origin of their newborn son's unusual first name, X Æ A-12.

As physicians who work in New York City hospitals, we are witnessing how COVID-19 is ravaging the communities we serve. The only way to slow this pandemic is to stop the transmission of the disease. Yet despite everything we know about how the virus spreads and the unprecedented sacrifices workers have made to slow the spread, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to endanger the lives of over 40,000 immigrants in more than 200 jails and prisons nationally. Most people in immigration detention have committed no criminal offense and have been deemed by ICE to pose no danger, yet they are held arbitrarily pending disposition of their asylum claims or deportation orders.

The organisers of the Galway Races have announced that this year's festival will not go ahead in its traditional form, in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

We construct a quantitative model of an economy hit by an epidemic. People differ by age and skill, and choose occupations and whether to commute to work or work from home, to maximize their income and minimize their fear of infection. Occupations differ by wage, infection risk, and the productivity loss when working from home. By setting the model parameters to replicate the progression of COVID-19 in South Korea and the United Kingdom, we obtain three key results. First, government-imposed lock-downs may not present a clear trade-off between GDP and public health, as commonly believed, even though its immediate effect is to reduce GDP and infections by forcing people to work from home. A premature lifting of the lock-down raises GDP temporarily, but infections rise over the next months to a level at which many people choose to work from home, where they are less productive, driven by the fear of infection. A longer lock-down eventually mitigates the GDP loss as well as flattens the infection curve. Second, if the UK had adopted South Korean policies, its GDP loss and infections would have been substantially smaller both in the short and the long run. This is not because Korea implemented policies sooner, but because aggressive testing and tracking more effectively reduce infections and disrupt the economy less than a blanket lock-down. Finally, low-skill workers and self-employed lose the most from the epidemic and also from the government policies. However, the policy of issuing “visas” to those who have antibodies will disproportionately benefit the low-skilled, by relieving them of the fear of infection and also by allowing them to get back to work.

When Deirdre Von Dornum and the others arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal Bureau of Prisons staffer wearing no gloves or mask greeted them in the lobby, according to the email.

In a letter, the group noted that past pandemics show large-scale social restrictions that keep people physically separated can make the most difference if done before the illness becomes widespread.

New Dorp High School and the Richard H. Hungerford School were being shut down out of “an abundance of caution,” the DOE said on Twitter early Friday.

Closing trial courts to the public and postponing non-essential proceedings during the covid19 emergency makes good sense as a public health measure but shuts the public out of proceedings that under normal circumstances are rightfully accessible. Constitutional rights of criminal defendants are protected not just by the right to counsel but also by public scrutiny of hearings, judges, prosecutors and other public officials. Many problems would have been avoided if only courts would embrace televised proceedings and modern communications technologies.

With officials meeting virtually amid the coronavirus, the government must ensure that the public still has sufficient opportunity to participate.

With American flags and Trump banners waving, angry citizens are taking to the streets to protest stay-at-home edicts.

Sorry, liberators. Court rulings have firmly established that public health closures — like our current coronavirus shutdowns — are constitutional.

For years, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has been asking people to pay to use the image of the Hollywood sign — which it doesn't own or control.

FEMA won't release state-by-state information on where masks, gowns and other protective equipment have been delivered.

By Monday, at least 31 states will be open or partially open, often in opposition to guidelines from scientists. President Trump has been pushing for the country to get back to work.

Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk publicly corrects girlfriend Grimes on Twitter after she explains the origin of their newborn son's unusual first name, X Æ A-12.