President Bush this week said that a newspaper — the Los Angeles Times — had published details of a new technology used to defend against improvised explosive devices, and that jihadists used details from that newspaper story to develop techniques for defeating the new technology. Noah Shachtman of DefenseTech.org argues that there is reason to doubt the President’s account. See “The Enemy is Me,” March 14. (There’s more here.)
“In another sign of increasing government secrecy, the Federal Aviation Administration has removed from its Web site the transcript of a heated public hearing during which pilots ridiculed no-fly zones that have surrounded Washington since 9/11,” writes Lance Gay of Scripps Howard News Service. See “FAA yanks potentially ‘sensitive’ information from Web site,” March 15.
If the New York Times could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for having disclosed the warrantless NSA surveillance activity, as some enthusiasts have proposed, then who else might be guilty of a similar offense? That question was asked and answered by Jack Shafer in “A Gitmo for Journos: Who besides the New York Times could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act?”, Slate, March 14.
This report serves as a landscape assessment and toolbox from which local governments can negotiate an informed position when it comes to the levers available to them and includes a first-of-its kind analysis of eight executed community benefits agreements.
When a hurricane hits, it’s all hands on deck – that goes for federal data, too. Pulling back from our investments in timely, accurate, and accessible public data will only make us less prepared and put us all at greater risk.
This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even less information to deliver better health outcomes for all Americans.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.