Right-wing claims aside, the president’s immigration order won’t give voting rights to unauthorized immigrants. But it could bolster Democratic standing with Latinos, Asians, and other groups with deep ties to immigrant communities. Or, if that’s too much, it could at least reverse the slide—on the eve of this year’s midterm elections, just 63 percent of Latinos leaned toward or identified with the Democratic Party, down from 70 percent in 2012.
Best forecast I've read yet.
President Obama decided in recent weeks to authorize a more expansive mission for the military in Afghanistan in 2015 than originally planned, a move that ensures American troops will have a direct role in fighting in the war-ravaged country for at least another year.Mr. Obama’s order allows American forces to carry out missions against the Taliban and other militant groups threatening American troops or the Afghan government, a broader mission than the president described to the public earlier this year, according to several administration, military and congressional officials with knowledge of the decision. The new authorization also allows American jets, bombers and drones to support Afghan troops on combat missions.
...Ultimately, whether Officer Wilson is indicted or not, McCulloch’s decision to throw open the grand jury’s doors to all the relevant evidence should cause us to reconsider the current relationship between prosecutors and their grand juries.
The perception of U.S. immigration hasn’t kept up with the fast-changing reality. Immigration from Mexico has been falling for several years, for example, and new arrivals are now more likely to come from Asia than from Latin America. Meanwhile the U.S. Latino population is increasingly native-born.
As the influx of new unauthorized immigrants has slowed, the unauthorized population as a whole has become, in Pew’s words, "more settled." The typical unauthorized immigrant has been here for nearly 13 years, up from about 9 years in 2007. Only 16 percent have been here under five years — an important cutoff because Obama’s plan doesn’t apply to anyone who’s been here for less time than that.
Which seems, at a lay reading, to be legal.
...As evidence, they cited a study conducted at Yale University in 2012. Researchers studied a sample of trials using NIH money and found that fewer than half had results published within 30 months of the trials’ end.
Under a pair of related proposals announced by NIH officials, researchers will be given specific guidelines on which trials are covered by the rules and which penalties will be levied against researchers who fail to comply. The current law is not specific, NIH officials said. That has left researchers uncertain—or able to claim uncertainty—about the law’s exact requirements.
Not something I normally post in this space, but I find it interesting enough to break my usual rules (minimal inside-tech news that doesn't have larger policy relevance). This is a significant change in the way people and technology interact around storytelling. I would love to know which countries are showing the highest (and lowest) mobile usage.
No surprise, and obviously it should be. However, privacy law has a long way to go to catch up to common understanding and norms surrounding 21st technology.
... It's easy to imagine the same data being used to establish or disprove a defendant's alibi in a criminal case. In this case, the subject volunteered her data to the court, but it could just as easily be obtained through by subpoena if the court deems it central to the case. The legal rules for such orders have yet to be set, but cases like this one make a huge difference in establishing those precedents. And while today's Fitbit customers don't think of their trackers as leaving a trail of evidence, that could quickly change as courts become more familiar with the devices.