Articles Posted in News from Organizations

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According to responses to the 2024 ABA Survey of Civic Literacy, 74% of individuals surveyed said that U.S. democracy is weaker than it was five years ago. Most blamed misinformation, disinformation, and political parties for contributing to this result. The survey is released each year to mark Law Day, observed annually on May 1. The responses are from a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,000 respondents from March 4-9. Here is an overview of some of the results as reported by the ABA on their website: followed by a link to the full text of the survey.

Democracy “A large majority — 74% — said U.S. democracy is weaker today than it was five years ago. Only 13% said it is stronger. Among those who said our democracy is weaker, nearly 1 in 3 (31%) said the primary cause is misinformation and disinformation. Nearly as many (29%) blamed the political parties. Less than 10% blamed social media or lack of civility. The survey also asked who should be primarily responsible for safeguarding our democracy. More than a third (37%) said it is mainly the responsibility of the general public — yet half of all respondents (exactly 50%) said the general public is not very informed about how democracy works.
Elections
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We received the following message from Google  regarding subscription updates to Google One scheduled to begin on May 15 and are forwarding it to our readers for their convenience:

“We’re writing to let you know about some updates coming to your Google One subscription starting on ‌M‌a‌y‌ ‌1‌5‌. These changes are designed to streamline your benefits while ensuring you have a valuable subscription experience.

Key changes:

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The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility released Formal Opinion 509 on Feb. 28, 2024.  According to the announcement,  Formal Opinion 509 provides guidance on how disqualification rules apply to both current and former government lawyers under the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. “It specifically addresses issues raised  when these lawyers know confidential government  information about a third person.”

The model rules define confidential government information as “information that has been obtained under governmental authority and which, at the time this rule is applied, the government is prohibited by law from disclosing to the public or has a legal privilege not to disclose and which is not otherwise available to the public.”

For additional discussion of Formal Opinion 509, see the recent article in the ABA Journal, Government lawyers’ use of ‘confidential information’ in private practice clarified in new ABA ethics opinion, by David L Hudson Jr.

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The following is information compiled by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regarding H.R.7322, Standing Up to the Executive Branch for Act 2024, as ordered reported by the House Committee of the Judiciary on February 15. 2024. It includes a brief  summary of the bill, and links to estimated cost of implementation and the full text of the legislation:

SUMMARY:

H.R. 7322 would grant standing to state governments to bring action against the federal government in a federal district court for the purpose of seeking injunctive relief from immigration enforcement decisions that have harmed the state or its residents.

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INTRODUCTION:

Medicare, the federal health insurance program in the United States, serves millions of Americans, providing essential healthcare coverage for seniors and certain individuals with disabilities. However, with its vast reach and substantial funding, Medicare is also a target for fraud and deception. Fraudulent activities not only drain taxpayer dollars but also jeopardize the integrity of the healthcare system and endanger patient well-being. To combat these threats, Medicare employs various strategies and initiatives aimed at detecting, preventing, and prosecuting instances of fraud and deception.  Yet, some people would argue the since Medicare loses billions of dollars every year to fraud, waste, and abuse, they could do a better job at preventing fraud.

DETECTION MECHANISMS:

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Microsoft has sponsored and published a valuable collection of essays on the future of AI written by a  group of experts, with specialties encompassing a broad spectrum—spanning the fields of business, economics, education, engineering, healthcare, history, law, mathematics, medicine, mental health, psychology, and the sciences—to explore the capabilities of GPT-4 before its public release and provide their insightful reflections” on the future of AI. The collection includes an Introduction, Reflections on AI and the Future of Human Flourishing. by Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientist at Microsoft.

Experts who participated  in this project were asked to consider the following two questions when preparing their essays:

How might this technology and its successors contribute to human flourishing?

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Presiding Justice Hector D. LaSalle and the Justices of the Appellate Division, Second Department on January 11, 2024, announced the creation of a Task Force to study

the interplay of artificial intelligence and the courts of the Appellate Division, Second Department. The Task Force will meet with experts in the field of artificial intelligence

and propose recommendations on how the Appellate Division, Second Department and the trial courts within its jurisdiction may best utilize reliable artificial intelligence

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AALL will hold it’s 2004 Annual Meeting at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.  to bring together collaborators from across the legal information profession for four days of innovative learning and networking. Here is the Schedule At-A-Glance of the Annual Meeting.

The American Association of Law Libraries was founded in 1906 to promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public communities, to foster the profession of law librarianship, and to provide leadership in the field of legal information.

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The Federal Trade Commission announced today, January 25, that it issued orders to five companies requiring them to provide information regarding recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and major cloud service providers.

The agency’s 6(b) inquiry will scrutinize corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers to build a better internal understanding of these relationships and their impact on the competitive landscape.  The compulsory orders were sent to Alphabet, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., Anthropic PBC, Microsoft Corp., and OpenAI, Inc.

According to Sage Lazzaro writing in Eye on AI, “The agency is investigating three multi-billion dollar deals that have shaped the AI landscape as we know it: Microsoft and OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, and Amazon and Anthropic. The FTC issued orders to all of the involved companies, seeking specifics about their agreements, the practical implications of these partnerships, analysis of the transactions’ competitive impact, competition for AI inputs and resources, and more information. This investigation could have major ramifications for these companies and the AI and technology landscape.”

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Today 1/19 we received the following posting from Deborah Kilroe of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announcing the release of its budget outlook on February 7. We are forwarding this announcement as a service to our readers:

The Congressional Budget Office will release The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034 at 2:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, February 7. In December 2023, CBO released details about its forthcoming economic projections, focusing on the near term. Next month’s report will include the agency’s full 10-year economic forecast, as well as its updated 10-year budget projections. CBO last published budget projections in May 2023.

A briefing for credentialed members of the press will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on February 7. CBO’s Director, Phillip Swagel, will make brief remarks and then answer questions about the report. More information about the briefing will soon be available on CBO’s press page.

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