The National Archives and Records Administration has recently released the first documents in what will soon be a database of Civil Rights Cold Case Records. Following the passage of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act in 2019, previously unavailable civil rights cold cases from 1940 to 1979 will be made digitally accessible to the public. The records will be released on a rolling basis and those released are currently available at the National Archives Catalog. Eventually NARA will create the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Portal which will allow direct access to the information.
Tuesday, November 05, 2024
New Government Resource for Researching Civil Rights
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Government Information Resource: USGS (United States Geographical Survey) and the National Land Cover Database
According to its website, the USGS “monitors, analyzes, and predicts current and evolving Earth-system interactions and delivers actionable information at scales and timeframes relevant to decision-makers. [They] are a primary Federal source of science-based information on ecosystems, land use, energy and mineral resources, natural hazards, water use, and availability, and updated maps and images of the Earth’s features available to the public.”
The newest product released by the USGS is its updated and improved National Land Cover Database or Annual NLCD. Unlike the previous version of the NLCD, which mapped land cover from 2001 to 2021 in two or three-year increments, the new version maps land cover from 1985 to the present in one-year increments. It will be updated annually.
The Annual NLCD contains six products:
1.
Land Cover – This dataset provides 16
land cover classes such as deciduous and evergreen forest, grassland,
cultivated crops, and developed.
2.
Land Cover Change – These data represent
annual land cover changes from one year to the next.
3.
Land Cover Confidence – This layer
provides confidence levels for the land cover classifications.
4.
Fractional Impervious Surface – This
component provides the proportion of land covered by developed surfaces, such
as roads and rooftops.
5.
Impervious Descriptor – This feature
offers additional information about impervious surfaces by distinguishing
between roads and other built surfaces.
6.
Spectral Change Day of Year – This
attribute captures the specific day of the year when significant changes in
surface reflectance occur.
The Annual NLCD uses “the extensive Landsat satellite data
record at a 30-meter resolution” and employs data from as far back as the early
1980s. To ensure the accuracy and
reliability of the data, the USGS meticulously reviews thousands of 30-meter
plots and annually classifies and validates the data.
All of this data will be available to private individuals
and companies, to members of the general public, and to academics and
scholars. The data may be used in various areas and for various interests, such as management and modeling
of resources. The data allows for assessing
changes in the ecosystem, biodiversity, climate, surface and groundwater
quality, wildlife, and other areas. Wildfire
threats, urban heat risks, and biological carbon sequestration can be modeled. These
analyses provide more accurate and timely information for conservation efforts
and land management.
For more information on the Annual NLCD Collection 1.0,
including how to access the data, visit the USGS website:https://www.usgs.gov/annualNLCD.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Election Day
Election Day is less than a month away on Tuesday, November 5th!
There will be a polling location on Rice campus, at the
Welcome Center, 7 am-7 pm. All voters registered in Harris County can vote
here. Be sure to bring your government-issued ID.
Early voting begins October 21st and ends
November 1st.
Approved early voting sites can be found here at Vote-Centers. (Election Day sites can also be found here.) Ride the Rice BRC/TMC Shuttle to the closest
Early Voting site (shuttle stop 12).
If you are voting in Harris County, view your voter-specific ballot at Whats-on-my-Ballot.
There are other important races and issues voters will
decide on this year, including US Senate and Representative, Texas State
Senator and Representative, Railroad Commissioner, and numerous judges and
county officials. Harris County also has three separate bond proposals to be voted on. We hope you will
make your voice heard today.
For non-partisan information about candidates and issues, League
of Women Voters Guides for Harris County are available in the Kelley Center for
Government Information in the basement of Fondren as long as supplies
last. The Guide can also be found online
here.
The Houston Chronicle 2024 Texas Voter Guide provides sample
ballots for Harris and Houston area counties along with information about each
candidate. They also post their endorsements
in many races. (The Houston Chronicle is available to members of the Rice
community. Rice students, faculty, and
staff: please visit https://library.rice.edu/houston-chronicle for instructions
on registering for a free Houston Chronicle account.)
For a more comprehensive list of election resources, access the
Kelley Center’s Voter and Election guide.
For example, if you want:
for information about a candidate's biography, voting record, positions, ratings, speeches, and funding, check Project Vote Smart.
to see where candidates stand on a host of issues, check
ProCon.org's Presidential Election site.
for information about campaign contributions, check the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and/or OpenSecrets.org.
for general information on evaluating candidates for public
office, check USA.gov's Choosing Candidates to Vote for.
Monday, August 19, 2024
Public Feedback Sought for Congress.gov
Monday, August 12, 2024
The Best of Both Worlds or Between a Rock and a Hard Place
The United States Postal Service is a strange hybrid.
It was established by the First Continental Congress in
1775. The new federal government
established in 1789 established the postal service permanently as a government
agency in 1792.
Therefore:
The USPS is a government agency within the Executive
Branch.
Its service standards are set in the Code of Federal
Regulations, and the Postal Regulatory Commission has oversight of it.
It has a public mission, and the price of minimal service
must remain affordable.
It maintains a monopoly of mailboxes and letter delivery to
be able to provide service to communities that would not be financially viable for
a private company. Only the USPS can
deposit items into mailboxes.
As a government agency, the USPS is exempt from tolls,
vehicle registration fees, state/local taxes, property/real estate taxes, and
parking tickets for delivery vehicles.
To fund growth and improvements, the USPS is granted very
low interest loans.
Postal workers are federal employees. The USPS assumes all financial risks for
workers’ compensation from its revenue.
It cannot use a private insurer.
Postal workers cannot strike.
However:
Since the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the USPS does
not receive appropriations from Congress provided by tax revenues. Unlike most
government agencies, it is almost completely financially independent.
It is required to act like a private business and must
compete for customers.
The rise in costs of providing services, especially employee
retirement benefits, competition from other delivery companies, and a reduction
in need for the postal service because of technological innovations for
delivery of communication (email, etc.) has led to a loss of revenue for the
USPS.
Currently the cost of universal mail service is higher than
the monetary value of having a monopoly.
Other handicaps:
USPS has more flexibility in purchasing than other
government agencies, but purchasing is regulated by government oversight and is
not as flexible as a private company would have.
The USPS is forbidden by law from putting retirement program
monies into any but the most secure investments. Therefore, the cost of retirement benefits
for postal employees is higher than the money the investments make.
The amount the USPS can borrow for growth and improvements is
capped by law, and the cap has not changed in 30 years.
Because of its hybrid nature, the USPS has some control over
it’s operations and low to no control over others. For example, USPS has no control over providing
6-day service. It also has no control
over its ability to diversify products and services. It has high control over the prices it charges
for services it competes with other companies to provide such as package delivery.
The US Postal Service component of the Office of Inspector General has studied the tension between the competing natures of the Postal
Service as a privately funded entity and a government agency and in a white
paper released August 2, 2024 has determined that its current structure is not sustainable
and needs reform.
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
Copyright and AI
Monday, July 22, 2024
Hot Enough For Ya?
July and August are the hottest months of the year, with September not far behind here in the South. Extreme high heat can affect our outdoor activities, our electric bills, and our moods. But what effect does heat have on the most vulnerable communities and what is their resilience to this external pressure on them. According to the Census Bureau, “Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb the external stresses of a disaster.”
The United States Census provides data about the population in
numerous topic areas. Most recently
(July 16, 2024), they released their report on the 2022 Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) for Heat. The report
includes Quick Guide which can be used to understand and use the data available. The Bureau previously released data for 2019.
In general, the CRE reports the social vulnerability that
inhibits community resilience. The CRE for Heat (which is an experimental report) adds new components of social
vulnerability and information concerning exposure. For example, the report looks at which areas
(by geography, state, county, and census tract) have more than two days in a
row of temperatures over 90 degrees and what households in those areas do not
have air conditioning.
The CRE for Heat uses information from the American Community Survey and the Population Estimates Program.
The American Community Survey is conducted every month of every year and,
unlike the decennial census, is sent to a sample of addresses. The survey asks questions about topics not in
the regular census such as education, employment, internet access, and
transportation.
The Population Estimates Program annually produces reports
on the estimated changes in population and housing units for the nation,
states, counties, cities and towns and includes births, deaths, and
migrations.
Arizona State University’s Knowledge Exchange for Resilience collaborates with the Census Bureau to produce the CRE for Heat reports.
The data from the CRE for Heat is included in My Community Explorer which is a Census Bureau tool to identify underserved communities and
includes Census Bureau and Emergency Response datasets.