Bloomberg Law: FDA’s ‘Not a Horse’ Covid-19 Twitter Posts Are Agency Actions

Bloomberg Law: FDA’s ‘Not a Horse’ Covid-19 Twitter Posts Are Agency Actions. “‘Tweet-sized doses of personalized medical advice are beyond’ the Food and Drug Administration’s statutory authority, the Fifth Circuit ruled as to the agency’s social media posts that discouraged using ivermectin to treat Covid-19. A lower court must decide whether the case from three ivermectin-prescribing doctors has “any other jurisdictional” or standing issues that would prevent it from moving forward so remand was appropriate, the appeals court also said.”

NREL: NREL Launches Science and News Podcast

NREL: NREL Launches Science and News Podcast. “Forty-six years ago, the research organization that would become the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was born. This year, on July 5, NREL’s birthday, the laboratory launched its news podcast, ‘Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast.’ Every other Wednesday, podcast hosts Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle provide news about research at the laboratory and the ways NREL’s work is impacting the clean energy space.”

Library of Congress: Updated Federal Library Directory Increases Accessibility to US Agency Libraries

Library of Congress: Updated Federal Library Directory Increases Accessibility to US Agency Libraries. “The ‘Federal Library Directory,’ now in an updated second edition, profiles federal libraries and information centers in the United States and abroad. Presented with an interactive map, the directory displays geographic and collections data from nearly 1,400 federal libraries.”

KXAN: Texas Vet Board still struggling to fix database problems, legislative review finds

KXAN: Texas Vet Board still struggling to fix database problems, legislative review finds. “Months after a KXAN investigation into problems at the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, a new legislative report reveals the agency is still struggling to manage its data on animal doctors in the state. The report found TBVME failed to implement previous recommendations by the Sunset Advisory Commission — a group of lawmakers and members of the public that evaluates the function and performance of state agencies. Sunset has reviewed this agency three times over the last six years.”

Variety: CIA Launches First Podcast, ‘The Langley Files,’ Which Reveals That Working at the Agency Is More Boring Than Hollywood Makes It Seem

Variety: CIA Launches First Podcast, ‘The Langley Files,’ Which Reveals That Working at the Agency Is More Boring Than Hollywood Makes It Seem. “It seems like everyone is launching a podcast these days — and now comes the Central Intelligence Agency. But don’t expect any major revelations from CIA’s ‘The Langley Files,’ which is really a PR-outreach initiative to burnish the agency’s image as well as dispel notions that it’s a glamorous line of work as often portrayed in pop culture.”

Route Fifty: How To Rename a Place

Route Fifty: How To Rename a Place. “Louisiana’s Dead Negro Branch was renamed Alexander Branch, after a late local civil-rights leader. Mulatto Mountain, North Carolina, became Simone Mountain, honoring the great Black pianist and singer (and Old North State native) Nina Simone. The new names are the work of the Board on Geographic Names, a little-known federal body with the remarkable power to literally remake the map.”

The Verge: Most US government agencies are using facial recognition

The Verge: Most US government agencies are using facial recognition. “A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 19 of the 24 US government agencies surveyed are using facial recognition in some way, illustrating how commonplace the controversial technology has become within the federal government. The list of agencies includes agencies like the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that maintain in-house systems, alongside smaller agencies that use the system to control access to high-security locations.”

Washington Post: How CDC data problems put the U.S. behind on the delta variant

Washington Post: How CDC data problems put the U.S. behind on the delta variant. “When Pfizer representatives met with senior U.S. government health officials on July 12, they laid out why they thought booster shots would soon be necessary in the United States. Data from Israel showed the vaccine’s effectiveness waned over time, especially in older and immunocompromised people. But officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disagreed, saying their own data showed something quite different, according to four people with direct knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Other senior health officials in the meeting were stunned. Why hadn’t the CDC looped other government officials on the data?”

FedTech Magazine: How Agencies Are Transitioning to Electronic Archives

FedTech Magazine: How Agencies Are Transitioning to Electronic Archives. “Federal agencies are nearing the end of a 10-year project to go paperless, and they’re about to begin the most challenging part of the process. By 2022, they must comply with a 2019 directive from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Office of Management and Budget that requires all permanent records to be ‘in an electronic format and with appropriate metadata.’”