June 2019
June 24-28, 2019
Weekly Digest
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The 2020 Census is still at risk
The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census — at least, for now. This is a huge win for democracy: There is plenty of compelling research on why the citizenship question would depress response rates, particularly among immigrant, African American, and Hispanic groups.
Apple's chief designer Jony Ive is leaving Apple to form independent company (Bloomberg)
Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Thu, 06/27/2019 - 17:39How can we save New Jersey’s local news from the wrecking ball?
A demolition team rolled in to 9 Broadcast Plaza in early June, tearing down Northern New Jersey’s only broadcast television studio.
Divided House passes election security legislation over Republican objections
A divided House passed an election security bill to strengthen the nation’s voting systems, with Democrats arguing that protecting the nation from another attack like the one Russia waged in 2016 was imperative.
Emergency Alert System Order on Reconsideration (Federal Communications Commission)
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USDA Names Chad Rupe as Rural Utilities Service Administrator
President Donald Trump appointed Chad Rupe as Administrator of the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service. Rupe has served as Acting Administrator for the Rural Utilities Service since April 30. Prior to stepping into that role, he served as USDA Rural Development State Director of Wyoming from 2017 to 2019. During his tenure there, Rupe was a leader for rural broadband, serving on the Rural Development State Directors Broadband Working Group and assisting state government with efforts to deploy broadband in rural WY. R
Senators Markey, Blumenthal Push Zuckerberg to End "Friendly Fraud" on Facebook
Sens Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to Facebook urging the company to institute policy changes in light of evidence that third party game developers manipulated children into spending their parents’ money. Previous reporting by the Center for Investigative Reporting demonstrated that Facebook personnel had direct knowledge that children were spending large sums of their parents’ money on in-app purchases without parental knowledge or permission. New evidence now reveals that Facebook has still not instituted key policy changes to address this issue.