How Each Senator Voted on Trump’s Cabinet and Administration Nominees

From the New York Times

The Senate has confirmed each of President Trump’s nominees that it has voted on so far. Fifteen members of the cabinet and eight other top administration posts require Senate confirmation.

All but four of the “no” votes have come from Democrats and have essentially been symbolic statements of opposition. Nominees need only a simple majority to be confirmed, and Republicans hold 52 seats in the Senate.

We’ll continue to update this page as the Senate holds more confirmation votes.

[Pictured: Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who has cast more NO votes than any other Senator.]

Here’s the presidential order of succession

From the New York Daily News

For no specific reason, here’s a reminder of the order of succession if President Trump — and any of his immediate successors — were to somehow leave office very soon.

1. Vice President Mike Pence

2. House Speaker Paul Ryan

3. President pro tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatch (pictured)

4. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

5. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

6. Defense Secretary James Mattis...

How to Avoid a Box Office Disaster

We use analytics to predict baseball, elections, and even pop music. But can an algorithm foretell a movie’s success or failure, even before it’s made?

In his seminal 1983 memoir, Adventures in the Screen Trade, screenwriter William Goldman disclosed what he believed to be “the single most important fact, perhaps, of the entire movie industry.” He wrote it in all caps, twice on the same page, one paragraph apart: "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING." Below, he narrowed “anything” down: "Nobody, nobody — not now, not ever — knows the least goddam thing about what is or isn’t going to work at the box office."

Goldman quotes a former studio executive, the ironically surnamed David Picker, as saying, "If I had said yes to all the projects I turned down, and no to all the ones I took, it would have worked out about the same." In Goldman’s experience, studio heads were no more effective than mutual-fund managers. Some had hot streaks, but none could keep beating the market. It wasn’t because they were bad at their jobs; it was because their jobs required the wisdom of crowds, not the wisdom of one person. "They’re trying to predict public taste three years ahead and it’s just not possible," Goldman wrote.

It’s hard enough to predict public taste in the present; even the Romans knew there was no accounting for it. Imagine trying to predict what the world will think of an unmade movie’s box office revenue, months before its first dailies. If you were facing that sort of uncertainty, you might want to rely less on the people operating on only feel — especially because, as Blumhouse president of feature films Couper Samuelson told my colleague Chris Ryan this week, "there are fewer and bigger movies being made," which means missing is more costly than ever.

2015 HIV Surveillance Report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention published the 2015 HIV Surveillance Report. It is available online at https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/reports/surveillance/cdc-hiv-surveillance-report-2015-vol-27.pdf.

The HIV Surveillance Report, which CDC has published regularly since 1982, includes detailed information about diagnosed HIV infection in the United States and dependent areas. Together with supplemental reports and analyses published throughout the year, the report provides federal agencies, health departments, nonprofit organizations and other partners the data they need to monitor HIV infections, focus prevention efforts, and allocate resources.

This edition of the report marks an important departure from prior years, made possible by improvements in HIV surveillance methods and data sources. The report presents all diagnosis, death, and prevalence data without statistical adjustments for delays in reporting of cases to CDC. Such adjustments were long needed to compensate for reporting delays of data.

Today, however, reporting of case information is more timely; significantly less time is needed to identify duplicate cases from multiple states; and systems for national data processing have been substantially strengthened, enabling unadjusted data to provide a reliable assessment of the impact of diagnosed HIV infection.

Children of Foreign-Born Parents More Likely to Be College-Educated Than Their Parents

Native-born children of a foreign-born parent, also known as the second generation, were more likely to be college-educated and have higher incomes than their parents’ generation, according to a first-ever report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Additionally, this second-generation group surpasses education and income levels of the generations that follow them. Characteristics of the U.S. Population by Generational Status: 2013 examines differences among the foreign-born or “first generation,” the second generation (native-born with at least one foreign-born parent) and the third-and-higher generation (native-born with two native-born parents) using data from the Current Population Survey. Three quarters of the U.S. population were third-and-higher generation, and the remaining quarter of the U.S. population was made up of approximately equal parts first and second generation. “The expectation that one’s economic status will improve over one’s parents and grandparents is particularly salient in immigrant communities, in which the first generation often must work harder to overcome numerous cultural and economic challenges,” lead report author Edward Trevelyan said. “This report looks for evidence of such inter­generational mobility.”

IRS Data Book

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Data Book is published annually by the IRS and contains statistical tables and organizational information on a fiscal year basis. The report provides data on collecting the revenue, issuing refunds, enforcing the law, assisting the taxpayer, and the budget and workforce.

With a new online format, this year’s publication makes navigating data on taxpayer assistance, enforcement, and IRS operations easier, with graphic depictions of key areas and quick links to the underlying data. You can view selected summary graphs, key statistics, and descriptions of the tables and the IRS functions they cover.

Renters More Likely to Be Food Insecure Than Homeowners

***

About 10.5 million American households, or roughly 8.9 percent, reported that in the past month their access to adequate food was limited by a lack of money and other resources, according to new 2015 American Housing Survey statistics released today by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau.

For the first time in its 42-year history, the American Housing Survey included questions on food security status, which allowed HUD to assign households a “food security status” score. Using these categories, about 10.5 million occupied households were classified as having “low” or “very low” food security, which is commonly known as being “food insecure.”

The survey also looked at homeownership, race and having a disability in relation to food security. Results showed that 4.9 percent of homeowners and 15.5 percent of renters were food insecure, meaning they had “low” or “very low” food security.

 “For over 40 years, the American Housing Survey has been America’s premier source of statistics on housing costs and quality,” Katherine O’ Regan said, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. “Working closely with experts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we added food insecurity to this survey to better understand the balance many lower income households face between the cost and quality of their housing and putting food on the table.” 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture included the questions to determine whether the dietary quality or food consumption of household members was reduced or normal eating patterns were disrupted because the household lacked money for food any time during the last month. One adult respondent per household was asked questions about experiences and behaviors that indicate food insecurity, such as being unable to afford balanced meals, cutting the size of meals because of too little money for food, or being hungry because of too little money for food.

The American Housing Survey data is collected every other year by the Census Bureau and is the most comprehensive housing survey in the United States. It covers topics such as housing characteristics, housing costs, home improvements and neighborhood characteristics. In addition to food insecurity, the 2015 American Housing Survey includes three other new topics: the health and safety of homes, the use of housing counseling, and the importance of arts and culture. In addition to these topics, new questions explore the opinions of Americans on petty and major crime, satisfaction with schools, satisfaction with public transportation and risk for flooding or disasters.

Results showed that 16.9 percent of black householders, 19.5 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native householders, and 21.4 percent of Pacific Islander householders were food insecure, all significantly higher than that of white householders, at 7.5 percent.

About 16.6 percent of households with a person with a disability were food insecure, reporting “low” or “very low” food security, as opposed to 6.9 percent of households without a person with a disability.

In addition to the new survey topics, the American Housing Survey covers topics such as physical housing characteristics and financial characteristics. Below are highlights from the 2015 national and metropolitan statistical area level findings among the 118,290,000 occupied units. More information on 25 selected metropolitan areas will be available later this year.

Housing Costs

· The median cost for electricity was $104 per month (renters $82, owners $117), $53 per month for piped gas (renters $42, owners $58), and $133 per month for fuel oil (renters $100, owners $150).

· Median rent was $790 per month. This ranged from $250 for “other units,” such as boats, RVs or vans to $833 for single-unit, attached homes.

. The median monthly cost paid for water was $46 per month.

Financing a Home

· Of the 70.4 million households that purchased or built their homes, 13.2 percent had no down payment; 12.6 percent put 5 percent or less down; 12.9 percent had a down payment of 6 to 10 percent; 18.0 percent put 11 to 20 percent down, 15.2 percent put 21 percent or more down; and 8.4 percent bought the home outright. The rest did not report.

·Of owner-occupied units, 40.9 percent were owned free and clear, 53.6 percent had at least one regular or home-equity lump-sum mortgage only, and 5.0 percent had at least one home equity line of credit. The remainder had reverse mortgages.

·Most homeowners with a regular and/or home-equity mortgage had only one mortgage (95.0 percent), 5.0 percent had two mortgages and less than 1.0 percent had three or more.

· Well over a third, or 38.4 percent, of homeowners with a primary mortgage refinanced. While most, or 71.2 percent, refinanced for a lower interest rate (11.5 million homeowners), others did so to receive cash, 11.7 percent. The median amount of cash received from refinance was $28,000. The median percentage of that spent on home additions, improvements and repairs was 10.0.

Owner Home Improvement

· In a typical year, owners spent a median of $500 on routine maintenance or regular maintenance activities necessary for the preventive care of the structure, property and equipment. Such activities included painting, fixing leaks, repairing fences, cleaning gutters and removing dangerous trees.

· There were 43.9 million households, or 59.0 percent, that performed more than 123.5 million home improvement projects, other than routine maintenance, in the last two years, spending more than $431.1 billion, with a median of $1,200 per job.

· Around one third, or 33.6 percent, of owner-occupied units had at least one home improvement project in the last two years completed for energy efficiency purposes, 6.8 percent did at least one project to improve accessibility for an elderly person or a person with a disability, and 3.5 percent did at least one project to prepare the home for sale.

Neighborhood

· Householders of about 18.1 percent of all occupied housing units reported living near a body of water, and 14.4 percent of those reported that the unit was actually on waterfront property. In contrast, nearly 46.0 percent of all seasonal units were near a body of water, 53.5 percent of which were located on waterfront property.

·  Of the 59.8 million housing units in subdivisions (including multiunits and groups of mobile homes), 15.1 percent were located in secured communities with walls or fences, comprising 7.6 percent of all occupied units.

·  Of the 21.8 percent of all occupied housing units with a person age 55 or over, 11.3 percent were located in age-restricted communities. Of the remaining 88.7 percent, 24.4 percent said the majority of their neighbors are age 55 or over.

Eight Poets to Discuss Over the Thanksgiving Table

Thanksgiving is coming and My Poetic Side decided to provide some dinner talk with the "Eight Poets to Discuss Over the Thanksgiving Table" article.

Danielle Mohlman goes through eight outstanding contemporary poets, sharing some highlights and telling you why you should be reading them. Kate Tempest, Claudia Rankine, Patricia Lockwood and Tracy K. Smith are a few of the featured authors.

You can read the article at http://mypoeticside.com/featured/eight-poets-thanksgiving

Spotlight on War Poets

Since it is Veterans Day, My Poetic Side is shining a spotlight on some of their favorite war poets. There are seven featured authors, each related to a different war and ordered chronologically, from The American Civil War to the Iraq War.

You can read the full article HERE

Selected Characteristics of the Citizen Voting-Age Population

The U.S. Census Bureau released selected characteristics of the citizen voting-age population from the 2015 American Community Survey for all U.S. states and congressional districts.

These characteristics include selected age groups, sex, race, Hispanic origin, educational attainment, poverty status and household income.

Climate Change Indicators in the United States, 2016

The Earth's climate is changing. Temperatures are rising, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events - like heavy rainstorms and record high temperatures - are already happening. Many of these observed changes are linked to the rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, caused by human activities.

EPA partners with more than 40 data contributors from various government agencies, academic institutions, and other organizations to compile a key set of indicators related to the causes and effects of climate change.'

This report presents 37 indicators, each describing trends related to the causes and effects of climate change. It focuses primarily on the United States, but in some cases, global trends are presented to provide context or a basis for comparison. The online version is updated periodically as new data become available.

The World Map of Nobel Prize in Literature, including Bob Dylan

The World Map of Nobel Prize in Literature

See the interactive map at My poetic side

The Guardian: Bob Dylan wins 2016 Nobel prize in literature

See also this piece from NPR

Boston Globe: Bob Dylan isn’t literature. He’s better

Amazon Bans Most Users From Writing Reviews In Exchange For Free, Discounted Items

From The Consumerist

While Amazon has long looked down on reviews that were written in exchange for free or deeply discounted items, these write-ups were allowed so long as they followed the rules: The review must be honest, and the compensation must be fully disclosed. But... a number of compensated reviewers were gaming the system — posting hundreds of reviews a month, almost universally positive, and for products they sometimes couldn’t possibly have used. Now Amazon has announced a nearly full ban on compensated reviews.

There are a number of sites and social media groups that promote these free and discounted items, with the condition that the person receiving the product write an Amazon review within a given timeframe.

Yesterday, Chee Chew, Amazon’s VP of Customer Experience, explained the reason the company had previously tolerated these incentivized reviews is that they were seen as a way for little-known products to build up a base of customer feedback.

However... some reviewers were leaving very questionable reviews. For example, we found multiple reviews for a phone case for a Lumia 650 — all of them positive and many of them referencing how well the case fit onto their device. Problem was, that phone had not yet been released.

See also the story from GeekWire

It’s Time to Cancel Your Forgotten Internet Accounts

From the Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo Inc.’s revelation of a massive 2014 security breach might have reminded you of an old account or two you haven’t logged into for years.

No good comes from leaving details of your identity—alternate email addresses, date of birth and, yes, passwords—floating around the backwaters of the internet. Hackers who find their way into one account, dormant or still in use, can exploit details such as PINs or security-question answers to get into other accounts. That’s right, your old AOL Instant Messenger account could compromise your Facebook account.

It’s best to reduce your overall exposure. Think of it as a pruning exercise.

Before you start shuttering accounts, consider a few things. You might lose access to services you never knew were related. Your Yahoo account, for example, gets you into the popular photo site Flickr. Your Hotmail email address could be your login for Xbox Live, Office 365 or Skype.

Respect the finality of your decision—when you’re out, you’re out. But canceling isn’t always easy.

Corporate Crime Database

[As shared on the BUSLIB business librarian listserv]

Since the beginning of 2010, drug manufacturers, hospital systems, insurers and other healthcare companies have paid nearly $7 billion in fines and settlements to resolve cases in which they were accused of defrauding the federal government. Banks, led by Wells Fargo, account for the second largest portion of False Claims Act penalties, with more than $3 billion in payments. More than one-third of the 100 largest federal contractors have been defendants in such cases during the seven-year period.

These are some of the key findings that emerge from an expansion of Violation Tracker, a database of corporate crime and misconduct produced by the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First. It is available to the public for free at http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/violation-tracker.

With the addition of more than 750 cases relating to the 150-year-old False Claims Act and similar laws, Violation Tracker now contains a total of 112,000 entries from 30 federal regulatory agencies and all divisions of the Justice Department.

HP printers stop accepting third party ink en masse

From BoingBoing

On September 13, owners of HP OfficeJet, OfficeJet Pro and OfficeJet Pro X began contacting third-party ink vendors by the thousand, reporting that their HP printers no longer accepted third-party ink.

The last HP printer firmware update was pushed in March 2016, and it appears that with that update (or possibly an earlier one), HP had set a time-bomb ticking in its customers' printers counting down to the date when they'd begin refusing to follow their owners' orders.

HP says that the March update's purpose was "to protect HP's innovations and intellectual property."

See also HP printers start rejecting budget ink cartridges

Eggo Nutri-Grain Whole Wheat Waffles Recall

The Kellogg Company is voluntarily recalling its Eggo Nutri-Grain Whole Wheat Waffles after routine tests by the company found potential contamination for Listeria. At this time, Kellogg is recalling 10,000 cases of the product distributed in 25 states (CO, CT, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, VA, VT, WI, WY). 

Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in various age groups. Learn more about the product recall, and package UPC Code. Consumers can discard the product and contact the company for a full refund by email or by calling 1-800-962-1413.

Learn more about food safety and recalls by visting us at USA.gov. 

Unmarried and Single Americans Week: Sept. 18-24, 2016

The Buckeye Singles Council started “National Singles Week” in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now widely observed during the third full week of September (Sept. 18-24 in 2016) as “Unmarried and Single Americans Week,” an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners or are widowed. In this edition of Facts for Features, unmarried people include those who were never married, widowed or divorced, unless otherwise noted. Single Life 109 million The number of unmarried people in America 18 and older in 2015. This group made up 45 percent of all U.S. residents 18 and older. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html 53% The percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older who were women in 2015; 47 percent were men. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html 63% The percentage of unmarried U.S. residents 18 and older in 2015 who had never been married. Another 24 percent were divorced and 13 percent were widowed. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html 19 million The number of unmarried U.S. residents 65 and older in 2015. These seniors made up 18 percent of all unmarried people 18 and older. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html 88 The number of unmarried men 18 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States in 2015. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table A1www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html 59 million The number of households maintained by unmarried men and women in 2015. These households comprised 47 percent of households nationwide. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table H1 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015A.html 35 million The number of people who lived alone in 2015. They comprised 28 percent of all households, up from 17 percent in 1970. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015, Table H-1, America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 1960 to Present, Table HH-4 www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2015H.html

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2015

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that real median household income increased by 5.2 percent between 2014 and 2015 while the official poverty rate decreased 1.2 percentage points. At the same time, the percentage of people without health insurance coverage decreased.

Median household income in the United States in 2015 was $56,516, an increase in real terms of 5.2 percent from the 2014 median income of $53,718. This is the first annual increase in median household income since 2007, the year before the most recent recession.

The nation’s official poverty rate in 2015 was 13.5 percent, with 43.1 million people in poverty, 3.5 million fewer than in 2014. The 1.2 percentage point decrease in the poverty rate from 2014 to 2015 represents the largest annual percentage point drop in poverty since 1999.

The percentage of people without health insurance coverage for the entire 2015 calendar year was 9.1 percent, down from 10.4 percent in 2014. The number of people without health insurance declined to 29.0 million from 33.0 million over the period.

These findings are contained in two reports: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015 and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2015. The Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement was conducted nationwide and collected information about income and health insurance coverage during the 2015 calendar year. The Current Population Survey, sponsored jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is conducted every month and is the primary source of labor force statistics for the U.S. population; it is used to calculate the monthly unemployment rate estimates. Supplements are added in most months; the Annual Social and Economic Supplement questionnaire is designed to give annual, national estimates of income, poverty and health insurance numbers and rates.

Empire Center Ranks Local Government Pay

This month, the Empire Center released the newest edition of What They Make, its annual examination of local government payrolls.

Using data from the New York State and Local Retirement System, the report includes the number and average pay of county, village, city and town government employees during the fiscal year ending March 31.

“What They Make lets taxpayers see how their local governments’ payrolls stack up,” said Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center. “Big differences exist, even between neighboring communities, and taxpayers have a right to ask their elected officials why.”

The report lists the 50 highest-paid local government employees in New York (page 5) and the 10 highest-paid employees in each region (pages 6 and 7). The 175,262 records, totaling $9.5 billion in pay, that were analyzed for the report are searchable at SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website.

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies to make New York a better place to live, work and do business.