Sightings

On December 1, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing entitled “Examining Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).” The hearing is in response to widespread media coverage and reporting of sexual harassment of female employees at the Forest Service. One of the witnesses, Ms. Denise Rice, testified in her capacity as a whistleblower about her own experience of sexual assault, reporting, and retaliation. more »

Jo-Ellen Darcy said she based her decision on a need to explore alternate routes for the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing. Her office had announced on November 14, 2016 that it was delaying the decision on the easement to allow for discussions with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation lies 0.5 miles south of the proposed crossing. Tribal officials have expressed repeated concerns over the risk that a pipeline rupture or spill could pose to its water supply and treaty rights.         The Department of the Army will not approve an easement that would allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe… more »

In Is Uncle Sam Inducing the Elderly to Retire? a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a team that includes Alan Auerbach, a UC Berkeley professor suggests that prospective retirees can forget the Social Security Administration-provided benefit calculations that come in the mail. "They’re completely meaningless," says Auerbach. more »

When Tamara Sims started the research, she didn't expect to find much of a correlation between technology use and well-being because adults over 80 are considered to be the most unfamiliar with these technologies and are least likely to use them. "Part of me wondered whether the use of technology would make much of a difference for this population because pervasive stereotypes characterize this age group as technologically inept, in addition to being physically and cognitively frail." more »