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New GAO Reports: Social Security Administration's Electronic Data Exchanges, Protecting Marine Mammals from Commercial Fishing
Information Technology: Demand for the Social Security Administration's Electronic Data Exchanges Is Growing and Presents Future Challenges, GAO-09-126, December 04, 2008: "Through more than 3,000 data exchanges with federal and state agencies, SSA both receives incoming data to support its own programs and provides outgoing data to support programs of other federal and state agencies. Most of these exchanges involve collecting incoming electronic data from other agencies, primarily to support the administration of Social Security benefits programs. The outgoing data from SSA to other federal and state agencies typically provide Social Security number verifications or are used to implement payment offsets in support of other agencies’ business operations. In this regard, the agency performs more than a billion transactions to verify Social Security numbers for federal and state agencies each year."
National Marine Fisheries Service: Improvements Are Needed in the Federal Process Used to Protect Marine Mammals from Commercial Fishing, GAO-09-78, December 08, 2008: "Because marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins, often inhabit waters where commercial fishing occurs, they can become entangled in fishing gear, which may injure or kill them - this is referred to as “incidental take.” The 1994 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) require the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to establish take reduction teams for certain marine mammals to develop measures to reduce their incidental takes. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which NMFS (1) can accurately identify the marine mammal stocks—generally a population of animals of the same species located in a common area—that meet the MMPA’s requirements for establishing such teams, (2) has established teams for those stocks that meet the requirements, (3) has met the MMPA’s deadlines for the teams subject to them, and (4) evaluates the effectiveness of take reduction regulations. GAO reviewed the MMPA, and NMFS data on marine mammals, and take reduction team documents and obtained the views of NMFS officials, scientists, and take reduction team members."

CBO: The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2009 to 2019
The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2009 to 2019, January 2009
“The sharp downturn in housing markets across the country, which undermined the solvency of major financial institutions and severely disrupted the functioning of financial markets, has led the United States into a recession that will probably be the longest and the deepest since World War II. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) anticipates that the recession—which began about a year ago—will last well into 2009."
Related postings on financial system

A 1910 advertising postcard for Buckeye’s Green Seal Beer explains that drinking two pint bottles of the beer would furnish nourishment the equivalent of twelve ounces of potatoes, eight ounces of meat, five ounces of bread, or one pint of milk.
Toledo’s first attempt at manufacturing automobiles was made by Albert A. Pope, owner of the American Bicycle Company, largest maker of bicycles in the country. He attempted a steam-powered carriage called the “Toledo” and then a gasoline-powered automobile called the “Pope-Toledo.” John North Willys ran a bicycle business, and sold automobiles for the Overland Company of Indiana. When Overland foundered, he gained control and made it profitable. Willy bought the closed Pope factory in 1909, moved the Overland Company into it in 1911 and renamed the enterprise the Willys-Overland Motor Company in 1912. You Will Do Better in Toledo: From Frogtown to Glass City, a Toledo Retrospective in Postcards, 1893-1929

I am thankful that my oven stopped working after Christmas and not before. I am thankful that the car battery died two blocks from my trusted car repair place rather than far away. I am hopeful that no more incidents for thanksgiving will occur in the near future.

"Candor" traces back to the Latin verb "candēre" ("to shine or glow"), which in turn derives from the same ancient root that gave the Welsh language "can," meaning "white," and the Sanskrit language "candati," which translates to "it shines." Other descendants of "candēre" in English include "candid," "incandescent," "candle," and the somewhat less common "candent" and "candescent" (both of which are synonyms of "incandescent" in the sense of "glowing from or as if from great heat"). M-W Word of the Day

January 9 is the birthday of Czech writer Karel Capek, (books by this author) born in a village in Bohemia in 1890. He wrote novels, travel books, fairy tales, political memoirs, romances, and plays. He introduced the word "robot" in his play R.U.R. (1921). "Robot" comes from the Czech word for serf labor. The Writer’s Almanac