Libraries Pay More for E-Books. Some States Want to Change That.; The New York Times, July 16, 2025

 Erik Ofgang, The New York Times; Libraries Pay More for E-Books. Some States Want to Change That.

Proposed legislation would pressure publishers to adjust borrowing limits and find other ways to widen access. 

"Librarians complain that publishers charge so much to license e-books that it’s busting library budgets and frustrating efforts to provide equitable access to reading materials. Big publishers and many authors say that e-book library access undermines their already struggling business models. Smaller presses are split."

Hot Days, Hotter Topics | ALA Annual 2025; Library Journal, July 9, 2025

 Matt Enis, Lisa Peet, Hallie Rich, & Kara Yorio , Library Journal; Hot Days, Hotter Topics | ALA Annual 2025

"This year’s American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held from June 26–30 in Philadelphia, drew 14,250 participants: librarians and library staff, authors, publishers, educators, and exhibitors, including 165 international members. While still not up to pre-pandemic attendance levels, the conference was—by all accounts—buzzing and busy, with well-attended sessions and a bustling exhibit floor.

Even with temperatures topping 90˚, Philly wasn’t the only hot aspect of the conference. A cluster of topics seemed to be at the center of nearly every discussion: how libraries would cope in the face of current or anticipated budget cuts, the impacts of ongoing attacks on the freedom to read and DEI, the ramping up of ICE and police surveillance, the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and firing of Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden, and the uses and ethics of artificial intelligence (AI)."

GOP-led Senate votes to cancel $9 billion in funding for foreign aid, NPR and PBS; NBC News, July 16, 2025

 Sahil Kapur, Frank Thorp V and Brennan Leach , NBC News; GOP-led Senate votes to cancel $9 billion in funding for foreign aid, NPR and PBS

[Kip Currier: Notice how Trump 2.0 and the GOP (except for a couple of legislators) are going after sources of information: cutting funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Voice of America, PBS, NPR, etc. 

Control the information sources and you can more easily influence and control how people get their information and what they think.

Autocracies restrict access to information; democracies don't.]

[Excerpt]

"The Republican-led Senate Republicans voted Thursday morning to pass a package of spending cuts requested by President Donald Trump, sending it to the House. 

The rescissions package cancels previously approved funding totaling $9 billion for foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. Republicans passed it through a rarely used process to evade the 60-vote threshold and modify a bipartisan spending deal on party lines.

The vote of 51-48 followed a 13-hour series of votes on amendments, with two Republicans joining Democrats in opposition to the final bill: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska."

Hungary opposition figures urge Democrats to organize against autocratic takeover by Trump; The Guardian, July 16, 2025

 Robert Tait , The Guardian; Hungary opposition figures urge Democrats to organize against autocratic takeover by Trump

[Kip Currier: It's clear Trump 2.0 is using the autocratic takeover playbook of Hungary's Viktor Orbán. As this article points out, autocrats work to cut off access to public broadcasting where people can get fact-based information. Just look to what the Trump and the GOP are doing to public media in the U.S. right now: 

"GOP-led Senate votes to cancel $9 billion in funding for foreign aid, NPR and PBS".]

[Excerpt]

"Hungary, a European Union and Nato member, is often cited as an example of a formerly liberal democracy devolving into a competitive autocracy. Orbán – who has trumpeted his belief in “illiberal democracy” – has cemented his power over the courts, the media and universities during 15 years in office and four consecutive election victories.

Addressing a webinar organized by the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based thinktank, Cseh warned US voters against believing their country was immune to such developments.

“I do believe that many Americans think this is something that also only happens to others, and I think that mindset has to be fought,” she said.

“Start preparing for the midterms like yesterday. Go to every protest, go to every march, stand right beside everybody who is being attacked, no matter if it is a group you belong to, or something that you do not share personally. You have to stand side by side [with] each other and help and support those who might feel isolated and alone.”

She urged Democrats and activists to form a widely inclusive “movement” and find “candidates for the midterms or any election that is coming your way who can get people excited – not necessarily the same old faces they have been seeing all the time that they don’t really trust that much, but visionary leaders … who are part of a community, who are being persecuted.”

Leaders such as Trump and Orbán could only be effectively opposed, she said, by ditching a “legalistic, technical, technocratic approach” in favor of “something for the electorate to be excited about”.

“Autocrats are not always good in governing. So cost of living, crisis of healthcare, education – if the focus is shifted to these areas, and not only technical descriptions of what’s going on in the courts, this is something that people can relate to more.”

The parallels with Hungary came as opinion polls show Orbán on course to lose next year’s general election to the opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, a former member of the prime minister’s party...

Panyi said Trump’s attempts to slash funding for public broadcasters such as PBS and Voice of America were also inspired by Orbán.

“[Orbán] went after public radio, public TV, and in a matter of a couple of months, it was already transformed into propaganda,” he said. “It’s scary to see similar things happening in the United States. Solidarity is especially important, so whenever there are similar things happening, there should be protests. Journalists should support their colleagues and tell readers that if it happens to one outlet, it can happen to others as well.”

Supreme Court Keeps Ruling in Trump’s Favor, but Doesn’t Say Why; The New York Times, July 16, 2025

  Adam Liptak, The New York Times; Supreme Court Keeps Ruling in Trump’s Favor, but Doesn’t Say Why

"In clearing the way for President Trump’s efforts to transform American government, the Supreme Court has issued a series of orders that often lacked a fundamental characteristic of most judicial work: an explanation of the court’s rationale."

Can Gen AI and Copyright Coexist?; Harvard Business Review, July 16, 2025

 Michael D. Smith and Rahul Telang, Harvard Business Review ; Can Gen AI and Copyright Coexist?

"We’re experts in the study of digital transformation and have given this issue a lot of thought. We recently served, for example, on a roundtable of 10 economists convened by the U.S. Copyright Office to study the implications of gen AI on copyright policy. We recognize that the two decisions are far from the last word on this topic; both will no doubt be appealed to the Ninth Circuit and then subsequently to the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, we believe there are already many lessons to be learned from these decisions about the implications of gen AI for business—lessons that will be useful for leaders in both the creative industries and gen AI companies."

I’m Watching the Sacrifice of College’s Soul; The New York Times, July 14, 2025

 Frank Bruni, The New York Times; I’m Watching the Sacrifice of College’s Soul

"At dinner recently with fellow professors, the conversation turned to two topics that have been unavoidable these past few years. The first was grade inflation — and the reality that getting A’s seldom requires any herculean effort and doesn’t distinguish one bright consultant-to-be from the next. Many students, accordingly, redirect their energies away from the classroom and the library. Less deep reading. More shrewd networking.gr

The second topic was A.I. Given its advancing sophistication, should we surrender to it? Accept that students will use it without detection to cull a semester’s worth of material and sculpt their paragraphs? Perhaps we just teach them how to fashion the most effective prompts for bots? Perhaps the future of college instruction lies in whatever slivers of mental endeavor can’t be outsourced to these digital know-it-alls.

And perhaps a certain idea of college — a certain ideal of college — is dying...

I’m not under the illusion that college used to be regarded principally in such high-minded terms. From the G.I. Bill onward, it has been held up rightfully as an engine of social mobility, a ladder of professional opportunity, yielding greater wealth for its graduates and society both.

But there was a concurrent sense that it contributed mightily to the civic good — that it made society culturally and morally richer. That feeling is now fighting for survival. So much over the past quarter century has transformed Americans’ relationship to higher education in ways that degrade its loftier goals. The corpus of college lumbers on, but some of its soul is missing."

The D.E.I. Industry, Scorned by the White House, Turns to ‘Safer’ Topics; The New York Times, July 15, 2025

  Niko Gallogly, The New York Times; The D.E.I. Industry, Scorned by the White House, Turns to ‘Safer’ Topics

"When President Trump signed an executive order in January targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies, schools and the private sector, Arin Reeves, who has been a D.E.I. consultant for 26 years, said many in her field were in a panic.

“All the federal government stuff, I was watching it, and I genuinely didn’t even know where to go with it,” Ms. Reeves said. For those in the industry, she added, there was a feeling of: “What do we do?”

The answer for many D.E.I. professionals has been to adapt to what companies feel comfortable offering: employee trainings that maintain the principles of diversity and inclusion but without necessarily calling them that. That has meant fewer sessions that focus explicitly on race, gender, sexuality and unconscious bias, and more on subjects like neurodivergence, mental health and generational differences, a training that teaches about how age affects viewpoints in the workplace."

CIA historian Tim Weiner: ‘Trump has put national security in the hands of crackpots and fools’; The Guardian, July 15, 2025

  Aaron Gell, The Guardian; CIA historian Tim Weiner: ‘Trump has put national security in the hands of crackpots and fools’

"Trump’s anti-diversity crusade will also have national security repercussions, Weiner predicted. In February, a judge allowed the administration to reassign the team responsible for diversifying the agency. “For decades, the CIA has tried to hire people who don’t look like they just got off the bus from Kansas on the very sound principle that if you want to spy in a nation like Somalia or Pakistan or China, it might be wise to have a workforce that is not made up exclusively of white guys, and who speak languages other than English,” Weiner said. “Diversity was one of the CIA’s few superpowers, and the mindless abolition of the effort to diversify the CIA’s officers and analysts was one of the most stupid self-inflicted wounds that Ratcliffe could have delivered.”"

DOJ's Ex-Ethics Lawyer Speaks Out After Being Fired by Pam Bondi; Newsweek, July 14, 2025

 Dan Gooding and  Gabe Whisnant , Newsweek; DOJ's Ex-Ethics Lawyer Speaks Out After Being Fired by Pam Bondi

[Kip Currier: Shameful action by the U.S. Attorney General: Pam Bondi's firing of DOJ's premier ethics lawyer shows us everything we need to know about her priorities and ethical values.]

[Excerpt]

"Attorney General Pam Bondi has dismissed the Justice Department's top ethics lawyer, Joseph Tirrell, according to a post he shared on LinkedIn.

Tirrell, a Navy veteran, posted a copy of his termination letter on the platform Friday, noting that it resembled notices received by other DOJ employees. The letter included a typo, misspelling his name as "JOSPEH."

He wrote, in part, on LinkedIn, "Until Friday evening, I was the senior ethics attorney at the Department of Justice responsible for advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General directly on federal employee ethics. I was also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the ethics program across the Department. I led a small, dedicated team of professionals and coordinated the work of some 30 other full-time ethics officials, attorneys, paralegals and other specialists across the Department of Justice, ensuring that the 117,000 Department employees were properly advised on and supported in how to follow the Federal employee ethics rules."

He continued, "I look forward to finding ways to continue in my personal calling of service to my country. I encouraged anyone who is reading this to do the same. I believe in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.— 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' I also believe that Edmund Burke is right and that 'the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.'""

AI must have ethical management, regulation protecting human person, Pope Leo says; The Catholic Register, July 11, 2025

 Carol Glatz , The Catholic Register; AI must have ethical management, regulation protecting human person, Pope Leo says

"Pope Leo XIV urged global leaders and experts to establish a network for the governance of AI and to seek ethical clarity regarding its use.

Artificial intelligence "requires proper ethical management and regulatory frameworks centered on the human person, and which goes beyond the mere criteria of utility or efficiency," Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, wrote in a message sent on the pope's behalf.

The message was read aloud by Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, at the AI for Good Summit 2025 being held July 8-11 in Geneva. The Vatican released a copy of the message July 10."

EU's AI code of practice for companies to focus on copyright, safety; Reuters, July 10, 2025

 Foo Yun Chee, Reuters ; EU's AI code of practice for companies to focus on copyright, safety

"The European Commission on Thursday unveiled a draft code of practice aimed at helping firms comply with the European Union's artificial intelligence rules and focused on copyright-protected content safeguards and measures to mitigate systemic risks.

Signing up to the code, which was drawn up by 13 independent experts, is voluntary, but companies that decline to do so will not benefit from the legal certainty provided to a signatory.

The code is part of the AI rule book, which will come into effect in a staggered manner and will apply to Google owner Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral and other companies."

EU AI Act at the Crossroads: GPAI Rules, AI Literacy Guidance and Potential Delays; JD Supra, July 8, 2025

 Mark Booth, Steven Farmer, Scott Morton , JD Supra; EU AI Act at the Crossroads: GPAI Rules, AI Literacy Guidance and Potential Delays

"The EU AI Act (AI Act), effective since February 2025, introduces a risk-based regulatory framework for AI systems and a parallel regime for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models. It imposes obligations on various actors, including providers, deployers, importers and manufacturers, and requires that organizations ensure an appropriate level of AI literacy among staff. The AI Act also prohibits “unacceptable risk” AI use cases and imposes rigorous requirements on “high-risk” systems. For a comprehensive overview of the AI Act, see our earlier client alert.

As of mid-2025, the implementation landscape is evolving. This update takes stock of where things stand, focusing on: (i) new guidance on the AI literacy obligations for providers and deployers; (ii) the status of the developing a General-Purpose AI Code of Practice and its implications; and (iii) the prospect of delayed enforcement of some of the AI Act’s key provisions."

WaPo Columnist Flames Jeff Bezos After Quitting in Protest; The Daily Beast, July 10, 2025

 Corbin Bolies  , The Daily Beast; WaPo Columnist Flames Jeff Bezos After Quitting in Protest

"Davidson said in the Facebook post the spiked piece centered on what he believed was a hallmark of President Donald Trump’s second term, “his widespread, ominous attack on thought, belief and speech,” and referenced federal officials’ comments and Trump’s own executive orders. 

But the Post spiked the column, according to Davidson. He said he tried to write two more pieces to test his resilience under the new policy, but that he bristled when editors objected to his use of “well-deserved” when describing a potential pay raise for federal employees...

“Bezos’s policies and activities have projected the image of a Donald Trump supplicant. The result: fleeing journalists, plummeting morale and disappearing subscriptions,” Davidson wrote.

“Nonetheless, Post coverage of Trump remains strong,” he added. “Yet the policy against opinion in News section columns means less critical scrutiny of Trump—a result coinciding with Bezos’ unseemly and well-documented coziness with the president.”

Microsoft Pledges $4 Billion Toward A.I. Education; The New York Times, July 9, 2025

 Natasha Singer , The New York Times; Microsoft Pledges $4 Billion Toward A.I. Education

[Kip Currier: Not one mention of "ethics" or "AI ethics" in this New York Times article.

So, I sent an email to the reporter today (7/10/25):

Dear Natasha Singer,

I was surprised, and actually disconcerted, to not see any mention of "ethics" and "AI ethics" concepts in your article "Microsoft Pledges $4 Billion Toward A.I. Education". Given well-documented concerns of the vital need for ethical guidelines and frameworks vis-a-vis AI by a wide-range of stakeholders (e.g. religious leaders/Rome Call for AI Ethics, the U.N. AI Advisory Body, academics, etc.), I would have expected your reporting to at least have mentioned potential ethical considerations about this Microsoft funding plan, which carries such significant implications for education and societies.

Best wishes,

Kip Currier]

 

[Excerpt]

"Microsoft said on Wednesday that it planned to give more than $4 billion in cash and technology services to train millions of people to use artificial intelligence, amid an intensifying Silicon Valley crusade to embed chatbots into classrooms.

Microsoft, the maker of the Copilot chatbot, said the resources would go to schools, community colleges, technical colleges and nonprofits. The company is also starting a new training program, Microsoft Elevate Academy, to “deliver A.I. education and skilling at scale” and help 20 million people earn certificates in A.I.

“Microsoft will serve as an advocate to ensure that students in every school across the country have access to A.I. education,” Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, said in an interview on Sunday.

Microsoft did not immediately specify how much of the more than $4 billion the company planned to dispense as grants and how much of it would be in the form of Microsoft A.I. services and cloud computing credits.

The announcement comes as tech companies are racing to train millions of teachers and students on their new A.I. tools. Even so, researchers say it is too soon to tell whether the classroom chatbots will end up improving educational outcomes or eroding important skills like critical thinking.

On Tuesday, the American Federation of Teachers, a union representing 1.8 million members, said it was setting up a national A.I. training center for educators, with $23 million in funding from Microsoft and two other chatbot makers, OpenAI and Anthropic."

Why the new rulings on AI copyright might actually be good news for publishers; Fast Company, July 9, 2025

 PETE PACHAL, Fast Company; Why the new rulings on AI copyright might actually be good news for publishers

"The outcomes of both cases were more mixed than the headlines suggest, and they are also deeply instructive. Far from closing the door on copyright holders, they point to places where litigants might find a key...

Taken together, the three cases point to a clearer path forward for publishers building copyright cases against Big AI:

Focus on outputs instead of inputs: It’s not enough that someone hoovered up your work. To build a solid case, you need to show that what the AI company did with it reproduced it in some form. So far, no court has definitively decided whether AI outputs are meaningfully different enough to count as “transformative” in the eyes of copyright law, but it should be noted that courts have ruled in the past that copyright violation can occur even when small parts of the work are copied—ifthose parts represent the “heart” of the original.

Show market harm: This looks increasingly like the main battle. Now that we have a lot of data on how AI search engines and chatbots—which, to be clear, are outputs—are affecting the online behavior of news consumers, the case that an AI service harms the media market is easier to make than it was a year ago. In addition, the emergence of licensing deals between publishers and AI companies is evidence that there’s market harm by creating outputs without offering such a deal.

Question source legitimacy: Was the content legally acquired or pirated? The Anthropic case opens this up as a possible attack vector for publishers. If they can prove scraping occurred through paywalls—without subscribing first—that could be a violation even absent any outputs."

U.S. Copyright Office Announces Webinar on Copyright Essentials for Writers; U.S. Copyright Office, Webinar: August 6, 2025 1 PM EDT

  U.S. Copyright Office; U.S. Copyright Office Announces Webinar on Copyright Essentials for Writers

"The U.S. Copyright Office invites you to register to attend the third session in our Copyright Essentials webinar series. The Plot Thickens: Copyright Essentials for Writers will take place on August 6 at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. 

In this session, the Copyright Office will discuss what writers should know about copyright. We will cover information for writers of various literary works—from novels and blogs to poetry, cookbooks, textbooks, and more. The session will also review suitable application options and how our Public Information Office can help you along the way. 

Attendees will also learn copyright basics, answers to commonly asked questions, and where to find Copyright Office educational resources.

Speakers:

• Jessica Chinnadurai, Attorney-Advisor, Office of Public Information and Education
• Laura Kaiser, Attorney-Advisor, Office of Public Information and Education

Prior Copyright Essentials webinars can be viewed on our website:

• Copyright Essentials: Myths Explained
• Copyright Essentials: Myths Explained September 2024 Update
• Creativity in Focus: Copyright Essentials for Visual Artists and Photographers
• Find Your Voice: Copyright Essentials for Musicians

The Copyright Office strategic goal of Copyright for All means making the copyright system as understandable and accessible to as many members of the public as possible, through initiatives including education and outreach. Sign up to stay updated about future webinars in this series."

Welcome to Your Job Interview. Your Interviewer Is A.I.; The New York Times, July 7, 2025

 Natallie Rocha , The New York Times; Welcome to Your Job Interview. Your Interviewer Is A.I.

"Job seekers across the country are starting to encounter faceless voices and avatars backed by A.I. in their interviews. These autonomous interviewers are part of a wave of artificial intelligence known as “agentic A.I.,” where A.I. agents are directed to act on their own to generate real-time conversations and build on responses."

The Trump administration pushed out a university president – its latest bid to close the American mind; The Guardian, July 7, 2025

 Robert Reich, The Guardian ; The Trump administration pushed out a university president – its latest bid to close the American mind

"Let’s be clear: DEI, antisemitism and transgender athletes are not the real reasons for these attacks on higher education. They’re excuses to give the Trump regime power over America’s colleges and universities.

Why do Trump and his lackeys want this power?

They’re following Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s playbook for creating an “illiberal democracy” – an authoritarian state masquerading as a democracy. The playbook goes like this:

First, take over military and intelligence operations by purging career officers and substituting ones personally loyal to you. Check.

Next, intimidate legislators by warning that if they don’t bend to your wishes, you’ll run loyalists against them. (Make sure they also worry about what your violent supporters could do to them and their families.) Check.

Next, subdue the courts by ignoring or threatening to ignore court rulings you disagree with. Check in process.

Then focus on independent sources of information. Sue media that publish critical stories and block their access to news conferences and interviews. Check.

Then go after the universities."

Ousted US copyright chief argues Trump did not have power to remove her; The Register, July 4, 2025

  Lindsay Clark, The Register; Ousted US copyright chief argues Trump did not have power to remove her

"The White House said the power to remove is aligned with the power to appoint. If there is no Librarian of Congress and the president cannot designate an acting librarian, the president's removal authority extends to inferior officers like the register of copyrights, it argued.

Perlmutter was expunged from office a few days after Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden was also shown the door. Hayden was later replaced by deputy attorney general Todd Blanche and Perlmutter by deputy attorney general Paul Perkins.

In the latest filing this week, Perlmutter's legal team said the administration's claim that it had the power to remove her from an office appointed by the Library of Congress employed a "novel constitutional theory" and "sweeping assertions of power."

The Copyright Office is housed in the Library of Congress, and the librarian oversees the Copyright Office head directly, Perlmutter said. Her filing argued that "neither the law nor common sense requires" that the court should "should stand idly by and do nothing while [the Trump administration] wields unprecedented, and unlawful, authority.""

Cloudflare Sidesteps Copyright Issues, Blocking AI Scrapers By Default; Forbes, July 2, 2025

 Emma Woollacott , Forbes; Cloudflare Sidesteps Copyright Issues, Blocking AI Scrapers By Default

"IT service management company Cloudflare is striking back on behalf of content creators, blocking AI scrapers by default.

Web scrapers are bots that crawl the internet, collecting and cataloguing content of all types, and are used by AI firms to collect material that can be used to train their models.

Now, though, Cloudflare is allowing website owners to choose if they want AI crawlers to access their content, and decide how the AI companies can use it. They can opt to allow crawlers for certain purposes—search, for example—but block others. AI companies will have to obtain explicit permission from a website before scraping."

2012 Video of Bill Moyers on the Freedom to Read and the "Bane of Banning Books"; Ethics, Info, Tech: Contested Voices, Values, Spaces, July 3, 2025

Kip Currier; 2012 Video of Bill Moyers on the Freedom to Read and the "Bane of Banning Books"

Nobody writes more illuminating "I-didn't-know-THAT-about-that-person" obituaries than the New York Times. (I didn't know, for example, that Moyers was an ordained Baptist minister.) And, true to form, the Times has an excellent obituary detailing the service-focused life of Bill Moyers, who passed away on June 26, 2025 at the age of 91. 

The moment I learned of his death, my mind went to a 3-minute video clip of Moyers that I've continued to use in a graduate ethics course lecture I give on Intellectual Freedom and Censorship. The clip is from 2012 but the vital importance of libraries and the freedom to read that Moyers extolls is as timely and essential as ever, given the explosion of book bans and censorship besetting the U.S. right now.

Below is a description of the video clip and this is the video link:

"The Bane of Banned Books

September 25, 2012

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the American Library Association’s “Banned Books Week,” Bill talks about the impact libraries have had on his youth, his dismay over book challenges in modern times, and why censorship is the biggest enemy of truth."

https://billmoyers.com/content/the-bane-of-banned-books/

Bill Moyers, a Face of Public TV and Once a White House Voice, Dies at 91; The New York Times, June 26, 2025

 Janny Scott, The New York Times; Bill Moyers, a Face of Public TV and Once a White House Voice, Dies at 91

"In an age of broadcast blowhards, the soft-spoken Mr. Moyers applied his earnest, deferential style to interviews with poets, philosophers and educators, often on the subject of values and ideas. His 1988 PBS series, “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth,” drew 30 million viewers, posthumously turned Mr. Campbell — at the time a little-known mythologist — into a public broadcasting star, and popularized the Campbell dictum “Follow your bliss.” 

A Sense of Moral Urgency’

To admirers, many of them liberals, Mr. Moyers was the nation’s conscience, bringing to his work what one television critic called “a sense of moral urgency and decency.” Others, mostly conservatives, found him sanctimonious and accused him of bias. In a 2004 retrospective, the conservative website FrontPageMag.com called him a “sweater-wearing pundit who delivered socialist and neo-Marxist propaganda with a soft Texas accent.”...

PBS to CBS and Back

Mr. Moyers turned down offers to edit newspapers, run colleges and co-host the “Today” show on NBC. (“I just didn’t like the idea of selling dog food in a world where so many people were eating it,” he told People magazine.) Instead, he began producing a weekly public affairs program on PBS, devoting entire shows to topics like the Watergate scandal and public education. John J. O’Connor of The Times called his show, “Bill Moyers Journal,” “one of the most outstanding series on television.”

Ohio libraries celebrate veto of budget measure censoring materials; Ohio Capital Journal, July 1, 2025

 SUSAN TEBBEN , Ohio Capital Journal; Ohio libraries celebrate veto of budget measure censoring materials

"The General Assembly still has the chance to override the veto with a three-fifths vote, but it would do so after libraries and advocates across the state stood staunchly against the measure.

The Columbus Metropolitan Library posted a statement to their social media applauding DeWine’s veto, calling it “a significant win for intellectual freedom and the right of every Ohioan to freely access information at their library.”

Jade Braden, a circulation assistant for Worthington Libraries, said the veto “helps ensure that library professionals, not statehouse politicians, continue to make choices about how we serve our entire community, what materials we provide and how we display those materials in our libraries.”

“Protecting intellectual freedom is an ongoing battle in which we will always need to be vigilant,” Braden told the OCJ. “The fight for our community and their right to read is one we continually dedicate ourselves to.”"

ESSAY: Billionaire do-gooding is out. Naked oligarchy is in; The Ink, July 2, 2025

 ANAND GIRIDHARADAS, The Ink; ESSAY: Billionaire do-gooding is out. Naked oligarchy is in

 "No one was ever going to announce that the era of performative elite do-gooding had ceded to the era of naked oligarchy. But this week three events made that eclipse clear.

The first was the multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos’s wedding, in Venice, to Lauren Sánchez, who would surely float if she fell into a canal. As celebrities poured into a city already strained by tourism, and the happy couple was photographed frolicking in a literal foam party aboard a yacht, there was an almost refreshing, well, nakedness to the avarice, to the carelessness, to the not-giving of civic fucks. There was a reminder of the omnipotence and the utter loneliness at the commanding heights: you can get anyone you want to your wedding, and the people you want are the people you’d invite if you told your assistant to run to the dentist’s office, pick up People magazine, write down names in it, and invite them. These are people who have everything, and who don’t have the thing everybody else does.

The second was the inevitable announcement by multi-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s charitable foundation, run with his wife, Priscilla Chan, that it is no longer focused on ending all the diseases, as it once promised. Rather, in the Trump era, it is focused on things that would not be any trouble to Trump. “Can we cure all diseases in our children’s lifetime?” read a screen behind the couple at a rehearsal in 2016. The answer turns out to be: No. The Washington Post, owned by the oligarch in the above item, nonetheless rightly warned, in the Zuckerberg-Chan case, of “the risks for communities reliant on wealthy private donors.”

The third event was the passage today of Donald Trump’s and the Republicans’ budget, a document of searing meanness that former Labor Secretary Robert Reich calls the “Worst Bill in History” — a “giant budget-busting, Medicaid-shattering, shafting-the-poor-and-working-class, making-the-rich-even richer bill.” Like the Bezos wedding and the Zuckerberg-Chan pivot, the bill had one refreshing quality, though. It made zero effort to mask its ugliness. It said the cruel part out loud.

There is a nakedness to our oligarchy now, and it is pruny as hell. But at least there is this: As far as I can tell, the era of highly performative elite do-gooding is passing."

Trial Court Decides Case Based On AI-Hallucinated Caselaw; Above The Law, July 1, 2025

 Joe Patrice, Above The Law; Trial Court Decides Case Based On AI-Hallucinated Caselaw

"Between opposing counsel and diligent judges, fake cases keep getting caught before they result in real mischief. That said, it was always only a matter of time before a poor litigant representing themselves fails to know enough to sniff out and flag Beavis v. Butthead and a busy or apathetic judge rubberstamps one side’s proposed order without probing the cites for verification. Hallucinations are all fun and games until they work their way into the orders.

It finally happened with a trial judge issuing an order based off fake cases (flagged by Rob Freund(Opens in a new window)). While the appellate court put a stop to the matter, the fact that it got this far should terrify everyone.

Shahid v. Esaam(Opens in a new window), out of the Georgia Court of Appeals, involved a final judgment and decree of divorce served by publication. When the wife objected to the judgment based on improper service, the husband’s brief included two fake cases. The trial judge accepted the husband’s argument, issuing an order based in part on the fake cases."

Inside the battle for control of the Library of Congress; Federal News Network, July 1, 2025

 Terry Gerton , Federal News Network; Inside the battle for control of the Library of Congress

"Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Kevin Kosar. He’s a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. So those are interesting theories. And as you mentioned though, the library is a research library, not a lending library. So AI is not going to train itself on printed books. It needs electronic information. What is the impact on the day-to-day operations of the library and the copyright office?

Kevin Kosar Well, right now, certainly, it’s a little anxiety-provoking for people at the Library of Congress, this kind of peculiar state of, are we suddenly going to find ourselves answering to a new boss in the form of the president? They are more than aware of what’s happened at other executive agencies where the president has sent in people from the Department of Government Efficiency and started turning off people’s computers and telling them not to come into work and canceling contracts and doing any number of other things that are, you know, hugely disruptive to workers’ day-to-day life. So there’s that anxiety there. And if this move by the Trump administration plays out, it’s really hard to see what could ultimately occur. One thing that that’s clear to me is that if you have presidential control of the Library of Congress, then the Congressional Research Service is doomed. For those listeners out there who are not familiar with the Congressional Research Service, this is Congress’ think tank. This is about 600 individual civil servants whose job is to provide nonpartisan research, analysis and facts to legislators and their staff to help them better do their jobs. And if you have a president who takes over the library, that president can point the head of the Congressional Research Service and turn it into basically a presidential tool, which would make it useless.

Terry Gerton And the administration has sort of already said that it puts no stock in CRS’s products."

KY library book challenges rose 1,000% in 2024. That’s not a typo. What happened?; Lexington Herald Leader, June 30, 2025

 John Cheves , Lexington Herald Leader; KY library book challenges rose 1,000% in 2024. That’s not a typo. What happened?

"Challenges to Kentucky public library books soared by 1,061% last year, rising from 26 incidents in 2023 to 302 incidents in 2024, according to a recently released state report. That eye-popping number is buried in small type at the bottom of page six of the annual Statistical Report of Kentucky Public Libraries, published in April by the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives."

Seattle libraries offer Narcan, fentanyl test strips to combat overdose epidemic; KOMO News, July 1, 2025

 Joel Moreno, KOMO News; Seattle libraries offer Narcan, fentanyl test strips to combat overdose epidemic

"Although library staff have had access to naloxone for emergency use since September 2022, they began providing naloxone and fentanyl test strips for patrons to access themselves in April 2025.

“I feel like the library is doing a good job of providing those resources, but I have personally not seen them, so I'm glad to hear that,” said Sarah Kilpatrick, who was checking out materials at the central branch.

The library's supply of Narcan is available on a self-serve basis. Patrons can simply stop by a library location and pick it up without the need to provide ID, proof of insurance, or a library card to receive the medications.

“I support the decision," said the man who asked not to be identified. "Although they definitely should, and I believe are required to, take a little information from the person they are giving it to, because it is a very expensive product."

Others thought the library was possibly going too far with the program and potentially enabling people’s addictions.

“Educating people, that's OK, but I don't think supplying is a good way,” said NK Das, who questioned giving away free supplies of overdose reversal medication. “The library can educate people about drug use or the misuse of drugs, but I don't think that's the right way of doing things."

Meanwhile, others thought the program should be expanded."

AI is now screening job candidates before humans ever see them; The Washington Post, July 1, 2025

 Danielle Abril, The Washington Post; AI is now screening job candidates before humans ever see them

"Increasingly, job candidates are running into virtual recruiters for screenings. The conversational agents, built on large language models, help recruiting firms and hiring companies respond to every applicant, conduct interviews around-the-clock and find the best candidate in increasingly large talent pools. People who have experienced AI interviews have mixed reviews: surprisingly good or cold and confusing...

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), a growing number of organizations use AI for recruiting to automate candidate searches and communicate with applicants during the interview process. Job applicants also are increasingly turning to AI to quickly tailor their résumés and cover letters, and to apply instantly. LinkedIn said applications for job openings have jumped 30 percent in the past two years, partially because of AI, with some jobs receiving hundreds of applications within a couple of hours."

Senate megabill marks biggest Medicaid cuts in history; The Hill, July 1, 2025

 NATHANIEL WEIXEL  , The Hill; Senate megabill marks biggest Medicaid cuts in history 

"Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed the largest cuts to Medicaid since the program began in the 1960s, a move that would erode the social safety net and cause a spike in the number of uninsured Americans over the next decade. 

The tax and spending bill is projected to cost more than $3 trillion during that time, but it would be partially paid for with about $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid."

Murkowski Casts Decisive Vote for G.O.P. Policy Bill, Making an ‘Agonizing’ Choice; The New York Times, July 1, 2025

 Annie Karni , The New York Times; Murkowski Casts Decisive Vote for G.O.P. Policy Bill, Making an ‘Agonizing’ Choice

"Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, on Tuesday cast the deciding vote for President Trump’s sprawling bill to slash taxes and social safety net programs, embracing a measure she acknowledged would harm Americans after securing carve outs to protect her constituents from its harshest impacts."