| Stable fertility rates 1990-2019 mask distinct variations by age. Learn more in this America Counts story. |
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Thursday, April 7, 2022
Fertility Rates: Declined for Younger Women, Increased for Older Women (US Census data)
Friday, December 24, 2021
News Literacy Project --> a concise one-pager to better understand and avoid misinformation
"New from @NewsLitProject -- a concise one-pager with key insights, takeaways and reminders to help you and your loved ones better understand and avoid misinformation:
More about misinformation -> https://t.co/8UTBmli8NO
One pager -> https://t.co/3FyPn4Wg4a"
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| News Literacy Project --> a concise one-pager to better understand and avoid misinformation |
Wednesday, December 1, 2021
"Whoever controls big data technologies will control the resources for development"
"President Biden came away from his summit with China’s President Xi Jinping on Nov. 15 committed to prosecuting what he called “simple, straightforward competition” with China. Yet Beijing is already beating the United States and its allies in one crucial domain: data.Data is the oil of the 21st century, the indispensable resource that will fuel artificial-intelligence algorithms, economic strength and national power. The wellspring of this data is all of us: our health records and genetic sequences, our online habits, the supply chain flows of our businesses, the terabytes of imagery guzzled by phones, drones and autonomous cars.The competition for global influence in the 21st century will require protecting and harnessing this data to achieve commercial, technological and military advantages. So far, China is winning, and the West is barely even engaged."
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| Illustration by Alvaro Dominguez; Photographs by Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis, MEHAU KULYK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, and Peter Dazeley via Getty Images |
Sunday, October 24, 2021
MA city/town COVID-19 daily new cases
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| MA city/town COVID-19 daily new cases |
Monday, October 4, 2021
60 Minutes "a betrayal of democracy" leads to decision that Franklin Matters Facebook page to go away Dec 1, 2021
"The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world," says former Facebook employee France Haugen. She points to Myanmar, where the military used Facebook to launch a genocide.
“The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world,” says former Facebook employee France Haugen. She points to Myanmar, where the military used Facebook to launch a genocide. https://t.co/WU4IumjHkO pic.twitter.com/cy9Ed9MgbH
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 3, 2021
Note: this is a continuation of the revelations about Facebook since the Cambridge Analytica scandal. in 2018 I attempted to remove Franklin Matters updates from Facebook at that time and the readers, followers on Facebook created an uproar so I stayed reluctantly.
As a data security and privacy professional I can no longer condone the Facebook business model. Effective Dec 1, 2021 the Franklin Matters Facebook page will go away. You are given notice to find one of the other options to obtain the valuable information shared but not longer directly by me on Facebook.
- You can subscribe via email to the daily update (an easy way) https://www.franklinmatters.org/p/welcome.html
- You can subscribe via RSS and get everything as it posts (actually the best way) The 7 best RSS Readers for 2021 (I personally use Feedly) https://bloggingwizard.com/free-rss-feed-readers/
- You can follow Franklin Matters on Twitter https://twitter.com/FranklinMatters
Someone can also set up a way to take what I share and share it themselves to Facebook. I have no way to stop that. Folks occasionally do so on their own today.
- Franklin Matters attempt to shut down in 2018 was announced with this post -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2018/04/fixing-companys-problems-will-take-years.html
- Data leak reported in April 2021 (actually occurred during 2019) -> https://blog.mozilla.org/en/privacy-security/facebook-data-leak-explained/
- Data leak in 2017 -> https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/28/everything-you-need-to-know-about-facebooks-data-breach-affecting-50m-users/
- Cambridge Analytica aftermath -> https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/25/cambridge-analyticas-former-boss-gets-7-year-ban-on-being-a-business-director/
Sunday, September 19, 2021
CHIA Report: "‘Frequent flyers’ account for 9.4% of ER visits"
"As state policymakers seek ways to slow the growth in health care costs and improve access to care, a new report by the Center for Health Information and Analysis on emergency department usage highlights some areas policymakers may want to look at.
The report, released Thursday, is the health policy agency’s first statewide report on how emergency rooms are being used. It analyzes data from 2016 through 2019, before the COVID pandemic. CHIA executive director Ray Campbell said it is meant to provide a baseline for government, health care providers, researchers, and insurers to better understand how the emergency room is being used. "
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/the-download/frequent-flyers-account-for-9-4-of-er-visits-2/
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| CHIA Report: "‘Frequent flyers’ account for 9.4% of ER visits" |
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Redistricting Data: What to Expect and When?
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Tuesday, January 26, 2021
CommonWealth Magazine: "State slow to improve criminal justice data collection"
"A WELL-KNOWN management maxim warns, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. By that reckoning, those trying to better the state’s criminal justice system are often flying blind.
How long, for example, does the average probationer in Massachusetts stay on probation? Or how many people last year had their probation revoked?
State Probation Commissioner Edward Dolan has no idea. While each probationer has their own physical case file, the Massachusetts Probation Department has no computer-based case management system that would let state officials or researchers track information on an aggregate basis.
“A lot of things we do, we do manually,” Dolan said."
Monday, January 25, 2021
New DLS Data Visualization Tool Now Available: Municipal Finance Snapshot
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| Municipal Finance Snapshot - Town of Franklin Info |
Saturday, November 28, 2020
"Number of high-risk communities rises to 81"
From CommonWealth Magazine we share an article of interest for Franklin:
"THE NUMBER of communities considered high-risk for COVID-19 rose from 62 to 81 on Friday, as cases statewide continued to grow rapidly while deaths from the coronavirus grew more slowly.
The numbers followed what has become a predictable pattern during the second surge. Four weeks ago the Baker administration revised the metrics it uses to determine a high-risk, or red, community, causing the number to fall from 121 to 16. But since then the number of red communities has grown rapidly week by week, rising from 16 to 31 to 62 to 81.
Between November 8 and November 21, there were 36,194 new cases of COVID-19. More than half – 55 percent – of those infected were less than 39 years old, while those 70-plus accounted for just 7.6 percent of the cases. Deaths followed the opposite pattern: 83 percent of deaths were among those 70 or older and only 1.4 percent were 39 or less.
Deaths have been growing far more moderately than infections during this second surge. From November 8 to November 21, there were 357 deaths, up from 319 between November 1 and November 14. The deaths in the previous two-week intervals totaled 280 and 241. The Baker administration’s dashboard for Friday, which covered Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning, reported 4,464 new cases and 29 deaths."
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| Franklin Community data as of 11/25/20 |
Friday, August 14, 2020
"Data indicate spread of COVID-19 accelerating" in MA
From CommonWealth Magazine we share an article of interest for Franklin:
"THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 in Massachusetts appears to be accelerating, with the number of communities considered moderate or high-risk jumping by 40 percent and the state as a whole moving into the moderate risk category.
Gov. Charlie Baker released a breakdown by municipality on Tuesday that indicated four of the state’s 351 cities and towns were high risk and 29 were moderate risk. That information was based on the two-week period ending August 5.
On Wednesday evening, the Department of Public Health issued new municipal data based on the two-week period ending August 8. That new breakdown indicates the number of communities at high-risk had jumped from 4 to 11 and the number of communities considered moderate risk increased from 29 to 35. The state as a whole jumped from low risk to moderate risk.
The rankings are important as a barometer for COVID-19 in Massachusetts, but they have also taken on additional importance this week because the Baker administration is urging communities in the low-risk categories to send their children to school for in-person learning this fall. Communities are trying to decide between in-person and remote learning, or some hybrid combination of the two, by this Friday. The fast-changing information is making those decisions even more difficult."
Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required) https://commonwealthmagazine.org/health/data-indicate-spread-of-covid-19-accelerating/?
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| "Data indicate spread of COVID-19 accelerating" in MA |
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Chief Lynch's response to inquires about the 8cantwait.org campaign.
Massachusetts law enforcement agencies have long been in front of the curve when it comes to the advancement of police procedures designed to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens we protect.
In particular, our Massachusetts Police Officers have thoroughly embraced the six pillars of the principles embodied in the final report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, and remain committed to professional conduct, democratic policing and procedural justice for all people.
In response to the Final Report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing (https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf), the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association (MCOPA) and the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs (https://www.franklinma.gov/police-department/files/massachusetts-chiefs-police-response-final-report-presidents-task-force-21st) drafted a response in September of 2015, addressing each of the pillars therein.
With respect to the 8 policies that departments should adopt, below is how each is addressed in Massachusetts and here at the Franklin Police Department:
- Ban chokeholds & strangleholds - These techniques are not part of the defensive tactics curriculum as instructed by the MPTC.
- Require de-escalation - Officers are required to learn de-escalation during the MPTC recruit academy training program, and further, are required to undergo additional de-escalation training during the annual in-service training programs as required by the MPTC.
- Require warning before shooting - Consistent with the standards set forth in Graham v. Connor and Tennessee v. Garner, officers may only use that level of force that is objectively reasonable based upon the totality of circumstances. Officers will always attempt to use the lowest level of force in order to effectuate the lawful objective and will attempt to warn individuals prior to using any level of force, provided that they have the time and opportunity to do so. There may be, however, some very limited instances, where it is impossible for officers to provide a warning prior to using force, such as when doing so is necessary in order to preserve human life.
- Requires exhaust all alternatives before shooting - Same as above.
- Duty to intervene - All officers are trained and required to intervene when they recognize that any other officer or supervisor, of any rank, is acting contrary to the law or policy. The MCOPA has recommended departments consider including the following language in their Use of Force policy and the Franklin Police Department is considering making this change: All officers of the Police Department should be aware of their personal responsibility during a use of force encounter. Officers shall have an affirmative duty to intervene should they observe a situation in which they perceive more than the necessary use of force is being deployed by a fellow officer.
- Ban shooting at moving vehicles - Officers are not permitted to shoot at a moving vehicle, except in the very limited circumstance where, consistent with the standard set forth in Graham v. Connor and Tennessee v. Garner, doing so is required to defend themselves or another when the occupants of the vehicle are employing deadly force, which the officer reasonably perceives as an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury to themselves or another (including situations where the vehicle itself is being used as a deadly weapon and the officer is unable to escape the path of travel), and the officer reasonably believes that they will not endanger innocent persons. It is imperative that officers not position themselves in such a way as to create a likelihood of being struck by an occupied vehicle.
- Require use of force continuum - Officers are all trained to use only that level of force objectively reasonable based upon the totality of the circumstances.
- Require comprehensive reporting - Offices are required to complete a use of force report for each instance where force is used.
For further information pertaining to this subject, please see The Franklin Police Department Use of Force Policy, Use of Force Data and the presentation by Chief Lynch to the Franklin Town Council on June 3, 2020, all located on the departments website at: https://www.franklinma.gov/police-department/pages/use-force-data
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| Chief Lynch's response to inquires about the 8cantwait.org campaign |
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
COVID-19 data visualizations
Data visualizations for COVID-19
https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/covid-19-coronavirus-infographic-datapack/
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| Data visualizations for COVID-19 |
John Hopkins Interactive map (selected for MA and Norfolk County)
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map
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| John Hopkins Interactive map (selected for MA and Norfolk County) |
Monday, January 27, 2020
FTC Data Shows that the FTC Received Nearly 1.7 Million Fraud Reports, and FTC Lawsuits Returned $232 Million to Consumers in 2019
New data released by the Federal Trade Commission shows that FTC actions led to more than $232 million in refunds to consumers across the country in 2019.
A core part of the FTC's mission is to return money to consumers who are harmed by illegal business practices. Over the last four years, consumers have cashed more than $1 billion in FTC refund checks.
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| Refunds to Consumers |
The most common type of fraud reported to the FTC in 2019 was imposter scams; government imposter scams, in particular, were the most frequently reported, and up more than 50 percent since 2018. Of all reports received, the top categories were identity theft, imposter scams, telephone and mobile services, online shopping, and credit bureaus.
Refunds to Consumers
Consumer Sentinel Infographic: there were 3.2 million reports in 2019 in which consumers reported losing more than $1.9 billion to fraud.The FTC Act allows the FTC to seek refunds from companies whose actions harm consumers.
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| Consumer Sentinel Network |
For the first time, data about the FTC's refund program will be available online in an interactive dashboard, including state-by-state and case-by-case breakdowns of the amount refunded to consumers. The dashboard is available at ftc.gov/exploredata.
The FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network is a database that receives reports directly from consumers, as well as from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and a number of private partners. The network received 3.2 million reports in 2019, including nearly 1.7 million fraud reports as well as identity theft and other reports.
Consumers reported losing more than $1.9 billion to fraud in 2019, with nearly $667 million lost to imposter scams alone. While scammers target consumers using every possible method of communication, phone calls were the most common. A small percentage of consumers who reported they encountered a fraud over the phone said they actually lost money. When they did, the median individual loss was more than $1,000.
The FTC uses the reports it receives through the Sentinel network as the starting point for most of its law enforcement investigations, and the agency also shares these reports with more than 2,500 law enforcement users around the country. While the FTC does not respond to individual complaints, Sentinel reports are a vital part of the agency's law enforcement mission.
Refunds to Consumers
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/data-refunds-consumers
FTC Data to Explore
https://www.ftc.gov/reports/consumer-sentinel-network-data-book-2019
Friday, January 24, 2020
FTC Consumer Alerts: The top frauds of 2019
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https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/data-visualizations/explore-data
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| Explore the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network data |
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Is My 2020 Census Data Safe?
| It is our legal duty to protect your information. Learn more from our new Public Service Announcements. |
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