• The U.S. as an Authoritarian State: Danger to the Global Rule of Law – Donald J. Trump’s second term as President of the United States has stunned the world. As Catherine Morris documents, commentators increasingly say the U.S. has now crossed the Rubicon into authoritarian territory. Morris addresses the impact on the legal system, legal education and lawyers, in the United States and in Canada.
• AI In High-Stakes Litigation: The Critical Role of Experienced Attorneys – Skepticism about AI is not only justified—it’s evidence of good judgment. There are indeed pitfalls to AI use. Inept use of AI won’t help you, but Jerry Lawson’s experience has been that in the hands of skilled lawyers with good judgment, AI is essential to obtaining the best results, for one simple reason: AI is only as good as the question it’s given. This is where senior lawyers excel. Knowing what issue to frame, what clause to focus on, what fact might tip the case—this is precisely what you’ve spent your career developing. Lawson contends that AI can assist, but ‘it’ still needs someone to think.
• Climate and DEI Deleted From Government Websites, Federal Workers Fired, Colleges Delete Programs, Law Firms Blackballed, Holocaust Erased, Science Research Curtailed – Sabrina I. Pacifici continues updating her chronicles of Trump’s ongoing actions to purge resources, knowledge, access to and funding for a wide ranging programs that impact: climate and the environment, science and research, grants and education, heath care, food and drug safety, education, history, as well as wide ranging attacks on Big Law firms. Highlights include: Microsoft Drops Law Firm That Made a Deal With Trump From a Case; Trump Fires Biden Appointees, Including Doug Emhoff, From Holocaust Museum; The Attack on U.S. Research Infrastructure; Elite Universities Form Private Collective to Resist Trump Administration; New database tracks canceled N.S.F. research grants; Law Firms Made Deals With Trump. Now He Wants More From Them; Race information disappeared from the federal government’s HR website; and Years of Climate Action Demolished in Days…
• AI in Finance and Banking, April 30, 2025 – This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources, and as available, indicate links to alternate free versions. Five highlights from this post: The rise of the AI investment banker; AI and Productivity in Europe; The Global Impact of AI: Mind the Gap; AI tools mostly fumble basic financial tasks, study finds; and The CFO Imperative How Finance Leaders Are Staying Ahead In A Volatile World.
• Museums have tons of data, and AI could make it more accessible − but standardizing and organizing it across fields won’t be easy – AI tools can do amazing things, such as make 3D models of digitized versions of the items in museum collections, but only if there’s enough well-organized data about that item available. To see how AI can help museum collections, Bradley Wade Bishop’s team of researchers started by conducting focus groups with the people who managed museum collections. We asked what they are doing to get their collections used by both humans and AI.
• Trump Is Creating a Deportation Army of Local Cops – Mohamed Al Elew and Wendy Fry’s reporting analyzes federal data that my be a surprise to Floridians about ICE’s 287(g) program. All Florida residents now live in a county where local police will be trained to work on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to federal data analyzed by The Markup. The training is part of a rapidly expanding federal program to deputize state and local authorities as immigration enforcers, with the number of participating agencies doubling since January, according to the data. There are now over 10 million Americans living in a county with an immigration delegation agreement, The Markup’s review shows.
• “A republic, if you can keep it” – but can the US keep it? How Trump is dismantling democracy – Christina Pagel has mapped out 69 actions that President Trump has taken in the last twelve weeks to undermine democracy, undermine the rule of law, attack enemies, suppress dissent and control information.
• Classification as Colonization: The Hidden Politics of Library Catalogs – Assistant Professor and Cataloging & Discovery Librarian at Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Mike Olson’s research focuses on the intersection of information systems and social critique. In this timely and insightful article Olson discusses why and how library catalogs have always been battlegrounds where content is not merely described but debated. President Trump’s January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14172 directing the renaming of longstanding geographical designations “Mount Denali” and “Gulf of Mexico” to the politically loaded “Mount McKinley” and “Gulf of America” reveal the naked truth of what cataloging has always been: a battlefield where meaning is contested and conquered.
• Trumpism echoes Timothy McVeigh’s right-wing extremism, 30 years after the Oklahoma bombing – On the morning of April 19, 1995, anti-government right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder truck loaded with 5,000 pounds of agricultural fertiliser and diesel fuel at the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. At 9am, McVeigh lit two separate fuses – in case one failed. Two minutes later, the bomb exploded, killing 168 people (including 19 children) and injuring close to 700. Today, the bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history. But in the cultural memory, Oklahoma was eclipsed by 9/11, when America – and the world – shifted their attention to the threat posed by radical Islamic extremism. Kate Cantrell contends that three decades on, the bombing is back on the cultural agenda, as the right-wing extremism that drove McVeigh is on the rise.
• AI in Finance and Banking, April 15, 2025 – This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources, and as available, indicate links to alternate free versions. Five highlights from this post: Tariffs, Trump and AI Are Changing Everything. Should My Portfolio Change Too? And what about my career? Or retirement plans? Three experts weigh in on how to adjust to uncertain times; In today’s hyperconnected financial landscape, identity is the new perimeter. And attackers know it; How Much Should We Spend to Reduce A.I.’s Existential Risk?; How Good is AI at Twisting Arms? Experiments in Debt Collection; Artificial Intelligence in Investment Banking Transforming Operations and Client Services; and The Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Banking.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 26, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week:  Google Confirms Gmail Upgrade – 3 Billion Users Must Now Decide; What is Signal, the app where Trump officials texted war plans?; Even More Venmo Accounts Tied to Trump Officials in Signal Group Chat Left Data Public; NIST releases finalized guidelines on protecting AI from attacks; Canada – We partner with world-renowned scambusters to create our own fraud-fighting call centre.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 19, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Text Message Scams Cost Consumers $470 Million in 2024, FTC Reports; Trump is shifting cybersecurity to the states, but many aren’t prepared; Homeland Security Email Tells a US Citizen to ‘Immediately’ Self-Deport; OpenAI Tightens Access As Evidence Mounts of AI Model Mimicry; and ICE Just Paid Palantir Tens of Millions for ‘Complete Target Analysis of Known Populations.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 12, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week:Biometrics vs. passcodes: What lawyers recommend if you’re worried about warrantless phone searches; DDoS Attacks Now Key Weapons in Geopolitical Conflicts, NETSCOUT Warns; Google Maps doubles down on preventing fake reviews; Large number of US adults view AI as a threat: Report; and Explosive Growth of Non-Human Identities Creating Massive Security Blind Spots.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 5, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: What to Know About Trump’s Order to Phase Out Paper Checks; Apple faces $5 billion class action lawsuit over eBooks purchases; Why Encryption Matters for Your Data Backups (And How to Do It Easily); Texas’ AI-Powered Surveillance Arsenal Has Ballooned. Proposed Laws Provide Few Guardrails; and How to recognize and prevent deepfake scams.

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