Reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts: Procedural and Operational Changes

[Excerpt] The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 was the product of sweeping congressional investigation and deliberation prompted by perceived electronic surveillance abuses by the executive branch. Among other things, FISA established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to review government applications to conduct electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISA Court of Review) to review the decisions of the FISC. In the wake of revelations in June 2013 concerning the scope of orders issued by the FISC, many have questioned the efficacy of the current mechanisms for reviewing the executive branch’s intelligence gathering practices. While some have proposed altering the underlying substantive law that regulates such surveillance, other proposals address the practice and procedures of authorizing such surveillance activities. This report begins with an overview of both the FISC and the FISA Court of Review, including the jurisdiction of these courts, how the judges are appointed, and the FISC’s practices and procedures for reviewing and issuing surveillance orders. The report then discusses the scope and underlying legal principles behind congressional regulation of the procedures of the federal courts, and applies those principles with respect to the various proposals to reform the FISA judicial review process. These reforms include requiring the FISC to hear arguments from “friends of the court” or amici curiae, who would brief the court on the privacy or civil liberty interests implicated by a government application; mandating that in certain instances the FISC sit en banc—that is, with all 11 FISC judges; and altering the voting rules of the FISC and FISA Court of Review

Overview of Constitutional Challenges to NSA Collection Activities and Recent Developments

[Excerpt] Beginning in the summer of 2013, media reports of foreign intelligence activities conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) have been published and are apparently based on unauthorized disclosures of classified information by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor. The reports have focused on two main NSA collection activities conducted under the auspices of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978. The first is the bulk collection of telephony metadata for domestic and international telephone calls. The second involves the interception of Internet-based communications and is targeted at foreigners who are not within the United States, but may also inadvertently acquire the communications of U.S. persons. As the public’s awareness of these programs has grown, Members of Congress and the public have increasingly voiced concerns about the constitutionality of these programs. This report provides a description of these two programs and the various constitutional challenges that have arisen in judicial forums with respect to each. Although a brief overview of the constitutional arguments and issues raised in the assorted cases is included, a detailed analysis or evaluation of those arguments is beyond the scope of this report

TOWARD A CONTINGENCY THEORY OF STAKEHOLDER RELEVANCE AND THE STAKEHOLDER MAPPING PROCESS

Stakeholder Theory has been defined as an “additive model”, in which all powerful, urgent and legitimate individuals and groups must be treated as important entities to engage with when evaluating important decisions for the organization. This thesis contends that stakeholder definition and the appropriate selection of important stakeholders depends, at least in part, on environmental influences. Thus, a “one definition for all environments” paradigm may lead to stakeholder mismanagement.This thesis illustrates this point with several typical examples, and proposes an alternative “subtractive model” in which situations – industry conditions as identified by a number of different authors – may compel an organization’s leaders to prioritize those stakeholders who are less than “definitive” by the classical additive model. Thus, this thesis contends that a gap exists between existing organizational theory and stakeholder management literature with regard to environmental influence and proposes an alternative stakeholder mapping process derived from the extant literature

Self preservation comes at a cost: Why British National Health Service Paramedics might be choosing a healthier but poorer retirement

Objectives: To explore and portray the perspectives of National Health Service Ambulance personnel related to the latest rise in the National Health Service occupational pension age.Methods: Data gathering took the form of 35 in-depth interviews. A thematic analysis was used to characterise and articulate key concepts and meanings. The analysis applied interpretive techniques, as views expressed were from personal experiences, and allowed for an in-depth analysis of shared meanings.Results: The themes reported captured the desire of many Ambulance personnel to exit their employment well in advance of their retirement age, despite satisfaction gained from patient care. This early exit is being driven by increased worry that the work demands of the job are unsustainable, especially for older workers, as clinical responsibilities increase and theirsocial support diminishes. Also, Ambulance personnel feel betrayed by their employers, because their retirement is being delayed further by another change in their pensionable age.Conclusion: There is an increased orientation for ‘living for today’ and indications of a willingness to sacrifice salary and pension income in order to protect their health in older age, which has implications for long-term financial and general wellbeing in retirement

Is there a north-south divide in self-employment in England?

Using decomposition analysis, the paper investigates why Northern England has fewer but higher performing self-employed individuals than the South. We find the causes are mainly structural differences rather than regional variation in individual characteristics. There are more self employed individuals in the South, but on average they create fewer jobs. Post compulsory education has a strong negative effect on the probability of self employment in the South, probably due to better employment opportunities there, but little influence in the North. Education has greater positive effects on job creation by entrepreneurs in the North again appears due to regional structural differences

One-way pendulum?:Staff retention in the NHS: determining the relative salience of recognised drivers of early exit

Purpose: Staff shortage in the UK National Health Service has a long history, but is widely predicted to become acute over the next decade. Falling enrolment rates in health professional training and restrictions to migrant labour recruitment have brought the, traditionally neglected, issue of staff retention into sharp relief. The purpose of this paper is to represent the first large scale systematic appraisal of the relative salience of recognised headline drivers of employee exodus from the NHS. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from an opportunity sample of 1,594 health professionals, managers and administrators employed by the NHS. Participants completed a paired ranking task (Case V method of paired comparisons, Thurston, 1927) to determine the relative importance of eight widely cited reasons for exit. The item set was derived from focus groups conducted as a component of the wider study. Findings: Findings revealed almost universal consensus regarding the primacy of shortage of resources, job demands and time pressure. Pay was ranked lower than predicted. Flexible working arrangements do not presented as a key solution, and there is no support for claims of generational differences. Research limitations/implications: Survivor population effects could constitute a source of sample bias, i.e. all participants were current NHS employees. It is possible that those who remain may be more resilient or hold different dispositions to leavers. Thus, comparisons by age and grade may not be comparing like with like. Tapping respondent beliefs about the actions of peers can embody some degree of inaccuracy and attribution bias. However, effects can be considered to operate as a source of common, rather than systematic, error across the demographics compared. The medical and dental sample was too small to give confidence in detected differences. Practical implications: Findings challenge the claim that wider availability of flexible working hours will significantly reduce exit rates. Pay, being a source of dissatisfaction, does not constitute a key push variable in itself, rather its salience reflects the effort reward-imbalance produced by rises in job demands. Social implications: Staff shortages in the NHS represent a threat to: public well-being – waiting lists and demand for care; the well-being of who continue to work in the NHS – job demands and resources; the employment prospects of staff who leave involuntarily, e.g. on grounds of incapacity and threats to health and well-being – extending to impacts on their dependents. Originality/value: Issues of staff retention within the NHS are topical and under researched. The findings provide an up to date picture of the relative influence of headline drivers of early exit from the NHS. The study draws upon a more diverse and comprehensive sample of NHS employees that any other known previous studies of early exit. Findings are of potential international relevance to other State health systems. The authors believe this to be the largest (sample) known application of the method of paired comparisons.</p

Towards a successful software metrics programme

Based on the authors’ 43 years of combined experience in industry, this paper describes a number of ways to ensure a metrics programme is considered successful. Experiences of a number of industries provide lessons on the planning of a metrics programme, the motivation of employees collecting the metrics, embedding metrics collection into everyday processes, presenting the metrics in financial terms and using metrics that already exist. It is acknowledged that metrics collected in industry can prove very little, but they are useful if used with other data or as a pointer for further investigations. The lessons learned from these experiences form guidelines which, if followed, should give valuable assistance in achieving a successful software metrics programme

Greenmission: An off-grid energy system

In alignment with Santa Clara University\u27s sustainability ideology, the outdoor science school WaldenWest desired to further its students\u27 education through a greenhouse with working electricity. Following greenhouse purchase and assembly, underground wiring for AC, DC and Ethernet lines were sized and installed. A substation was then designed and built in a designated shed, integrating wind turbines and photovoltaics rom past capstone projects. New charge controllers, batteries and circuit breakers were urchased and configured for the system. Worst-case electrical load and solar shading analyses also revealed that these older energy sources were collectively inadequate, so a secondary solar array was designed and flush-mounted to the shed roof; the system falls lightly short of desired year-round performance, but is otherwise a drastic improvement. Electrical measurements show that power is received at the greenhouse with a less than 3% voltage drop, meeting national Electric Code standards. To maintain the greenhouse environment, substation loads are specifically selected to allow for temperature control. These are driven by the Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which never leaves the greenhouse; an enclosed Raspberry Pi automates load operation through SainSmart relays and simple comparative logic. To account for both varying seasonal weather conditions and client accessibility, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is programmed to allow adjustment of all relevant control parameters via Wi-Fi in real-time. A battery monitor from a past capstone project is also reconfigured to run on Linux to estimate remaining stored energy. Project analyses include ethical, aesthetics, commercial benefit and basic photovoltaic rate-of-return analyses. Hypothetical scenarios are frequently presented to investigate the potential consequences of client and residentially-replicated usage of the entire system. It is also estimated that the combined photovoltaics will result in a lifetime net zero energy in 4.3 years of continuous expected use. Future project work involves tasks that could not be accomplished within the project time frame and budget. Among these include a larger solar array; the 24VDC integration of the horizontal wind turbine; rigorous seasonally-based testing of temperature controlling mechanisms for better parameter adjustments; and finally, the propagation of electrical power beyond the immediate premises and into the entire Walden West garden. Based on client needs, inspiration for future project work will likely draw from the tremendous success of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin non-profit organization, Growing Power