Governments invest billions of dollars annually in automating government financial management, customs, and tax systems respectively. But aside from a few cases that are repeatedly quoted, there is little rigorous evidence of the impact of these investments on government efficiency and accountability to deliver services, reports Zahid Hussain, Lead Economist, South Asia Finance and Poverty group, for the World Economic Forum.

“An examination of the roughly 530 e-government projects funded by the World Bank in the past twenty years, for example, reveal that almost a third are unsatisfactory, and perform worse than a typical project,” the report says.

The conclusion is that digital technologies can indeed be transformative; but only if accompanied by “analog complements,” Hussain writes.

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The colorful litigator who represented the late “D.C. madam” Deborah Palfrey and threatened this week to release call logs of his former client that he says are “very relevant” to the 2016 presidential election says those records already are digitized and posted online, reports U.S. News.

The report says Montgomery Blair Sibley threatened that the records will become public if he fails to reset a 72-hour countdown clock, which could cut short his soft two-week ultimatum for federal courts to consider lifting a 2007 gag order that covers the records, lest he deem that order void.

“The records are stored on four servers around the world, Sibley says, and dozens of reporters will receive a website link if the clock is not reset. He says he loaded the information online in January, when he decided to publicly claim the records are relevant to the presidential race,” writes Steven Nelson.

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Four of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides appear to have adopted an unusual legal strategy, hiring the same ex-Justice Department attorney to represent them in the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s private email server, reports Politico.

“The united front suggests they plan to tell investigators the same story — although legal experts say the joint strategy presents its own risks, should the interests of the four aides begin to diverge as the probe moves ahead,” writes Rachael Bade.

She explains that the aides’ decision to use a so-called “joint-representation” or “common-defense” strategy suggests the staffers believe they’re in this together and are unlikely to turn on each other.

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Photo by Michael Vadon

Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump threatened to sue for votes ahead of a potentially contested GOP nominating convention, a move that could foreshadow a new phase in the GOP’s ugly primary fight, his campaign backed down, reports Time.

A Trump senior advisor later said that Trump’s “lawsuit” was not in fact meant for a court of law, but for the Republican National Committee’s committee on contests — which under GOP rules hears complaints over the allocation and selection of delegates.

“It’s clear why. Election lawyers and party operatives said challenges to the arcane state-by-state delegate selection rules being used to outfox Trump would face an unwelcome reception in court,” the report says.

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While the feds have certainly put hurdles in place to prevent abuse, outsourcing IT in a highly regulated industry like banking may very well lead to higher standards and quality outcomes, writes Bruce Harpham for CIO.

“Banking has changed since the global financial crisis in 2008. The steady increase in regulations from Washington, the states and international organizations are now impacting IT leaders,” he writes in the article. “As regulators examine vendor relationships and outsourcing arrangements more closely, there is a significant risk that poorly managed IT could trigger an audit finding, a fine or negative publicity.”

The article discusses some risks to manage as IT leaders plan to review and renew IT service providers in 2016.

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A second federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday that a conservative legal watchdog group may question the State Department and potentially several top aides to Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, reports The Washington Post.

U.S. District Senior Judge Royce C. Lamberth granted a request from Judicial Watch, which has sought public records of talking points used by Susan E. Rice, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in television appearances after the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

“His decision came about five weeks after another federal judge in Washington, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, ruled that current and former top State Department and Clinton aides could be questioned under oath about her email arrangement in a separate Judicial Watch FOIA case,” the newspaper says.

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Trump University isn’t the only Donald Trump endeavor that has landed in court, reports Mother Jones magazine.

“The tycoon has launched — or lent his name to — a slew of business ventures that have yielded frustrated customers and investors who have sought legal recourse. There are hundreds of lawsuits extending over 43 years that name Trump or one of his businesses,” says the magazine.

The report includes a list of some of those legal skirmishes that began when Trump joined his father’s business and continue through his run for the GOP nomination, such as Trump Management, Trump Tower, Trump’s Atlantic City casinos, Trump SoHo, Trump Baja, Trump Model Management, and more.

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As Donald Trump rolls through the political calendar, his campaign has already begun focusing on a new battle that may have a broader set of consequences — finding delegates who will be loyal to his cause at the Republican National Convention, reports ABC News.

“Part of the battle has come in the form of emails to delegates and supporters trying to lock down crucial votes. The other half is a five-person task force that has been quietly being trying to amass the 1,237 votes needed,” the network reports.

“Emails obtained by ABC News show the Trump campaign calling on supporters in Michigan to watch for precinct-level delegates who may defect to a rival candidate during a contested convention”

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Now that Marco Rubio is out of the race, for the first time in U.S. political history, every presidential candidate — of both parties — supports at least states’ rights to do as they please with regard to marijuana legalization, according to a report in Rolling Stone.

Bernie Sanders, who pledges to end the drug war, is the most progressive on marijuana policy. And fellow Democrat supports states’ rights to legalize, but proposes to reschedule instead of deschedule cannabis, the newspaper says.

Donald Trump believes there should be more research on cannabis. Ted Cruz says he would not support legalization, but he believes states have a right to determine the legality for themselves. John Kasich also is opposed to marijuana use, but would defer to states’ rights, the report says.

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Donald Trump is facing some tax and legal challenges that could complicate his bid for the White House, reports Bankrate.

“Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, has asked the IRS to look into a donation from the Trump Foundation to a group connected with the Florida attorney general. CREW contends that the gift was improperly made to a political group and was not reported as required on the foundation’s tax filing,” the article says.

The Donald J. Trump Foundation is a tax-exempt organization with an IRS 501(c)(3) designation.

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A U.S. government agency says it has made a breakthrough in battery technology that could see it leapfrog the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Gates in the multi-billion-dollar race to build the next-generation system of energy storage, reports the World Economic Forum.

“By paying those (legal) fees, wouldn’t you be rewarding and encouraging violence?” asked host George Stephanopoulos.

“No, no I didn’t say that. I haven’t looked at it yet, and nobody’s asked me to pay for fees, and somebody asked me a question and I haven’t even seen it, so I never said I was going to pay for fees,” the Republican front-runner said, at first denying what he has said both during a campaign rally and on Sunday during an interview, according to the report on CNN.

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WikiLeaks has debuted a new section on its website that allows visitors to search thousands of messages from the private email server Hillary Clinton used while secretary of state, reports The Washington Times.

“While the newly-launched portal does not host any previously unreleased correspondence, its format enables users to quickly scour the 50,547 pages of documents that have already been put out by the State Department all at once for key words and phrases,” the report says.

Emails previously released by the State Department show that some people close to Clinton were concerned after more than 200,000 diplomatic cables were shared with the secret-spilling group in 2010.

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ABC News is reporting that Donald Trump and his campaign are not expected to face inciting a riot charges in connection with a violent incident at a rally in Fayetteville, NC.

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s office had been investigating the real estate mogul and his campaign but decided “that the evidence does not meet the requisites of the law as established under the relevant North Carolina statute and case law to support a conviction of the crime of inciting a riot,” the report says, quoting from a sheriff’s department statement.

A man who attended the rally last weeek allegedly sucker-punched a protester in the face as he was being escorted out of the venue. John Franklin McGraw, 78, faces charges of assault and disorderly conduct.

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Photo by Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us

Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban is talking politics again, reports The Dallas Morning News. And while he’s not endorsing GOP front runner Donald Trump, Cuban does believe a candidate with a business background is better qualified than a politician.

When he appeared on CBS’ The Late Late Show with James Corden on Thursday, the owner of the Mavericks NBA team said he likes the fact that Trump doesn’t worry about being politically correct, the report says.

“Like, before all the presidential stuff, he was like that friend everybody had that you liked to pick on,” Cuban said. “In person, he’s nice. But now, he’s gone crazy. I can’t explain what’s happened to him.”

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The SEC announced the promotion of Anthony Kelly on Thursday, the same day he participated in a panel discussion at the Investment Adviser Association’s annual compliance conference. In the panel, he took the opportunity to reassure the audience that his team is not singling out CCOs for enforcement actions, reports Financial Planning.

“I know there’s a sense out there that the SEC is targeting compliance professionals,” Kelly said.

“I can tell you that is not the case. There is no change in policy where we are now trying to target compliance professionals,” he said. “There’s no shift in our thinking.”

“Industry concerns about regulators targeting CCOs gained steam last summer after the SEC brought an enforcement action against BlackRock and its CCO in a case turning on the failure to disclose a conflict of interest and other compliance lapses,” the report says.

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Photo by Michael Vadon

An alleged assault of a protester at a Donald Trump rally by a man who was later arrested after saying that the protester “deserved it” and “next time, we might have to kill him,” is only the latest in a series of violent and frightening incidents at Trump rallies of late, reports Vanity Fair.

Last week, some two dozen Black Lives Matter protesters were forcibly expelled from a Trump event in New Orleans, following a week in which the Republican front-runner initially refused to condemn the Ku Klux Klan and former K.K.K. leader David Duke.

Other incidents occured at a Trump rally in Georgia, in Louisville, and at a rally in Las Vegas where Trump said that he’d like to punch one protester in the face, reminiscing about the “good old days” when agitators would be carried out on a stretcher, the magazine reports.

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In last night’s Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton dismissed a question about whether she would resign if indicted for mishandling classified information, saying “Oh for goodness … that’s not going to happen. I’m not even answering that question.”

A report by Christian Science Monitor staff writer Peter Grier addresses the question: Is Clinton right to be so dismissive?

“On the one hand, the FBI investigation of the issue could be a shield for Clinton,” Grier writes. “If she isn’t indicted, she can use that fact as an all-purpose dismissal. Something along the lines of, ‘The feds found no problem here, so move along, move along.’ ”

But Republicans will keep the issue alive, he adds, pointing to two new lawsuits seeking access to Clinton’s State Department communications.

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The U.S. Department of Justice filed a legal response on Thursday to Apple’s refusal to help the FBI unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, and Apple quickly responded, with general counsel Bruce Sewell delivering a tense and angry response in a conference call with reporters, reports Business Insider.

Sewell called the DOJ response a “cheap shot” and said that its tone “reads like an indictment.”

He was responding to the DOJ’s claim that “Apple’s rhetoric is not only false, but also corrosive of the very institutions that are best able to safeguard our liberty and our rights … .”

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A proposed executive order could require certain government contractors to provide paid sick leave to certain employees at certain times, resulting to a new benefit for 437,000 employees who currently get no such benefit, and possibly augmenting the leave of about 400,000 more workers, according to U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez.

In a report written by the Federal Contractor Compliance Practice Group and Wage and Hour Practice Group of Paul Hastings LLP, contractors who disregard the new requirements beginning in 2017 can be subject to debarment, among other penalties, so it is important that contractors understand the proposed rules and plan to ensure compliance.

“Federal contractors certainly should examine their policies in light of the proposed regulations, but all employers operating in jurisdictions with paid sick leave laws should review their policies for compliance with state and local laws,” according to the article.

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