USAToday.com: "Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees confirm that the National Security Agency has compiled a massive database of domestic phone call records. But some lawmakers also say that cooperation by the nation's telecommunication companies was not as extensive as first reported by USA TODAY on May 11."

Committee on Indian Affairs, 'Gimme Five' – Investigation of Tribal Lobbying Matters (373 pages, PDF), June 22, 2006.

Press release: "The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently launched a new topics page on its Web site aimed at assisting employers and employees with information on OSHA workplace standards for steel product manufacturing. Basic Steel Products, a new Safety and Health topic, is a product of Alliances with The Steel Group and the Crane, Hoist and Monorail Alliance (consisting of the Crane Manufacturers Association of America, Hoist Manufacturers Institute, and the Monorail Manufacturers Association). Information on the new page focuses on identifying possible workplace dangers in the steel products industry and offers resources for the establishment of an effective safety and health program."

"This 2006 electronic edition of the Capital Punishment Handbook has been revised and updated. It is current through March 10, 2006. Although the handbook is intended to be a comprehensive annotation of helpful and applicable capital habeas law, the handbook does not contain all opinions issued in habeas corpus cases. The handbook is a reference tool and not an official publication of the Judicial Council or of the Ninth Circuit. Therefore, it may not be cited as authority. Any views or opinions in this handbook are not intended to reflect the views of the Judicial Council or any court of this circuit."

Transcript of Teleconference with Senior Officials Regarding Supreme Court's Ruling in the Hamdan Case, June 30, 2006.

Treasury: "The final results from the annual survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at end-June 2005 are released today and posted on the U.S. Treasury web site. The survey was undertaken jointly by the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System."

Follow-up to March 31, 2006 posting, see Iraq Index: Tracking Variables of Reconstruction and Security in Post-Saddam Iraq, Brookings Institution, June 29, 2006 (57 pages, PDF)

Senate Report 109-273 - Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill (127 pages, PDF), June 29. 2006

Press release: "Today the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. The bill recommends $31,730,000,000 in discretionary spending for the Department of Homeland Security. This is $715,000,000 more than the President’s fiscal year 2007 discretionary spending request and $1,472,299,000 more than the fiscal year 2006 enacted level, excluding emergency supplemental appropriations."

DOJ IT Strategic Plan: Fiscal Years 2006 - 2011

Review of the Senate's FY2007 Energy & Water Development Appropriations Bill, June 29, 2006.

"The National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) provides a coordinated approach to critical infrastructure and key resource protection roles and responsibilities for federal, state, local, tribal, and private sector security partners. The NIPP sets national priorities, goals, and requirements for effective distribution of funding and resources which will help ensure that our government, economy, and public services continue in the event of a terrorist attack or other disaster."

Following up on recent postings that appeared in chronological order as follows: Government Mines Global Financial Data in War on Terror; Disclosure of Terrorist Finance Tracking Program; and Controversy Abroad Over Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, two related articles that claim that the program's work was known in various communities:

Security Legislative Hearing on H.R. 5219, the "Judicial Transparency and Ethics Enhancement Act of 2006," June 29, 2006.

"MEDNET is a scientific conference organized of under the auspices of the Society for the Internet in Medicine (SIM)." Browse by Author or Title available for papers authored by experts around the world.

House Committee on Financial Services: "Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 227-183 in favor of a resolution [H. Res. 895] introduced yesterday by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael G. Oxley (OH), which expresses the sense of the House in support of U.S. government programs to track terrorist financing and to condemn illegal disclosure of classified information that impairs the international fight against terrorism."

From the Private Law Libraries Special Interest Section of AALL, this Revised Marketing Toolkit (June 27, 2006), includes content in the following categories: Mission Statement, Competencies for Head Law Librarian, Commonly Asked Questions and Answers, Bibliography, and Statistics Handbook.

Press release: "Google Inc. today announced the launch of Google Checkout, a checkout process that makes online shopping faster, more convenient and more secure for Google users. Google Checkout offers an easy and trusted checkout option that enables shoppers to purchase from participating stores with a single Google login." More information on this Official Google Blog posting.

Press release: "The Department of the Army has activated a secure web site that will enable current and former servicemembers to determine if their personal information was potentially compromised as a result of the May 3 theft of a laptop from the Department of Veterans Affairs containing personal data on millions of veterans."

Press release: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released its 180-day report on avian influenza (AI) efforts and the use of $91 million appropriated in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriation to Address Pandemic Influenza six months ago. The report details USDA's efforts both internationally and domestically to combat highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI H5N1)."

"Frequently Asked Questions About the Federal Budget, prepared by the House Budget Committee Democratic Staff. The document answers common questions about the national budget, and additional information."

GPO Access: "This page contains links to active ("unofficial") and archived ("official") conference reports. Conference reports are available to the public as a filed version prior to official printing. Documents are available in ASCII Text and PDF."

In an 11-11 vote today, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation defeated the Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 (otherwise known as Net Neutrality).

Federal Times: "In a few months, the 3.6 million participants in the Thrift Savings Plan will begin using account numbers instead of Social Security numbers to access their retirement accounts. TSP administrators are switching to randomly generated account numbers to enhance security and protect participants' Social Security numbers from being stolen, said Mark Hagerty, director of automated systems at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which oversees the TSP."

Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Regulatory State, by Clyde Wayne Crews, June 28, 2006 (42 pages, PDF): "In the Fiscal Year 2006 federal budget, President Bush proposed $2.77 trillion in discretionary, entitlement, and interest spending. Although those costs fully express the on-budget scope of the federal government, there is considerably more to the government's reach than the sum of the taxes sent to Washington. Federal environmental, safety and health, and economic regulations cost hundreds of billions of dollars every year—on top of official federal outlays."

"Welcome to CodePlex, Microsoft's community development Web site. You can use CodePlex to create new projects to share with your fellow developers around the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on this site and provide feedback."

"100 Companies Receiving the Largest Dollar Volume of Prime Contract Awards is published annually. This report contains summary data on the 100 companies, including their subsidiaries, which were awarded the largest total dollar volume of Department of Defense prime contract awards during fiscal year 2005."

"Utica College's Center for Identity Management and Information Protection is a research collaborative dedicated to furthering a national research agenda on identity management, information sharing, and data protection. Founded in June 2006, its ultimate goal is to impact policy, regulation, and legislation, working toward a more secure homeland."

Press release: Dell To Launch Free Recycling Of Dell-Branded Products For Consumers Globally: "Beginning today, San Diego residents can call toll-free, 1-888-4-GOODWILL or 1-866-48 REUSE (73873), or visit www.reconnectpartnership.com or www.sdgoodwill.org, to locate the most convenient drop-off location at any of the 24 local Goodwill donation centers and retail stores."

Hearings were held June 27 and June 28, 2006 by the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, on Making the Internet Safe for Kids: The Role of ISP's and Social Networking Sites.

Related government news and documents:

Press release: "CDT's report charts the important cases against spyware distributors and identifies the statutes applied, June 26, 2006."

Presidential Signing Statements, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, June 27, 2006

The DotGov Buzz, June 27, 2006 E-Gov Initatives: "The Office of Management and Budget has released updated draft guidance for agencies moving to the financial management Line of Business. The guidance offers competitive framework, template for migration project plan, change management best practices and a menu of services that financial-management shared-service providers can deliver. The Migration Planning Guidance aims to answer procedural questions and provide insight when agencies conduct competitions for financial-management services from a public or private shared-service provider. According to the memorandum, agencies are to conduct public-private competitions and migrations as directed in OMB Circular A-76 for activities performed by more than 10 FTEs. Agencies should consult with OMB if they need to deviate from that directive."

Homeland Security Information Network Could Support Information Sharing More Effectively, OIG-06-38 (PDF, 47 pages), June 27, 2006.

Press release, The Third Branch: "A long-term study of what impact the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) is having on the federal courts has produced its first interim progress report, one that shows that the number of class action cases dramatically increased in three busy district courts since the early 1990s."

WSJ free feature: Laptop Lockdown - Companies Start Holding Employees Responsible for Security Of Portable Devices They Use for Work

Challenges and FDIC Efforts Related to Predatory Lending (Audit Report Number 06-011), June 2006 (41 pages, PDF)

In connection with a hearing scheduled by the House Committee on Ways and Means for June 28, 2006, the Joint Committee on Taxation has issued Present Law And Analysis Relating To The Tax Treatment Of Health Savings Accounts And Other Health Expenses (JCX-27-06).

"Press release: The Brennan Center Task Force on Voting System Security, an initiative of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, today released a report and policy proposals concluding that all three of the nation's most commonly purchased electronic voting systems are vulnerable to software attacks that could threaten the integrity of a state or national election."

Review of Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR-06-003T), House Committee on International Relations. On June 8, 2006, SIGIR provided testimony before the House Committee on International Relations as part of the Committee's review of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

FTC press release: "The Federal Trade Commission today told a meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that access to the Whois databases is "critical to the agency’s consumer protection laws, to other law enforcement agencies around the world, and to consumers." Whois databases are online information directories that contain contact information about website operators. Access to the databases is in question because one of ICANN's advisory bodies recommended limiting access to Whois data to technical purposes only."

Committee on Government Reform Minority Office: "A new report by Rep. Henry A. Waxman examines how the Bush Administration has carried out FDA's historic enforcement responsibilities. The report is the result of a 15-month investigation that included a review of thousands of pages of internal agency enforcement records. It finds that there has been a precipitous drop in FDA enforcement actions over the last five years. In some cases, FDA headquarters rejected the enforcement recommendations of FDA field offices despite findings by agency inspectors that violations led to multiple deaths or serious injuries."

Press release: "Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), members of the Senate Banking Committee, today introduced legislation to help protect individuals and businesses from the rampant crimes of identity theft and account fraud...The new bill requires that all entities – such as financial institutions, universities, retailers and federal agencies –safeguard sensitive information, investigate security breaches and notify consumers when there’s a substantial risk of identity theft or account fraud. That means retailers that take credit card information are now covered; data brokers who compile private information are covered; and government agencies that possess nonpublic personal information are also covered."

M-06-16, Protection of Sensitive Agency Information, June 23, 2006 (10 pages, PDF)

Press release: "Beginning June 26, 2006 customers will be able to order copies of Court Records from a NARA Federal Records Center using Order Online!, the National Archives' online ordering web site. Order Online! provides an easy and convenient method for customers to request reproductions of certain records and pay for these orders with most major credit cards.

"The following resources [Climate Change Panel and Country Papers] were presented in CD format to participants at the Baker & McKenzie two-day 2006 International Environment Conference, held in June in Chicago."

Bureau of Justice Statistics press release: "Large state and local law enforcement agencies with 59 percent of the nation's sworn officers received 26,556 citizen complaints about the police use of force during 2002, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The rate was 6.6 complaints per 100 full-time sworn officers. Eighty-four percent were made against large municipal departments, BJS said."

A resolution to the case involving Connecticut librarians and an FBI NSL gag order regarding patron records - today the ACLU announced the FBI has dropped the case.

Center for Public Integrity special report: "Over a 5½-year period ending in 2005, members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips — valued at almost $50 million — financed by private sponsors, many of them corporations, trade associations and nonprofit groups with business on Capitol Hill."

Press release, June 22, 2006: "Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family history source, today announced it has completed digitizing and indexing the entire U.S. Federal Census from 1790 to 1930. Ancestry.com is the only source where all publicly released census information can be found online. The addition of the complete census collection makes Ancestry.com the most comprehensive genealogical database ever compiled online with more than five billion searchable names. Prior to the completion of this project, these priceless pieces of American history were primarily found on microfilm at the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) offices and select libraries across the country." [note, this is a fee based service]

County Clerk to Temporarily Halt Online Posting of Public Records, June 19, 2006: " Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir announced today that her office will temporarily halt publishing public records on the Internet. DeBeauvoir said her commitment to protecting individual personal data outweighs the convenience of accessing records online. DeBeauvoir stressed the public records will remain available in the offices of the County Clerk."

AP reports on an impending agreement between Congress and the White House on legislation incorporating language on the government's domestic surveillance program into law.

Center for American Progress: The Terrorism Index: A Survey of the U.S. National Security Establishment on the War on Terror

Follow-up to June 22, 2006 posting, Government Mines Global Financial Data in War on Terror, the following related government documents and news today includes:

June 23, 2006- Executive Order: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People - related to Supreme Court decision, June 23, 2005 - Kelo v. City of New London, No. 04-108.

American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting Handout Materials Collection

Press release: "A free workshop [June 30, 2006 - Jefferson Room National Archives Building 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC, 20408]sponsored by the National Archives Information Security Oversight Office that is aimed at informing the researcher public and the media of their rights in obtaining the maximum information by requesting a declassification review of classified national security documents. Due to limited space, pre-registration is required. Call 202-357-5250 or email isoo@nara.gov to reserve a place."

[Customs and Border Patrol] CBP's Trusted Traveler Systems Using RFID Technology Require Enhanced Security (Redacted) OIG-06-36 (PDF, 33 pages,) released 06/23/06.

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told a federal judge today that the government should not be allowed to use the "state secrets privilege" to preempt the class-action lawsuit against AT&T. EFF's suit accuses AT&T of collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in illegally spying on millions of Americans -- handing over customers' telephone and Internet records and communications without any legal authority. Department of Justice lawyers argued today that even if the NSA program is illegal, pursuing the case might expose "state secrets." However, EFF attorneys asked the judge to allow the case to proceed, considering the privilege in regards to specific evidence and situations instead of derailing the suit all together."

AP reports that Dr. King's collection of writings and books will be given to his alma mater, Morehouse College, after their purchase by a group of distinguished community leaders, thus ensuring availability to the public in years to come.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 04-1434a Goldstein, Phillip vs. SEC

Presidential Signing Statements, 2001-2006, George W. Bush, Annotated Text of the Signing Statements.

Joint Statement [released June 22, 2006] of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman and Ranking Member on the Climate Change Conference Held on April 4, 2006 (PDF). "Joint Statement examines issues discussed and legislative policy ideas brought forth by participants at the Climate Change Conference."

Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic? by Kim Zetter, Salon.com, June 22, 2006.

"The Department of State [launched] a new website feature Thursday, June 22 called, "Ask the Ambassador". This ongoing Internet program will create an opportunity for the public to speak directly with U.S. ambassadors world-wide. The first on-line web discussion will be hosted by William R. Timken, Jr., the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Questions concerning the EU Summit, World Cup, and other issues will be answered by Mr. Timken on Monday, June 26. Questions may be submitted here."

Pew Global Attitudes Project, June 22, 2006 - The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other

Press release: "There is sufficient evidence from tree rings, boreholes, retreating glaciers, and other "proxies" of past surface temperatures to say with a high level of confidence that the last few decades of the 20th century were warmer than any comparable period in the last 400 years, according to a new report from the National Research Council."

Press release: "New report shows 17 states at high risk for election results compromised due to electronic voting machine problems."

The 2006 Technology, Media and Telecommunications Security Survey (16 pages, PDF), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu: "Security has long been neglected in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) industry and the problem continues today. The frequency and sophistication of the attacks are growing, yet many surveyed companies tend to treat security as a relatively minor issue. So where are TMT companies falling behind? More importantly, what can they do to address this increasingly significant problem?"

Congressional Record, June 19, 2006 - "By Mr. REID (for himself, Mr. Biden, Mr. Levin, and Mr. Durbin): S. 3536. A bill to ensure oversight of intelligence on Iran, and for other purposes; to the Select Committee on Intelligence....Today, I am introducing legislation which would improve Congress's oversight of the administration's efforts on Iran--the Iran Intelligence Oversight Act. The legislation will ensure that Congress is fully engaged in the Iran debate, and it will also push the Bush White House to develop and implement the right policy for dealing with Iran."

DOT Law Library Newsletters, from Summer 2001 through Winter 2005, available in PDF and HTML versions [Michael Ravnitzky]

See also:

AP reported that a hacker obtained personal data on over 25,000 Agriculture Department employees.

World Resources Institute: 2006. Hot Climate, Cool Commerce: A Service Sector Guide to Greenhouse Gas Management. "A guide on managing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that details the various steps necessary to manage track, and reduce GHG emissions."

Following up on Domestic Call Records Mined for Expansive Pentagon Database Program, today's passage by the House Judiciary Committee, voice vote, on H.Res. 819, "Requesting the President and directing the Attorney General to submit to the House of Representatives all documents in the possession of the President and the Attorney General relating to requests made by the National Security Agency and other Federal agencies to telephone service providers requesting access to telephone communications records of persons in the United States and communications originating and terminating within the United States without a warrant".

Related links and news:

Fact Sheet: 2006 U.S. - EU Summit, June 21, 2006

"Feed Rinse is an easy to use tool that lets you automatically filter out syndicated content that you aren't interested in. It's like a spam filter for your RSS subscriptions."

From the chron.com, their comprehensive Enron coverage and Enron Corp. – Background, documents, profiles, photos and multimedia coverage of the Enron scandal, investigations and criminal prosecutions.

House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, Democratic Staff report, Detour Ahead: Critical Vulnerabilities in America’s Rail and Mass Transit Security Programs, June 2006 (45 page, PDF).

The Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum (whose members include Google, Microsoft, Oracle, EBay Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Symantec Corp.) issued a statement supporting "a serious process to consider comprehensive harmonized federal privacy legislation to create a simplified, uniform but flexible legal framework."

Following up on previous postings on the VA data breach, today the GAO issued yet another related report - Information Security: Leadership Needed to Address Weaknesses and Privacy Issues at Veterans Affairs, Full text GAO-06-897T, and Highlights, June 20, 2006.

Survey Results on Access to Information Problems Encountered by Federal, State, and Local Accountability Organizations, Evaluation and Inspections Report, I-2006-006, June 2006. (107 pages, PDF)

The Government Domain - Google's New U.S. Government Search, by Peggy Garvin

Press release: "The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division today announced that they are implementing an electronic filing system that allows merging parties to submit via the Internet premerger notification filings required by the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. Electronic filings may be submitted quickly and easily, eliminating the time and expense entailed in duplicating and delivering documents."

Related government documents:

"As was indicated in its governmentwide policy guidance issued under Executive Order 13,392 -- see FOIA Post, Executive Order 13,392 Implementation Guidance (posted 4/27/06) (noting, in footnote 2, prospective treatment of improvement plans and annual FOIA reports alike) -- the Office of Information and Privacy has established a special location on its FOIA Web site for the consolidated posting of all agency FOIA improvement plans prepared under the Executive Order. These plans can be accessed through the new "navbar" entitled Agency FOIA Improvement Plans Under EO 13392 that now is contained on OIP's FOIA Web site."

The un-Google, June 15, 2006, from The Economist print edition (free online, if you view an advert first): "Google dominates the lucrative market for web-search, but its rivals [Microsoft, Ask, Yahoo] are setting out to change that."

New York Times: Library Phone Answerers Survive the Internet

SEC: "This page allows you to search the full text of EDGAR filings from the last two years. The full text of a filing includes all data in the filing as well as all attachments to the filing. We are still developing this feature, and we plan to enhance it based on user feedback."

Other new SEC search features:

Related to previous postings on government telephone surveillance, see this recent commentary, ACLU v. National Security Agency: Why the "State Secrets Privilege" Shouldn't Stop the Lawsuit Challenging Warrantless Telephone Surveillance of Americans, by John Dean.

Press release: House Appropriations Committee Directs NIH to Ensure Tax-Funded Medical Research is Freely Available in Agency’s Online Archive

Related references and sources:

Press release: Pew Global Attitudes Survey 2006: Findings on U.S. Image, Views of Iraq and Iran

Press release, June 16, 2006: "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued findings today from a national assessment of the country’s catastrophic planning capabilities. Responding to directives from President Bush and the Congress, following Hurricane Katrina, the Nationwide Plan Review (PDF, 174 pages) looked at whether existing emergency operations plans for states and urban areas are sufficient for managing a catastrophic event. The Review also presents conclusions on actions needed by the federal government to improve and coordinate planning."

Yet another report today about the theft of a laptop from the home of a government employee, this time involving info on D.C. government personnel. The issue of why so many institutions have not implemented proper security measures, such as encryption on digital media removed from the office, remains baffling.

Reports on monitoring of employee website usage are not uncommon, but today's New York Times article highlights how blocking specific sites can impede work product. This can certainly be the case not only in the newsroom but in law firms and other corporate environments where competitive intelligence monitoring has become increasingly important.

News Division Program for the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference 2006, June 10 - 15, 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Press release: "In The Dark Side, airing June 20, 2006, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE tells the story of the vice president's role as the chief architect of the war on terror and his battle with Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet for control of the "dark side." Drawing on more than 40 interviews and thousands of documents, the film provides a step-by-step examination of what happened inside the councils of war."

The Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center [4800 Mt. Hope Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21215, Phone: (410) 624-2090, Fax: (410) 764-7664]: "The Center will search the world over for information leading to the fates of loved ones missing since the Holocaust and World War II. Nearly every inquiry that is processed by the Center is forwarded to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Arolsen, Germany which is the largest repository of original Nazi documents in the world. It contains an index of over 17 million names of victims and survivors—both Jewish and non-Jewish—of the Holocaust and World War II. The ITS is administered by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Before a request is sent to the ITS it is translated into German by a member of the Center's translation team. Many of these volunteers are Holocaust survivors themselves."

Researchers Find Technique to Quickly Erase Hard Drives: "Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta), working with L-3 Communications Corp. (New York), said they have developed a technique for quickly erasing hard-disk drives...The researchers concluded that permanent magnets are the best solution." [Slashdot]

Microsoft Security Response Center Blog

Following up on previous postings, Authority of Vast Collaborative Online Encyclopedia Questioned and Wikipedia Continues to Confront Controversy and Wikipedia Continues to Generate Headlines, related news today from the New York Times: Growing Wikipedia Revises Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy

AP: Pentagon Details U.S. Abuse of Detainees - Pentagon Says U.S. Forces Used Unapproved Interrogation Practices on Iraq, Afghan Detainees

DOJ: Documents released in litigation on June 15, 2006

News.com: "Cybercrooks are organizing better and moving to more sophisticated tactics to get their hands on confidential data and turn PCs of unwitting users into bots, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations said in separate presentations here at the Computer Security Institute's NetSec event this week."

Expedited Assistance for Victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: FEMA's Control Weaknesses Exposed the Government to Significant Fraud and Abuse, Full text GAO-06-655, and Highlights, June 16, 2006.

The House this morning passed HRES 861, Declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary. The resolution passed by roll call vote #288, 256 yeas to 153 nays, with 5 voting present. [GalleryWatch.com]

Press release: "In a major policy address on the challenges of privacy in our increasingly data driven world, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a comprehensive privacy agenda: a Privacy Bill of Rights that secures the interests of consumers; stronger, better enforced protection for medical privacy and a new national security consensus setting out clear rules to allow the government to use new intelligence techniques and make sure the public knows its rights and limits. Senator Clinton announced that she will introduce legislation to enact this Bill of Rights, the Privacy Rights and Oversight for Electronic and Commercial Transactions Act of 2006, the PROTECT Act."

U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, Subcommittee on Superfund and Waste Management, Oversight Hearing on the Superfund Program, June 15, 2006.

Pew Internet, Online Banking 2006: "Online banking is holding steady as a mainstream internet activity, growing along with internet use generally, though not accelerating as have some other forms of online activities. Fully 43% of internet users, or about 63 million American adults, bank online."

Congressional Oversight of Intelligence is Broken, June 13, 2006.

Follow-up to recent postings VA ID theft and the continuous reports on government and corporate enterprise data breaches, see this Gartner press release: Gartner Says Rash of Personal Data Thefts Shows Social Security Numbers Can No Longer Be Sole Proof of Identity for Enterprises.

"Refinery Capacity Report: Beginning with the release of 2006 data, the Refinery Capacity Tables will no longer appear in the Petroleum Supply Annual, Volume 1 publication. The 2006 Refinery Capacity Tables will be released as a separate product which includes tables in PDF format and an XLS file containing refinery capacity data by refinery." [Link to all documents mentioned above]

Press release: "Senator Chuck Grassley today requested more information from FBI Director Robert Mueller about the FBI's handling of a terrorist financing case and the subsequent classification of several portions of an Inspector General report about the botched case...Grassley's letter [included in this press release] also questioned Mueller's use of selective unclassified portions of the Inspector General report during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in May."

Getting The New York Times More Search Engine Friendly, by Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman, June 15, 2006.

Amnesty International report: Partners in Crime: Europe's role in US renditions (53 pages, PDF), June 14, 2006.

ABC reports that DOJ has filed suit in NJ District Court (Trenton) seeking an injunction to prevent the NJ attorney general from obtaining records on data that carriers provided in conjunction with the domestic surveillance program.

Federal Emergency Management and Homeland Security Organization: Historical Developments and Legislative Options, Updated June 1, 2006 (44 pages, PDF)

Press release, June 14, 2006: Google Launches Shakespeare Website. See Google Search Beta's complete plays of Shakespeare

Related news:

Following up on last night's posting, Annual Disclosure of Congressional Financial Forms, today PoliticalMoneyLine made availble, in PDF, copies of House and Senate Personal Financial Disclosures Filed In May of 2006 covering 2005 activity.

Press release: "Google today announced Google U.S. Government Search, a new search product that will make it easier to find U.S. government information and keep up to date on government news. With Google U.S. Government Search, millions of U.S. government employees, various contractor organizations, as well as the general public can easily search across content on official federal, state and local government sites from a single search box. They can also keep current on government-related news with constantly updated content from government and commercial news sources, including the White House, Department of Defense, The Washington Post, and Google News." [Note: Google Uncle Sam now resolves to U.S. Government Search].

"Today, the Subcommittee on Management, Integration, and Oversight, led by Chairman Mike Rogers (AL), held a hearing to examine the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) contract processes in the Shirlington Limo case. Senior officials from DHS, including Elaine Duke, Chief Procurement Officer, testified in front of the Subcommittee."

Press release: "The National Security Archive today filed suit [National Security Archive v. Central Intelligence Agency] in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), challenging the Agency's recent practice of charging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) fees to journalists pursuing news. The FOIA says that "representatives of the news media" can be charged only copying fees since they help to carry out the mission of the law by disseminating government information; but the CIA last year began claiming authority to assess additional fees if the Agency decides any journalist's request is not newsworthy enough. In adopting this new practice, the CIA reversed its prior 15-year practice of presumptively waiving additional fees for news media representatives, including the National Security Archive."

AP: House, Senate Members Disclose Finances: "The reports require lawmakers to list last year's assets and debts, along with any income beyond the $162,100 salary for the rank-and-file House and Senate members. Rules require lawmakers to donate their speaking fees to charity and to limit gifts from any individual to $100 in a year."

Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Reconsidering Our Communications Laws: Ensuring Competition and Innovation, June 14, 2006.

Press release: "The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by the national ACLU and its affiliates in Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island, Maine, Pennsylvania and Washington. The lawsuit charges that the Defense Department is refusing to comply with national Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records on the ACLU, the American Friends Service Committee, Greenpeace, Veterans for Peace and United for Peace and Justice, as well as 26 local groups and activists."

Related to previous postings on the recent breach of Veterans' data that was the focus of press and Congressional scrutiny, from GAO today, this report - Veterans Affairs: Leadership Needed to Address Information Security Weaknesses and Privacy Issues, full-text GAO-06-866T, and Highlights, June 14, 2006. From the report: "For many years, significant concerns have been raised about VA's information security--particularly its lack of a robust information security program, which is vital to avoiding the compromise of government information, including sensitive personal information. Both GAO and the department's inspector general have reported recurring weaknesses in such areas as access controls, physical security, and segregation of incompatible duties."

Related government documents:

WSJ free feature: Seeking a Safer Internet - New Tools Flag Sites With Spyware, Spam - But the Technology Is Far From Perfect

In anticipation of the scheduled 10 hour debate on Iraq tomorrow, authored by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (and posted by Rep. Jack Kingston), this one page fact sheet of 15 bullet points on the current state of affairs in Iraq, for the citizens and the U.S. military.

Related documents:

Review of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Collection of Aviation Security Service Fees, OIG-06-35 (PDF, 60 pages), June 13, 2006.

Follow-up to Committee to Review Post Katrina Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, today GAO released the aforementioned report, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Disaster Relief: Improper and Potentially Fraudulent Individual Assistance Payments Estimated to Be Between $600 Million and $1.4 Billion, full-text GAO-06-844T, and Highlights, June 14, 2006.

Detention and Removal of Illegal Aliens, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), OIG-06-33 (PDF, 52 pages)

Press release: "Americans prize public library service in the Internet Age, a new research report released today by the nonpartisan public opinion research organization Public Agenda concludes. As local communities and states contend with tight budget constraints for public services, the public sees libraries as potential solutions to many communities' most pressing problems, from universal access to computers to the need for better options for keeping teens safe and productive."

"The Competitive Intelligence Foundation's State of the Art: Competitive Intelligence Research Report ($) helps chart the progress of the competitive intelligence (CI) field. This report provides CI practitioners significant information on how competitive intelligence can support their organizational environment – information that can be used by all practitioners to improve their effectiveness."

The programmer as journalist: a Q&A with Adrian Holovaty - Washingtonpost.com's Web tech guru answers questions about programming's role in news reporting and presentation.

LA Times reported (reg req'd): EPA Rule Loosened After Oil Chief's Letter to Rove - The White House says the executive's appeal had no role in changing a measure to protect groundwater. Critics call it a political payoff.

Related government document:

"Tomorrow, the Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Michael McCaul (TX) will hold a hearing to examine waste, fraud and abuse of federal funds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of victims of the disaster were given debit cards and other types of tax payer funds to help them pay for food and shelter. The hearing will include reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that place estimates of funds involved in fraud and/or questionable expenses at approximately one billion dollars (emphasis added)."

Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses, CRS Report, June 2, 2006 (47 pages, PDF)

Department of the Treasury's Office of the Inspector General on Tax Administration Report: Invoice Audit of the Microsoft Consulting Services Contract - TIRNO-03-K-00191, June 2006 (30 pages, PDF).

Democratic Policy Committee Report, June 12, 2006: "Summary, S. 2766, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, would authorize $467.7 billion in budget authority for defense programs in Fiscal Year 2007, an increase of $26.2 billion, or 4.1 percent in real terms, above the amount authorized for Fiscal Year 2006. It also would provide $50 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations for Fiscal Year 2007 for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terrorism as provided in the budget resolution."

Press release: "Rep. Waxman releases a report evaluating how many times Congress has voted over the last five years to preempt state laws and regulations. Republican leaders in Congress and President Bush have repeatedly promised to respect the role of states as laboratories of democracy. But the report documents that there is a wide gulf between the rhetoric of Republican leaders in Washington and the actual legislative record."

From John P. Joergensen, Rutgers University School of Law - Camden Law Library, news about the launch of a searchable online collection of U.S. Congressional documents, hearings and prints that are being scanned from their holdings. This is an ongoing project, and the collection will expand over time. In addition, see also the New Jersey Session Laws Online, Acts of the New Jersey Colonial Assembly and Session Laws of the New Jersey Legislature (currently in Beta).

"The CorporateAffiliations.com database provides corporate linkage information on nearly 200,000 of the most prominent parent companies and their affiliates, subsidiaries and divisions - down to the seventh level of corporate linkage...[the] database is compiled and updated from information supplied by the listed companies themselves, as well as from research gathered from business publications and annual reports. Each company is contacted directly for information verification by research teams in New Providence, NJ and London...The database is refreshed on the Internet once a week."

Press release: "A new study, House Prices in America, using Global Insight's extensive proprietary databases on the housing market - which combined data and forecasts for home prices, home sales, housing stock, and household income with a methodology developed by the economics department of National City Corporation — examines current and expected housing prices in the 317 largest U.S. Metropolitan areas."

Food and Drug Administration's (FDA or Agency) Counterfeit Drug Task Force: 2006 Update, released June 8, 2006.

Follow-up to postings on the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program, today GAO released a report, FBI Trilogy: Responses to Posthearing Questions, Full-text GAO-06-853R, which stated in part, "...unless the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) strengthens its controls over contractor payments and purchased equipment, future projects, including the new Sentinel project, will be highly vulnerable to same types of issues that plagued the Trilogy project."

Arguments by the DOJ (Anthony J. Coppolino) and the ACLU were heard today in U.S. District Court - Eastern District of Michigan. The government maintains that the domestic surveillance program is legal.

Available today, Google Earth (Release 4 - BETA)

The following were released on June 8, 2006 (all in PDF):

Hosted by Wikipedia, this List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States is a collaborative work in progress, may contain errors and never be complete, but is interesting nevertheless.

Press release: "The FBI released the Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2005 today, which showed a mixed direction in crime nationwide: the number of violent crime offenses rose 2.5 percent, but the number of property crime offenses decreased 1.6 percent when compared with data from 2004. The FBI collected these preliminary data from 12,485 law enforcement agencies that submitted 6 to 12 months of offense data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program in both 2004 and 2005."

Kudos to Kathy Biehl, whose short story, Accounting for the Stars, was awarded third place this year. The list of 2006 Short Story Fiction Writing Contest Finalists is here.

CRS Report, The Changing Demographic Profile of the United States, May 5, 2006 (31 pages, PDF): "The objective of this report is to highlight some of the demographic changes that have already occurred since 1950 and to illustrate how these and future trends will reshape the nation in the decades to come (through 2050)."

Washington Post, Public Secrets, by Robert G. Kaiser, Sunday, June 11, 2006.

Press release: "The study presents data from a survey of 84 law libraries; data is broken out for law firm, university, government and private company law libraries, and by size of the library’s content budget. The study has approximately 300 tables of data summarizing a broad range of developments in law library policies regarding personnel and salaries, materials spending, procurement, management, reference services, and information policy."

Press release, June 1, 2006: "The Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET)...is releasing this draft final report of its performance evaluation of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System during Hurricane Katrina. Our sincere hope is that the results of this report, used already in the repairs of the system, the assessments of the undamaged portions of the protection system, and being incorporated in design guidance for future protection projects in the area, will help such a tragedy from ever occurring again."

"Eigen's Political & Historical Quotations is the world's largest collection of memorable quotes about and by historians, politicians and other public figures. The collection is designed for the use of students, journalists, teachers, historians, political scientists and the many other people who are interested in politics and political history. Use the quotation search to look for quotes by keyword, author, idea, or actual text." {ResearchBuzz]

"...the eHealth Vulnerability Reporting Program (eHVRP) is a collaborative of health care industry organizations, technology companies and security professionals. eHVRP’s mandate is to establish approaches and procedures that will help ensure eHealth systems are broadly and rapidly deployed with the highest levels of privacy and security."

"The World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report provides USDA's comprehensive forecasts of supply and demand for major U.S. and global crops and U.S. livestock. The report gathers information from a number of statistical reports published by USDA and other government agencies, and provides a framework for additional USDA reports." The most recent WASDE report is available in TXT and PDF.

Economic Research Service, June 7, 2006: "The statistical indicators formerly provided in Agricultural Outlook magazine will continue to be updated regularly. These tables include data on individual commodities, the general economy, agricultural trade, farm income and expenses, farm prices, food prices and expenditures, and other statistical indicators of the food and agriculture system. Data as of May 2006."

Press release: "The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives conferees today approved the FY 2006 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery. The $94.5 billion bill includes funding for the war effort, hurricane recovery in the Gulf Coast, pandemic flu preparation, border security, levee repair and flood control projects."

Press release, June 9, 2006: "Governor George E. Pataki today signed three bills [Security Freeze Law, Disposal of Personal Records Law, Anti-Phishing Act of 2006] that will further protect New York's consumers and their privacy. These bills will allow consumers to proactively defend themselves against identity thieves, require businesses to properly discard documents and records containing personal information, and prohibit individuals from deceptively soliciting sensitive information from Internet users. They will also help prohibit the potential repercussions that many identity theft victims encounter, including the denial of loan applications, false arrest, and criminal records."

CIA FOIA Top 25 Search Phrases: "This collection reports the most frequent phrases used to search for documents on this site during the previous month, along with the number of times that search phrase was entered. It does not reflect phrases entered into third-party search engines used to find this site, but rather reflects phrases entered into the search mechanisms on this site." [Metafilter]

Hearing, Cyber Security Challenges at the Department of Energy, June 9, 2006. [note: links to member statements and witness testimony not yet available - after an open session, there was a closed session to discuss security issues related to a previously unreported data breach.]

H.R. 5252 - "Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to allow an eligible person or group to obtain a national franchise to provide cable service in a franchise area in lieu of any other authority under federal, state, or local law.

"It is FDA's policy to help prevent or alleviate shortages primarily of medically necessary drug products, since these can have significant public health consequences. A drug shortage may involve either an actual or a potential shortage of a drug product." [Link to Current Drug Shortages website]

EPA OIG, Congressional Request Regarding EPA Grants to the National Rural Water Association, May 30, 2006 [Report - PDF, 61 pages] [At a Glance - PDF]

Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus 2006 Watch List: "...the Caucus announced they will focus on China and Russia as high priority countries, due to the scope and depth of their piracy problems. The Caucus will also closely monitor the serious problems of copyright piracy in the following countries: Mexico, Canada, India and Malaysia."

The Center for Media and Democracy have posted a guide, which will be updated, "...of the members of Congress currently under investigation by the congressional ethics committees or law enforcement authorities, based on credible media reports."

CDT: "A federal appeals court today ruled 2-1 that telephone regulators and the FBI can control the design of Internet services in order to make government wiretapping easier. The decision (29 pages, PDF), which is damaging both to civil liberties and technology innovation, came in a case in which CDT joined with a coalition of universities, libraries, public interest groups and Internet companies to oppose an August 2005 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission. In that ruling, the FCC extended to the Internet the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), a law Congress intended to apply only to the telephone network."

Press release: "The public may now listen to arguments held before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals without having to attend in person, thanks to new technology instated June 7 that provides real-time audio coverage via web streaming. Similar technology has been put in place in 21 states including California, Florida, New York, and Texas."

Can the Justice Department Prosecute Reporters Who Publish Leaked Classified Information Interpreting the Espionage Act, by Louis Klarevas

Council of Europe, June 7, 2006: Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states - draft Recommendation and Resolution

Press release: "For 2006, the Judiciary reports to Congress that each of the nearly 200 federal courts have websites and the vast majority of those sites satisfy or exceed all of the currently applicable requirements of the E-Government Act of 2002. By statute, a report on court compliance with the Act must be submitted to Congress annually."

2006 Trafficking in Persons Report - U.S. Department of State: "Human traffickers prey on the most vulnerable and turn a commercial profit at the expense of innocent lives. The State Department's efforts to end this evil trade exemplify transformational diplomacy. We work with international partners to secure the freedom of those who are exploited and call on governments to be effective and accountable in prosecuting those who exploit."

What Ashcroft Was Told, By Murray Waas, National Journal, June 8, 2006

Government Reform Committee Oversight Hearing, "Once More Into the Data Breach: The Security of Personal Information at Federal Agencies," June 8, 2006. "The data loss at VA is the largest by a federal agency to date, and the latest in a long string of personal information breaches in the public and private sectors, including financial institutions, data broker companies, and academic institutions."

AP reported that JFK archvist Allan Goodrich announced a huge digitization project to be completed by the end of 2007, which would provide web access to "48 million pages of documents, 400,000 photos and 1,200 hours of video.."

Indiana House House Bill 1101 (HB 1101) which takes effect July 1, will "require disclosure of security breaches and encryption of data by companies holding customers' and clients' personal identification information in computer databases if it could cause identity theft, identity deception, or fraud."

June 8, 2006: "The Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC) hosted a discussion focusing on the legislative proposals percolating in Congress on so-called Network Neutrality. No fewer than six House and Senate bills are circulating in Congress that in some way address this amorphous policy question." [Link]

From NARA: For military veterans, or next of kin: "Use our system to create a customized order form to request information from your, or your relative's, military personnel records."

Follow-up to postings on DNA database privacy issues, this WSJ free feature today spotlights the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia project to create a database comprised of genetic profiles from up to 10,0000 patients.

NARA: "CIA Name Files and Subject Files compiled by the Central Intelligence Agency in response to the Disclosure Acts. These files are comprised of documentation from several CIA filing systems and are organized under the names of individuals and subjects. As of May 2006 this group consists of approximately 27,000 pages of files on individuals and subjects, including biographies, correspondence, reports, memorandums, messages, telegrams, publications, clippings, dispatches, translations, transcripts, legislative records, legal documents, statements, lists, and other records. Many of the records relate to people in one, or both, of two categories: Axis personnel accused of committing war crimes, or of belonging to criminal organizations, during the World War II; and former Axis personnel who were used by the U.S. as intelligence sources during the Cold War."

Related documents posted by FAS:

Follow-up to postings on breach of veterans data, this press release from Sen. Patrick Leahy comments on the announcement that "the Social Security numbers and other personal information for as many as 2.2 million U.S. military personnel – including nearly 80 percent of our active-duty force -- were among the data the VA has lost."

Follow-up to postings on the government phone surveillance program, USAToday.com reported that Senate Judicary Chair Arlen Specter cancelled hearings that would have scrutinized the extent to which phone companies provided customer records to the NSA.

Related Congressional news:

"The United States Patent and Trademark office will be hosting an EFS-Web briefing on June 8, 2006. EFS-Web is the USPTO's new electronic patent filing system, which allows users to file patents online safely and securely by attaching files as PDF's."

"Active Security Monitor is a software program that helps you determine how vulnerable your PC is to computer viruses, spyware and other dangers and learn what steps you can take to improve your protection. And if you have more than one PC in your home network, you can use Active Security Monitor to check the security status of your entire home network.' [Link]

Fragile digital data in danger of fading past history's reach, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6-7-06)

Center for Public Integrity, Privately Sponsored Trips Hot Tickets on Capitol Hill - Study finds almost $50 million spent on travel for lawmakers, aides

Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing: Examining DOJ's Investigation of Journalists Who Publish Classified Information: Lessons from the Jack Anderson Case, June 6, 2006.

Democratic Policy Committee Report on S.J. Res. 1, the Marriage Protection Amendment, June 5, 2006.

Related documents and news:

WSJ free feature: Why Getting the User To Create Web Content Isn't Always Progress

CBO: Monthly Budget Review June 2006

American Journalism Review: Style Wars in Cyberspace - Copy editors take to the blogosphere. "The undisputed king of copy bloggers is Bill Walsh of the Washington Post, whose cantankerous posts on language, usage and style (theslot.blogspot.com) have won him a devoted following."

BusinessWeek.com Keeping an Eye on the Snoops: With government eavesdropping getting more aggressive, privacy safeguards need to be beefed up.

AP reports Google plans to release a beta spreadsheet program on June 6, via the Google Labs site. "Google Spreadsheets allows you to create, store and share spreadsheets on the web. For those of you who already struggle to organize multiple versions of spreadsheets and other data and lists, Google Spreadsheets is a great solution..."

Federalism, Democratic Values and the Federal Marriage Amendment: "This morning the Center for American Progress, in partnership with the Cato Institute, welcomed the perspectives of four legal experts on the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) up for vote in the Senate this week. The panelists were Dale Carpenter, law professor at the University of Minnesota; Louis Michael Seidman, law professor at Georgetown University; Bruce Fein, former Reagan administration legal aid and current Washington Times columnist; and Mark Agrast, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress."

Department of State Fact Sheet: "The Iraqi Virtual Science Library (IVSL), launched on May 3, 2006, is a digital portal that provides Iraqi universities and research institutes with access to an outstanding collection of millions of full text articles from over 17,000 premier scientific and engineering journals and their archives, in addition to technical content and educational resources. Its goal is to help rebuild the educational and scientific infrastructure in Iraq. The IVSL is now an interagency collaboration with members from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense."

Press release, May 31, 2006: "Gov. Lynch today signed Senate Bill 334, which will allows victims of identity theft to ask their credit reporting agency for a "credit freeze." Once they do, their credit reports cannot be forwarded without their consent or involvement, which will help prevent identity thieves from using people's good credit against them. A credit freeze will also prevent criminals from being able to open new lines of credit in their victims' names...The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2007."

Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning? EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 41, no. 2 (March/April 2006): 32–44.

The American Bar Association Board of Governors decided reportedly "unanimously...to investigate whether President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in reserving the right to ignore more than 750 laws that have been enacted since he took office."

The 100 Best Products of the Year

Washington Post (reg. req'd) - Vast DNA Bank Pits Policing Vs. Privacy Data Stored on 3 Million Americans: "Brimming with the genetic patterns of more than 3 million Americans, the nation's databank of DNA "fingerprints" is growing by more than 80,000 people every month, giving police an unprecedented crime-fighting tool but prompting warnings that the expansion threatens constitutional privacy protections."

Characteristics of Drivers Stopped by Police, 2002, 6/06. Provides data on the nature and characteristics of traffic stops, as collected in the 2002 Police-Public Contact Survey, a supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey. NCJ 211471.

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invites you to learn about the environmental performance of major U.S. manufacturing and service sectors in this 2nd edition of the Sector Strategies Performance Report...The 2006 report also introduces the use of toxicity-weighted data to supplement basic information on emission trends. The toxicity-weighted data provide insights about the greatest opportunities for each sector to make progress in reducing the toxicity of its releases. Detailed information on toxicity weighting, as well as all of the other data used in the report, can be found in the Introduction to Sector Profiles chapter."

Related gov't docs:

Another follow-up to postings and resources for veterans impacted by recent data breach: "The FTC is advising veterans and their families to keep a close hold on their credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security numbers, passwords, and other sensitive personal information. One technique scammers use to get this information is phishing: they send an e-mail that appears to be from a well-known company, asking recipients to verify their personal information and luring them to a Web site that looks genuine, but is bogus. Scammers can lie on the telephone, as well, to get personal information." [Link]

DHS Fact Sheet: Strengthening Preparedness for Hurricane Season - "DHS is dramatically increasing the nation's stockpiles of relief supplies, retooling FEMA for the 21st century, updating disaster plans, supporting our state and local partners, and emphasizing individual and community preparedness."

"EPA's National Priority Chemicals Trends Report evaluates and analyzes 23 of the 31 Priority Chemicals (PCs) found in industrial wastes in the United States. PCs are chemicals that are persistent, highly toxic, and can accumulate in living organisms. The Trends Report is also a multi-purpose tool used for: tracking progress toward achieving EPA's Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) national goal to reduce PCs in waste, and identifying opportunities to reduce these PCs in concert with the objectives of the Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC), including assisting EPA in identifying potential partners for the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP)."

Follow-up to postings and resources for veterans impacted by recent data breach, this press release (includes text of letter to HHS): "Thirty organizations participating in the Consumer Coalition for Health Privacy yesterday asked U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to undertake a compliance review of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pursuant to the authority granted him by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Medical diagnostic codes and disability rating information about an undisclosed number of disabled veterans were stolen last month from the home of a VA employee along with 26.5 million veterans' names, birth dates and Social Security numbers."

Report to Congress on Catastrophic Hurricane Evacuation Plan Evaluation, U.S. Department of Transportation in cooperation with the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, June 1, 2006 [HTML or PDF]

Outbound Email and Content Security in Today's Enterprise, 2006 (free reg. reg'd): "Enterprises are becoming increasingly concerned about creating, managing and enforcing outbound email policies that ensure that messages leaving the organization comply with both internal rules as well as external regulations."

"The Freedom of Information Act Guide & Privacy Act Overview contains the "Justice Department Guide to the Freedom of Information Act," a detailed discussion of the FOIA's substantive and procedural aspects that has become the primary FOIA reference volume; the "Privacy Act Overview," an overview discussion of the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 that is prepared by OIP in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget; and the texts of the two statutes, as amended. It is designed to serve as a single reference volume for both FOIA and Privacy Act matters. The new 2006 edition of the Guide & Overview will replace its current edition, which was published in 2004." [Link]

"...Medicare has posted...the costs it pays hospitals for 30 common elective procedures and other hospital admissions. The information is categorized by state and county and includes a range of prices, the national average payment for the procedure, and the number of cases the hospital has handled."

The New York Times reported today that the "Justice Department is asking Internet companies to keep records on the Web-surfing activities of their customers to aid law enforcement, and may propose legislation to force them to do so."

Related news and documents:

"Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Peter T. King commented on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) announcement to cut New York City’s Anti-Terrorism funding by nearly 40% from last year: As far as I'm concerned, DHS and the Administration have declared war on New York City, and I am going to fight this as hard as I possibly can," King said. “This raises very serious questions about the quality and sincerity of management at every level of the Department."

Related news:

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC) released its report entitled WEAPONS OF TERROR: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms on June 1, 2006.

"Monthly information for January of 2006 about the federal prosecution counts for white collar crime and three other major crime categories -- immigration, drugs, and weapons -- are now available to all Americans by going to a special new feature on TRAC's public site."

Semiannual Report to Congress, October 1, 2005-March 31, 2006, Office of the Inspector General.

Press release: "The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is undertaking to collect Internet e-mail addresses for each registered patent attorney and patent agent. Gathering these e-mail addresses will facilitate and increase the ability of the Office to communicate with registered practitioners. The Office anticipates implementing automated notifications to registered practitioners of notices and IT system alerts."

"The Air Travel Consumer Report is a monthly product of the Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings (OAEP). The report is designed to assist consumers with information on the quality of services provided by the airlines. This page was last updated on June 1, 2006, and the most recent data is from April 2006. The report is divided into six sections (Flight Delays, Mishandled Baggage, Oversales, Consumer Complaints, Customer Service Reports to the Transportation Security Administration, and Airline Reports of the Loss, Injury, or Death of Animals During Air Transportation). The sections that deal with flight delays, mishandled baggage and oversales are based on data collected by the Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics."

The Condition of Education 2000–2006: "This website is an integrated collection of the indicators and analyses published in The Condition of Education 2000–2006."

Declassification Review and Referral Guide, U.S. Department of Justice, November 2005. [Michael Ravnitzky]

"Ask.com today introduced Blog and Feed Search, a new service designed specifically for searching posts, feeds and news published to the "blogosphere."

Press release: "A new cyber security study released today highlights the difference between perception and reality of consumers' awareness of online scams and their actual online behavior. While 87 percent of consumers polled said they were confident they could recognize fraudulent e-mails, 61 percent failed to identify a legitimate e-mail. Most respondents categorized all e-mails in the study as fake, even though one of them was legitimate. The Online Fraud Report has been sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a central clearinghouse for cyber security awareness and education for home users, small businesses and the education community, and Bank of America."