Digitizing Federal Public Records, By David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States: "Thank you for signing a petition asking the Obama Administration to digitize all public records. The Obama Administration believes increasing access to our collections by digitizing our records is a great idea. Our most recent efforts to do this ourselves as part of our OpenGov initiative, include the Citizen Archivist project, a Wikipedian in Residence, Tag it Tuesdays, and Scanathons. We are also moving forward on implementing the President’s recent Memorandum on Managing Government Records, which focuses on the need to update policies and practices for the digital age. But all those things aren’t enough. Your petition, and the Yes We Scan effort broadly, calls for a national strategy, and even a Federal Scanning Commission, to figure out what it would take to digitize the holdings of many federal entities, from the Library of Congress to the Government Printing Office to the Smithsonian Institution."

News release: "For the first time, comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) data reported directly from large facilities and suppliers across the country are now easily accessible to the public through EPA’s GHG Reporting Program. The 2010 GHG data released today includes public information from facilities in nine industry groups that directly emit large quantities of GHGs, as well as suppliers of certain fossil fuels...EPA’s online data publication tool allows users to view and sort GHG data for calendar year 2010 from over 6,700 facilities in a variety of ways—including by facility, location, industrial sector, and the type of GHG emitted. This information can be used by communities to identify nearby sources of GHGs, help businesses compare and track emissions, and provide information to state and local governments."

• Access EPA’s GHG Reporting Program Data and Data Publication Tool
  
• Information on the GHG Reporting Program
  
• Information on the U.S. Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Sources and Sinks

Programmable Web Services Directory of over 100 government [local, state and federal] APIs released in 2011.

• Over 2,000 APIs Added in 2011: Social, Telephony, Open Government
  
• See also How the Internet of Things Is Turning Cities Into Living Organisms - "When city services can autonomously go online and digest information from the cloud, they can reach a level of performance never before seen." December 6, 2011

UK Government Web Archive - "The National Archives is preserving government information published on the web by archiving UK Central Government Websites..The UK Government Web Archive has received more than a billion hits since it was launched by The National Archives in 2003 and is now one of the most-visited websites in government."

The Gov Doc Kids Group and Free Government Information - Tom Adamich, Martha Childers, Katy Davis, John H. Faria and Antoinette W. Satterfield. The IFLA World Library and Information Congress

FY 2011 GSA OCSIT Annual Report: "We are leading the Obama Administration’s charge to make government more open, transparent, and effective for the citizens it serves. We led several key initiatives this year to reform federal IT, facilitate using new technologies to improve government operations and citizen engagement, and help agencies enhance customer experience across government. Citizens accessed our information and services more than 272 million times this year, visiting USA.gov and other websites, searching through USASearch, ordering and downloading publications, interacting via social media, and getting answers by phone calls and e-mails about thousands of different government services and programs...Data.gov, which now hosts over 400,000 downloadable, interactive data sets, is the anchor of the 38-nation Open Government Partnership. We also launched Data.gov-in-a-Box, an open-source version of Data.gov that other countries and other governments at any level can use."

Via DC Apps - Users may Browse Categories: Education, Public Safety, Economic Development, Infrastructure, Government Operations, Health and Human Services, About DC. Also includes links to Best applications built by individuals/companies.

News release: "...we are launching code.nasa.gov, the latest member of the open NASA web family. Through this website, we will continue, unify, and expand NASA’s open source activities. The site will serve to surface existing projects, provide a forum for discussing projects and processes, and guide internal and external groups in open development, release, and contribution. In our initial release, we are focusing on providing a home for the current state of open source at the Agency. This includes guidance on how to engage the open source process, points of contact, and a directory of existing projects. By elucidating the process, we hope to lower the barriers to building open technology in partnership with the public. Phase two will concentrate on providing a robust forum for ongoing discussion of open source concepts, policies, and projects at the Agency. In our third phase, we will turn to the tools and mechanisms development projects generally need to be successful, such as distributed version control, issue tracking, continuous integration, documentation, communication, and planning/management. During this phase, we will create and host a tool, service, and process chain to further lower the burden to going open. Ultimately, our goal is to create a highly visible community hub that will imbue open concepts into the formulation stages of new hardware and software projects, and help existing projects transition to open modes of development and operation."

EPA Blog: "Almost 40 years ago, EPA’s Documerica project captured thousands of images of environmental problems and everyday life. Now it’s your turn! On Earth Day 2011, EPA put out a global call for current photos of life and our environment, PLUS a challenge to photograph the ‘now’ of places in Documerica. Your photo could be exhibited around the U.S. in 2012! Join In! Sign up and submit photos through Flickr!"

Government As a Platform Copyright © 2010 O’Reilly Media, Inc.

"FRASER, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' digital library of historic economic and banking publications and archival material, has received a facelift. The redesigned website includes new and enhanced site navigation, such as chronological browsing, collections by topic and author, and a more advanced search feature." [Katrina Stierholz]

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Completely Updated - December 2011: Sabrina I. Pacifici's comprehensive, current awareness guide focuses on leveraging a wide but selected range of reliable, focused, predominantly free websites and resources to effectively track, monitor, analyze, background and review current and historical data, news, reports, and profiles on companies, markets, countries, people, and issues, from a global perspective. Sabrina's guide is a "best of" web resource that encompasses search engines, databases, alerts, publisher specific services and tools, along with links to content targeted sources produced by leading media organizations, governments, academia, NGOs and independent researchers.

"Millions are turning to official state election websites to find the information they need to cast a ballot. Being Online Is Still Not Enough provides state-by-state reviews and analysis based on detailed criteria of election websites for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It also includes recommendations for improving each site to better inform voters, and provides a list of best practices adopted by many states to maximize their election office’s online presence. This report follows Pew’s initial 2008 study, Being Online Is Not Enough. Assessments were based on three categories: content, lookup tools, and usability. Roll your cursor over the map below to see each state’s overall score, and scores broken down by category."

LSCM’s Past, Present, and Future of Keeping America Informed FY2011 Year in Review: "One LSCM focus this past year has been to increase content in GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) by improving and escalating our efforts to partner and collaborate with Federal depository libraries, Federal executive agencies, the Library of Congress, and the Federal courts. As a result, many new collections have been added to FDsys, including Federal court opinions and digitized historic volumes of the U.S. Statutes at Large. FDsys became GPO’s official system of record in December 2010, and GPO Access is now archive-only and will be officially shut down in 2012. LSCM staff have been instrumental in making the transition from GPO Access to FDsys a success. It’s important to point out that the eCFR is not affected by this change and will continue to be updated and remain publicly accessible."

A look at the Gov 2.0 themes, moments and achievements that made an impact in 2011. by Alex Howard

"Healthy People 2020 provides a comprehensive set of 10-year, national goals and objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 contains 42 topic areas with nearly 600 objectives (with others still evolving), which encompass 1,200 measures. A smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, called Leading Health Indicators, has been selected to communicate high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them."

"Welcome to the Beta version of MyFCC, a new tool that lets you create a customized FCC online experience, with quick access to the tools and information that you need...Personalization options built into MyFCC make it possible to easily create, save and manage a customized page, or “dashboard.” Choose from a menu of “widgets” featuring a wide variety of the FCC’s most frequently used tools and services by simply dragging and dropping your selections onto your screen. MyFCC also makes it possible for you to share your MyFCC selections with colleagues or on the Web, either as a customized dashboard or by embedding individual widgets on a website or blog."

State of the Federal Web Report, December 16, 2011. Produced by the .gov Reform Task Force

"The Blueprint for a Secure Cyber Future builds on the Department of Homeland Security Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Report’s strategic framework by providing a clear path to create a safe, secure, and resilient cyber environment for the homeland security enterprise. With this guide, stakeholders at all levels of government, the private sector, and our international partners can work together to develop the cybersecurity capabilities that are key to our economy, national security, and public health and safety. The Blueprint describes two areas of action: Protecting our Critical Information Infrastructure Today and Building a Stronger Cyber Ecosystem for Tomorrow. The Blueprint is designed to protect our most vital systems and assets and, over time, drive fundamental change in the way people and devices work together to secure cyberspace. The integration of privacy and civil liberties protections into the Department’s cybersecurity activities is fundamental to safeguarding and securing cyberspace."

"Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics (On-demand self-service, Broad network access, Resource pooling, Rapid elasticity, Measured Service); three service models (Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS), Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)); and, four deployment models (Private cloud, Community cloud, Public cloud, Hybrid cloud). Key enabling technologies include: (1) fast wide-area networks, (2) powerful, inexpensive server computers, and (3) high-performance virtualization for commodity hardware." Draft Documents as follows:

• NIST Special Publication 500-293, US Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Release 1.0 (Draft), Volume I High-Priority Requirements to Further USG Agency Cloud Computing Adoption
  
• NIST Special Publication 500-293, US Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Release 1.0 (Draft), Volume II Useful Information for Cloud Adopters

"All of Statistics Canada’s standard online products, including the census, socioeconomic and geographic data, will be offered to the public for free starting February 2012, Embassy has learned. While Statistics Canada has been working towards opening up more of its data for several years, it still currently charges for a portion of its online data, including, for example, some data sets inside its Canadian Socioeconomic Information Management System, what the agency calls its “key socioeconomic database.” Researchers, economists and other individuals buy these products, and several firms are also licensed by the agency to act as redistributors. Some of those firms charge for reselling the data, and some roll it into other value-added products they sell. This fall, the agency began alerting "key stakeholders" to the upcoming change." [Cassandra Hartnett]

"This memorandum begins an executive branch wide effort to reform records management policies and practices. Improving records management will improve performance and promote openness and accountability by better documenting agency actions and decisions. Records transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provide the prism through which future generations will understand and learn from our actions and decisions. Modernized records management will also help executive departments and agencies (agencies) minimize costs and operate more efficiently. Improved records management thus builds on Executive Order 13589 of November 9, 2011 (Promoting Efficient Spending), which directed agencies to reduce spending and focus on mission critical functions. When records are well managed, agencies can use them to assess the impact of programs, to reduce redundant efforts, to save money, and to share knowledge within and across their organizations. In these ways, proper records management is the backbone of open Government."

News release: "...the Department of Health and Human Services updated the HealthCare.gov Insurance Finder with more information on private insurance plans. Created under the Affordable Care Act, www.HealthCare.gov was launched July 1, 2010, and is the first website of its kind to bring information about private and public health coverage options into one place to make it easy for consumers to learn about and compare their insurance choices. HealthCare.gov and its Insurance Finder are critical new tools for consumers, making the health insurance market more transparent than it has ever been. On October 1, the Insurance Finder added price estimates for private insurance policies for individuals and families, allowing consumers to easily compare health insurance plans – putting consumers, not their insurance companies, in charge and taking much of the guesswork and confusion out of buying insurance. Insurance companies are also required to include two notable metrics never before made public:

• The percentage of people who applied for insurance and were denied coverage.
  
• The percentage of applicants who were charged higher premiums because of their health status."

News release: "The FCC is launching the Small Biz Cyber Planner, an online resource to help small businesses create customized cybersecurity plans. This is the result of an unprecedented public-private partnership between government experts and private IT and security companies, including DHS, NCSA, NIST, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Chertoff Group, Symantec, Sophos, Visa, Microsoft, HP, McAfee, The Identity Theft Council, ADP and others. The online tool is available at FCC.gov/cyberplanner. By almost any measure small businesses have an outsized impact on our economy and it is critically important that small businesses, a vibrant engine for job and idea creation, are secure using the many broadband enabled tools they need to efficiently run their businesses. According to a survey released in October, 2011 by Symantec and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), two-thirds of U.S. small businesses rely on broadband Internet for their day-to-day operations...This effort is part of an ongoing program to raise awareness about the cybersecurity risks to small businesses and to help these businesses become cyber-secure. Earlier this year, the FCC and a coalition of public and private-sector partners developed a cybersecurity tip sheet, which includes tips to educate business owners about basic steps they can take immediately to protect their companies. The tip sheet is available at FCC.gov/cyberforsmallbiz".

Evaluation Report - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Unclassified Cyber Security Program - 2011. OAS-M-12-01 November 2011.

2012 Fuel Economy Guide - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

A Year Later, Little Progress on Digitizing Legislative Documents, Daniel Schuman: "A year ago today, Congress' Joint Committee on Printing directed that three sets of vital legislative and legal documents be published online "as quickly as possible." We've reviewed how well that order was implemented, and the results are not encouraging. Of the three documents, there's only apparent progress on one. The vital documents are the Constitution Annotated, the Congressional Record, and the Statutes at Large. The Government Printing Office is responsible for publishing them, and shares that responsibility to a certain extent with the Library of Congress and its subsidiary agencies, the Congressional Research Service and the Law Library of Congress. These agencies are custodians of America's heritage, and have an important obligation to make it available to every citizen. Here's how they've performed..."

"The European Union has adopted strict new guidelines limiting the use of body scanners at EU airports. Under the new guidelines, European Union member states may only deploy airport body scanners if they comply with new regulations that protect health, privacy, and fundamental rights. The European Commission has also prohibited any devices that store, record, or transfer images of travelers as well as devices that display an image of the naked human body. As a result, backscatter x-ray devices are now effectively prohibited in airports in the European Union. The European Commission has also made clear that passengers may not be required to go through body scanners, following the conclusion reached by the federal appellate court in the United States in the EPIC v. DHS case, which held that passengers have a legal right to opt-out of body scanners. The body scanners have not done well during trials in Europe. Most recently a test in Germany found that the devices were ineffective. For more information, see EPIC: Whole Body Imaging Technology and EPIC: EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of the Body Scanner Program)."

News release: "President Obama signed Executive Order 13556, "Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)," and designated the National Archives and Records Administration as the Executive Agent "to implement this order and oversee agency actions to ensure compliance with this order." On November 4, 2011, as required by this Executive Order, the National Archives Controlled Unclassified Information Office established a publically available registry reflecting the initial categories and subcategories of unclassified information that require dissemination or safeguarding controls consistent with and pursuant to law, regulation, and Government-wide policy. This registry is online."

Teach.gov: "Teaching is a rewarding and challenging profession where you can make a lasting impact. You can have a positive influence on students, schools, and communities now and into the future. Schools across the nation are in need of a diverse set of talented teachers, especially in our big cities and rural areas, and especially in the areas of Math, Science, Technology, Special Education, and English Language Learning. The TEACH campaign is an initiative of the United States Department of Education designed to raise awareness of the teaching profession and get a new generation of teachers to join the ones who are already making a difference in the classroom. At TEACH.gov you can learn what it’s really like to be a teacher and get the tools you need to launch your own career in education. Are you ready to make a difference? Discover your path to teaching and get started today."

"Northwest Government Information Network Handouts: Fall 2011, updated November 3, 2011. Fall 2011 featured Linda Clark, Seattle Regional Office, U.S. Census Bureau as our main speaker. She came to provide us with some training on how to use the newly revamped American Factfinder 2. Below are the handouts she used for her presentation.

• 2010 Census Products at a Glance
  
• 2010 Standard Data Products -- Descriptions
  
• American Community Survey Data Release Timetable
  
• American Community Survey Topics Table Codes
  
• American Factfinder 2: Search and Navigation Tips
  
• Are You in a Survey or Census?
  
• Census Geography Hierarchy (with 2010 Statistical Area Criteria)
  
• Comparison: Census Bureau Demographic Programs
  
• I Didn't Know the Census Bureau Did That! Mining for Data Linked to the Census Bureau's Home Page
  
• The New American Factfinder (AFF2)
  
• U.S. Census Bureau: Three Demographic Programs

"Federal agencies and their partners collect and manage large amounts of geospatial data - but these data are often not easily found when needed or accessible in useful forms. The Geospatial Platform provides ready access to federally maintained geospatial data, services and applications. The content of all datasets and services demarcated with the Data.gov globe have been verified by the Agency to be consistent with Federal privacy, national security, and information quality policies. As an additional service to our users, we also provide access to data from our partners across State, Tribal, Regional and local governments as well as non-governmental organizations."

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today launched a new website for patients and caregivers on the safe disposal of needles and other so-called “sharps” that are used at home, at work and while traveling. The website will help people understand the public health risks created by improperly disposing of used sharps and how users should safely dispose of them. Sharps is a term for medical devices with sharp points or edges that can puncture or cut the skin. Such medical devices include hypodermic needles and syringes used to administer medication; lancets or fingerstick devices to collect blood for testing; needle and tubing systems for infusing intravenous and subcutaneous medicines; and connection needles used for home hemodialysis. After being used, many sharps end up in home and public trash cans or flushed down toilets. This kind of improper disposal puts people, such as sanitation workers, sewage treatment workers, janitors, housekeepers, family members and children at risk for needle stick injuries or infection with viruses such as Hepatitis B and C and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)."

News release: "Congressional websites are getting better, according to an analysis by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF). The nonprofit organization graded 618 congressional websites and found the most common grade moved from an F in the 111th Congress to a B in the 112th Congress. CMF has been grading congressional websites since 2001 and issues biannual Congressional Gold Mouse Awards for the best websites on Capitol Hill for each Congress. CMF conducted its analysis from June to September 2011...see the latest report - 112th Congress Gold Mouse Awards: Best Practices in Online Communications on Capitol Hill, [which] identified recent trends related to online communications in Congress, including:

• A significant number of House and Senate Member websites lacked basic educational and transparency features including: links to bills sponsored and cosponsored, voting records, and basic information on how a bill becomes a law.
  
• House Members taking office in January 2011 had significantly better websites than Senators taking office in January 2011, with 61% of new House Members receiving an A or B grade, compared to 31% of new Senators receiving a similar grade. Nearly half (46%) of new Senators received a grade of D or F, compared to 17% of new House Members.
  
• While there was general parity overall in quality of websites between Democrats and Republican Member websites, the best websites tended to be Democratic Members.
  
• View the full list of the 112th Congress Gold Mouse Award Winners

News release: "Customer experience analytics firm ForeSee today released its report on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Quarterly E-Government Satisfaction Index, including an analysis of the state of social media in the federal government. ForeSee’s audit of social media activity in the federal government identified clear themes and best practices, showing that the public sector is learning to communicate with citizens in ways that are not usually associated with government services. ForeSee conducted an expert usability review of the 15 executive department websites in order to gauge how many participate in social media and how they do it. All are participating in the three most popular social platforms—Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—and many are using other new media and communications tools, from Flickr and podcasts to email newsletters and RSS feeds."

"EIA launched a new web-based report called the Electricity Monthly Update, replacing the Monthly Flash Estimates for Electric Power Data. This new product introduces a feature story, interactive graphics, a new presentation flow, and new electricity industry data sources. The report is organized into four sections:

• End Use
  
• Resource Use
  
• Regional Wholesale Markets
  
• Coal Stocks

Use of Dashboards in Government, by Sukumar Ganapati, Florida International University, IBM Center for the Business of Government

"Different people need different resources as they try to quit. The information and professional assistance available on this Web site can help to support both your immediate and long-term needs as you become, and remain, a nonsmoker. Smokefree.gov allows you to choose the help that best fits your needs. You can get immediate assistance in the form of:

• A step-by-step quit smoking guide
  
• Information about a wide range of topics related to smoking and quitting
  
• An interactive U.S. map highlighting smoking information in your state
  
• LiveHelp, National Cancer Institute's instant messaging service
  
• National Cancer Institute's telephone quitline, 1-877-44U-QUIT
  
• Local and state telephone quitlines, 1-800-QUIT-NOW
  
• Publications to download, print, or order
  
• SmokefreeTXT is a free mobile service designed for teens and young adults across the United States."

"Publications.USA.gov offers publications from across government, on topics including: Cars | Consumer | Protection | Education | Employment | Federal Programs | Food | Health | Housing | Money

News release: "On Sept. 26, 2011, we released a tip sheet notice highlighting the Census Bureau's online tool for searching economic indicators. The tool currently searches on 12 but will be updated to allow searches on a 13th indicator (housing vacancies and homeownership). Below is the language of the notice revised to reflect this update. Statistics from 12 of the Census Bureau's 13 economic indicators are now easy to access and easier to use with the new economic indicator database search. Current plans are under way to add the 13th indicator (the quarterly report on housing vacancies and homeownership) to this user-friendly Internet tool. It provides an easy way to create statistical tables in ASCII text or time series charts in spreadsheet format. Users can select an indicator and choose statistics by item, time period and other dimensions using drop-down menus."

"These two reports provide an overview of virtually all federal spending at the national, state and county levels. The Consolidated Federal Funds Report shows spending for procurement contracts, salaries and wages, direct payments and loans, grants and insurance. The Federal Aid to States report show federal grants to state and local government. The Consolidated Federal Funds Report: 2010 and Federal Aid to States for Fiscal Year 2010."

News release: "Statistics from 12 economic indicators are now easy to access and easier to use with the new economic indicator database search. With the release of the Quarterly Financial Report for retail trade, all 12 of the Census Bureau's economic indicators are accessible in this user-friendly Internet tool. It provides an easy way to create statistical tables in ASCII text or time series charts in spreadsheet format. Users can select an indicator and choose statistics by item, time period and other dimensions using drop-down menus at here."

Intelligence Issues for Congress, Richard A. Best Jr., Specialist in National Defense, September 14, 2011

Marine Corp Social Media Principles

The Open Government Partnership - National Action Plan for the United States of America, September 20, 2011

Evaluating the Use of Public Surveillance Cameras for Crime Control and Prevention - A Summary. Nancy G. La Vigne, Samantha S. Lowry, Joshua Markman, Allison Dwyer. September 19, 2011

News release: "Want to know more about Internet safety and security? Visit the new and improved OnGuardOnline.gov for practical tips and resources on how to be safe, secure and responsible online. Created through a partnership of 16 federal agencies led by the Federal Trade Commission, it’s a great source of free information for your home, school, community group, or workplace. OnGuardOnline’s new features include a cybersecurity blog and information updates via e-mail. Also, the FTC has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies in the Stop.Think.Connect Campaign™ to raise awareness of the need for stronger cybersecurity with new approaches to help increase online safety and security. The new OnGuardOnline blog offers cybersecurity news from around the government, how-to articles and videos, and insights from federal officials. Check back regularly for updates, or sign up to get an e-mail when a new post is up. You can copy information from the site, adapt it, post it, or link to it, and you can share your thoughts on the blog. Updating your website or blog? Link to OnGuardOnline. Editing a newsletter? Use our articles. Need hand-outs for a talk you’re giving? Print publications from the website, or order free materials from the FTC."

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan, 2011 – 2015. In developing and executing the federal health IT strategy, the government strives to

• "Put individuals and their interests first. In order to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, the government must meet the needs and protect the rights of each individual.
  
• Be a worthy steward of the country’s money and trust. The government seeks to use its resources judiciously. This means relying to the extent possible on private markets to accomplish important societal objectives, and acting to correct market failures when necessary. It also means developing governmental policies through open and transparent processes.
  
• Support health IT benefits for all. All Americans should have equal access to quality health care. This includes the benefits conferred by health IT. The government will endeavor to assure that underserved and at-risk individuals enjoy these benefits to the same extent as all other citizens.
  
• Focus on outcomes. Federal health IT policy will constantly focus on improving the outcomes of care, so as to advance the health of Americans and the performance of their health care system.
  
• Build boldly on what works. The government will set ambitious goals and then work methodically to achieve them, monitoring health IT successes, and looking for ways to expand upon programs that work. It will seek to be nimble and action-oriented: evaluating existing government activities, learning from experience, and changing course if necessary.
  
• Encourage innovation. The government is working to create an environment of testing, learning, and improving, thereby fostering breakthroughs that quickly and radically transform health care. The government will support innovation in health IT."

New release: "IDC Government Insights announced the availability of a new report, Creating More Effective Government Information and Service Channels – Citizen Survey and Analysis (Document # GI229971), based on new survey data revealing that U.S. citizens expect governments to provide multiple channels for the delivery of government services information, including in person, by mail, by telephone, by email, and via a personal computer. The survey revealed the highest preference for interacting with all branches of U.S. government is currently through government Web portals via a personal computer; 36% of respondents chose this method of interacting with the federal government. However, currently, when it comes to interacting with government regarding information and services, one in five survey respondents is not satisfied with the experience with any branch of government, despite efforts at all level of government to improve citizen satisfaction. This new report was designed to help governments looking to evolve from open/transparent government to "Smart Government," which intuitively measures outcomes and monitors citizen satisfaction across all channels to more effectively provide services and information."

The New York Times - 9/11: The Reckoning, America and the World A Decade After 9/11

News release: "As the new school year starts, the Federal Trade Commission is launching its 2011 We Don’t Serve Teens consumer education campaign, which warns of the hazards of underage drinking. The FTC and a coalition of private and public groups are distributing education materials that support the legal drinking age of 21 and emphasize that what parents know about underage drinking can make a huge difference in their children’s future. “Parents need to confront the risks of teen drinking head on,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Alcohol remains the most widely used substance of abuse among youth in the United States, and the more parents understand the pressures their children face, the better prepared they will be to help.” For more information see: We Don’t Serve Teens."

Uncle Sam at Your Service - The 2011 Federal Customer Experience Study, August 29, 2011. MeriTalk Government IT Network.

• "31% of Americans are very satisfied with Federal service this year, up from 24% in 2010
  
• Americans report the biggest improvements in agency responsiveness and information consistency, where the percentage of very satisfied Americans grew from 27% to 39% and 24% to 35% over the past year
  
• Which Federal agency has delivered the best customer service to you? Responses: 1.Internal Revenue Service (IRS); 2.Social Security Administration; 3.United States Postal Service; 4.Department of Education; 5.State Department."

Mobile Learning: The Current Landscape in the Department of Defense (DoD), Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Co-Laboratories, 10 August 2011 Version 1.0

"Performance.gov is a central website that provides a window on the Administration’s efforts to deliver a more effective, smarter, and leaner government. The site gives the public, government agencies, Members of Congress, the media, and others a view of the progress underway in cutting waste, streamlining government, and improving performance. Performance.gov advances the commitment in the President’s FY2011 budget to communicate candidly and concisely what the Federal government is trying to accomplish, how it is trying to accomplish it, and why these efforts are important. The home page provides two main ways to view information, by agency or area of focus. Specifically, Performance.gov provides information on the government’s progress in the following areas of focus:

• Improving the return on contract spending
  
• Reducing improper payments
  
• Eliminating unneeded Federal real estate
  
• Achieving technology-driven productivity gains
  
• Accelerating performance on agency priorities
  
• Hiring the best to deliver the best

Federal Agency Use of Electronic Media in the Rulemaking Process, by Cary Coglianese - University of Pennsylvania [via Michael Ravnitzky]

Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, Improvements in Patch and Configuration Management Controls Can Better Protect TSA’s Wireless Network and Devices (Redacted) OIG-11-99 July 2011

Follow up to .gov Reform Effort: Improving Federal Websites - Instructions and Guidance for Completing the Web Inventory, August 19, 2011

"The government apps and mobile sites allow you to access official information on various topics from the palm of your hand. Learn more about apps."

News release: "The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register (OFR) have taken another step in making Government information open and transparent for the American public. The agencies have introduced an Application Programming Interface (API) for Federal Register.gov, enabling information technology developers to create new applications for regulatory information published in the Federal Register. The API is an open data tool packaged in a light-weight, Web-friendly data transfer format that requires only a Web browser or client to begin development projects. This interface enables
developers to tailor applications for sub-sets of agencies and particular documents, and to optimize resources for the mobile Web. Many Open Government supporters have given the API positive reviews."

Follow up to posting, .gov Reform Effort: Improving Federal Websites, see NextGov: "Government officials charged with rationalizing their agencies' Web presence should consider potential cost savings from cutting or consolidating seldom visited websites and aim for a sleeker online footprint that better serves the public, according to guidance released Tuesday. Federal agencies have historically set a low bar for what warrants a new website, leading the government's online universe to balloon to nearly 2,000 domains and more than 20,000 individual sites."

"The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) endorses the secure use of Web-based collaboration and social media tools to enhance communication, stakeholder outreach collaboration, and information exchange; streamline processes; and foster productivity improvements. Use of these tools supports VA and VA’s goal of achieving an interoperable, net-centric environment by improving employee effectiveness through seamless access to information. Web-based collaboration tools enable widely dispersed facilities and VA personnel to more effectively collaborate and share information—which can result in better productivity, higher efficiency, and foster innovation. This Directive establishes policy on the proper use of these tools, consistent with applicable laws, regulations, and policies."

"The Center for Digital Government's Digital Counties Survey is conducted in partnership with the National Association of Counties (NACo) annually in the spring: March - April. All U.S. counties are invited to participate (consolidated county-city jurisdictions are invited to participate in the Digital Cities Survey in the summer). The awards are presented during NACO's annual conference each July."

Data-Enabled Government: How Well Is Our Personal Information Used and Protected? - HP Business White Paper

"What is inflation and how does the Federal Reserve measure it?
Inflation occurs when the prices of goods and services increase over time. Inflation cannot be measured by an increase in the cost of one product or service, or even several products or services. Rather, inflation is a general increase in the overall price level of the goods and services in the economy. Federal Reserve policymakers evaluate changes in inflation by monitoring several different price indexes. A price index measures changes in the price of a group of goods and services. The Fed considers several price indexes because different indexes track different products and services, and because indexes are calculated differently. Therefore, various indexes can send diverse signals about inflation."

"The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have teamed up to recognize the cream of the crop in energy-efficient appliances. These top-rated products will stand out from other Energy Star appliances with a new, “Most Efficient” label. The designation will not only help consumers save money and reduce the amount of pollution they generate, but should also spur manufacturers to innovate to produce the most energy-efficient appliances they can." DOE and EPA have identified Most Efficient 2011 products among televisions, clothes washers, and heating and cooling equipment. Refrigerators are coming soon. More product categories will be added in 2012."

"Search for Student Aid - The fall semester starts in weeks. If school expenses are weighing on your mind, remember that Uncle Sam is the biggest single provider of student aid. That includes grants, work-study programs and low-interest loans for those who qualify, whether for college or for a technical, career or trade school. For all federal student aid, as well as for many state, regional and private aid programs, completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the way to begin. Visit Student Aid on the Web to get started."

Roll Call reported late in the evening on July 26, 2011 that Congressional websites and phone systems crashed after President Obama's speech on the debt ceiling. So via USA.gov, the following links to help you communicate with your elected officials,

• contact your U.S. Senator
  
• contact your Representative in the U.S. House
  
• contact the President
  
• contact other government officials

"While the Internet can be a safe and convenient place to do business, scammers are out there in "cyber world" targeting unsuspecting consumers. The Looks Too Good To Be True.com website was built to educate you, the consumer, and help prevent you from becoming a victim of an Internet fraud scheme. The website was developed and is maintained by a joint federal law enforcement and industry task force. Funding for the site has been provided by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Key partners include the National White Collar Crime Center, Monster.com, Target and members of the Merchants Risk Council."

News release: "The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has launched a newly designed Web site with resources to help consumers protect themselves from fraudulent or unscrupulous interstate household goods moving companies. The Web site - www.ProtectYourMove.gov - includes a user-friendly database that allows visitors to look up interstate moving companies by state or by name and to review both the consumer complaint history as well as the company's on-road safety performance records. A new feature of the Web site allows state consumer protection agencies to easily update state contact information for shippers who have questions about household goods movers. The www.ProtectYourMove.gov Web site features a new public service announcement, "Don't Be a Victim," that focuses on ways consumers can prevent moving fraud."

NYT: "The federal government plans to shut 40 percent of its computer centers over the next four years to reduce its hefty technology budget and modernize the way it uses computers to manage data and provide services to citizens. Vivek Kundra, chief information officer for the government, said cloud computing could save the country billions of dollars. Computer centers typically do not employ many people to tend the machines, but analysts estimate that tens of thousands of jobs will most likely be eliminated."

Commentary: "Britain is now enmeshed in a gigantic scandal around privacy invasions by the press and police. It began with revelations about reporters for Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid newspaper News of the World hacking into the voicemail of a murdered young girl, and has expanded as other privacy invasions have come to light."

"The .gov reform effort is part of President Obama's Campaign to Cut Waste, identifying unnecessary websites that can be consolidated into other websites to reduce costs and improve the quality of service to the American public. The President signed Executive Order 13571, "Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service," April 27, 2011, which requires federal agencies to take specific steps to strengthen customer service, including how they deliver services and information on federal ".gov" websites."

News release: "Say “spam” and most business executives think of annoying e-mail messages, like the ones that hold out a phony offer to split $50 million that’s sitting in a foreign bank. Of course, this type of message is covered by the Federal Trade Commission’s CAN-SPAM Rule, which is designed to protect consumers from deceptive commercial e-mail. But CAN-SPAM covers e-mails from legitimate businesses, too, such as e-mail notifying customers about a new product line or a special sale. To help explain what the CAN-SPAM Rule covers, the FTC has produced a new video for businesses with a seven-point checklist for sending commercial e-mail messages. For example, e-mail marketers must use accurate headers and subject lines and provide a method for consumers to stop getting e-mails. In addition to the video, the FTC also offers a brochure, The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business."

Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace, July 2011

"The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act established the federal premerger notification program, which provides the FTC and the Department of Justice with information about large mergers and acquisitions before they occur. The parties to certain proposed transactions must submit premerger notification to the FTC and DOJ. Premerger notification involves completing an HSR Form, also called a “Notification and Report Form for Certain Mergers and Acquisitions,” with information about each company’s business. The parties may not close their deal until the waiting period outlined in the HSR Act has passed, or the government has granted early termination of the waiting period. For more information about the program, read our Introductory Guides. The FTC administers the premerger notification program, and the staff of the Premerger Notification Office is available to answer questions about how and when to file."

News release: "The Federal Reserve Board released a report that contains 2010 payment and account information about more than 1,000 agreements between institutions of higher education or affiliated organizations and credit card issuers. The Board also updated an online database that provides the complete text of each agreement and the payment and accounts information submitted by issuers. Users may also search for agreements by card issuer, by educational institution or organization, or by the city or state in which the institution or organization is located."

"The Prime Minister has today committed to publishing key data on the National Health Service, schools, criminal courts and transport. This represents the most ambitious open data agenda of any government anywhere in the world. The new data [see data.go.uk] will reveal clinical achievements and prescribing data by individual GP practices, the performance of hospital teams in treating lung cancer and other key healthcare conditions, the effectiveness of schools at teaching pupils across a range of subjects, criminal sentencing by each court, and data on rail timetables, rail service performance, roadworks, current road conditions, car parks and cycle routes in an open format for use by all. The new commitments, set out in a letter from the Prime Minister to Cabinet colleagues, aim to provide the public with more information about the performance of services they use every day, and to help to drive modern, personalised and sustainable public services. The new data are also expected to drive economic growth as they promote the creation of new services and applications."

News release: "The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology today introduced a new database highlighting the energy potential available in the United States from ocean tides. This online database is an important step towards providing information that can improve the performance, lower the costs, and accelerate the deployment of innovative water power technologies...Researchers at Georgia Tech Savannah used advanced regional ocean models to simulate tidal flows along the entire U.S. coastline. DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory validated the model’s accuracy and the resulting data are now publically available at the website developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology."

"The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM)- July 2011 - With Data for April 2011 - provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners’ acquisition cost of crude oil. Refined petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. The Office of Petroleum and Biofuels Statistics, U.S. Energy Information Administration ensures the accuracy, quality, and confidentiality of the published data in the Petroleum Marketing Monthly."

"Since 1995, the White House has been required to deliver a report to Congress listing the title and salary of every White House Office employee. Consistent with President Obama's commitment to transparency, this report is being publicly disclosed on our website as it is transmitted to Congress. In addition, this report also contains the title and salary details of administration officials who work at the Office of Policy Development, including the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council -- along with White House Office employees. View the searchable table here."

News release: "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) has expanded the range of public information offered on its website by adding a Legal Filings and Decisions section to the Resources page. This innovation, part of a recent major upgrade of the PBGC website, presents significant legal filings recently submitted by PBGC in its efforts to preserve and safeguard pensions, as well as court decisions issued in response to PBGC filings. The new section also will offer noteworthy filings and decisions from the recent past."

The Economist: "If the weather holds and there are no unforeseen complications, then early in the morning on July 8th a woman and three men will ascend the launch tower at Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre, strap themselves into Atlantis, the last operational space shuttle, and, as the engines ignite, wait for the countdown to reach zero. Burning thousands of litres of rocket fuel every second and blasting superheated gas into the water-filled trench beneath the pad, the engines will kick up the vast gouts of steam and smoke that characterise a rocket launch."

"The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has partnered with the Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) to provide permanent public access to Davis Bacon Wage Determination information.Wage Determinations OnLine (WDOL)is the official Federal Acquisitions Regulation (FAR) mandated Web site that contains both current and archived wage determinations. Users can search for a determination or browse by state and county. Archived determinations are available from 2000 forward. Permanent public access to the Davis Bacon Wage Determinations is ensured through the partnership; therefore, GPO's Davis Bacon site will redirect users to the WDOL site."

2010 Agricultural Chemical Usage Data Correction: "In the fall of 2010, NASS (National Agricultural Statistics Service) collected data about chemical use and pest management on acres of conventional and organic corn as well as upland cotton and fall potatoes that were planted for the 2010 crop year. These data were collected as part of the Agricultural Resource Management Survey, and results were based on 4,893 individual responses from producers in 25 program states: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North
Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. These states accounted for 93 percent of corn acres, 84 percent of the upland cotton acres, and 87 percent of the fall potato acres planted nationwide in the 2010 crop year."

News release: "The online Food Desert Locator, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), is a tool that can be used to assist efforts to expand the availability of nutritious food in food deserts, or low-income communities that lack ready access to healthy food. Expanding the availability of nutritious food is part of First Lady Michele Obama's Let's Move! initiative to address the epidemic of childhood obesity...A food desert is a low-income census tract where either a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store. "Low income" tracts are defined as those where at least 20 percent of the people have income at or below the federal poverty levels for family size, or where median family income for the tract is at or below 80 percent of the surrounding area's median family income. Tracts qualify as "low access" tracts if at least 500 persons or 33 percent of their population live more than a mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles). This definition was developed by a working group comprised of members from the departments of Treasury, Health and Human Services, and USDA, which is partnering to expand the availability of nutritious food."

FCC: "You may be one of many consumers who have received emails saying you’re about to be assaulted by unwanted telemarketing calls to your wireless phone. Rest assured that placing telemarketing calls to wireless phones is -- and always has been -- illegal in most cases. Why the Confusion? The confusion seems to stem from recent discussions in the wireless phone industry about establishing a wireless 411 phone directory, much like your traditional (wired) 411 phone directory. A number of email campaigns seem to suggest that if your wireless telephone number is listed in a wireless 411 directory, it will be available to telemarketers, and you will start to receive sales calls. In addition, some of these email campaigns suggest that there is a separate do-not-call “cell phone registry,” which you must call to have your wireless phone number covered by the do-not-call rules. This information is wrong."

News release: "The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has formally launched MedlinePlus Connect. This free service allows health organizations and health information technology (HIT) providers to link patient portals and electronic health record (EHR) systems to MedlinePlus.gov, a trusted source of authoritative, up-to-date health information for patients, families and health care providers. MedlinePlus brings together information from NIH, other federal agencies, and reputable health information providers. MedlinePlus covers a wide range of health conditions and wellness issues, and includes key resources to inform patients about their health."

News release: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today unveiled a new strategy to meet the challenges posed by rapidly rising imports of FDA-regulated products and a complex global supply chain in a report called the Pathway to Global Product Safety and Quality. The FDA report calls for the agency to transform the way it conducts business and to act globally in order to promote and protect the health of U.S. consumers. Highlights of the report include four key elements needed to make the change:

1. The FDA will partner with its counterparts worldwide to create global coalitions of regulators focused on ensuring and improving global product safety and quality.
   
2. The coalitions of regulators will develop international data information systems and networks and increase the regular and proactive sharing of data and regulatory resources across world markets.
   
3. The FDA will build in additional information gathering and analysis capabilities with an increased focus on risk analytics and information technology.
   
4. The FDA increasingly will leverage the efforts of public and private third parties and industry and allocate FDA resources based on risk."

"Sign up for our free Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (formerly known as “Travel Registration” or “Registration with Embassies”) to receive the latest travel updates and information. When you sign up, you will automatically receive the most current information we compile about the country where you will be traveling or living. ou will also receive updates, including Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts (where appropriate). You only need to sign up once, and then you can add and delete trips from your account based on your current travel plans."

A Brief Guide to the European Union and Its Legislative Processes, June 2011 - "The EU, created by the Treaty of Maastricht1, is a union of 27 independent states. It was founded to enhance political, economic and social cooperation. Its origins date back to the 1950s and the establishment of three organisations:

• European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) established by the Treaty of Paris
  
• European Economic Community (EEC) and European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) established by the Treaties of Rome
  Under the Treaty of Maastricht, these three organisations (collectively, under the Treaty of Brussels4, the ‘European Communities’) were brought together to comprise the first of three conceptual pillars, which together formed the EU.
  
• The Treaty also renamed the EEC the ‘European Community’ (EC), reflecting the determination of the Member States to expand the European Communities’ powers to non-economic domains."

"The U.S. Government Printing Office published its last official history 50 years ago, marking its centennial anniversary.
100 GPO Years 1861–1961 has proven to be a remarkably valuable resource and deserves to stand alone as an enduring
contribution to the historical record of this great agency. Instead of trying to improve on it, with the approach of our
150th anniversary we decided to recreate the telling of GPO’s story. Keeping America Informed: The U.S. Government
Printing Office: 150 Years of Service to the Nation recasts our history in a fresh light, with new contributions and emphases,
and provides the reader with a greater exposure to GPO’s rich photographic record, with many of the images in this book
published for the first time. Most important of all, Keeping America Informed describes how the agency has transformed itself through the years by continually adapting to the most efficient technologies available to get its work done. In the ink-on-paper era, this meant moving from handset to machine-set type, from slower to high-speed presses, and from hand to automated bookbinding. These changes enabled GPO to keep up with the demands of a growing Nation and helped keep costs down, and they were significant for their time. Yet they pale by comparison with the transformation that accompanied GPO’s incorporation of electronic information technologies, the single most dominant trend at the agency of the past 50 years, and the generator of unprecedented improvements in productivity and hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer savings that continue into the present. Today, GPO is fundamentally different from what it was as recently as a generation ago: smaller, leaner, and equipped with digital production capabilities that are the bedrock of the information systems relied upon daily by Congress, Federal agencies, and the public to ensure open and transparent Government in the digital era."

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making it easier to find data about chemicals. EPA is releasing two databases — the Toxicity Forecaster database (ToxCastDB) and a database of chemical exposure studies (ExpoCastDB) — that scientists and the public can use to access chemical toxicity and exposure data. ToxCastDB users can search and download data from over 500 rapid chemical tests conducted on more than 300 environmental chemicals. ToxCast uses advanced scientific tools to predict the potential toxicity of chemicals and to provide a cost-effective approach to prioritizing which chemicals of the thousands in use require further testing. ToxCast is currently screening 700 additional chemicals, and the data will be available in 2012...The new databases link together two important pieces of chemical research — exposure and toxicity data — both of which are required when considering potential risks posed by chemicals. The databases are connected through EPA’s Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource (ACToR), an online data warehouse that collects data on over 500,000 chemicals from over 500 public sources."

A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid: Enabling Our Secure Energy Future, June 2011

"The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has made available the Congressional Pictorial Directory: 112th Congress on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), a one-stop site to authentic, published Government information. GPO employees designed and created the Pictorial Directory, which features a color photograph of each Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate and details each Member’s length of service, political party affiliation, and congressional district. The Pictorial Directory also contains pictures of the President, Vice President, and House and Senate officers and officials."

News release: "NOAA announced an $11.5 million, three-year award to Earth Resources Technologies, Inc. for cloud-based unified messaging services. The agency-wide transition will modernize e-mail and calendar infrastructure, integrate collaborative tools and facilitate synchronization with mobile devices to better support NOAA’s mission and its nationwide workforce. As the largest federal agency to adopt cloud technology to date, NOAA will migrate 25,000 mailboxes to the cloud rather than utilizing in-house servers. NOAA’s decision to pursue the cloud solution supports the Obama administration’s direction to pursue a “cloud first” approach. “The cost to the taxpayer will be 50 percent less than an in-house solution,” said NOAA Chief Information Officer Joseph Klimavicz. “As the new standard, cloud computing has great value allowing us to ramp up quickly, avoid redundancy and provide new services and capabilities to large groups of customers.”

"EPIC and a coalition of privacy, consumer rights, and civil rights organizations filed a statement to the Department of Homeland Security in opposition to the proposed expansion of the employment verification system, "E-Verify." The agency announced plans to incorporate state driver license records that could significantly expand the use of the Homeland Security database. The groups said that the DHS proposal is unlawful and looks very similar to the REAL ID scheme that was previously defeated. EPIC has testified before Congress and published a Spotlight on Surveillance report about E-Verify. For more information, see EPIC: Employment Eligibility Verification System and EPIC: National ID."

News release: "In order to ensure the public has as much information as possible about the health and the environmental impacts of chemicals, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has made public the identities of more than 150 chemicals contained in 104 health and safety studies that had been claimed confidential by industry. Today’s announcement is another in a series of unprecedented actions that EPA is taking to provide the public with greater access to information on the chemicals that are manufactured and used in the United States. For these 104 studies, the chemical identity will no longer be redacted, or kept from view. The chemicals involved are used in dispersant formulations and consumer products such as air fresheners, non-stick and stain resistant materials, fire resistant materials, nonylphenol compounds, perfluorinated compounds, and lead."

Full Report - Beige Book, June 8, 2011 and Links to the Districts

EPIC: "The White House modified its privacy policy for WhiteHouse.gov on June 3, 2011. The new policy is more than twice as long as the old policy. The new policy states the White House web site now uses persistent Google Analytics cookies that track users for up to two years. Previously the site employed only single-session cookies, which were automatically deleted when users closed their browsers. The site does not provide a means for visitors to opt out of receiving cookies. The present policy reflects changes the administration made last year to allow for use of tracking cookies by federal websites. For more information, see EPIC: White House Adopts Weird Opt-Out Privacy Policy for Public Access to Government Web Sites."

News release: "Food safety annual report card targets hard-to-prevent infection Salmonella infections have not decreased during the past 15 years and have instead increased by 10 percent in recent years, according to a new Vital Signs report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the same time period, illnesses from the serious Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157 have been cut nearly in half and the overall rates of six foodborne infections have been reduced by 23 percent, the report said. The Vital Signs report summarizes 2010 data from CDC's Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), which serves as America's report card for food safety by tracking whether nine of the most common infections transmitted through foods are increasing or decreasing."

Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, via EPIC: "The House has approved the 2012 budget for the Transportation Security Administration, cutting $270 million from the amount originally requested by the Agency. The cuts include $76 million that had been designated for the purchase of 275 airport body scanners. Leading lawmakers and activists have called attention to the health risks associated with the scanners, as well as their invasiveness. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) criticized the machines as “slow” and “ineffective.”

SEC: "This page allows you to search the full text of EDGAR filings from the last four years. The full text of a filing includes all data in the filing as well as all attachments to the filing. To find the information you need and make your search easy and enjoyable, please visit our FAQ page. We are still developing this feature, and we plan to enhance it based on user feedback."

Via GSA's Apps.gov: "Social media apps make it easier to create and distribute content and discuss the things we care about and help us get the job done. Social media includes various online technology tools that enable people to communicate easily and share information. Social media includes text, audio, video, images, podcasts, and other multimedia communications." This site lists, and links to, 55 free apps in categories including: Analytics and Search Tools, Blogs and microblogs, Bookmarking/Sharing, Display of Multimedia, Data, Maps, Document Sharing on Websites, Idea Generation/General Discussion, In-depth Discussion Tools, Social Networks, Video, Photo, Audio Hosting/Sharing, and Wikis.

Geospatial Information and Geographic Information Systems (GIS): An Overview for Congress, Peter Folger - Specialist in Energy and Natural Resources Policy. May 18, 2011

News release: "The U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today are unveiling new fuel economy labels that will help consumers take advantage of the increased efficiency standards achieved under the Obama Administration that will save families money at the pump starting this year. The new labels, which are the most dramatic overhaul to fuel economy labels since the program began more than 30 years ago, will provide more comprehensive fuel efficiency information, including estimated annual fuel costs, savings, as well as information on each vehicle’s environmental impact. The new labels underscore the benefits of the historic, bipartisan passenger car and truck fuel economy rule adopted under this administration by the EPA and DOT in 2010. These improvements will give consumers better, more complete information to consider when purchasing new vehicles that are covered by the increased fuel economy standards. Starting with model year 2013, the improved fuel economy labels will be required to be affixed to all new passenger cars and trucks – both conventional gasoline powered and “next generation” cars, such as plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles."

WSJ: "The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force. The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country's military. In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official. Recent attacks on the Pentagon's own systems—as well as the sabotaging of Iran's nuclear program via the Stuxnet computer worm—have given new urgency to U.S. efforts to develop a more formalized approach to cyber attacks. A key moment occurred in 2008, when at least one U.S. military computer system was penetrated. This weekend Lockheed Martin, a major military contractor, acknowledged that it had been the victim of an infiltration, while playing down its impact."

weather.gov: "Fire weather conditions continue across the Southwest and Southern Plains with a critical area affecting portions of southern Nevada and the Northern Mojave Desert. Meanwhile warming temperatures, continued precipitation and a high water-content snowpack continue the threat of flooding in eastern Montana and the Dakotas. A moderate risk of severe weather is forecasted for most of Lower Michigan and eastern Upper Michigan with a slight risk of severe thunderstorms from northern Illinois and Wisconsin eastward into Michigan, northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio. Much of the Mid-Atlantic has Heat Advisories and Air Quality Alerts. Details..."

"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducts careful inspections of regulated facilities to determine a site’s compliance with regulations and the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Inspections are one of many ways FDA protects the public health. The Agency is disclosing inspection information to help improve the public’s understanding of how the FDA works to protect the public health. Disclosure of the compliance status of establishments helps to provide the public with a rationale for the Agency’s enforcement actions. Disclosure will also help to inform public and industry decision-making, allowing them to make more informed marketplace choices and help to encourage compliance. Inspections are classified (see Inspection Classifications) to reflect the compliance status of a firm. Classifications are based upon findings identified during an inspection and Agency review for compliance. During the Agency assessment, classifications may be subject to change after a review of all relevant information. To maintain current knowledge of a firm's compliance status, it may be important to recheck the Inspections Database for updates.

Fact Sheet includes Decommissioning Status for Shut Down NRC-Licensed Power Reactors (As of April 2011): "When a power company decides to close its nuclear power plant permanently, the facility must be decommissioned by safely removing it from service and reducing residual radioactivity to a level that permits release of the property and termination of the operating license. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has strict rules governing nuclear power plant decommissioning, involving cleanup of radioactively contaminated plant systems and structures and removal of the radioactive fuel. These requirements protect workers and the public during the entire decommissioning process and the public after the license is terminated."

News release: "The Europe-wide register aims to help Europeans actively engage in decisions affecting the environment. New online maps published by the European Commission and the European Environment Agency, in close cooperation with the Joint Research Centre, the Commission's in-house science service, allow citizens for the first time to pinpoint the main diffuse sources of air pollution, such as transport and aviation. The new set of 32 maps shows where certain pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter are released. It complements existing data on emissions from individual industrial plants from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)."

Federal Computer Week: "NASA is the first federal agency to venture into creating an aggregation network on the SlideShare Web platform, officials announced May 16. The NASA Universe network that started May 16 on SlideShare provides links to the agency’s videos, slide presentations and other documents shared from SlideShare channels sponsored by NASA headquarters and its 10 field centers. NASA Universe takes advantage of the new aggregation network technology, which SlideShare recently established and currently customizes for a handful of clients, including NASA, IBM and Dell. The SlideShare networks automatically and continuously aggregate content from many channels. NASA headquarters and the field centers each has its own channel on the site feeding documents into NASA Universe."

GovSpeak - A Guide to Government Acronyms & Abbreviations: "This guide lists acronyms and abbreviations commonly used by the United States federal government. Each acronym is defined and links to the home page (or best alternative) of the identified department, agency, office, program or publication. While Appendix A of the U.S. Government Manual provided the foundation of GovSpeak, this expanded list includes hundreds of acronyms not included in that publication; most have been discovered by manual reviews of department websites. Links are checked and updated monthly."

Consumer Finance Protection Bureau: "The people just now reaching their sixties are part of America’s largest-ever generation of retirees. The CFPB is creating an Office of Financial Protection for Older Americans to ensure we serve this large community effectively. This Office will connect seniors with what they need to guide themselves through their financial lives. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires this Office to be active by January 21, 2012. We are building it right alongside the rest of the consumer bureau, and in the coming weeks and months you’ll hear more from us about financial issues for seniors. Here are some places you can go now for senior financial protection information:

• The Administration on Aging has Elder Rights Protection resources to make sure seniors can guard their rights.
  
• The Securities and Exchange Commission offers some tip sheets and resources.
  
• The FTC offers information on avoiding scams and fraudulent business practices, which advertise in ways that make them look like legitimate opportunities.

Via WSJ: "This year, the government will spend $80 billion on IT, at agencies as varied as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, and on non-classified sections of the US Department of Defense [see Federal Cloud Computing Strategy Published]. As slices of government spending go, this is not huge, amounting to about 2 percent of the federal budget, but not trivial either. As has usually been the case, the government spends more (about $3.8 trillion in 2011) than it brings in via tax revenue (about $2.2 trillion in 2011). With Congress and the President wrestling over extending the debt ceiling, every dollar spent becomes a politically-charged particle of a wider debate over the appropriate role of government in our society...A keystone of Vivek Kundra [Chief Information Officer of the United States], is to push federal agencies to embrace, where possible and appropriate, the cost-savings and efficiency that come from cloud computing. Today he’s released exclusively to AllThingsD a list of 78 different government projects and services that have been identified for a shift to the cloud. Requests for proposals–RFPs, the documents through which government agencies seek bids from the private sector–are either already written or soon to be released." The list is embedded in this article using Scribd.

News release: "Preliminary FBI figures reveal that the levels of both violent crime and property crime in the U.S. declined in 2010 from the previous year's data. The 2010 Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, just released today, shows a 5.5 percent decrease in the number of reported violent crimes when compared with data from 2009. It also shows a 2.8 percent decline in reported property crimes. This latest report is based on information submitted to the FBI from 13,007 law enforcement agencies around the country. The crimes covered are murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson...There were some specific increases noted:

• The Northeast saw increases in some violent crime categories from 2009 figures—murder was up 8.3 percent, forcible rape up 1.4 percent, and aggravated assault up 0.7 percent.
  
• Cities with populations of 250,000 to 499,999 saw a 3.0 percent rise in murder, while cities with populations of 500,000 to 999,999 saw a 1.9 percent increase in forcible rape, and cities between 25,000 and 49,999 saw an increase of 1.3 percent in burglary.
  
• The Northeast also saw an increase in burglary—up 3.5 percent.
  
• Non-metropolitan counties reported slight increases in burglary (1.2 percent) and larceny-theft (3.2 percent)."

Know Before You Owe. Go!, by Patricia McCoy: "We’ve just posted two draft designs for a single, simpler mortgage disclosure form on our Know Before You Owe page. Now, we need to hear from you! The task is pretty simple: Consumers would receive a form similar to one of these versions within a few days of applying for a loan. Take a look, and tell us which one would do a better job of disclosing the necessary information. What information should lenders and brokers share with consumers when they apply for a mortgage?...At the heart of our work is the idea that the consumer financial product and services market should work for you. We think we should learn from you what you want to see. One of the best ways to do that is also the simplest: we’re asking."

PBS Newshour: 'As the Obama administration pushes ahead with plans to increase the use of electronic medical records, two internal reports released Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services revealed "significant concerns" about security gaps in the system. The Office of the Inspector General found "a lack of general [information technology] security controls during prior audits at Medicare contractors, State Medicaid agencies, and hospitals." The investigation audited computer security at seven large hospitals in different states, and found 151 major vulnerabilities, including unencrypted wireless connections, easy passwords, and even a taped-over door lock on a room used for data storage. The auditors classified 124 of the breeches were "high impact" - resulting in costly losses, injury or death. According to the report, "outsiders or employees at some hospitals could have accessed, and at one of the seven hospitals did access, systems and beneficiaries' personal data."

Roadmap for the Digital City - Achieving New York City's Digital Future - The City of New York, May 2011

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Library Network has been named Federal Library/Information Center of the Year by the Library of Congress. The award recognizes outstanding, innovative, and sustained achievements during fiscal year 2010 by a federal library or information center. EPA’s library network is an essential information partner with EPA staff and the public to support transparency, decision making, environmental awareness, and protection of people’s health and the environment...In FY2010, EPA libraries worked together to digitize 7,500 agency publications, adding to the growing inventory of more than 45,000 digital documents available to the public at no cost. Serving as a point of contact for public inquiries, EPA libraries collectively addressed nearly 9,000 public reference questions and loaned more than 8,000 documents, saving taxpayers an estimated $266,000."

Using Online Tools to Engage – and be Engaged by – The Public: While all federal agencies have developed “open government plans,” many managers find themselves unfamiliar with what tactics and tools work best, under different scenarios. Matt Leighninger, IBM Deliberative Democracy Consortium

Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 2010 Data Mining Report For the Period January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010 [via FAS, May 10, 2011]

Australia Trove: "Find and get over 238,389,330 (and counting) Australian and online resources: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more."

News release: "The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the financial health of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined assets of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds will be exhausted in 2036, one year sooner than projected last year. The DI Trust Fund, while unchanged from last year, will be exhausted in 2018 and legislative action will be needed soon. At a minimum, a reallocation of the payroll tax rate between OASI and DI would be necessary, as was done in 1994. The Trustees also project that OASDI program costs will exceed non-interest income in 2011 and will remain higher throughout the remainder of the 75-year period."

"Search.USA.gov is the U.S. government’s official search engine. It is a comprehensive, searchable index of about 50 million pages from federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal websites.

• Leverages Bing™ index of government websites.
  
• Customizes search using structured algorithms specific to government information.
  
• Optimizes search to retrieve and make sense of relevant information quickly.
  
• Improves navigation by providing customized search suggestions, such as related topics and type-ahead search.
  
• Enhances mobile access through a mobile site and native iPhone application.
  
• Provides access to all Spanish language government websites at Buscador.USA.gov"

Regulatory Actions Related to Foreclosure Activities by Large Servicers and Practical Implications for Community Banks, May 2011: "This Special Foreclosure Edition describes lessons learned from an interagency review of foreclosure practices at the 14 largest residential mortgage servicers and includes examples of effective mortgage servicing practices derived from these lessons."

CRS - Law Enforcement Use of Global Positioning (GPS) Devices to Monitor Motor Vehicles: Fourth Amendment Considerations, February 28, 2011

CDC Vital Signs, May 2011: "Asthma is a lifelong disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. It can limit a person's quality of life. While we don't know why asthma rates are rising, we do know that most people with asthma can control their symptoms and prevent asthma attacks by avoiding asthma triggers and correctly using prescribed medicines, such as inhaled corticosteroids. The number of people diagnosed with asthma grew by 4.3 million from 2001 to 2009. From 2001 through 2009 asthma rates rose the most among black children, almost a 50% increase. Asthma was linked to 3,447 deaths (about 9 per day) in 2007. Asthma costs in the US grew from about $53 billion in 2002 to about $56 billion in 2007, about a 6% increase. Greater access to medical care is needed for the growing number of people with asthma."

Better Choices: Better Deals - Consumers Powering Growth. UK Department for Business, Innovations and Skills, April 2011

News release: "U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced several new measures that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is taking to help ensure that passengers traveling by bus are as safe as possible. The U.S. DOT will now require more rigorous commercial driver’s license testing standards, seek new rules to strengthen passenger carrier and driver compliance with federal safety regulations, and empower consumers to review safety records of bus companies before booking. Standing outside motorcoach buses at Nationals Park in Washington, DC, Secretary LaHood and Administrator Ferro also announced that FMCSA will be teaming up with state law enforcement to conduct unannounced motorcoach inspections at popular travel destinations throughout the spring and summer peak travel season."

"Pregnant women and new mothers deserve more than just flowers this Mother’s Day. They deserve the precious gift of good health for themselves and their babies. That’s why today I’d like to celebrate the benefits of text4baby, a free, mobile health information service that offers useful tips timed to a woman’s due date or baby’s date of birth. The beauty of text4baby is its simplicity. Text BABY (or BEBE in Spanish) to 511411, and receive three free SMS messages every week on important issues like nutrition, oral health, and immunization schedules. Text4baby also connects women to public clinics and support services for prenatal and infant care in their area. In the year since last Mother’s Day, text4baby has chalked up a number of exciting achievements that have improved the lives of the mothers it serves. The service has sent 12 million messages to more than 170,000 users with the support of over 500 outreach partners."

FDA - Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance - Fourth Edition, April 2011: "This guidance is intended to assist processors of fish and fishery products in the development of their Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans. Processors of fish and fishery products will find information in this guidance that will help them identify hazards that are associated with their products, and help them formulate control strategies. The guidance will help consumers and the public generally to understand commercial seafood safety in terms of hazards and their controls. The guidance does not specifically address safe handling practices by consumers or by retail establishments, although many of the concepts contained in this guidance are applicable to both. This guidance is also intended to serve as a tool to be used by federal and state regulatory officials in the evaluation of HACCP plans for fish and fishery products."

News release: "The U.S. Census Bureau [May 4, 2011] released the Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 for the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. The demographic profiles provide 2010 Census data on age and sex distributions, race, Hispanic or Latino origin, household relationship and type, the group quarters population, and housing occupancy and tenure (whether the housing occupant owns or rents). Throughout May, these profiles are being released on a rolling basis for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The profile includes more than 150 data items in all, plus percentage distributions...The demographic profiles can be found on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder website."

Employment Situation Summary - April 2011

Saving Money by Selling Excess Property: "We...are releasing data on thousands of excess properties across the country and an interactive map that allows you to see which excess properties are on the government’s books in your state so that you can hold Congress and the Administration accountable for our progress. You also can use this site to help us identify other properties in your communities that are not on the excess list but should be sold or otherwise disposed of. These excess properties are just the tip of the iceberg...The Federal Government is the biggest property owner in the U.S., and billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted each year on government properties that are no longer needed. The President has proposed a Civilian Property Realignment Board to help the Federal Government cut through red tape and politics to sell or get rid of property it no longer needs, saving taxpayers $15 billion over the first three years after the Board is fully up and running. There are roughly 14,000 buildings and structures currently designated as excess and thousands of others that are underutilized. These properties range from sheds to underutilized office buildings and empty warehouses."

• School Meal Programs: More Systematic Development of Specifications Could Improve the Safety of Foods Purchased through USDA's Commodity Program, GAO-11-376, May 03, 2011
• VA Health Care: Weaknesses in Policies and Oversight Governing Medical Equipment Pose Risks to Veterans' Safety, GAO-11-591T, May 03, 2011
• VA Health Care: Weaknesses in Policies and Oversight Governing Medical Supplies and Equipment Pose Risks to Veterans' Safety, GAO-11-391, May 03, 2011
• Overstay Enforcement: Additional Mechanisms for Collecting, Assessing, and Sharing Data Could Strengthen DHS's Efforts but Would Have Costs, GAO-11-411, April 15, 2011

News release: "Nuclear facilities licensed by the NRC routinely release very small amounts of radioactivity during normal operations. Even though the NRC closely monitors the plants and assures that these releases are well below regulatory limits, some community members remain concerned about potential health risks from these facilities. To address the concerns, the NRC has asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) – an independent group of experts chartered by Congress to carry out transparent, objective and detailed studies independent of the government — to examine how best to perform a state-of-the-art study on cancer risk for individuals living around NRC-licensed nuclear facilities. The NAS effort will study nuclear power plants that generate electricity and certain plants that create the nuclear fuel used in the power plants. The NRC is seeking the expertise of the NAS to update the 1990 report by the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI). This report, “Cancer in Populations Living Near Nuclear Facilities,” found that cancer mortality rates were not elevated in these populations. The NRC staff uses the NCI report as a primary resource during public discussions of cancer risk in communities that are near or around nuclear facilities."

"The International Research Portal is a collaboration of national and other archival institutions with records that pertain to Nazi-Era cultural property. These archival institutions, along with expert national and international organizations, are working together to extend public access to the widely-dispersed records through a single internet portal. The portal will enable families to research their losses, provenance researchers to locate important documentation, and historians to study newly accessible materials on the history of this period. This collaborative project was established to fulfill the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the 2000 Vilnius Forum Declaration and the 2009 Terezin Declaration, in particular on the importance of making all such records publicly accessible. The portal links researchers to archival materials consisting of descriptions of records and, in many cases, digital images of the records that relate to cultural property that was stolen, looted, seized, forcibly sold, or otherwise lost during the Nazi-era. Cultural property documented in these records covers a broad range from artworks to books and libraries, religious objects, antiquities, archival documents, carvings, silver and more."

"The Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden - killed in Pakistan by U.S. special operations forces yesterday, ranked as “one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic terrorist activities in the world” as early as 1996, according to declassified U.S. documents posted on the web today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. The Osama Bin Laden File includes the CIA’s 1996 biographic sketch, the infamous President’s Daily Brief from 6 August 2001 warning “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US,” a State Department issue paper from 2005 reporting that “some Taliban leaders operate with relative impunity in some Pakistan cities,” the 400-page Sandia National Laboratories profile of Bin Laden focusing on the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, the 2006 State Department cable on the Taliban’s regrouping in Pakistan’s tribal areas making them “a sanctuary beyond the reach of either Government,” the demands made on Pakistan right after 9/11 by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and the only known conversation between the U.S. government and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar."

Implementing Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 IT Purchasing Requirements: M-1l-20 - Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies from Jacob Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget, April 28, 2011

"A new economic analysis of federal government broadband stimulus projects awarded by the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) concludes that the program's funding of duplicative broadband networks has resulted in an extremely high cost to reach a small number of unserved households. The study, Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of RUS Broadband Subsidies: Three Case Studies, was commissioned by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and prepared by Jeffrey Eisenach and Kevin Caves of Navigant Economics of Washington, D.C., April 13, 2011."

"The U.S. Department of the Treasury will pay all federal benefit and non-tax payments electronically. Benefit recipients can choose to receive their payments by direct deposit to a bank or credit union account or to a Direct Express® Debit MasterCard® card account. Act now to get your money safely and quickly – on time, every time!

• If you will apply for federal benefits on or after May 1, 2011, you will need to choose your preferred electronic payment option when you enroll to receive benefits from the Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs, Railroad Retirement Board, Office of Personnel Management or Department of Labor (Black Lung). Find out what you'll need on hand.
  
• You will need to make the switch from paper benefit checks to electronic payments by March 1, 2013. Learn more or sign up now

DEA sponsors 2nd National Prescription Drug Take Back Day - Saturday, April 30, 2011- 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

FOIAs Related to Japan's Emergency: "To avoid duplication of effort and delays in response times, please take note of the following requests that have already been submitted to the NRC. Responses to these FOIA requests will be made publicly available as soon as possible."

Jason Miller, Executive Editor, Federal News Radio: "The General Services Administration is about to give the Obama administration's policy that requires agencies to use cloud computing a big boost. GSA plans on releasing a request for proposals May 10 for e-mail-as-a-service that could be worth $2.5 billion. Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, said Wednesday there are $20 billion in systems across the government that could move to the cloud, and email and collaboration software are among the easiest first steps. We already are seeing 15 agencies that have identified 950,000 e-mail boxes across 100 email systems that are going to move to the cloud," he said during an update on the administration's 25-point IT reform plan at the White House. "This represents a huge opportunity for [vendors] to aggressively compete for these new opportunities in the cloud space and provide the government with the best value and most innovative technologies." Among those 15 agencies already on their way are the Agriculture Department and GSA. USDA is moving 120,000 employees to Microsoft's cloud, while GSA picked Unisys, which partnered with Google, to move as many as 30,000 employees to a new email system."

BLS Mobile Service: "In our never-ending quest to provide the American public with the latest labor economics and statistics data no matter where they are, we are introducing a mobile version of the BLS homepage. The mobile homepage is designed to give our visitors a quick view of the latest BLS statistical products such as the latest numbers data, links to our most recent economic releases and more. The BLS mobile service places today’s rapidly changing economic information in the palm of your hand. We value your feedback, so send us your comments and let us know what you would like to see in an expanded BLS Mobile site."

International Evidence on Food Consumption Patterns: An Update Using 2005 International Comparison Program Data, By Andrew Muhammad, James L. Seale, Jr., Birgit Meade, and Anita Regmi - Technical Bulletin No. (TB-1929) 59 pp, March 2011

"ForeSee Results today issued its quarterly report on the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s (ACSI) E-Government Satisfaction Index, which indicates that good federal government websites save the government money and foster democracy. The research quantifies a direct cause-and-effect relationship between highly satisfied citizens and cost savings for the government. Highly satisfied visitors to federal government websites save the federal government money by using the web channel as their primary means to interact with the government as opposed to costlier channels like call centers, mail, and brick-and-mortar customer service centers. Some estimates indicate that the federal government could save hundreds of millions of dollars on postage alone by right-channeling citizens to websites."

DOE: The GeoEVSE Forum is a government-industry collaboration committed to establishing a repository of public electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) location data for use by consumers and industry. A network of public charging stations, or EVSE, gives plug-in electric vehicle drivers alternatives to home charging and can extend driving range. Recognizing that these drivers need an easy way to locate EVSE, automakers have enabled vehicle navigation systems to locate the nearest available charging sites. A successful navigation system depends on a comprehensive database of publicly accessible EVSE locations, irrespective of equipment manufacturer or charging network. The U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center (AFDC) contains the locations of nearly 7,000 alternative fueling stations, including more than 600 EVSE locations. These locations are available to the public through the Alternative Fueling Station Locator and through third party websites that provide portals to the AFDC data."

Information Security Oversight Office’s (ISOO) Report to the President for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010: "This report provides information on the status of the security classification program as required by Executive Order 13526, “Classified National Security Information” (the Order). It provides statistics and analysis concerning key components of the system, primarily classification and declassification, and coverage of ISOO’s reviews. It also contains information with respect to industrial security in the private sector as required by Executive Order 12829, as amended, “National Industrial Security Program.” FY 2010 was a notable year for the security classification program. The initial implementation of Executive Order 13526 began in earnest and remains ongoing. To comply with your direction that a government-wide implementing directive be issued within 180 days, we led an interagency working group that developed 32 C.F.R. Part 2001 which became effective and binding on all appropriate Executive branch agencies on June 25, 2010. However, we are concerned about delays in the issuance of agency regulations implementing the Order. Despite the preparation of agency drafts and the completion of our review last Fall, many agencies failed to issue their regulations in final form by December 2010 and many have yet to issue them as of the date of this letter [April 15, 2011]."

Earth Day is April 22 - "Make every day Earth Day and help protect health and the environment throughout the year."

Energy Information Administration - Canada Country Analysis Brief: "Canada has been a significant component of the global energy trade due to its proximity to and trade with the largest energy consumer in the world, the United States. Canada maintains a surplus in all sellable energy commodities, exporting crude oil, natural gas, coal and electricity. The country is the most significant source for U.S. energy imports. The United States has traditionally provided the markets for Canada's energy exports. However, Asian countries are seeking greater access to Canada's natural resources to fuel Asia's own long-term economic growth. Canada produces and exports substantial volumes of primary energy and electricity. In 2008, Canada ranked fifth globally in total energy produced, generating 19.11 quadrillion British Thermal Units (Btu) of primary energy. Canada's geographical location and geological composition allow for a diversified supply of energy sources, ranging from coal to considerable hydropower generation capacity."

The Effects of Automatic Stabilizers on the Federal Budget - April 21, 2011. See also Tables to Accompany the 2011 Automatic Stabilizers Report

"Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released estimates of personal income at the county level for 2009. Among large counties (those with a population of more than 250,000) the change in personal income from 2008 to 2009 ranged from an 8.1 percent decline (in Oakland County, Michigan) to a 4.2 percent gain (in Loudoun County, Virginia). Growth slowed in all but one of the nation’s 255 large counties. For the nation, personal income fell 1.7 percent in 2009 after growing 4.0 percent in 2008. Per capita personal income (personal income divided by population) in large counties in 2009 ranged from $20,509 in Hidalgo County, Texas to $105,554 in New York County, New York (Manhattan). Among small counties, those with populations less than 50,000, swings in farm income accounted for much of the change in personal income from 2008 to 2009...A narrative for each county describing personal income using current estimates, growth rates, and a breakdown of the sources of personal income is available here."

News release: "U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced new airline passenger protections that will require airlines to reimburse passengers for bag fees if their bags are lost, provide consumers involuntarily bumped from flights with greater compensation, expand the current ban on lengthy tarmac delays, and disclose hidden fees. The rulemaking finalized today builds on passenger protections issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation in December 2009, which prohibited U.S. airlines operating domestic flights from permitting an aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than three hours, with exceptions for safety, security and air traffic control related-reasons. The rule also required U.S. airlines to provide basic services such as access to lavatories and water in the event of extended tarmac delays."

2008 Immigration/Emigration Supplement Data: "These data focus on five migration-related topics - citizenship, year of entry, residence one year ago, residents and emigrants abroad and monetary transfers. The monetary transfers section, in particular, is noteworthy because it represents the first time questions on both the giving and receiving of these transfers were included on a large, federally sponsored, nationally representative survey in the United States. This supplement to the Current Population Survey was fielded in August 2008. The purpose was to provide additional data to improve the statistics on the size and characteristics of the foreign-born population in the United States. These microdata can be downloaded from the Census Bureau website."

News release: "Over the last 12 months, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment, the largest increase since December 2009. The food index has risen 2.9 percent over the past 12 months. The index for food at home has risen 3.6 percent with the index for meats, poultry, fish and eggs up 7.9 percent. The index for food away from home has risen 1.9 percent over the past 12 months. The energy index has now risen 15.5 percent over the last 12 months, with the gasoline index up 27.5 percent. The household energy index has risen 1.2 percent over the last 12 months, with the fuel oil index up 34.0 percent and the electricity index up 1.0 percent, but the index for natural gas down 5.5 percent. The index for all items less food and energy increased 1.2 percent over the last 12 months. This change is above the low of 0.6 percent in October, but is still below the 1.9 percent average over the last 10 years. The indexes for shelter, new vehicles, used cars and trucks, airline fares, and medical care are among those that have increased over the past year; the indexes for apparel, household furnishings and operations, and recreation have declined."

• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Update on Federal Financial Risks and Claims Processing, GAO-11-397R, April 18, 2011
• Management Report: Improvements Are Needed in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, GAO-11-434R, April 18, 2011

News release: "The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday requested public comment on a proposed rule under Regulation Z that would require creditors to determine a consumer's ability to repay a mortgage before making the loan and would establish minimum mortgage underwriting standards. The revisions to the regulation, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), are being made pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The proposal would apply to all consumer mortgages (except home equity lines of credit, timeshare plans, reverse mortgages, or temporary loans)."

"The Federal Reserve Board has redesigned and expanded the Current FAQs (frequently asked questions) section of its website. New questions and answers address the Federal Reserve's roles and actions, currency and coin, consumer issues, the banking and financial system, and the economy. Many answers link to related information and resources, and videos accompany some answers. Users can navigate the FAQs by topic. Questions and answers will be updated regularly and new entries will be added as needed. Users may submit ideas for new questions using an online form."

EU: "77% of 13-16 year olds and 38% of 9-12 year olds in the EU have a profile on a social networking site, according to a pan-European survey carried out for the European Commission. Yet, a quarter of children who use social networking sites like Facebook, Hyves, Tuenti, Nasza-Klasa SchuelerVZ, Hi5, Iwiw or Myvip say their profile is set to "public" meaning that everyone can see it, and many of these display their address and/or phone number. The figures highlight the importance of the European Commission's upcoming review of the implementation of the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU. This agreement was brokered by the Commission in 2009 (IP/09/232) when major social networking companies agreed to implement measures to ensure the online safety of their under 18s users. Children's safety online is an important part of the Digital Agenda for Europe (see IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200)."

• Safer Internet Programme
  
• Concrete tips for parents on how to keep your child safe online
  
• Digital Agenda website

News release: "Concluding a two-year bipartisan investigation, Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Senator Tom Coburn M.D., R-Okla., Chairman and Ranking Republican on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, [April 13, 2011] released a 635-page final report on their inquiry into key causes of the financial crisis. The report catalogs conflicts of interest, heedless risk-taking and failures of federal oversight that helped push the country into the deepest recession since the Great Depression...[the] report presents new facts, new findings and recommendations, with more than 700 new documents totaling over 5,800 pages. It recounts how Washington Mutual aggressively issued and sold high-risk mortgages to Wall Street, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, even as its executives predicted a housing bubble that would burst, and offers new detail about how its regulator deferred to the bank’s management. New documents show how Goldman used net short positions to benefit from the downturn in the mortgage market, and designed, marketed, and sold CDOs in ways that created conflicts of interest with the firm’s clients and at times led to the bank’s profiting from the same products that caused substantial losses for its clients. Other new information provides additional detail about how credit rating agencies rushed to rate new mortgage-backed securities and collect lucrative rating fees before issuing mass ratings downgrades that shocked the financial markets and triggered a collapse in the value of mortgage related securities. Over 120 new documents provide insights into how Deutsche Bank contributed to the mortgage mess."

• REPORT - Wall Street & the Financial Crisis - Anatomy of a Financial Collapse
  
• FOOTNOTE EXHIBIT LOCATOR (by FN and Bates)
  
• FN 107 - 1342 (pgs 1-1037)
  
• FN 1343 - 1459 (pgs 1038-2164)
  
• FN 1462 - 1576 (pgs 2165-3003)
  
• FN 1584 - 1622 (pgs 3004-3448)
  
• FN 1623 - 2406 (pgs 3449-4484)
  
• FN 2409 - 2706 (pgs 4485-5459)
  
• FN 2724 - 2831 (pgs 5460-5901)

National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, Enhancing Online Choice, Efficiency, Security, and Privacy - April 2011

Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt: "In his State of the Union Address, President Obama promised that this year, for the first time ever, American taxpayers would be able to go online and see exactly how their federal tax dollars are spent. Just enter a few pieces of information about your taxes, and the taxpayer receipt will give you a breakdown of how your tax dollars are spent on priorities like education, veterans benefits, or health care."

March 2011: "The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.5 percent in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment. Gasoline and food prices continued to rise and together accounted for almost three quarters of the seasonally adjusted all items increase in March. The gasoline index posted its ninth consecutive increase and has now risen 14.4 percent over the last three months. The household energy index rose as well, with advances in the fuel oil and electricity indexes more than offsetting a decline in the index for natural gas. The food at home index continued to accelerate in March, rising 1.1 percent as all six major grocery store food groups increased."

• Davis-Bacon Act: Methodological Expertise Critical for Improving Survey Quality, GAO-11-486T, April 14, 2011
• Employment Verification: Agencies Have Improved E-Verify, but Significant Challenges Remain, GAO-11-522T, April 14, 2011
• Employment and Training Administration: More Actions Needed to Improve Transparency and Accountability of Its Research Program, GAO-11-285, March 15, 2011
  Permanent Link

• Improper Payments: Recent Efforts to Address Improper Payments and Remaining Challenges, GAO-11-575T, April 15, 2011
• Southwest Border: Border Patrol Operations on Federal Lands, GAO-11-573T, April 15, 2011
• Status of Fiscal Year 2010 Federal Improper Payments Reporting, GAO-11-443R, March 25, 2011

Majority And Minority Staff Report United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Wall Street And The Financial Crisis: Anatomy Of A Financial Collapse, April 13, 2011 - : "This 639 page report, which was part of a 2-year bi-partisan investigation by the U.S. Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations into the origins of the 2008 financial crisis. The goal of the report was to: "deepen the understanding of what happened; identify some of the root causes of the crisis; and provide a factual foundation for the ongoing effort to fortify the country against the recurrence of a similar crisis in the future." The report includes more than 150 interviews and depositions, and consultations with dozens of government, academic and private sector experts. In April 2010, the Subcommittee held four hearings examining four root causes of the financial crisis."

News release: "OnGuardOnline.gov, a partnership of fourteen federal agencies managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is informing consumers that an unexpected message from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could be a warning sign that their Social Security number is being misused by an identity thief. OnGuardOnline.gov suggests that people contact the IRS if they receive a notice that: more than one tax return was filed in the consumer’s name, or IRS records show the consumer was paid by an employer that he or she does not know. People who think they have tax issues related to identity theft should let the IRS know as soon as possible, even if the taxpayer doesn’t have any evidence that the identity theft affected a tax return. Specialists in the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit will help identity theft victims file their tax returns, get any refund they are due, and protect their IRS accounts from identity thieves in the future. The IRS website has more information here, or consumers can call 1-800-908-4490. The unit’s hours are 8:00 am to 8:00 pm (local time)."

"The Affordable Care Act (ACA) calls for a number of web-based initiatives, including development of the website healthcare.gov which provides a variety of health information and helps individuals find coverage options. Therefore, understanding the level and quality of Internet access among those groups most likely to benefit from reform, such as the uninsured, those with lower incomes, and members of racial and ethnic minority groups, is an important consideration as health reform is implemented. A new Data Note, using data from The Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University Race and Recession Survey, conducted Jan. 27-Feb. 9, 2011, examines racial and ethnic disparities in the shares who report seeking out health information online, and explores the broader question of how disparities in Internet access might impact the abilities of different groups to access health care information available on the web as part of the ACA."

"the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (collectively “Commissions”) delivered to Congress a joint staff study on the “the feasibility of requiring the derivatives industry to adopt standardized computer-readable algorithmic descriptions which may be used to describe complex and standardized financial derivatives.” See Title VII, Sec. 719(b) of Dodd-Frank. Based on the public input, staff investigation and analysis, the joint study concludes that current technology is capable of representing derivatives using a common set of computer-readable descriptions. These descriptions are precise enough to use both for the calculation of net exposures and to serve as part or all of a binding legal contract."

Federal Reserve Governor Daniel K. Tarullo - Derivatives regulation, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., April 12, 2011

• Financial Literacy: The Federal Government's Role in Empowering Americans to Make Sound Financial Choices, GAO-11-504T, April 12, 2011
• Information Technology: Continued Improvements in Investment Oversight and Management Can Yield Billions in Savings, GAO-11-511T, April 12, 2011
• Tax Administration: Preliminary Information on Selected Foreign Practices That May Provide Useful Insights, GAO-11-540T, April 12, 2011

News release: "As part of their ongoing efforts to keep markets that they oversee open and fair for American consumers, the Federal Trade Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that they signed an agreement to foster further cooperation between the two agencies by helping them share nonpublic information. The FTC and CFTC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will facilitate sharing of non-public information on investigations being conducted by the agencies, including investigations into the oil and gasoline markets. The agreement will help the FTC enforce its petroleum market manipulation rule, which prohibits fraudulent manipulation of U.S. petroleum markets. Information-sharing also will help the CFTC in exercising its authority to pursue manipulation in the oil markets."

"About one in three people of working age does not have a job in the OECD area. Faced with ageing populations, increasing employment rate has become crucial. And a further key challenge is to help companies and citizens to cope successfully with rapid technological change and globalisation. Our online Employment database allows to assess labour market performances of OECD countries, as regards employment and unemployment, job duration, working time and earnings. It also gives a picture of labour market policies and institutions through various indicators such as, expenditures on labour market policies, strictness of employment protection legislation, minimum wage and union membership."

"Last week, in conjunction with the release of its annual Human Rights Report, the State Department officially launched HumanRights.gov, a new central portal for international human rights-related information generated by the United States Government. HumanRights.gov was designed in the letter and spirit of President Obama’s Open Government Directive issued in January 2009, requiring Federal agencies to take specific steps to achieve key milestones in transparency, participation, and collaboration. HumanRights.gov is primarily aimed at increasing the American public’s access to human rights-related information and understanding of our global engagement on these critical issues. We hope that it proves equally valuable to citizens of other nations seeking to promote accountability and change in their own societies."

"In the run up to a major water policy review in 2012, the third and final report presents the water management measures introduced by Member States to tackle water scarcity and droughts and highlights the areas for further action. The report confirms that water scarcity and drought is not limited to Mediterranean countries. Apart from some sparsely-populated northern regions with abundant water resources, this is a growing issue across the EU. The Commission will further address this growing challenge in a review of EU water scarcity and drought policy which will form part of a “Blueprint” for safeguarding Europe's waters scheduled for 2012. Over the next months, the focus will be on filling in the knowledge and data gaps and carrying out an impact assessment. The report is accompanied by a staff working paper on the details of the activities carried out in the Member States.

• Report
  
• Accompanying staff working document
  
• Special Edition of the Report

BLS news release, April 8, 2011: "In October 2010, 68.1 percent of 2010 high school graduates were enrolled in colleges or universities, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Recent high school graduates not enrolled in college in October 2010 were more likely than enrolled graduates to be working or looking for work (76.6 percent compared with 40.0 percent). Information on school enrollment and work activity is collected monthly in the Current Population Survey (CPS), a nationwide survey of about 60,000 households that provides information on employment and unemployment."

2010 Human Rights Report, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, released April 8, 2011

Barack Obama (2009, Book 1), Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States

• Presidential Documents
  
• Photographic Portfolio
  
• XML Bulk Data

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director: "This deal cuts spending by $78.5 billion from the President’s FY 2011 Budget request -- the largest annual spending cut in our history. These are real cuts that will save taxpayers money and have a real impact. Many will be painful, and are to programs that we support, but the fiscal situation is such that we have to act. The two sides agreed to cut $13 billion from funding for programs at the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services as well as over $1 billion in a cut across non-defense agencies, forcing everyone to tighten their belt. There will be reductions to housing assistance programs and some health care programs along with $8 billion in cuts to our budget for State and Foreign Operations. These significant cuts to the State Department and foreign assistance will mean we will not meet some of the ambitious goals set for the nation in the President’s Budget..."

Presidential Policy Directive PPD-8, National Preparedness, March 30, 2011 [via FAS]

"April is Financial Literacy Month, and the Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, has information to help you make the most of your money whether you’re a student, young adult, parent, older person, or military service member.

• Money Matters offers short, practical tips, videos, and links to reliable sources on a variety of topics in English and Spanish, ranging from credit repair, debt collection, job hunting, and job scams to vehicle repossession, managing mortgage payments, and avoiding foreclosure rescue scams.
  
• Free Annual Credit Reports offers details about a consumer’s right to a free copy of his or her credit report from each of the three national credit reporting agencies, upon request, once every 12 months. Reviewing one’s credit report regularly is an effective way to deter and detect identity theft.
  
• You Are Here is a virtual mall where kids experience the FTC’s mission by learning about advertising, competition, and how to protect their privacy.

Via Change.Gov, the Office of the President-Elect: "The Agency Review Teams for the Obama-Biden Transition will complete a thorough review of key departments, agencies and commissions of the United States government, as well as the White House, to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key advisors with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration. The Teams will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in."

"The FCC acted today to promote increased consumer access to nationwide mobile broadband service by adopting an Order that requires facilities-based providers of commercial mobile data services to offer data roaming arrangements to other such providers on commercially reasonable terms and conditions, subject to certain limitations. Consumers expect mobile data services that will allow them to remain connected wherever they go; a data roaming rule will help ensure that consumers’ services are not interrupted and that coverage is available on a competitive basis. The widespread availability of data roaming arrangements will allow consumers with mobile data plans to remain connected when they travel outside their own provider’s network coverage areas by using another provider’s network. This promotes connectivity and nationwide access to mobile data services such as email and wireless broadband Internet access. The rule the FCC adopted today promotes investment in and deployment of mobile broadband networks, consistent with the recommendations of the National Broadband Plan. This new investment in broadband will increase competition and benefit consumers; without data roaming guarantees, consumers will be limited in their choices, especially in rural areas."

Monthly Budget Review, April 2011, Based on the Monthly Treasury Statement for February and the Daily Treasury Statements for March

• 2010 Census: Preliminary Lessons Learned Highlight the Need for Fundamental Reforms, GAO-11-496T, April 06, 2011
• Aviation Security: TSA Is Taking Steps to Validate the Science Underlying Its Passenger Behavior Detection Program, but Efforts May Not Be Comprehensive, GAO-11-461T, April 06, 2011
• Federal Real Property: Progress Made on Planning and Data, but Unneeded Owned and Leased Facilities Remain, GAO-11-520T, April 06, 2011
• Financial Management: Audit of the Senate Gift Shop Revolving Fund for Fiscal Year 2010, GAO-11-326R, April 06, 2011
• Financial Management: Audit of the Senate Stationery Room Revolving Fund for Fiscal Year 2010, GAO-11-204R, April 06, 2011
• Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Potential Duplication in Federal Teacher Quality and Employment and Training Programs, GAO-11-509T, April 06, 2011
• State and Local Governments' Fiscal Outlook: April 2011 Update, GAO-11-495SP, April 06, 2011
• Davis-Bacon Act: Methodological Changes Needed to Improve Wage Survey, GAO-11-152, March 22, 2011

News release: "The 2010 Federal Reserve Payments Study released today reveals in greater detail increasing adoption of electronic alternatives for payments in the United States by consumers, businesses and governments. The study examined payments made between 2006 and 2009. In December, the Federal Reserve released a summary of the study’s findings that highlighted trends related to the use of payment cards and electronification of check processing. Debit card usage now exceeds all other forms of noncash payments and represents approximately 35 percent of total noncash payments. Much of the growth in debit card payments was due to increases in purchases for small dollar amounts; for example, the report reveals that 64 percent of all signature debit card transactions are now for amounts under $25. General purpose credit cards, with 44 percent being under $25, are also used for small dollar purchases. Study results showed that card usage varied by dollar amount. Nearly 50 percent of all card payments under $15 are made with signature debit cards, while 41 percent of all card payments over $25 are made with general purpose credit cards.

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing updated standards for light fixtures to qualify for the Energy Star label – an efficiency program that has saved consumers money on their energy bills while contributing to cleaner air and protecting people’s health since 1992. Effective October 1, 2011, to qualify for the Energy Star label light fixtures will need to increase efficiency 30 percent above currently qualified fluorescent-based fixtures. In 2013, performance requirements will increase further, providing 40 percent higher efficiency compared to currently qualified models."

• Defense Infrastructure: The Navy Needs Better Documentation to Support Its Proposed Military Treatment Facilities on Guam, GAO-11-206, Apr 5, 2011
• Human Services Programs: Opportunities to Reduce Inefficiencies, GAO-11-531T, Apr 5, 2011
• Medicaid and CHIP: Reports for Monitoring Children's Health Care Services Need Improvement, GAO-11-293R, Apr 5, 2011 - Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)--two joint federal-state health care programs for low-income families and children--play a critical role in addressing the health care needs of children. In 2008, more than 36 million children in the United States received health care coverage through Medicaid or CHIP. Like all children, children covered by Medicaid and CHIP may have health care conditions that could warrant care from primary care or specialist providers. At the same time, a significant number of children in Medicaid and CHIP may not be receiving basic preventive care, which these programs generally
• State Department Inspector General: Actions to Address Independence and Effectiveness Concerns Are Under Way GAO-11-382T, Apr 5, 2011

"The United States Government Manual is the official handbook of the Federal Government. This currently updated edition of the Government Manual provides comprehensive and authoritative information on the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations with U.S. membership, and Federal boards, commissions, and committees. Agency descriptions typically include:

• A list of officials heading major operating units.
  A summary of the agency's mission and role in the Federal Government.
  
• A brief history of the agency, including its legislative or executive authority.
  
• A description of agency programs and activities.
  
• A set of websites, street addresses, and phone numbers for services, benefits, contracts and grants, employment, publications, and other public information.
  
• This website offers three ways to find information about Government agencies and organizations: Enter a term in the keyword search box at the top left of the home page; Browse by category using the pull-down menu in the middle of the home page; Use "The Government of the United States" site map at the top right of the home page for an overview of the Government."

Alex Howard, Gov 2.0: "Later this week, a new version of FCC.gov will go live. It’s a complete redesign of the Federal Communications Online presence. You could even call it a reboot, in keeping with the FCC launch of reboot.gov last January. There’s much more to report on when the new FCC.gov goes online. For now, here’s a preview of something nifty that’s already live: the new FCC custom URL shortener, FCC.us. The new custom URL shortener, is based upon bit.ly, like the 1.usa.gov URL shortener for civilian use. It automatically shortens any FCC.gov that’s shortened using bit.ly or the shorter j.mp. For instance, FCC.gov/developer becomes http://fcc.us/bkJYlG. In a new media world that is often shortened to 140 characters, that’s rather handy."

• Defense Acquisitions: CH-53K Helicopter Program Has Addressed Early Difficulties and Adopted Strategies to Address Future Risks, GAO-1-332, April 04, 2011
• Factors for Evaluating the Cost Share of Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program to Assist Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturers GAO-11-437R, April 04, 2011
• Lead In Tap Water: CDC Public Health Communications Need Improvement, GAO-11-279, March 14, 2011

Speech by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke At the 2011 Financial Markets Conference, Stone Mountain, Georgia, April 4, 2011 - Clearinghouses, Financial Stability, and Financial Reform

"With renewed attention to the nation’s long-term budget deficit and the national debt, proposed changes to Medicare and other federal entitlement programs could significantly affect health coverage and spending for millions of older and disabled Americans. These three data spotlights from the Kaiser Family Foundation provide new information on out-of-pocket health care spending among the nation’s 48 million Medicare beneficiaries, as well as income and asset projections for future beneficiaries by race, ethnicity and other demographic factors.

• Fact Sheet - Health Care on a Budget: The Financial Burden of Health Spending by Medicare Households
  
• Fact Sheet - How Much “Skin in the Game” is Enough? The Financial Burden of Health Spending for People on Medicare
  
• Fact Sheet - Projecting Income and Assets: What Might the Future Hold for the Next Generation of Medicare

Opening keynote address as delivered on April 4 by Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator as part of the First National Climate Assessment Federal Advisory Committee Meeting in Washington, DC.

• "In the U.S., climate-related changes are being documented: more frequent extreme weather events, longer growing seasons, shifting ranges of plant and animal species, and record low Arctic sea ice coverage in the summer.
  
• Future changes are projected to be larger and more rapid than those experienced over the past century and the impacts will extend across all economic sectors, including water resources, energy, transportation, agriculture, forestry, coasts, fisheries, and human health.
  
• Climate variability and climate change are profoundly affecting our society and way of life. Some impacts of climate change may benefit sectors in certain areas of the country, and others will pose major challenges to our economy, our health, and our planet’s resources. The National Climate Assessment should strive to help the nation prepare for both the opportunities and challenges of climate change."
  
• Related postings on climate change

"This report - the eighteenth annual report - presents the U.S. Energy Information Administration's latest estimates of emissions for carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other greenhouse gases. For this report, activity data on coal and natural gas consumption and electricity sales and losses by sector were obtained from the January 2011 Monthly Energy Review (MER).
In keeping with current international practice, this report presents data on greenhouse gas emissions in million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent. The data can be converted to carbon equivalent units by multiplying by 12/44. Data on ozone-depleting gases with high global warming potentials (high-GWP gases) are obtained directly from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For this report, updated EPA values were available for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs); however, no updates were available for perfluorocarbons (PFCs) or sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and last year's values are used instead. Historical data in the chapter tables are revised from the data contained in the previous Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2008."

"The Vault is our new electronic reading room, containing more than 2,000 documents that have been scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read them in the comfort of your home or office. Included here are more than 25 new files that have been released to the public but never added to this website; dozens of records previously posted on our site but removed as requests diminished; and files from our previous electronic reading room. The Vault includes several new tools and resources for your convenience: Searching for Topics; Searching for Key Words; Viewing the Files; Requesting a Status Update." [via Michael Ravnitzky]

What are the furloughs: "The Disability Determination Services (DDS) are state agencies responsible for developing medical evidence and making disability determinations. The Federal Government fully funds the DDS budgets through the Social Security Administration (SSA). The current economic climate presents budget-balancing challenges for many states. As a result, some states are furloughing state employees. A furlough is when a state places an employee in a temporary non-duty, non-pay status. 100% of the resources states use to make disability determinations are federally funded. States may not use the funding for any other purpose or program. The states save no money by furloughing employees working in the DDS. Federal regulations require that states avoid furloughs or other hiring restrictions whenever possible. The interactive map shows each DDS:

• In furlough;
  
• Exempt from furlough;
  
• Previously in furlough;
  
• Not in furlough
  
• In states that have ever been in furlough status, the corresponding state profile lists the aggregate estimated administrative funding lost to date, the aggregate estimated number of cases delayed to date, and the aggregate estimated dollar value of disability benefits delayed to date. In a state exempt or not in furlough status, these estimated numbers are shown by furlough ‘day’."

Employment Situation, March 2011: "Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 216,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, leisure and hospitality, and mining. Employment in manufacturing continued to trend up. The number of unemployed persons (13.5 million) and the unemployment rate (8.8
percent) changed little in March. The labor force also was little changed over the month. Since November 2010, the jobless rate has declined by 1.0 percentage point."

Best Practices Study of Social Media Records Policies, ACT-IAC Collaboration & Transformation (C&T) Shared Interest Group (SIG), March 2011

"This is the official YouTube Channel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In addition to these video recordings, you may find audio recordings of our hearings on our internet site at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov."

OMB prepares for open gov sites to go dark in May: "Government sources confirm that the Office of Management and Budget is planning to take seven websites dark in two months because of a lack of funding. One government official, who requested anonymity because they didn't get permission to discuss the topic, said funding will begin to run out on April 20 for public sites IT Dashboard, Data.gov and paymentaccuracy.gov. The source said OMB also is planning on shutting down internal government sites, including Performance.gov, FedSpace and many of the efforts related the FEDRamp cloud computing cybersecurity effort. The official said two other sites, USASpending.gov and Apps.gov/now, will run through July 30 but go dark soon after."

• 2010 Lobbying Disclosure: Observations on Lobbyists' Compliance with Disclosure Requirements, GAO-11-452, April 01, 2011
• Military Base Realignments and Closures: Review of the Iowa and Milan Army Ammunition Plants, GAO-11-488R, April 01, 2011
• Combating Child Pornography: Steps Are Needed to Ensure That Tips to Law Enforcement Are Useful and Forensic Examinations Are Cost Effective, GAO-11-334, March 31, 2011
• Key Indicator Systems: Experiences of Other National and Subnational Systems Offer Insights for the United States, GAO-11-396, March 31, 2011

Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of the Inspector General - Evaluation Report: Evaluation of Federal Housing Finance Agency's Oversight of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's Executive Compensation Programs (EVL-2011-002, March 31, 2011)

Institute of Medicine Report - The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding, March 31, 2011

"Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz today issued the FTC’s 2011 Annual Report at the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law Spring Meeting in Washington, DC, highlighting the agency’s continued efforts to protect financially distressed consumers and promote competition during the economic downturn.

A Review of CBO's Activities in 2010 Under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, March 31, 2011

Regulating Systemic Risk - Governor Daniel K. Tarullo At the 2011 Credit Markets Symposium, Charlotte, North Carolina, March 31, 2011

News release: "The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today released proposed new rules to help doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers better coordinate care for Medicare patients through Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). ACOs create incentives for health care providers to work together to treat an individual patient across care settings – including doctor’s offices, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. The Medicare Shared Savings Program will reward ACOs that lower health care costs while meeting performance standards on quality of care and putting patients first. Patient and provider participation in an ACO is purely voluntary. The proposed new rules will help doctors, hospitals, and other providers form ACOs and are now available for public comment. HHS also announced it will hold a series of open-door forums and listening sessions during the comment period to help the public understand what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency administering the ACO program, is proposing to do and to ensure that the public understands how to participate in the formal comment process."

• Border Security: DHS Progress and Challenges in Securing the U.S. Southwest and Northern Borders, GAO-11-508T, March 30, 2011
• Key Events Leading to the Termination of the Delphi Defined Benefit Plans, GAO-11-373R, March 30, 2011
• Rural Housing Service: Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Farm Labor Housing Program Management and Oversight, GAO-11-329, March 30, 2011
• Department of Energy: Advanced Technology Vehicle Loan Program Implementation Is Under Way, but Enhanced Technical Oversight and Performance Measures Are Needed, GAO-11-145, February 28, 2011
• Older Americans Act: More Should Be Done to Measure the Extent of Unmet Need for Services, GAO-11-237, February 28, 2011
• VA Education Benefits: Actions Taken, but Outreach and Oversight Could Be Improved, GAO-11-256, February 28, 2011

"A report by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee published March 30, 2011 has called for a competition probe into the Big Four auditors’ oligopoly. Their 'complacency' and 'dereliction of duty' contributed to financial crisis, the report found. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee's report follows an eight month investigation into the audit market. There are three main areas of findings. ‘The Big Four auditors’ domination of the large firm audit market limits competition and choice’ In 2010 they audited 99 of the FTSE 100 largest listed companies, which change auditors every 48 years on average. In bank audit in the UK only three of the Big Four are active. And there is the risk that one of the Big Four might leave the audit market, leading to an unacceptable degree of market concentration. The Committee calls on the Office of Fair Trading to hold a detailed investigation into the audit market with a view to a possible inquiry by the Competition Commission. It recognises that the global reach of the Big Four audit firms – Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers – goes beyond the scope of national authorities, but considers that the UK should take a lead since London is a major global financial centre where the Big Four are particularly prominent."

News release: "Federal financial regulatory agencies request comment on a joint proposed rule to ensure that regulated financial institutions design their incentive compensation arrangements to take account of risk. The proposed rule, which is being issued pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, would apply to certain financial institutions with more than $1 billion in assets. It also contains heightened standards for the largest of these institutions. In prohibiting incentive compensation arrangements that could encourage inappropriate risks, the proposal would require compensation practices at regulated financial institutions to be consistent with three key principles--that incentive compensation arrangements should appropriately balance risk and financial rewards, be compatible with effective controls and risk management, and be supported by strong corporate governance. The proposed rule complements guidance previously issued by the agencies, including guidance on sound incentive compensation policies issued by the banking agencies last year."

Review of CBO's Cost Estimate for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Testimony before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives,March 30, 2011.

Workplace Violence, 1993-2009, Erika Harrell, Ph.D., BJS Statistician, March 29, 2011. NCJ 233231

Financial Ombudsman Service, Financial Services Authority and the Office of Fair Trading Consumer complaint (emerging risks and mass claims): Feedback on DP10/1

• From the March 2011 "In Summary Newsletter": "We – the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (the ombudsman service) – are publishing a Feedback Statement, setting out how we intend to strengthen our coordination on complaints handling in the financial services industry, and our response to the feedback we received to last year’s Discussion Paper (DP) on this topic. Since the paper covers how firms handle complaints, it could be of interest to all financial services firms, as well as their trade associations. It is also of interest to consumer groups. Inadequate complaints handling remains a major issue. If we are to rebuild consumer confidence in the financial services industry, complainants must be treated fairly, and risks must be identified and dealt with before they turn into widespread problems."
  
• FSA/OFT/FOS Coordination Committee
  
• Memorandum of Understanding between the Claims Management Regulator and the Financial Services Authority
  
• FSA Handbook

Report on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, March 29, 2011: "In October 2008, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Division A of Public Law 110-343) established the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to enable the Department of the Treasury to promote stability in financial markets through the purchase and guarantee of "troubled assets." Section 202 of that legislation requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to submit semiannual reports on the costs of the Treasury's purchases and guarantees of troubled assets. The law also requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to prepare an assessment of each OMB report within 45 days of its issuance. That assessment must discuss three elements:

Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan - At what risk? Correcting over-reliance on contractors in contingency operations, Second Interim Report to Congress, Recommendations for Legislative and Policy Changes Commission, February 24, 2011

News release: "The staffs of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (together, the agencies) announced that the agencies this week are considering for approval a notice of proposed rulemaking that addresses section 941 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act...Section 941 requires the agencies to prescribe rules to require that a securitizer retain an economic interest in a material portion of the credit risk for any asset that it transfers, sells, or conveys to a third party. The chairperson of the Financial Stability Oversight Council is tasked with coordinating this rulemaking effort."

Internet Access Services: Status as of June 30, 2010, Industry Analysis and Technology Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, March 2011: "This report summarizes information about Internet access connections over 200 kilobits per second (kbps) in at least one direction in service in the United States on June 30, 2010, as collected by FCC Form 477. Form 477 gathers standardized information about subscribership to Internet access services in the fifty states, District of Columbia, and inhabited insular areas (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands). The information is reported by telephone companies, cable system operators, terrestrial wireless service providers, satellite service providers, and other facilities-based providers of advanced telecommunications capability.
Notable developments during the first half of 2010 include:

News release: "Today, the OpenNet Initiative, a partnership between the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs (Munk School) and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, announced the release of a new report titled West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors, 2010-2011 by Helmi Noman and Jillian C. York. The OpenNet Initiative has documented network filtering by national governments of the Internet in more than forty countries worldwide. National governments use network filtering as one of many methods to control the flow of online content, and utilize a variety of technical means to institute such filtering. The report analyzes the use of three American and Canadian-made tools: Websense, McAfee SmartFilter, and Netsweeper for the purpose of government-level filtering in the Middle East and North Africa. The investigation found that nine countries in the region utilize Western-made tools for the purpose of blocking social and political content, effectively blocking a total of over 20 million Internet users from accessing such websites. The authors analyze as well the increasing opacity of the usage of Western-made tools for filtering at the national level."

News release: "While most home appliances have become more efficient over the past 30 years, the average U.S. household uses many more consumer electronics — in particular, personal computers, televisions and related devices, according to data released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in the latest update to its Residential Energy Consumption Survey. This new information on the ways energy is used in American homes is the first release of 2009 data from the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), which EIA has conducted periodically since 1979. Notable trends in household energy characteristics include:

• 58 percent of U.S. homes had energy-efficient, multi-pane windows, up from 36 percent in the 1993 survey
  
• 76 percent of the 114 million U.S. homes had at least one computer, eight percentage points more than just four years prior; 35 percent had multiple computers
  
• 68 million homes have energy-efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) or light-emitting diode (LED) lights
  
• 44 percent of all U.S. homes had three or more televisions. Screen size and average energy consumption per television continue to grow.
  
• The initial RECS 2009 household energy characteristics data can be found here."

Flow of Funds Guide: "This interactive documentation serves as a guide to the data compiled and published as part of the “Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States” (Z.1) data release and the Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts. This comprehensive documentation system is designed to help a user understand the links between series and underlying source data by providing the capability to search or browse the vast amount of information underlying the Z.1 and the Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts."

Enabling Distributed Security in Cyberspace - Building a Healthy and Resilient Cyber Ecosystem with Automated Collective Action, March 23, 2011

This FAQ comprises Q&A from three federal agencies concerning Iodine-131 (131I), also called radioiodine: EPA, FDA and CDC.

The Office of Special Investigations: Striving for Accountability in the Aftermarth of the Holocaust, by Judy Feigin, Edited by Mark M Richard, Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice Criminal Division, December 2008

"In 2009, the Social Security Administration administered the delivery of one-time economic recovery payments of $250 for most recipients of Social Security, Railroad Retirement, Supplemental Security Income, and Veterans' Benefits. Individuals who qualified for or received any of these benefits anytime from November 2008 through January 2009 were eligible to receive this one-time economic recovery payment. The payments were sent by the Department of Treasury during May 2009. To examine the impact of these payments, staff of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) included special questions in the Interview component of the Consumer Expenditure Survey from July through September 2009. These questions were designed to collect information on whether the payment was received, and how it was used—whether the money was used mostly for spending, mostly for saving, or mostly for paying off debt. This report contains the first analysis of these data by staff of BLS. In the text that follows, consumer units that include at least one member who received a payment are referred to as recipient consumer units, and members who received a payment are recipients."

Large and Deadly Earthquakes This Year - Earthquakes Magnitude 7 and Greater

National Income and Product Accounts Gross Domestic Product: Fourth Quarter and Annual 2010 (Third Estimate) Corporate Profits: Fourth Quarter and Annual 2010

Bahrain Country Analysis Brief, Mar 23, 2011: "Despite its relatively low volumes of oil production, Bahrain's oil sector accounts for about 70 percent of total government revenues. The country's exports are mainly in the form of refined petroleum products rather than crude oil. Bahrain's proven oil reserves stood at 125 million barrels as of January 2011, according to Oil and Gas Journal, all of which are located in the Awali field. In addition to the 46,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) produced in its territory, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia share the 300,000 bbl/d of oil production from the offshore Abu Safah field. This figure is counted in Saudi oil production figures, but half of the output is allocated to Bahrain. For an analysis of Bahrain's energy sector, please see our updated Country Analysis Brief."

Privacy Impact Assessment for the Use of Unidirectional Social Media Applications Communications and Outreach, March 8, 2011. Kathleen McShea
Director of New Media and Web Communications, Office of Public Affairs, Department of Homeland Security

• EEOC fact sheets about the law and new regulations: EEOC - The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008
• EEOC press release: EEOC Announces Final Bipartisan Regulations for the ADA Amendments Act
• Federal Register: Regulations To Implement the Equal Employment Provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act, as Amended

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization (Annual Revision) - G.17: "The Federal Reserve has revised its index of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity and capacity utilization. Although the revisions affect these data for January 1972 through February 2011, the most significant effects are for the period from 2008 through 2010. Measured from fourth quarter to fourth quarter, total IP is now reported to have declined 1.4 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points more sharply in 2008 and in 2009, respectively, and to have risen 0.5 percentage point more rapidly in 2010. That said, the broad contour of total IP in recent years is similar to previous estimates, and the dates of the recent peak (September 2007) and the recent trough (June 2009) are unchanged from the earlier estimates. However, the peak-to-trough decline in total IP, at 17.1 percent, is 2.0 percentage points larger than previously estimated. As of February 2011, total IP is now shown to have reversed about 55 percent of its peak-to-trough decline, somewhat less than previously reported."

"The Women@Nasa website includes a stunning collection of 32 videos and essays from women across the agency who contribute to NASA’s mission in many different ways. We hope to give you a glimpse of the talent we have at the agency today. Their stories illuminate the vibrant community of dedicated women workers who play a vital role at the agency. You’ll hear stories of women overcoming almost every obstacle imaginable to pursue their dreams and make a difference in the world. In the future, we hope that the website will support a collaborative and supportive community of women at NASA, and serve as the hub of all activity related to women’s issues at the agency. In addition, we hope that these stories will inspire girls everywhere to reach for the stars, and explore the myriad of opportunities available to them through pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics."

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015

• Credit Cards: Consumer Costs for Debt Protection Products Can Be Substantial Relative to Benefits but Are Not a Focus of Regulatory Oversight, GAO-11-311, March 25, 2011
• Defense Acquisitions: Application of Lessons Learned and Best Practices in the Presidential Helicopter Program, GAO-11-380R, March 25, 2011
• Missile Defense: Actions Needed to Improve Transparency and Accountability, GAO-11-372, March 24, 2011
• Private Health Insurance Coverage: Expert Views on Approaches to Encourage Voluntary Enrollment, GAO-11-392R, February 25, 2011

News release: "The Federal Reserve Board on Friday adopted two rules that would expand the coverage of consumer protection regulations to credit transactions and leases of higher dollar amounts. The final rules amend Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) and Regulation M (Consumer Leasing) to implement a provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Effective July 21, 2011, the Dodd-Frank Act requires that the protections of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA) apply to consumer credit transactions and consumer leases up to $50,000, compared with $25,000 currently. This amount will be adjusted annually to reflect any increase in the consumer price index."

Full release and tables: "State personal income rose an average 3.0 percent in 2010 after falling 1.7 percent in 2009, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. State personal income growth ranged from 0.3 percent in Nevada to 4.2 percent in New Mexico. Inflation, as measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures, increased to 1.7 percent in 2010 from 0.2 percent in 2009. All three major components of personal income (earnings, property income, and personal current transfer receipts) grew in 2010. In 2009 only transfers grew as lower employment reduced earnings and lower interest rates and profits reduced property income (dividends, interest, and rent). The 7.6 percent growth of transfer receipts in 2010 was larger than the 2.4 percent growth of earnings and the 0.6 percent growth of property income."

News release: "State government tax collections decreased $14.3 billion to $704.6 billion in fiscal year 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. There was a $65.8 billion decrease in 2009. These new data come from the 2010 Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections, which contains annual statistics on the fiscal year tax collections of all 50 state governments, including receipts from licenses and compulsory fees. Tax revenues also include related penalty and interest receipts of the governments. According to the survey, corporate net income tax revenue was $38.2 billion, down 6.6 percent, while tax revenue on individual income was $236.4 billion, down 4.4 percent. General sales tax revenue was $224.5 billion, down 1.8 percent. These taxes comprised 70.8 percent of all state government tax collections nationally.

Alternative Approaches to Funding Highways, March 23, 2011

• DOD and VA Health Care: Federal Recovery Coordination Program Continues to Expand but Faces Significant Challenges, GAO-11-250, March 23, 2011
• End-Stage Renal Disease: CMS Should Assess Adequacy of Payment When Certain Oral Drugs Are Included and Ensure Availability of Quality Monitoring Data, GAO-11-365, March 23, 2011

News release: "The Federal Reserve System on Tuesday released the 2010 combined annual comparative financial statements for the Federal Reserve Banks, as well as for the 12 individual Federal Reserve Banks, the limited liability companies (LLCs) that were created to respond to strains in financial markets, and the Board of Governors. These financial statements are audited annually by an independent auditing firm. Total Reserve Bank assets as of December 31, 2010, were $2.428 trillion, which represents an increase of $193 billion from the previous year. The composition of the balance sheet changed notably. Holdings of U.S. Treasury securities increased $261 billion and holdings of federal agency and government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) mortgage-backed securities (MBS) increased $86 billion. These increases were partly offset by a $96 billion decrease in loans to depository institutions and a $23 billion decrease in loans extended under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, largely due to early repayments by borrowers."

• The Federal Government's Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: January 2011 Update [Reissued on March 22, 2011] GAO-11-451SP, March 18, 2011
• Elder Justice: Stronger Federal Leadership Could Enhance National Response to Elder Abuse [Reissued on March 22, 2011] GAO-11-208, March 02, 2011

News release: "At a time when many consumers are having trouble paying their debts, the Federal Trade Commission issued its 33rd annual report describing the agency’s law enforcement and other efforts to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, and abusive debt collection practices. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibits these and other improper practices by third-party debt collectors and requires that the Commission submit annual reports to Congress discussing the agency’s administration of the FDCPA. Data in the report, Federal Trade Commission Annual Report 2011: Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (March 2011), show that in 2010, as in other recent years, the FTC received more complaints about debt collection than any other single industry. Specifically, the agency received 140,036 debt collection complaints in 2010, up from 119,609 complaints in 2009. The top three categories of complaints about third-party collectors were:

• calling repeatedly or continuously;
  
• misrepresenting the character, amount, or status of the debt (including demanding a larger payment than is permitted by law); and
  
• failing to send consumers a statutorily required written notice about the debt and their rights.

Energy Information Administration: "Libya, the largest holder of proven oil reserves in Africa and until recently its fourth largest oil producer, exports most of the energy it produces. Europe is the major market for both oil and natural gas exports from Libya. Following the outbreak of civil unrest in mid-February, Libyan oil and natural gas production has been cut by 60 to 90 percent, affecting Libya's energy exports. Oil exports have fallen with production and Libya's natural gas exports to Italy via the Greenstream pipeline stopped in late February. Libya produced an estimated 1.8 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil in 2010, of which 1.5 million bbl/d were exported. Libya exports nine grades of crude oil. API gravities range from 26.0 degrees to 43.3 degrees, with a sulfur content as low as 0.2-0.3%. While the lighter, sweeter grades are generally sold to Europe, the heavier crude oils are often exported to Asian markets."

FDIC Comprehensive Seminar On Deposit Insurance Coverage For Bankers, March 23, 2011

• Financial Audit: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Funds' 2010 and 2009 Financial Statements, GAO-11-412, March 18, 2011
• The Federal Government's Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: January 2011 Update, GAO-11-451SP, March 18, 2011
• Medicare Part D: CMS Conducted Fraud and Abuse Compliance Plan Audits, but All Audit Findings Are Not Yet Available, GAO-11-269R, February 18, 2011

"The BIS Quarterly Review for March 2011, discusses how expectations of higher growth in the advanced economies and surging commodity prices pushed up short-term inflation expectations. Full text 97 pages."

Japanese Nuclear Emergency: Radiation Monitoring: "As of 1:00 p.m. (EDT) on March 20, EPA's RadNet radiation air monitors across the U.S. show typical fluctuations in background radiation levels. The levels detected are far below levels of concern. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said we do not expect to see radiation at harmful levels reaching the U.S. from damaged Japanese nuclear power plants..More Due to the events in Japan and the heightened interest in radiation monitoring data, EPA has developed new content RadNet Map View which contains monitoring data and additional contextual information from EPA's Radiation Protection Programs."

News release: "The Federal Reserve on Friday announced it has completed the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR), its cross-institution study of the capital plans of the 19 largest U.S. bank holding companies. As a result of the CCAR, some firms are expected to increase or restart dividend payments, buy back shares, or repay government capital. The Federal Reserve on Friday will discuss the reviews and its decisions with firms that requested a capital action. All 19 firms will receive more detailed assessments of their capital planning processes next month. In February 2009, the Federal Reserve advised bank holding companies that safety and soundness considerations required that dividends be substantially reduced or eliminated. Since that time, the Federal Reserve has indicated that increased capital distributions would generally not be considered prudent in the absence of a well-developed capital plan and a capital position that would remain strong even under adverse conditions. The Federal Reserve's actions on capital distributions come after significant improvement in both economic conditions and the capital positions of financial institutions. From the end of 2008 through 2010, common equity increased by more than $300 billion at the 19 largest U.S. bank holding companies."

Preliminary Analysis of the President's Budget for 2012, March 18, 2011: "This report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) presents a preliminary analysis of the proposals contained in the President's budget for fiscal year 2012 and their estimated effects on federal revenues, outlays, and budget deficits. A report presenting CBO's full analysis of the President's budget, including an assessment of the macroeconomic effects of the President's proposals, will be published in April. As a basis for analyzing the President's budget, CBO updated its baseline budget projections, which were last issued in January 2011. Unlike its estimates of the President's budget, CBO's baseline projections largely reflect the assumption that current tax and spending laws will remain unchanged. Under that assumption, CBO estimates that the deficit will total $1.40 trillion in 2011—$81 billion less than the agency estimated in January. For the following 10 years (2012 to 2021), CBO now projects a cumulative deficit of $6.7 trillion—$234 billion less than the amount in the previous baseline. CBO has not modified its economic forecast since January, so the updated baseline projections mainly reflect new information that the agency has obtained about various aspects of the federal budget since the previous projections were completed."

News release: "The Department of Defense today released the Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military. This year’s report also incorporates results from the quadrennial 2010 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members, an anonymous and voluntary survey conducted by the Defense Manpower Data Center, which measures gender issues among members of the armed forces. Over the last two years, the department has made significant efforts to prevent and respond to sexual assault. While it appears these efforts are beginning to payoff, there is still work to do to integrate and continue our efforts across the department and the services."

Japanese Nuclear Emergency: Basic Radiation Facts From EPA: Includes tabs with information specific to: Technical Users, General Public, Reporters, Librarians, Students/Teachers.

• 401(k) Plans: Issues Involving Securities Lending in Plan Investments, GAO-11-359T, March 16, 2011
• Cybersecurity: Continued Attention Needed to Protect Our Nation's Critical Infrastructure and Federal Information Systems, GAO-11-463T, March 16, 2011
• Department of Labor: Further Management Improvements Needed to Address Information Technology and Financial Controls, GAO-11-157, March 16, 2011
• Government Performance: GPRA Modernization Act Provides Opportunities to Help Address Fiscal, Performance, and Management Challenges, GAO-11-466T, March 16, 2011
• Private Health Insurance: Data on Application and Coverage Denials, GAO-11-268, March 16, 2011
• 401(K) Plans: Certain Investment Options and Practices That May Restrict Withdrawals Not Widely Understood, GAO-11-291, March 10, 2011

News release: "The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) to further clarify application of the orderly liquidation authority contained in Title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, "Orderly Liquidation Authority" (OLA). The NPR builds on the interim rule approved by the FDIC on January 18, 2011, which clarified certain discrete issues under the OLA. The NPR approved today establishes a comprehensive framework for the priority payment of creditors and for the procedures for filing a claim with the receiver and, if dissatisfied, pursuing the claim in court. The NPR also clarifies additional issues important to the implementation of the OLA, including how compensation will be recouped from senior executives and directors who are substantially responsible for the failure of the firm. The NPR, along with the interim final rule, is intended to provide clarity and certainty about how key components of OLA will be implemented and to ensure that the liquidation process under Title II reflects the Dodd-Frank Act's mandate of transparency in the liquidation of covered financial companies."

News release: "U.S. import prices rose 1.4 percent in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, following a similar 1.3 percent advance in January. The price index for U.S. exports increased 1.2 percent in February after rising 1.3 percent the previous month. Higher agricultural and nonagricultural export prices each contributed to the overall advance in February. All Imports: Prices for imports rose 1.4 percent in February, continuing a five-month trend of monthly increases greater than 1.0 percent. Import prices advanced 6.9 percent for the year ended in February, driven by a 7.0 percent jump for the index over the past five months. The year-over-year rise in February was the largest 12-month advance since an 8.5 percent increase for the year ended in May 2010. Higher prices for both fuel and nonfuel import prices contributed to the increase in February and over the past year...All Imports Excluding Fuel: Nonfuel import prices advanced 0.3 percent in February after a 0.7 percent increase in January. Higher prices for nonfuel industrial supplies and materials; foods, feeds, and beverages; and each of the major finished goods categories all contributed to the rise in nonfuel prices in February. The price index for nonfuel imports increased 3.6 percent the past year, the largest 12-month advance since a 4.8 percent increase between October 2007 and October 2008. The current 12-month rise was mostly driven by a 12.9 percent advance for nonfuel industrial supplies and materials prices and a 15.8 percent increase for foods, feeds, and beverages prices."

FOMC statement, March 15, 2011: "Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January suggests that the economic recovery is on a firmer footing, and overall conditions in the labor market appear to be improving gradually. Household spending and business investment in equipment and software continue to expand. However, investment in nonresidential structures is still weak, and the housing sector continues to be depressed. Commodity prices have risen significantly since the summer, and concerns about global supplies of crude oil have contributed to a sharp run-up in oil prices in recent weeks. Nonetheless, longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable, and measures of underlying inflation have been subdued."

• Border Security: Preliminary Observations on the Status of Key Southwest Border Technology Programs, GAO-11-448T, March 15, 2011
• Homeland Security: Improvements in Managing Research and Development Could Help Reduce Inefficiencies and Costs, GAO-11-464T, March 15, 2011
• Information Security: IRS Needs to Enhance Internal Control over Financial Reporting and Taxpayer Data, GAO-11-308, March 15, 2011
• Joint Strike Fighter: Restructuring Should Improve Outcomes, but Progress Is Still Lagging Overall, GAO-11-450T, March 15, 2011
• Maritime Security: Updating U.S. Counterpiracy Action Plan Gains Urgency as Piracy Escalates off the Horn of Africa, GAO-11-449T, March 15, 2011

Information Technology: OMB Has Made Improvements to Its Dashboard, but Further Work Is Needed by Agencies and OMB to Ensure Data Accuracy, GAO-11-262, March 15, 2011: "Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on information technology (IT) investments each year; federal IT spending has now risen to an estimated $79 billion for fiscal year 2011. During the past several years, we have issued multiple reports and testimonies and made numerous recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to improve the transparency, oversight, and management of the federal government’s IT investments. As part of its response to our prior work, OMB deployed a public Web site in June 2009, known as the IT Dashboard, which provides detailed information on federal agencies’ major IT investments, including assessments of actual performance against cost and schedule targets (referred to as ratings) for approximately 800 major federal IT investments. The Dashboard aims to improve the transparency and oversight of these investments."

U.S. Advanced Meter Penetration by end-use sector: "Electric meters with enhanced communication capabilities — an essential component of the smart grid — are becoming more prevalent. This offers the possibility that electric systems will become more reliable and efficient. In 2009, 39% of all U.S. electrical customers had advanced meters, up from 32% in 2008. Advanced meters can use one-way communication (known as Automated Meter Reading, or AMR), which enables the utility to do remote meter reading, or two-way communication (Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or AMI). In 2009, 17% of advanced meters used two-way communication, up from 10% in 2008. These two-way meters are often referred to as "smart meters." Utilities have an incentive to install advanced meters for residential customers because automated meter reading lowers costs. Commercial and industrial customers probably have lower penetration rates for these digital meters because they are more likely to have more sophisticated analog meters already in place, to be on a time-responsive tariff, and to be interruptible customers."

Retail gasoline prices rose by 4.7 cents per gallon between March 7 and March 14, 2011 - See this Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, with accompanying charts.

Welcome to the State Legislative Tracking Database on Health Reform: Search 2011 legislation by state, topic, keyword, status, and/or primary sponsor.

"As the flagship initiative of the Department’s Open Government Plan, OIP [Office of Information Policy] is proud to announce the launch of FOIA.Gov, a comprehensive public resource for government-wide FOIA information and data. FOIA.Gov displays graphically a wealth of data on agency FOIA compliance, contains educational material about how the FOIA works, and contact information for all government agencies. OIP’s own website will always provide a link to FOIA.Gov on the right hand side of our site."

• Nuclear Waste: DOE Needs a Comprehensive Strategy and Guidance on Computer Models that Support Environmental Cleanup Decisions, GAO-11-143, February 10, 2011
• Prescription Drugs: Trends in Usual and Customary Prices for Commonly Used Drugs, GAO-11-306R, February 10, 2011

OIG-11-41 - DHS Contracts Awarded Through Other Than Full and Open Competition During Fiscal Year 2010

News release: "...the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics released the first in a series of data analysis tools that will enable the public to explore the recidivism patterns of persons involved with the criminal justice system. The new Prisoner Recidivism Analysis Tool allows users to conduct customized analyses of a large database describing the recidivism of prisoners released in 1994 and followed for a three-year period after release. In 2012, BJS plans to update the tool with new recidivism data on prisoners released in 2005. The public can use this online tool to analyze a large research database and verify statistics found in government publications, media reports or other sources that use these data. The tool allows users to move beyond the published statistics to explore in more detail the recidivism patterns of released prisoners. Users may examine the recidivism patterns of released prisoners based on one or more attributes, such as gender, age at release, race, commitment offense, sentence length, prior arrests and prior commitments."

Charts include 2000-2009 Average Price and 201 Annual Average: "Crude oil, refining, distribution & marketing, and taxes are the four major cost components for estimates of the retail price of a gallon of gasoline. The portion of the gasoline price each of these components accounts for can vary significantly over time."

Electric Power Monthly, March 2011 Edition, with data for December 2010 [this release links to PDF and xls and associated graphs]

• Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-453T, March 11, 2011
• Flood Insurance: Public Policy Goals Provide a Framework for Reform, GAO-11-429T, March 11, 2011
• Information Technology: Better Informed Decision Making Needed on Navy's Next Generation Enterprise Network, GAO-11-150, March 11, 2011

News release: "Regional and state unemployment rates were generally unchanged in January. Twenty-four states recorded unemployment rate decreases, 10 states registered rate increases, and 16 states and the District of Columbia had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported [March 11, 2011]. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia posted unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, 9 states reported increases, and 2 states had no change. The national jobless rate fell by 0.4 percentage point between December 2010 and January 2011 to 9.0 percent, 0.7 point lower than in January 2010. In January nonfarm payroll employment increased in 35 states and the District of Columbia, and decreased in 15 states. The largest over-the-month increase in employment occurred in Texas (+44,100), followed by Michigan (+39,700), Ohio (+31,900), Illinois (+24,500), and California (+22,600)."

"There were 2.8 million job openings on the last business day of
January 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The job openings rate (2.1 percent), hires rate (2.8 percent), and total separations rate (2.7 percent) were little changed over the month. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector by industry and by geographic region. This release also includes annual estimates for hires and separations. The annual totals for hires and quits increased in 2010 while the annual total for layoffs and discharges decreased."

BLS: Unemployment rate for Gulf War-era II veterans at 11.5 percent in 2010 The unemployment rate for veterans of Gulf War era II (September 2001 forward) was 11.5 percent in 2010. About 25 percent of Gulf War-era II veterans reported having a service-connected disability in July 2010, compared with about 13 percent of all veterans."

Cancer Survivors - United States, 2007 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) March 11, 2011 / 60(09);269-272

Applicant Experiences with Retirement Insurance Benefit Internet Claim Applications, A-07-10-20167

Testimony before the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives, March 10, 2011.

How Federal Agencies Can Effectively Manage Records Created Using New Social Media Tools, Patricia C. Franks, Associate Professor, School of Library & Information Science, San Jose State University

News release: "The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO) today released for comment the consultative report on the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures. The CPSS and IOSCO expect these principles to play an important role in the future regulation of financial market infrastructures around the world. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a member of the CPSS, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, members of the Technical Committee of IOSCO, encourage interested persons to review and comment on the consultative report. The consultative report contains updated and new proposed international principles for systemically important payment systems, central securities depositories, securities settlement systems, central counterparties, and trade repositories. The 24 proposed principles would replace existing CPSS and CPSS-IOSCO standards for payment, clearing, and settlement systems previously published in the Core Principles for Systemically Important Payment Systems, Recommendations for Securities Settlement Systems, and Recommendations for Central Counterparties and introduce principles for trade repositories for the first time."

Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options, March 10, 2011

"The new data.gov.au site has now been released and I invite you to explore, access and reuse the data available on the site. The release of public sector information in the form of datasets allows the commercial, research and community sectors to add value to government data in new, innovative and exciting ways. Data.gov.au plays a crucial role in realising the Australian Government’s commitment to informing, engaging and participating with the public, as expressed in its Declaration of Open Government and Freedom of Information (FoI) reforms. It is the Australian equivalent to similar overseas sites such as the United States’ data.gov, the United Kingdom’s data.gov.uk and New Zealand’s data.govt.nz. Agencies such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) already release large amounts of data to the public. An important goal of data.gov.au is to provide a broader range of agencies the opportunity to similarly release more data online. More than 200 datasets are accessible through data.gov.au"

Official Google Blog: "Now there’s yet another way to find more of what you want on Google by blocking the sites you don’t want to see. You’ve probably had the experience where you’ve clicked a result and it wasn’t quite what you were looking for. Many times you’ll head right back to Google. Perhaps the result just wasn’t quite right, but sometimes you may dislike the site in general, whether it’s offensive...or of generally low quality. For times like these, you’ll start seeing a new option to block particular domains from your future search results. Now when you click a result and then return to Google, you’ll find a new link next to “Cached” that reads “Block all example.com results.” Once you click the link to “Block all example.com results” you’ll get a confirmation message, as well as the option to undo your choice. You’ll see the link whether or not you’re signed in, but the domains you block are connected with your Google Account, so you’ll need to sign in before you can confirm a block. Once you’ve blocked a domain, you won’t see it in your future search results."

"Welcome to the new home for consumer product safety reports. Use our new online form to submit a Report on an unsafe product. Register your business with the new Business Portal to review and respond to Reports. Reports and manufacturer comments during this Soft Launch will be used by CPSC, but they will not be published on SaferProducts.gov.

• Learn More about SaferProducts.gov
  
• Learn More about Soft Launch
  Permanent Link

News release: "At a hearing today in front of the Senate Commerce Committee on the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Assistant NOAA Administrator for Fisheries Eric Schwaab said that the U.S. is making good progress toward meeting the mandate to end domestic overfishing. “We know that nearly $31 billion in sales and as many as 500,000 jobs are lost because our fisheries are not performing as well as they would if all stocks were rebuilt,” Schwaab said. “While we are turning a corner toward a brighter future for fishermen and fishing communities, many fishermen are struggling in part as a result of years of decline in fishing opportunity.” Schwaab said that NOAA is committed to working with fishermen and communities during this period of transition. Our nation’s fisheries have been vital to the economics and identities of our coastal communities for hundreds of years. According to the most recent estimates, U.S. commercial and saltwater recreational fisheries support almost two million jobs and generate more than $160 billion in sales."

• Department of State: Additional Steps Are Needed to Improve Strategic Planning and Evaluation of Training for State Personnel GAO-11-438T, March 08, 2011
• Department of State: Additional Steps Are Needed to Improve Strategic Planning and Evaluation of Training for State Personnel GAO-11-241, January 25, 2011

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency updated its database that helps Americans understand the health and environmental impacts of electricity generation. EPA’s Emissions and Generation Integrated Resource Database (eGRID) and Power Profiler now include data from 2007, an update from 2005. eGRID is a comprehensive database of emissions from almost all electric power generated in the United States. The data are widely used to show the impacts of electricity generation as well as the benefits from reduced electricity demand. eGRID contains emissions information for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) which contribute to unhealthy air quality and acid rain in many parts of the country. eGRID also contains emissions information for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), which are greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Power Profiler is a user friendly online application that uses eGRID data to show air emissions information and the type of electricity generation, such as coal or nuclear, in various regions of the country. By simply entering a zip code and selecting a utility, users can learn more about where their electricity comes from and what impact it has on air quality and the environment."

Four Observations about the Federal Budget, March 2011 - CBO Director Doug Elmendorf's presentation to the National Association for Business Economics: "The gap between spending and revenues is likely to remain very large even after
we return to normal economic conditions. Fiscal policy cannot be put on a sustainable path just by eliminating waste and inefficiency; the policy changes that are needed will significantly affect popular programs or people’s tax payments or both."

CBO Monthly Budget Review - March 2011, Based on the Monthly Treasury Statement for January and the Daily Treasury Statements for February

Via the White House, Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being

"Women’s History Month honors the achievements and contributions of American women in all walks of life. Check out some interesting facts about American women. Here are just a few:

• 157.2 million women and 153.2 million men reside in the United States. At age 85 and older, there are more than twice as many women as men.
  
• 82.8 million women are mothers.
  
• 55% of college students are women.
  
• 66% of women and 62% of men reported voting in the 2008 presidential election.
  
• 14% of armed forces members are women.
  
• 88% was the ratio of women’s-to-men’s earnings in the District of Columbia in 2009, which was among the highest of any location in the nation." [via USA.gov]

News release: "A new Federal Trade Commission report recommends improvements to two areas of patent law policies affecting how well a patent gives notice to the public of what technology is protected and remedies for patent infringement. The report, The Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition, emphasizes that the patent system and competition policy share the goal of promoting innovation that benefits consumers."

An Assessment of Records Management Programs in the Federal Government National Archives and Records Administration, February 22, 2011

Unhealthy Sleep-Related Behaviors - 12 States, 2009. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) March 4, 2011 / 60(08);233-238

women at Work: "Until things slowly changed during the last century, women's participation in the labor force was limited by traditional cultural, educational, and legal practices. Women's work outside of home and marriage was restricted to a handful of occupations such as domestic service, factory work, farm work, and teaching. Over the past several decades, the women's labor force in the United States and throughout the world has experienced many changes. Women's labor force participation rates are significantly higher today than they were in the 1970s. Throughout that period, women have increasingly attained higher levels of education and experienced an increase in their earnings as a proportion of men's earnings. In addition to highlighting the past, present, and future of women in the workforce, this Spotlight presents BLS data on the types of activities that women spend their time doing during an average week, how they choose to spend their hard-earned money, and the nature of fatal injuries in the workplace."

Updated Norovirus Outbreak Management and Disease Prevention Guidelines, Recommendations and Reports, March 4, 2011 / Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 60(RR03);1-15

Apps@State: "Use the communications tools at your disposal to spread your values...by creating your own networks you can extend the power of governments to end hunger, defeat disease, combat climate change and give every child the ability to live up to his or her God-given potential." HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, Secretary of State

News release: "As part of its commitment to implement sensible protections of drinking water for communities across the country, and as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing 30 currently unregulated contaminants for monitoring in water systems, and submitting this proposal for public comment. The comment period will allow the public and other stakeholders to provide input on the selection of new contaminants for monitoring, and will help determine the best path forward as the EPA seeks to collect data that will inform future decisions about how best to protect drinking water."

"A nonpartisan map of all 435 congressional districts in the nation has never been drawn. The widespread diffusion of redistricting technology and data and the training of a group of students dedicated to that purpose has made such a map possible for the first time. DrawCongress.org represents the first attempt to create an internet depository for nonpartisan congressional maps for the entire country. DrawCongress.org is an outgrowth of the “Redistricting and Gerrymandering” course at Columbia Law School. At this website you will find a series of student-drawn nonpartisan redistricting plans, which will culminate in a complete map of all 435 congressional districts. The students used Caliper Corporation's Maptitude for Redistricting software to draw their plans."

Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, via EPIC: "The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security released a report finding that the agency's contract files did not "contain[] sufficient evidence of justification and approval, market research, and acquisition planning" for the $1.3 billion dollars in noncompetitive contracts the agency entered into in fiscal year 2010. The noncompetitive process raises doubts that the agency secured the "best possible value" for the goods and services and that the contracts were awarded to "eligible and qualified vendors." The IG recommended that the agency’s Chief Procurement Officer pursue corrective action plans. EPIC previously criticized the agency’s contracting practices regarding whole body scanners. For related information see EPIC: EPIC v. DHS: Body Scanners (Suspend the Program) and EPIC: EPIC v. DHS (FOIA)."

More Than 90 Actions Brought By Commission and Its Law Enforcement Partners: "The Federal Trade Commission today stepped up its ongoing campaign against scammers who falsely promise guaranteed jobs and opportunities to “be your own boss” to consumers who are struggling with unemployment and diminished incomes as a consequence of the economic downturn. “Operation Empty Promises,” a multi-agency law enforcement initiative today announced more than 90 enforcement actions, including three new FTC cases and developments in seven other matters, 48 criminal actions by the Department of Justice (many of which involved the assistance of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service), seven additional civil actions by the Postal Inspection Service, and 28 actions by state law enforcement agencies in Alaska, California, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and the District of Columbia."

• DOD Education Benefits: Further Actions Needed to Improve Oversight of Tuition Assistance Program, GAO-11-389T, March 02, 2011
• Elder Justice: Stronger Federal Leadership Could Enhance National Response to Elder Abuse, GAO-11-208, March 02, 2011
• Elder Justice: Stronger Federal Leadership Could Help Improve Response to Elder Abuse, GAO-11-384T, March 02, 2011
• Environmental Protection Agency: Major Management Challenges, GAO-11-422T, March 02, 2011
• Medicare: Program Remains at High Risk Because of Continuing Management Challenges, GAO-11-430T, March 02, 2011
• Troubled Asset Relief Program: Actions Needed by Treasury to Address Challenges in Implementing Making Home Affordable Programs, GAO-11-338T, March 02, 2011
• U.S. Postal Service: Modernization and Restructuring Needed to Address Financial Challenges, GAO-11-428T, March 02, 2011
• Medicare: Private Sector Initiatives to Bundle Hospital and Physician Payments for an Episode of Care, GAO-11-126R, January 31, 2011
• VA Real Property: Realignment Progressing, but Greater Transparency about Future Priorities Is Needed, GAO-11-197, January 31, 2011
  Permanent Link

Full Report - Beige Book, March 2, 2011 and Links to the Districts - "Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicated that overall economic activity continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace in January and early February. Both Kansas City and San Francisco noted that their economies expanded further. Boston and Philadelphia cited conditions as improving. New York, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, and St. Louis described activity as modestly improving, while Minneapolis and Dallas experienced moderate growth. Chicago reported that although there was an increase in activity, it was at a pace not quite as strong as during the previous reporting period."

"NCUA [National Credit Union Administration] is proposing rules to implement certain statutory provisions in Title IX of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act). The proposed rules replace or remove references to credit ratings in NCUA regulations. Comments must be received on or before May 2, 2011...The proposed rule generally handles NRSRO ratings three different ways, depending on the manner in which the rating is used in the regulations. For investments, the proposal generally replaces the minimum credit rating requirement with a requirement that the credit union do an internal credit analysis of the investment pursuant to a particular narrative standard. For counterparty transactions, the proposal generally replaces the minimum credit rating requirement with a requirement that the credit union do an internal credit analysis of the counterparty pursuant to an internal standard set by the credit union’s board. For ratings usage outside of investment and counterparty suitability, the proposal generally removes the ratings reference without requiring some substitute analysis."

Monetary Policy Report to the Congress Submitted pursuant to section 2B of the Federal Reserve Act, March 1, 2011: "Economic activity in the United States expanded at a moderate pace, on average, in the second half of 2010 and early 2011. In the spring and early summer, a number of key indicators of economic activity softened relative to the readings posted in late 2009 and the first part of 2010, raising concerns about the durability of the recovery. In light of these developments--and in order to put the economic recovery on a firmer footing--the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) provided additional monetary policy stimulus during the second half of 2010 by reinvesting principal repayments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in longer-term Treasury securities and by announcing its intention to purchase an additional $600 billion of Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011."

2011 Trade Policy Agenda and 2010 Annual Report of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Program, Ambassador Ronald Kirk, Office of the United States Trade Representative, March 1, 2011.

"A report released today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the benefits of reducing fine particle and ground level ozone pollution under the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments will reach approximately $2 trillion in 2020 while saving 230,000 people from early death in that year alone. The report studied the effects of the Clean Air Act updates on the economy, public health and the environment between 1990 and 2020. The EPA report received extensive review and input from the Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis, an independent panel of distinguished economists, scientists and public health experts established by Congress in 1991."

How the Public Perceives Community Information Systems, March 1, 2011

News release: "The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday proposed regulations regarding the credit score disclosure requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The statute requires creditors to disclose credit scores and related information to consumers in risk-based pricing and adverse action notices under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) if a credit score was used in setting the credit terms or taking adverse action." The notices for the two proposed rules are as follows:

• Attachment
  
• Attachment

• Department of the Interior: Major Management Challenges, GAO-11-424T, March 01, 2011
• DOD Education Benefits: Increased Oversight of Tuition Assistance Program Is Needed, GAO-11-300, March 01, 2011
• Education of Military Dependent Students: Better Information Needed to Assess Student Performance, GAO-11-231, March 01, 2011
• Financial Audit: American Battle Monuments Commission's Financial Statements for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2009, GAO-11-320, March 01, 2011
• Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue, GAO-11-318SP, March 01, 2011
• Warfighter Support: DOD Should Have a More Comprehensive Approach for Addressing Urgent Warfighter Needs, GAO-11-417T, March 01, 2011
• Warfighter Support: DOD's Urgent Needs Processes Need a More Comprehensive Approach and Evaluation for Potential Consolidation GAO-11-273, March 01, 2011

National Statistics Online, GDP and the Labour Market - Q1 2008 - Q 3 2010: "Between quarter four 2009 to quarter four 2010, total employment rose by 0.8 per cent (383,000). The most recent quarter, however, saw total employment fall by 0.2 per cent (68,000) compared to the previous three months. This may reflect changing situations for individuals within the labour market. The number of self-employed individuals stood at 3.98 million in quarter four 2010, down 49,000 on the previous quarter. However, self-employment is still 2.4 per cent (92,000) higher than the same time last year. Also, comparing quarter four 2010 with quarter four 2009:

• Full-time employment fell by less than 0.1 per cent (5,000)
  
• Part-time employment grew by 2.9 per cent (224,000), and
  and Self-employment grew by 2.4 per cent (92,000)
  
• Employees grew by 0.4 per cent (110,000)
  
• Over the six quarters of economic contraction from quarter one 2008, total employment fell by 600,000. In the 1980s recession, the final quarter of economic contraction saw employment levels 619,000 lower than pre-recession level. At the end of the 1990s recession, employment was 910,000 lower than it was prior to the recession."

The 2011 HHS Poverty Guidelines One Version of the [U.S.] Federal Poverty Measure

• Federal Register Notice, January 20, 2011 — Full text
  
• Prior Poverty Guidelines and Federal Register References Since 1982
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
  
• Further Resources on Poverty Measurement, Poverty Lines, and Their History
• Computations for the 2011 Poverty Guidelines

Personal Income and Outlays, January 2011: "Personal income increased $133.2 billion, or 1.0 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $78.3 billion, or 0.7 percent, in January, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $23.7 billion, or 0.2 percent. In December, personal income increased $56.6 billion, or 0.4 percent, DPI increased $48.5 billion, or 0.4 percent, and PCE increased $56.5 billion, or 0.5 percent, based on revised estimates. Real disposable income increased 0.4 percent in January, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent in December. Real PCE decreased 0.1 percent, in contrast to an increase of 0.3 percent."

Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP and the Economy Advance Estimates for the Fourth Quarter of 2010

"The Economic Report of the President is an annual report written by the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. It overviews the nation's economic progress using text and extensive data appendices. The Economic Report of the President is transmitted to Congress no later than ten days after the submission of the Budget of the United States Government. Supplementary reports can be issued to the Congress which contain additional and/or revised recommendations. Documents are available in ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), with many of the tables also available for separate viewing and downloading as spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel (XLS)."

Monthly Energy Review, February 2011: "A publication of recent energy statistics. This publication includes total energy production, consumption, and trade; energy prices; overviews of petroleum, natural gas, coal, electricity, nuclear energy, renewable energy, and international petroleum; carbon dioxide emissions; and data unit conversions values."

News release: "Annual average unemployment rates in 2010 rose in 31 states and the District of Columbia, declined in 18 states, and remained the same in 1 state, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Employment-population ratios decreased in 43 states and the District of Columbia, increased in 3 states, and were unchanged in 4 states. Jobless rates increased in three regions and decreased in one, and employment-population ratios declined in all four regions in 2010. The U.S. jobless rate rose by 0.3 percentage point from the prior year to 9.6 percent, while the national employment population ratio fell by 0.8 point to 58.5 percent."

Special Research Report: Cloud Computing - "In December 2010, the 1105 Government Information Group and Beacon Technology Partners conducted a survey of federal IT managers to determine their attitudes toward cloud computing. The survey revealed the greatest cloud opportunities among federal agencies and the preferred deployment modes for cloud initiatives. Additionally, the research showed perceived advantages of cloud computing, concerns about security, and more. Read this special research report for more information."

One Million Electric Vehicles By 2015, February 2011 Status Report

CBO Estimate of H.R. 1, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 as Passed by the House of Representatives on February 19, 2011 (In millions of dollars)

Outlook for the Economy and the Budget - February 2011, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf's presentation to the National Economists Club

"Timing of Deficit Reduction

• The longer the necessary adjustments are delayed:
  
• The greater the negative consequences of mounting debt;
  
• The more uncertainty about future government policies; and
  
• The more drastic the ultimate policy changes"

Evaluation Report - EPA Needs Better Agency-Wide Controls Over Staff Resources, Report No. 11-P-0136, February 22, 2011

Migrants' Remittances and Related Economic Flows - February 24, 2011

Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2010, February 2011: "This report provides estimates of the unauthorized immigrant population residing in the United States as of January 2010 for periods of entry and leading countries of birth and states of residence...In summary, the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in January 2010 was 10.8 million—the same as in January 2009—but down from 11.8 million in January 2007. Between 2000 and 2010, the unauthorized population grew by 27 percent. Of all unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in 2010, 39 percent entered in 2000 or later, and 62 per-cent were from Mexico."

News release: "In response to federal court orders requiring the issuance of final standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing final Clean Air Act standards for boilers and certain incinerators that achieve significant public health protections through reductions in toxic air emissions, including mercury and soot, but cut the cost of implementation by about 50 percent from an earlier proposal issued last year. Mercury, soot, lead and other harmful pollutants released by boilers and incinerators can lead to developmental disabilities in children, as well as cancer, heart disease, aggravated asthma and premature death in Americans. These standards will avoid between 2,600-6,600 premature deaths, prevent 4,100 heart attacks and avert 42,000 asthma attacks per year in 2014."

Energy and Financial Markets Overview: Crude Oil Price Formation, presentation by Richard Newell, Administrator, to the Society of Petroleum Engineers, National Capital Section, Washington, DC on February 23, 2011

• "Some researchers are finding evidence that factors including unexpectedly strong economic growth in China and stagnant supply were at least associated with, and may have contributed to, the sharp oil price run-up and subsequent decline during the 2007-2008 period
  
• The researchers are also finding some evidence suggesting that the price run-up and decline may have been exacerbated by the formation and collapse of an oil price bubble, perhaps triggered by fundamental factors in both the oil market and the broader global economy
  
• As discussed later in the presentation, both internal EIA and academic research is also addressing the major increase in oil derivatives trading, significant change in the composition of derivatives traders (such as the growth of swap dealers, hedge funds, and commodity index funds), and increased correlation of oil and other markets over the past several years."
  
• WSJ: Rising Oil Prices Raise the Specter of a Double Dip

FDIC's Quarterly Banking Profile, Fourth Quarter 2010, released February 23, 2010

• "Banks Earned $21.7 Billion in Fourth Quarter as Recovery Continues: Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported an aggregate profit of $21.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, a $23.5 billion improvement from the $1.8 billion net loss the industry reported in the fourth quarter of 2009. This is the sixth consecutive quarter that earnings registered a year-over-year increase.
  
• Full-Year Net Income of $87.5 Billion Is Highest Since 2007
• Asset Quality Improves for Third Consecutive Quarter
• Institutions Set Aside Half as Much for Loan Losses as a Year Earlier
  
• 157 Insured Institutions Failed During 2010"

CBO's Projections of Federal Receipts and Expenditures in the Framework of the National Income and Product Accounts, February 2011

"The Federal Reserve on Wednesday issued a Spanish version of the 2010 Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual. The Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, developed the Spanish version to make the regulatory expectations regarding Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance programs accessible to a wider group of people. The manual provides current and consistent guidance on risk-based policies, procedures, and processes for banking organizations to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and safeguard operations from money laundering and terrorist financing."

Yemen Country Analysis Brief — Feb 22, 2011

Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October 2010 Through December 2010, February 23, 2011

Avoiding Water Wars: Water Scarcity and Central Asia's Growing Importance for Stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Majority Staff Report prepared for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 112th Congress, First Session, February 22, 2011

• Debt Limit: Delays Create Debt Management Challenges and Increase Uncertainty in the Treasury Market, GAO-11-203, February 22, 2011
• Ryan White CARE Act: Estimated Effect of Continued Application of the Fiscal Year 2010 Stop-Loss Provision on 2011 Funding for Urban Areas, GAO-11-405R, February 18, 2011
• Defense Management: Additional Cost Information and Stakeholder Input Needed to Assess Military Posture in Europe, GAO-11-131, February 03, 2011
• Superfund: Information on the Nature and Costs of Cleanup Activities at Three Landfills in the Gulf Coast Region, GAO-11-287R, February 18, 2011
• Commercial Motor Carriers: More Could Be Done to Determine Impact of Excessive Loading and Unloading Wait Times on Hours of Service Violations, GAO-11-198, January 26, 2011

Follow up to previous postings on the Deepwater oil spill, see Macondo - the Gulf Oil Disaster - Chief Counsel’s Report | 2011, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill And Offshore Drilling | Report to the President

Ignition Interlocks - A Proven Means for Preventing Impaired Driving Re-Arrests, and Reducing Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Ignition Interlocks
"When someone is convicted of DWI and arrested, it's clear that they've made the decision, at least once, to drink and drive. It's important to take steps to prevent them from making such a risky decision in the future. Devices known as ignition interlocks can be installed in DWI offenders' vehicles as safeguards to help prevent future episodes of impaired driving—a serious public health problem that kills about 11,000 people annually and costs nearly $110 billion a year. When an ignition interlock is installed in a car or truck, it prevents that vehicle from being driven by anyone with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) above a specified level. This level is usually 0.02 to 0.04 grams per deciliter (g/dL); the minimum illegal BAC level is 0.08 g/dL in every state. Typically, interlocks are installed in vehicles operated by drivers who have already been convicted of DWI. They may be mandated through the court system or offered as an alternative to a suspended license, and they're usually installed for 6 to 24 months."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee - Iraq: The Transition from a Military Mission to a Civilian-Led Effort (Committee Print - Majority), January 31, 2011

"A new database on contractors' past behavior has industry scrambling to prepare, according to contracting lawyers and advocates. The Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System, or FAPIIS, is meant to ensure the government, before making major awards to contractors, knows of past problems such as criminal convictions, fines, suspensions and contracts terminated due to default. The database, with the exception of past performance reviews, is set to go public in mid-April. Now, attorneys and industry advocates say contractors are concerned about how the information will be used and whether their proprietary data will be protected. In the past, such records have not been easily accessible by the public. The new system will take a while to become a comprehensive source, as it depends on people entering information. Some records are to be submitted by the contractors themselves; others come directly from the government."

News release: "The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.4 percent in January on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 1.6 percent before seasonal adjustment. Increases in indexes for energy commodities and for food accounted for over two thirds of the all items increase. The indexes for gasoline and fuel oil both increased in January, continuing their recent strong upward trend. The index for food at home posted its largest increase in over two years with all six major grocery store food group indexes rising. The index for all items less food and energy also rose in January. The indexes for apparel, shelter, airline fares, and recreation all posted increases. In contrast, the indexes for new vehicles and for used cars and trucks declined in January. Over the last 12 months, the food index has risen 1.8 percent with the food at home index up 2.1 percent; both 12-month changes are the highest since 2009. The energy index has increased 7.3 percent over the last 12 months, with the gasoline index up 13.4 percent. The index for all items less food and energy has risen 1.0 percent."

Open Government Executive Directive, Version 1 - January 24, 2011

"The National Broadband Map is a searchable and interactive website that allows users to view broadband availability across every neighborhood in the United States. The NBM was created by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and in partnership with 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia. The NBM is a project of NTIA's State Broadband Initiative. The NBM will be updated approximately every six months and was first published on February 17, 2011."

• Department of State's Report to Congress and U.S. Oversight of Civilian Assistance to Pakistan Can Be Further Enhanced, GAO-11-310R, February 17, 2011
• Electronic Prescribing: CMS Should Address Inconsistencies in Its Two Incentive Programs That Encourage the Use of Health Information Technology, GAO-11-159, February 17, 2011
• GAO's 2011 High Risk Series: An Update, GAO-11-394T, February 17, 2011

"The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council's Workforce Development Subcommittee identified cybersecurity related occupations as high priorities for Governmentwide competency models. In November 2009, OPM initiated a Governmentwide study to identify critical competencies for cybersecurity work, working with the CIO Council and the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE). Subject matter experts provided key insights, and employees and supervisors across the Government completed surveys to paint a comprehensive picture of cybersecurity work. We are pleased to provide the attached Cybersecurity competency model to support your human resources initiatives. The competencies identified may be used in such agency efforts as workforce planning, training and development, performance management, recruitment, and selection. When used for selection, the competencies must be used in conjunction with the appropriate qualification standard."

Draft Inventory of U.S. Gas Greenhouse Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2009 (February 2011) [Note: individual report sections are posted here]

• Federal Workforce: Practices to Increase the Employment of Individuals with Disabilities, GAO-11-351T, February 16, 2011
• High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-11-278, February 16, 2011: "The federal government is the world’s largest and most complex entity, with about $3.5 trillion in outlays in fiscal year 2010 funding a broad array of programs and operations. GAO maintains a program to focus attention on government operations that it identifies as high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement or the need for transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. Since 1990, GAO has designated over 50 areas as high risk and subsequently removed over one-third of the areas due to progress made."
• U.S. Postal Service: Foreign Posts' Strategies Could Inform U.S. Postal Service's Efforts to Modernize, GAO-11-282, February 16, 2011

"The Federal Cloud Computing Strategy was published February 13, 2011, marking a milestone in the Administration’s 25-Point Implementation Plan To Reform Federal IT Management. The strategy is designed to help the government deliver value to the public by increasing the operational efficiency of Federal IT dollars, and responding faster to taxpayer needs. In releasing the report, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra noted, “The adoption of cloud computing will play a pivotal role in helping the government close the productivity gap between the public and private sectors.” The strategy outlines how the Federal government can accelerate the safe, secure adoption of cloud computing, and provides agencies with a framework for migrating to the cloud. It also examines how agencies can address challenges related to the adoption of cloud computing, such as privacy, procurement, standards, and governance...Moving forward, agencies are required to evaluate their technology sourcing strategies so that cloud computing options are fully considered, consistent with the “Cloud First” policy outlined in the 25-Point Implementation Plan, which states: “The three-part strategy on cloud technology will revolve around using commercial cloud technologies where feasible, launching private government clouds, and utilizing regional clouds with state and local governments where appropriate.”

The Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative: Issues for Congress, Wendy R. Ginsberg - Analyst in Government Organization and Management, January 28, 2011

News release: "Last month was the 17th warmest January for combined global land and ocean surface temperature since records began in 1880. La Niña, with its cooling effect on the central and eastern tropical Pacific, continues to be a factor in global ocean temperatures. The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions...The average Arctic sea ice extent for January was 5.23 million square miles (13.55 million square km), which was 8.7 percent below average. This ranks as the smallest January Arctic sea ice extent since records began in 1979 and the second consecutive month with record low Arctic ice extent."

Investigation of the Failure of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office to Uncover Fraud in Westridge Capital Management Notwithstanding Investment Adviser Examination Conducted in 2005 and Inappropriate Conduct on the Part of Senior Los Angeles Official, Case No. OIG-533 [redacted, dated October 26, 2010 and released February 2011]

"The President's Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012 is now available from the United States Government Printing Office (GPO). The public can search or browse the authentic, electronic version of the budget, which is accessible from GPO's Federal Digital System. GPO authenticated the document by digital signature. This signature assures the public that the document has not been changed or altered. A digital signature, viewed through the GPO Seal of Authenticity, verifies the document's integrity and authenticity. FY 2012 Budget documents are available in PDF, with many of the tables also available for separate viewing and downloading as spreadsheets in xls and comma delimited formats. The budget documents include:

• Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012;
  
• Appendix, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012;
  
• Analytical Perspectives; and
  
• Historical Tables. [via Cynthia Etkin]

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, released tips to help people protect their personal information while they use public wireless networks – Wi-Fi hotspots in coffee shops, libraries, airports, hotels, universities, and other public places. While convenient, public Wi-Fi networks often are not secure. When using wireless networks, it’s best to send only personal information that is encrypted – either by an encrypted website or a secure network. Encryption scrambles information sent over the internet into a code so that it’s not accessed by others. An encrypted website protects only the information sent to and from that site. A secure wireless network encrypts all the information sent over it. To determine if a website is encrypted, look for https at the beginning of the web address (the “s” is for secure), and a lock icon at the top or bottom of the browser window. Some websites use encryption only on the sign-in page, but if any part of the session isn’t encrypted, the entire account could be vulnerable. Look for https and the lock icon throughout the site, not just at sign in."

"In today’s world, we face many natural and man-made catastrophic threats, including the very real possibility of a global influenza outbreak or other public health emergency that could infect millions of people. While it is impossible to predict the timing or severity of the next public health emergency, our government has a responsibility to anticipate and prepare for such events. An important element of this planning process is advance coordination between public health authorities and our judicial and legal systems. The major actors in any public health crisis must understand the governing laws ahead of time, and must know what their respective legal roles and responsibilities are. What is the scope of the government’s emergency and police powers? When may these be invoked, and by which officials? What are the rights of people who may be quarantined or isolated by government and public health officials? These questions must be researched and answered now—not in the midst of an emergency—so that the responsible authorities have a readymade resource to help them make quick, effective decisions that protect the public interest. This New York State Public Health Legal Manual - A Guide for Judges, Attorneys and Public Health Professionals, Michael Colodner, Editor-in Chief, is designed to serve this purpose. It will be an absolutely essential tool in guiding us through the effective management of future public health disasters."

• Nuclear Weapons: NNSA Needs More Comprehensive Infrastructure and Workforce Data to Improve Enterprise Decision-making, GAO-11-188, February 14, 2011
• Medicare Home Oxygen: Refining Payment Methodology Has Potential to Lower Program and Beneficiary Spending, GAO-11-56, January 21, 2011

Governor Daniel K. Tarullo, Assessing the regulatory, economic, and market implications of the Dodd-Frank derivatives title, Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., February 15, 2011