Author archives

FBI Investigating UCLA Data Breach

Press release: “The FBI in Los Angeles announced it opened an investigation to determine who hacked into a restricted database at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) that held the names and personal information of some 800,000 students, faculty, and alumni. Anyone who thought they had been further victimized as a result of …

Subjects: Cybercrime, ID Theft, Privacy

Energy Market and Economic Impacts of a Proposal to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Intensity with a Cap and Trade System

Market and Economic Impacts of a Proposal to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Intensity with a Cap and Trade System, January 11, 2007 (90 pages, PDF) “This report was prepared by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), in response to a September 27, 2006, request from Senators Bingaman, Landrieu, Murkowski, Specter, Salazar, and Lugar. The Senators requested that …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, Government Documents

HHS OIG Audits of Emergency Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Emergency Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Audit of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Award Process for a Contract With MDB, Inc. (A-04-06-01036), January 11, 2007. Emergency Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Audit of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Award Process for a Contract With Organization Development Systems, Inc. (A-04-06-01034), January 11, …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents

Postal Service 2006 Annual Progress Report Available Online

Follow-up to January 10, 2007 posting, U.S. Postal Service: ‘Intelligent Mail’ Fully Operational by 2009, see today’s press release: “The U.S. Postal Service has achieved remarkable results and is better prepared than ever to help ensure a prosperous future for mail, according to a progress report on the organization’s transformation efforts. The 2006 Annual Progress …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents

Lantos Introduces Bill to Preserve Family Records of Descendants of Slaves

Press release, January 11, 2007: “Congressman Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo, San Francisco) today introduced legislation to ensure that many of the genealogical records involving the families of former slaves in this country will be preserved, digitized and catalogued…“Unlike most Americans, researching African-Americans family histories from the 19th Century has been hampered by the lack of …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

FirstGov is Now USA.gov

“In January 2007, FirstGov.gov announced that it changed its name to USA.gov. We did it because you asked us to. Feedback from the public told us that we need a name that is easier to understand and remember.” The FAQ is here. It includes the following important statement: “There are about 5 million links to …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents

Citizens Group Sues NARA For Access to White House Visitor Logs

Press release, January 10, 2007: “Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for its failure to adequately respond to CREW’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents related to the destruction of Secret Service visitor record logs. On September 27, 2006, CREW filed a …

Subjects: Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Historic Declassification of FBI Records Includes Delay For Public Access

Press release: “Imagine a library filled with a million books, each 270 pages long. That’s how many historic FBI pages we declassified on December 31, in line with an executive order that now applies to the Bureau. “It’s unprecedented,” says David Hardy, chief of the Record/Information Dissemination Section in our Records Management Division. “To historians …

Subjects: Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Senator Feinstein Reintroduces Bills Aimed At Thwarting ID Theft

Press release: “U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today reintroduced two bills [Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act and the Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act] aimed at protecting individuals from identity theft by requiring businesses to notify consumers in the event of a security breach and prohibiting the sale or display of an individual’s …

Subjects: Congress, Cybercrime, ID Theft, Legislation, Privacy