Author archives

Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 Introduced Today

The text of H.R. 4437 A section by section summary November 17, 2005: “the House Homeland Security Committee approved comprehensive, bipartisan legislation to address security problems across U.S. borders.” H.R. 4312, the Border Security and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2005. Information on the Homeland Security Committee’s provisions from H.R. 4312.

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Legislation

Government Reform Cmte. Chair Refuses Requests to Investigate Plame Leak

“In a letter to Chairman Davis, Rep. Waxman asks the Chairman to explain his rationale (letter, 4 pages, PDF) for rejecting requests to investigate the leak of classified information involving CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson and contract abuses at the Department of Homeland Security, while directing the Committee to look into a leak of classified …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents

FOIA Request For Abramoff Docs. Yields No Response From Interior

Press release: “Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Department of the Interior (DOI) over its failure to provide requested documents related to Jack Abramoff and the Indian gaming scandal…In the midst of one of the largest government corruption scandals ever, the Department of Interior has decided to simply ignore federal …

Subjects: Congress, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

OCLC Report on Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources

From OCLC:Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (2005) summarizes findings of an international study on information-seeking habits and preferences. “The Perceptions report provides the findings and responses from the online survey in an effort to learn more about: Library use; Awareness and use of library electronic resources; The Internet search engine, the library and the …

Subjects: Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries, Search Engines

Univ. Research Center Files FOIA Lawsuit Against OPM

Press release from TRAC, December 6, 2005: “The federal government is unlawfully withholding information it normally provides the public about some 900,000 of its civilian employees, including those working for such agencies as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to a …

Subjects: Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legislation

Spear Phishing Target Specific Individual, Corporate, Gov’t Data

Following up on previous postings about phishing, the New York Times yesterday published an article, Gone Spear-Phishin’ detailing the extent, impact and intent of cybercriminals who launch Trojans to steal the data of individuals and corporations, for both profit and personal reasons. See also Business Week, Phishing: Beware the Internal Revenue Scam: “The official-looking e-mails …

Subjects: Cybercrime, E-Records, PC Security, Privacy

Authority of Vast Collaborative Online Encyclopedia Questioned

Growing pains for Wikipedia: “…founder Jimmy Walee [is]going to change the ground rules for the popular anyone-can-contribute encyclopedia…” Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar How wikis are changing our view of the world AP: Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, is tightening submission rules after a prominent journalist complained that …

Subjects: Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries