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Inside Google Book Search Blog: “Starting today, you can visit http://www.google.com/bannedbooks to explore 42 banned or challenged books honored by the Radcliffe Publishing Course as among the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. You can see which of these novels have been targeted for banning, find out where you can buy or borrow them, …
Follow-up to previous posting, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590) unanimously passed the Senate on the evening of September 7. POGO reported “that Sens. Stevens (R-AK) and Byrd (D- WV) lifted their secret holds on the bill.” Update: September 13, 2006 House floor debate on the Act, via FAS
From the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs: The Top September 11 Conspiracy Theories “Numerous unfounded conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks continue to circulate, especially on the Internet.” [August 28, 2006] This site reviews and rebuts eight such theories. Related government documents, literature and postings: National Institute of Standards and …
OpenTheGovernment.org: “Report Finds Federal Government Still More Secretive in 2005: Government secrecy saw further expansion in 2005 despite growing public concern, according to the Secrecy Report Card 2006.” Secrecy Report Card 2006 – Indicators of Secrecy in the Federal Government Recent related postings: Report on Cost Estimates for Security Classification Activities for 2005 U.S. Government …
The Nation: Librarians at the Gates, by Joseph Huff-Hannon [posted online on August 22, 2006]: “The day-to-day challenges librarians face are inherent in the job description: defending access to controversial or banned books, staving off budget cuts, and creating and expanding programs to draw more citizens into one of the few remaining genuinely public commons …
FindLaw: “A federal judge scolds the FBI in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for failing to “just Google” the names of people about whom plaintiffs sought audio recordings and other information in their litigation. According to Judge Garland, “Surely, in the Internet age, a “reasonable alternative” for finding out whether a prominent person …
Pragmatic Approaches to Knowledge Management, by Ron Friedmann Criminal Justice Resources – Prisoners’ Rights and Resources on the Web, by Ken Strutin It’s Not Rocket Science: Making Sense of Scientific Evidence, by Paul Barron Global Law Firm Knowledge Management Survey 2006, by Gretta Rusanow The Government Domain: Government Documents and the News, by Peggy Garvin …
Press release: “The Pentagon and the Energy Department have now stamped as national security secrets the long-public numbers of U.S. nuclear missiles during the Cold War, including data from the public reports of the Secretaries of Defense in 1967 and 1971, according to government documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive…Documents …
From Mike Ravnitzky: “Researcher Jim Klotz recently discovered and obtained a useful and comprehensive information resource – a detailed explanation of how military records are retrieved and reviewed for release in response to FOIA requests.
The Memory Hole: “This heavily redacted list shows the closed investigations conducted by the CIA Inspector General from the beginning of 1997 to October 2004. It was obtained by researcher Michael Ravnitzky via FOIA.”
Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing today: FISA for the 21st Century. Link to witness statements. AP: President Pushes To Revise Wiretap Law AP: Specter proposes challenge of Bush’s power on laws EFF: The White House/Specter Surveillance Bill S. 2453 – A bill to establish procedures for the review of electronic surveillance programs. ACLU press …
Freedom of Information Act: Preliminary Analysis of Processing Trends Shows Importance of Improvement Plans, Full-text GAO-06-1022T, and Highlights, July 26, 2006. “According to data reported by agencies in their annual reports, the public continues to request and receive increasing amounts of information from the federal government through FOIA…Despite processing more requests, agencies have not kept …
