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High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-05-207, January 1, 2005, Highlights (PDF). “GAO’s audits and evaluations identify federal programs and operations that, in some cases, are high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement…This year, GAO is designating four new high-risk areas. The first new area is establishing appropriate and effective information-sharing …
As a follow-up to my January 19 posting, Washington Post Examines Data Aggregator ChoicePoint, again from the Post, an online interview with Robert O’Harrow Jr., author of No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society.
From AP, this report on the FBI’s fight to limit public access to agency documents through Freedom of Information Act requests.
National Security Archive Files Comments on CIA’s Decennial Review of Operational Files: “The National Security Archive this week submitted comments on the Central Intelligence Agency’s decennial review of the record categories that the CIA has designated as exempt from search and review under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In 1984 the CIA was granted …
Inaugural Address, President John F. Kennedy, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1961. [Link, text and audio]
Another FOIA project by researcher Michael Ravnitzky has yielded detailed information about the availability of several dozen topical legal research resources and guides authored by Justice Libraries staff. Specific titles, along with authors, annotations, and instructions on how to obtain copies of the materials, was posted by Mr. Ravnitzky early this morning to several law …
Arriving this summer, significant improvements in the Regulations.gov website, detailed in this GovExec.com report. “For the first time, citizens will be able not only to comment on proposed regulations using the Internet – as they do now on the site – but also will have access to supporting agency documents, every public comment and rules …
Access to Government Information in the United States, updated January 7, 2005: “Throughout the first 150 years of the federal government, access to government information does not appear to have been a major issue among the three branches or for the citizenry. There were a few instances during this period when the President, for reasons …
“EPIC has learned through Freedom of Information Act litigation that the FBI obtained 257.5 million Passenger Name Records following 9/11, and that the Bureau has permanently incorporated the travel details of tens of millions of innocent people into its law enforcement databases. The FBI made the revelation as it explained (29 pages, PDF) why it …
Corrupt Techniques in Evidence Presentations: New Chapter from Beautiful Evidence. Below is an excerpt from the forthcoming book by Edward Tufte. “Here is the first of several chapters on consuming presentations, on what alert members of an audience or readers of a report should look for in assessing the credibility of the presenter…Corrupt maneuvers…are epidemic …
Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio. Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff, January 5, 2005 (102 pages, PDF): “Representative John Conyers, Jr., the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the Democratic staff to conduct an investigation into irregularities reported in the Ohio presidential election and to prepare a Status …
“GPO Information Dissemination (ID) has issued a new ID policy, “Withdrawal of Federal Information Products from Information Dissemination Collection and Distribution Programs.” The policy, ID 72, supersedes SOD 72 dated July, 22, 2002. The revised policy establishes conditions under which a document may be withdrawn, recalled, or restricted in access; it outlines GPO and publishing …
