Google Maps – Getting From Here to There
Google Maps: enter the “start address” and the “end address.” [Google Blogoscoped]
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee: Work to Secure the Nation Since September 11, 2001
Quick Guide to The Committees Work to Secure the Nation Since September 11, 2001: “The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is working with single minded vigor to strengthen the security of Americans here at home. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Committee has originated a series of bipartisan legislative initiatives enacted …
EPA: Cell Phone Recycling is an Easy Call
Press release: “The nation’s leading cell phone makers, service providers, and retailers have teamed up with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to answer America’s call for easy cell phone recycling. As part of EPA’s Plug-In to eCycling program, partners supporting the cell phone recycling campaign include AT&T Wireless, Best Buy, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Office …
Report to the President from the Public Interest Declassification Board Report
Improving Declassification – A Report to the President from the Public Interest Declassification Board Report, December 2007 (48 pages, PDF): “There are at least eight ways by which security classified national security information may become declassified, including through Freedom of Information Act requests and through automatic declassification under Executive Order 12958. The Board presents several …
Science and Technology in the 2008 Presidential Election
“Science and technology (S&T) play increasingly important roles in our society and for those who govern. From energy policy to the environment, from health care to economic competitiveness, and from science education to immigration, S&T research and its products are critical to many issues on the agendas of Congress and the Executive Branch. Yet, very …
UN E-Government Survey 2008: From E-Government to Connected Governance
UN E-Government Survey 2008: From E-Government to Connected Governance (257 pages, PDF) “The results of the global survey indicate that governments are moving forward in egovernment development around the world. However, given the high demands placed by e-government on a multitude of foundational pillars which include prerequisites of infrastructure, appropriate policies, capacity development, ICT applications, …
Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis
“In a Commonwealth Fund-supported study comparing preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries, researchers found that the United States placed last. While the other nations improved dramatically between the two study periods199798 and 200203the U.S. improved only slightly on the measure.” “In Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis (Health Affairs, Jan./Feb. 2008), Ellen …
Magistrate Judge Rules White House Must Answer Questions About Missing White House E-mails
Follow up to postings on missing White House E-mail, from the National Security Archive: “In an Order issued today, Magistrate Judge Facciola of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the White House to answer questions about over 5 million missing e-mails generated between 2003-2005. Noting that the need for information …
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Reports U.S. Health Care Spending Growth Accelerated in 2006
Press release: “Health care spending growth in the United States accelerated slightly in 2006, increasing 6.7 percent compared to 6.5 percent in 2005, which was the slowest rate of growth since 1999. Health care spending, however, continues to outpace overall economic growth and general inflation, which grew 6.1 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, in 2006. …
DOE OIG Audit Report: Department of Energy's Receipt of Royalty Oil
Audit Report, Department of Energy’s Receipt of Royalty Oil, DOE/IG-0786 January 2008 (22 pages, PDF): “We concluded that the Department had not implemented an effective internal control system over the receipt of royalty oil at the market centers.”
New GAO Reports: IRS Information Security, Improving Freight Mobility
Information Security: IRS Needs to Address Pervasive Weaknesses GAO-08-211, January 8, 2008: “IRS made limited progress toward correcting previously reported information security weaknesses. It has corrected or mitigated 29 of the 98 information security weaknesses that GAO reported as unresolved at the time of its last review. For example, IRS implemented controls for user IDs …
Human Rights Watch: Irans Broadening Clampdown on Independent Activism
“Individuals from an ever widening range of groups in Iran are subject to arrest on security grounds for political activism and peaceful dissent against the government. Those arrested are frequently detained in facilities operating outside the regular prison administration, most notoriously in Section 209 of Tehrans Evin Prison, where they may be subjected to torture …