Questions Surround Editing of U.S. Report on Global Warming

On June, 2005 the New York Times published this article, Bush Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming, which states that Philip A. Cooney, White House Council on Environmental Quality’s chief of staff, formerly with the American Petroleum Institute, altered climate research already vetted by government scientists. Related documents and additional details are available …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents, Legal Research

Major Challenges Undermine Efforts to Shore Up Leaks That Lead to Loss and Theft of Financial Data

The Scramble to Protect Personal Information, from today’s New York Times, addresses the issue of significant vulnerabilities in the transfer mechanisms used for financial data, which have resulted in numerous recent headline grabbing reports on the loss and theft of personal data impacting millions of consumers.

Subjects: Cybercrime, ID Theft, Privacy

Non-Partisan Organization Promotes Self Regulation for Researchers to Ensure Open Access to Scientific Data

CSIS Commission Backs Open Dissemination of Unclassified Fundamental Research, June 9, 2005: “Self-regulation within the scientific community is an important aspect of achieving national security goals, according to a CSIS panel report on science and security. The report also rejects a proposal by the Commerce Department’s Inspector General that would have the effect of restricting …

Subjects: E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Many Recommendations of 9/11 Commission Remain Unfinished

The 9/11 Public Discourse Project released the Transcript of June 6th Panel Assessing Progress Of CIA And FBI Reform (43 pages, PDF) Featuring: Jamie Gorelick, Richard Thornburgh, John Gannon, Chitra Ragavan. The title is The 9/11 Commission Report: The Unfinished Agenda, Session 1, CIA and FBI Reform. Related news: From Newsweek today, ‘The Threat Is …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Legislation

DOJ OIG Report on FBI’s Handling of Intelligence Prior to 9/11

From the Statement Regarding Release of the Redacted, Unclassified Version of the Office of the Inspector General’s Report Entitled “The Handling of Intelligence Information Prior to the September 11 Attacks”, June 2005 Office of the Inspector General. “On June 7, 2005, the unclassified, redacted version of the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) report that …

Subjects: Government Documents, Legal Research

GPO Releases Updated Report on Digital Preservation Project

Report on the Meeting of Experts on Digital Preservation: Metadata Specifications – REVISED: Report on the Meeting of Experts on Digital Preservation: Metadata Specifications. June 2, 2005 (PDF 140 KB “GPO is working with the library community on a national digitization plan, with the goal of digitizing a complete legacy collection of tangible U.S. Government …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents, Legal Research

New Open Government Bill Introduced

Press release, June 7, 2005, Cornyn, Leahy Call For Greater TransparencyIn Congressional FOIA Exemption Attempts -Congress should not establish new secrecy provisions through secret means: “U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to ensure greater openness in the legislative process. The bill creates additional legislative transparency by requiring that …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

Advocacy Group Files Comments on FEC’s Proposed Regulation of Internet Speech

Follow-up to several postings on the FEC and bloggers (here, here, and here), news today from the Center for Democracy and Policy: “In two sets of comments filed today with the Federal Election Commission, CDT urged the FEC to declare that the online political speech of bloggers and other ordinary citizens is exempt from the …

Subjects: Blogs, Civil Liberties, E-Government, Government Documents, Internet