good fences make good neighbors...

As of yesterday, the Secure Fence Act of 2006 is now the law of the land. While we have to wait for this week's Weekly Comp comes out to read President Bush's Signing Statement, we have the transcript of what he said available on whitehouse.gov, along with video of the moment, and a handy fact sheet for the newly passed law.

social explorer

The Social Explorer is a joint effort from the National Science Digital Library and CUNY Queens College (with some funding from the New York Times, too). The idea is to provide visual maps of Census data, but with oomph than American Fact Finder. This is a dream come true for demographers who have probably been itching for some kind of visual tract representation for data other than the most recent Decennial. Social Explorer handles all sorts of socio-economic information dating back to the 1940 Census all the way down to the tract level. The result? an incredibly useful tool!
(this map is a visualization of Subway Development Contributions to City Expansion: 1905-1940)

now serving 300 million

In grand fanfare, the Census Bureau announced that the population of the United States has now reached 300 million. The arrival of this American on October 17th, complete witha countdown/tote board that would rile the envy of Jerry Lewis, displayed some fancy estimates and data the Census demographers.

nonproliferation in Korea

Sometimes, Congress can work fast! Note S 3728, a Bill to Promote Nuclear Nonproliferation in Korea. It was introduced in July and passed last Friday. All actions of the bill, as listed on thomas.gov are:

7/25/2006:
Submitted in the Senate, read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8206-8208; text as passed Senate: CR S8207; text of measure as introduced: CR S8202)
7/25/2006 8:19pm:
Received in the House.
7/25/2006:
Message on Senate action sent to the House.
7/25/2006 9:07pm:
Held at the desk.
9/30/2006 12:36am:
Mr. Royce asked unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table and consider.
9/30/2006 12:36am:
Considered by unanimous consent. (consideration: CR 9/29/2006 H8044-8048)
9/30/2006 1:04am:
On passage Passed without objection. (text: CR 9/29/2006 H8047-8048)
9/30/2006 1:04am:
Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
9/30/2006:
Cleared for White House.
10/5/2006:
Presented to President.
10/13/2006:
Signed by President.

Stay tuned for GPO's posting of the signing statement in the Weekly Comp!

read it in the manual

The U.S. Government Manual is a yearly output that details what the agencies (and quasi-agencies) are doing. Browse it, or search it!

surpeme arguments

It's the first Monday in October, the traditional opening for the new session of the Surpeme Court of the United States. Want to know what's on the books for 2006-07? Read the SCOTUS Argument Calendar for what we'll be talking about this Fall.