Iran's nuclear capabilities

As you may have read in today's Post, Iran's halted nuclear program is causing concern. Here is the 9-page, unclassified report--Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities, as compiled by the US Office of National Intelligence.

elections!

Even though we're already sick of hearing about what we'll be doing on 11/4/2008, Grace York, University of Michigan's Government Documents Librarian and her trusty staff have compiled this Elections 2008 guide-- everything you ever wanted to know about running for higher office!

love in the time of terrorism

Hot out of the FBI and Justice Department's hands is the latest reportage of terrorism activities in the US: Terrorism 2002-2005. It's been published since the mid-1980s, which is quite useful if you'd like to see how America has approached this issue before and after 9/11. Very useful information, particularly pertaining to how these two agencies define terrorism.

wash your hands!!

This morning's news roundup included a little tidbit about how staph infections are now the new superbug. Being that I hate being a slave to my hand sanitizer, I decided to see what information might be available from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, nothing on their home page seems to address this topic, or at least obviously, as I was hoping they might do (considering this bug kills more people a year than AIDS, at least, according to the Today Show). And I was also a bit disappointed that the Post's own links to the CDC from this article didn't even include this particular government entity, at all. What gives? I'm afraid that the time it takes me to find this overview of resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, it might be too late.

alms for the Census

We're fast approaching a year ending in a zero, which means: it's Decennial Census time! And, according to the New York Times, the most well-known and mandatory survey in the land is already underfunded: "Whether by intention or neglect, the Bush administration omitted the census from a list of several activities that needed to be exempted from that limit."

Way back when he was running for president the first time, Bush the second let it be known that he probably wouldn't fill out the long form, either, but hopefully somebody reminded him that it's actually illegal to neglect to do so.

homeland security strategy, 2007 version

The White House's latest Homeland Security Strategy is out and it's here. Anybody up for annotating the differences between this one and the last one?

govgab

USA.gov, America's Home Page, has introduced Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog. It's a new feature written by what seems to be five different people (a new blogger for each day of the work week). Entries seem to be mildly entertaining (check out what Nancy has to say about copyright-free images), to somewhat useful (Marybeth provides good-to-know info about international travel), to unfortunately boring (Monday blogger Jake opens with: "I look forward to writing, but I didn’t really know what to do my first blog about..." um, get to the point, Jake). Not sure what the point of it all is. I mean, who wants to read a blog about government information. Oh, wait...

Law Library of Congress

In celebration of Constitution Day yesterday, the Library of Congress relaunched it's Law Library of Congress website. This portal for the place (it's up on the Hill, folks, so don't hesitate to make a visit if it's research of the legal kind you're up to) is a plethora of all sorts of national and international legal information. Links to useful documents are provided, such as the U.S. Code, and some selected hearings... an interesting way to track our nationa's legal progress.

government information in the news

This week's news has been dominated by the National Intelligence Estimate on the Status on the Stability of Iraq. A regular report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, it caused quite a stir this week-- Senator John Warner (R-Va) recommended a pull out of troops, and even the president realized the correlation between Iraq and Vietnam.

Government Documents In Crisis

Our hearts in DC goes out to the folks in Minneapolis, particularly our librarian colleagues at University of Minnesota (the law school's location is right near the 35W bridge collapse). Amy West, the Data Services Librarian at U of M has posted this list of government reports continually referred to by the news media.

cybercensus?

Senator Tom Coburn has voiced his opinion that the 2010 Census should be conducted on-line. According to an article on FCW.com, the Senator from Oklahoma is appauled at the Census Bureau's lack of vision when it comes to being able to utilize the internet for the country's largest (and required!) survey. Perhaps he didn't realize that the head of the bureau is uncomfortable with the security of the format (Title 13, anybody?). Or, maybe he and Ted Stevens of Alaska got to talking in the cafeteria one day.

govdocs lite

Not all government publications are serious. While Congress and the Supreme Court are getting down to the end of their sessions, let's take a gander at Senate Document 109-19: A Botanic Garden for the Nation, the United States Botanic Garden. Like most on-line docs, the PDFs can get out of hand, but at least they're nice to look at.

The US Botanic Garden sits in the shadow of the Capitol, 100 Maryland Avenue, SW, and check 'em out on line at www.usbg.gov. Take your next house/dorm guest!

blogit

A new site from the GSA (the Government Services Administration (i.e. that building down the street from Thurston) compiles government agency blogs that are actually... interesting!! While the list is paltry (at best), the ten blogs listed cover current events from the Peace Corps, the Smithsonian, and even the flu panedemic.

Virginia Tech Presidential Report

Long time no update! There's been some summer colds and some vacation here in Gelman Govdocs land, but we'll make up for that in the next few weeks, with with lots of Govdocs frenzy before sessions are out for summer.

Today's post brings you a newly published tome on what happened in Blacksburg this past spring: Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy. Published by the Department for Health and Human Services, the report is a joint effort from DHHS, the Department of Education, and the Justice Department. The report does not investigate the incident, but merely serves as recommendations on how to avoid such a devastating tragedy in the future.

is your government information glass half full or...

half empty? Well, if you are using Google to search specific government agency websites, you'd be looking at a pretty half empty glass! According to this article, only about half of the information on an agency's website will be revealed by a specific domain search. As a remedy, it seems, some agencies are building site maps o be compatible with the Google algorhythm. So, depending on how many agencies comply, this may end up being a case of the government going to where the people are instead of expecting the people to be able to figure it out.

what's in your food?

A neat source from the Agricultural Research Service, the What's in the Food You Eat Search Tool is an engine designed to find out what kind of nutrients. You can search by keyword or food code (kinda sorta like NAICS codes), and it really helps if the term you enter into the search box is exactly how it's used in the database. For example, "hotdog" won't work, but "hot dog" will yield 35 food codes, including number 25210150 (frankfurter or hot dog, cheese filled). So, the next time you find yourself at J Street eating a slice of 58106210 or a 58100140 (hold the guac), you might want to have a looksee to find out what you're really eating.

using myspace and facebook in the library?

Of course you are, and don't worry-- I'm not going to stop you.

But, the United States government might. If you happen to be under 18, Congress is worried about protecting you from social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. HR 5319 from the 109th Congress is an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 and specifically seeks to "protect against access to a commercial social networking website or chat room unless used for an educational purpose with adult supervision."

Sounds like that idea on how to work FaceBook into your UW 20 paper might not be such a bad idea after all.

aviation security three ways

The executive branch of the government has just released the National Strategy for Aviation Security, a 29-page document that should explain just why we need to put our contact lens liquid and hair product in a plastic bag not even big enough for a sandwich. The White House has released this document on their website, along with its own spin, while the Department of Homeland Security goes into a bit more detail.

Who is Number One?

According to George Mason University's Mercatus Center, the Government Agency who is best at informing the public is (drumroll...) the Department of Transportation, with the Department of Labor and Veterans Affairs (a good thing, with all that identity theft experienced last year). Who scored poorly, you ask? Well, oddly enough, it's the agencies we might need the most: Health and Human Services scored lowest, with Office of Personnel Management (i.e., the government's Human Resources division) all the way at the bottom.

Want to read the whole report? Click here.

still unprepared

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security has created a web page for items related to their Hurricane Katrina report Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared (yet another in the long line of reports from the White House and House of Reps). This page contains links to documents requested to create the report, as well as additional points of view from some select senators.