John C. Fremont

Every day the Library of Congress has a page devoted to some event in history that occurred on this day. Today is the anniversary of the court-martial of John C. Fremont. John C. Fremont is famous for his exploration of the Rockies and the west. Want to see his report on this exploration? There are two ways, we have copies of Serial Set 461 and 467 available for you to look at in NORBASE. Or if you don't want to leave your desk why not do a search in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set database available on campus (or those set up for remote access). Search for John C. Fremont and you will find not only his reports of the exploration, but also information on his service during the Civil War. If you would like even more digitized materials on Fremont check out the Collaborative Digitization Project, which has digitized etchings, drawings, and maps many of them from the Denver Public Library's Western History Collection.

Colorado's expanding federal presence

Many of you already know about North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command being based in Colorado Springs. Well, according to media reports in the Denver Post and Washington Post the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA) are now coming to the Denver metro area. The presence of all these government agencies means that Colorado will now be a major intelligence hub.

Remembering the Challenger

20 years ago today the space shuttle Challenger exploded soon after takeoff. In addition to 6 astronauts, one middle school teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was on board. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has put together a Flash presentation on the tragedy. If you are interested in how the explosion occurred and the changes NASA has made, check out the Challenger STS 51-L Accident web site. We also have the five volume report to the President available for checkout here in Government Publications.

Palestinian Elections

Yesterday parliamentary elections were held in Palestine. Preliminary reports in the media (link good until 2/8/06) give Hamas a substantial victory. The Central Elections Commission will release final results on their web site sometime this afternoon. Want to learn more about the Arab-Israeli conflict? Check out our subject guide at: http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/us/arabisrael.htm.

Death in 2003

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has just released the final data for deaths in 2003. The top cause of death was heart disease followed by cancer and stroke. For a more positive look, why not check out information on births? In 2003, according to "Births: Final Data for 2003," there were 4,089,950 births, up 2 percent from 2002.

Federal government web changes

This article on llrx.com is a round up of recent changes to federal government web sites:
http://www.llrx.com/columns/govdomain12.htm#top

U.S. Intelligence Activities

Findlaw has made available the recent documents concerning presidential authority to conduct warrantless searches for intelligence gathering purposes, including the two Congressional Research Service reports and the Department of Justice white paper released this week: http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/documents/archive_n.html#nsa

Let it snow, let it snow...

So it is snowing outside and you want to hit the slopes. Why not check out the the real-time Road and Weather Traveler Information web page from the Colorado Department of Transportation? There are even webcams so you can see what the traffic looks like! Alternatively, check out the average speeds of cars in the Metro Denver area. All these features and more are part of the Co.trip web site.

Iran and the IAEA

You may have read recently about how Iran has resumed nuclear research and development. The Denver Post had an article today called "Iran plan to restart nuke talks rebuffed" (this link will only work until 2/1/06). The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the international organization in charge of monitoring and reporting on nuclear development and reports to the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly. To see a history of IAEA and Iranian interactions on nuclear research, check out the IAEA and Iran web site. This site contains a timeline, pertinent documents, and links to Iranian and think tank web sites on this topic.

I have a dream...

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. day, which has been celebrated on the third holiday of January since 1986. Want to learn more about King? Why not check out the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, where you can find links to speeches and sermons, such as his last speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop" which he gave the night before his assassination and his well known "I Have a Dream." If you would like to learn more about Black History, check out our subject guide online.

State of the State Address

Governor Owens gave his final state of the state address yesterday. If you don't want to read the entire address, check out the summary put out by his press office.

Go to the park, without leaving your desk

Are you tired of the boring view from your desk? Why not visit one of the numerous webcams put up by the government?
Watch Mount St. Helens, the volcano has been slowly releasing lava for the past year: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/
Avoid the snow on the divide and check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison online: http://www.nps.gov/blca/webvc/weather.htm
See the air pollution covering downtown Denver: http://apcd.state.co.us/psi/chpark.html
If your desk doesn't have a window, check out the weather outside in Boulder at: http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/Boulder/webcams/
And finally, if you want to explore webcams around the U.S. check out the National Park Service list at: http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/ or the Department of Interior list at: http://www.doi.gov/webcam.html.

Tax Forms

Want to find tax forms online? We have set up a tax forms guide, which links to federal and state tax forms available electronically. We also have paper tax forms available on the third floor in the southwest corner of Norlin Library. The following is a list of the forms, instructions, and publications we have received in paper. While we attempt to keep this list up-to-date, due to high demand, some forms may be temporarily out of stock.

Forms

• W-3
• 1040
• 1040A
• 1040ES
• 1040EZ
• 1040X
• 1040A Schedule 1
• 1040A Schedule 3
• 1040 Schedule A
• 1040 Schedule B
• 1040 Schedule C
• 1040 Schedule D
• 1040 Schedule EIC
• 1040 Schedule F
• 1040 Schedule R
• 1040 Schedule SE
• 1096
• 1098
• 1099 Miscellaneous
• 2106
• 2441
• 3903
• 4562
• 4868
• 8283
• 8829
• 8863

Instructions

• 1040
• 1040A
• 1040EZ
• 1040NR
• 1040NR-EZ
• 1040X
• 1040A Schedule 2
• 1040A Schedule 3
• 1040 Schedule R
• 1940X
• 2106
• 2441
• 4562
• 8283
• 8829
• 8863
• W-2/W-3

Publications

• 17
• 225
• 334
• 505
• 535
• 3201

Colorado State Tax Forms and Instructions

Mail your Mom a letter

This Sunday, the U.S. Postal Service will be increasing the cost of mailing letters, postcards, and packages. So if you have 37 cents stamps left at home use them by Saturday to avoid having to go buy the 2 cent Navaho jewelry stamps. This might be the perfect opportunity to send out all those thank-you notes.

Sago Mine explosion

The Mine Health and Safety Administration ("MHSA") has put together a web page on the Sago Mine Explosion. To read reports on accidents, inspections, violations and other reports from the MHSA, go to http://www.msha.gov/drs/drshome.htm and enter the Mine ID of 4608791.

Humorists at the Supreme Court

Who knew the justices at the Supreme Court were funny? Jay Wexler, a law professor at Boston University, wrote in "Laugh Track" in the Green Bag law journal that Justice Scalia was the funniest in the 2004-2004 term, with 77 laughing episodes and a LEIPPA (Laughter Episodes Instigated Per Argument Average) of 1.027. The New York Times followed up on this study in "So, Guy Walks Up to the Bar, and Scalia Says..." (link may require free registration) stating that in the current term Justice Breyer is edging out Justice Scalia with a 28-25 lead. (Ok, what passes as justice humor might not bring down the house at your average get together, but there are some good ones like, this one from Justice Kennedy: "Recently I lost my luggage. I had to go to the lost and found at the airline, and the lady said has my plane landed yet.")