Professor Patricia Limerick testifies before Congress

Read CU-Boulder Professor of History Patricia Limerick's testimony before congress today on "Barriers to the Cleanup of Abandoned Mine Sites." You can read all the other testimony at: http://www.house.gov/transportation/water/03-30-06/03-30-06memo.html. The discussion focused on the barriers and how to encourage private groups to clean up the mine sites.

UN Security Council and Iran

The United Nations Security Council released a statement today on nuclear-enrichment in Iran. This statement asks the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to submit a report on the IAEA Board's concerns in regards to Iran's development of nuclear activities.

Border Security

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified before Congress today on how investigators successfully transported radioactive sources into the US. Read the testimony at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06545r.pdf (letter) and http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06583t.pdf (testimony). The GAO investigators were able to transport the material, which they purchased over the phone, by presenting a counterfeit bill of lading.

Immigration Bill

You probably read or saw on the news the reports on the protests that took place this weekend against the bill that passed the House of Representatives on immigration. Want to read the bill everyone is talking about? Check it out online from the Government Printing Office ("GPO"). You can also check out House Report on the bill from the Committee of the Judiciary in the House of Representatives.

Iraqi Perspective Project

Yesterday, the Department of Defense released a report on the early days of the Iraq conflict called "Iraqi Perspective Project: A View of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Saddam's Senior Leadership." This report alleges that the Russian officials gave Iraq information on American troop movements and attack plans. Read articles on this report at the Denver Post and Washington Post online (both may require registration).

March in Women's History Month

Well, the month is almost over, but why not check out the Library of Congress's "American Women" web site? They link to essays, government publications, rare books, music, and photographs dealing with the history of women in the United States. Enjoy the short essay on the "">Migrant Mother" image that in many ways has captured the essence of the Great Depression.

Venezuela

Want to learn more about the U.S.-Venezuela relationship? The Congressional Research Service has just released a new version of it's report "Venezuela: Political Conditions and U.S. Policy" (campus access only). It gives a concise history of the Chavez administration and the current state of relationships between the two countries. To learn even more check out the Department of State's Venezuela page, which has links to current reports, such as the Human Rights and Religious freedom reports.

Scientific Writing

This is a blog entry for the ENVS3020 class. Feel free to discuss environmental issues or any other discussions from the class here in the blog. This blog is monitored by librarians, so feel free to ask questions of us as well as each other. The handout used in this class is available online.

Today's weather history

Ok, so we didn't get the foot of snow they predicted, but we have gotten more then a foot of snow on this day in the past. Check out NOAA's Weather history page for the Denver Metro area. In 1944 the Denver area received 18.5 inches of snow, compare that with 1907 when the record high of 82 degrees occurred.

Irish-American statistics

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, the US Census Bureau has released a fact sheet of interesting statistics about Irish-Americans and the St. Patrick's Day celebration in the US: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/006328.html

National Security Strategy

The White House released has released the 2006 National Security Strategy. This report explains the security strategy of the United States. The National Security Strategy is published periodically by the President of the United States, we have a paper copy of President Bush's first National Security Strategy published in 2000 at: PR 42.2:SE 3.

NASA images of Mars

If you have spent any time watching the Google Earth maps you have discovered the joys of traveling via satellite. In partnership with NASA Google has just released images in a project called Google Mars. Explore the red planet through a collection of images gathered from the NASA web site. Want to learn more about missions to Mars? Check out the Demystifying Mars story of the exploration of the planet. Or check out the latest mission, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

The Department of Defense is required to submit quarterly reports to Congress on progress in Iraq, you can see these reports online. You can also view updates on the casualty counts at: http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf. Read about the operation from the White House perspective at Renewal in Iraq.

Sunshine Week

This is Sunshine week, which a week devoted to having a more open government. To read more about it check out: http://www.sunshineweek.org/. Want to learn more? Check out this opinion piece from the Denver Post. To learn more about getting information released by the government, check out our guide to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Want to see information released by the government due to FOIA? Check out our declassified documents page for links to some of the government's FOIA pages.

Human Rights Annual Report

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) just released their annual report for 2005. This 262 page report contains information on all the missions that the OHCHR is involved in, such as the two missions in the Sudan. The African Union currently heads up the mission in Darfur, which you can read more about at: http://www.africa-union.org/DARFUR/homedar.htm. For additional groups involved in human rights activities, check out our subject guide.

Testimony of Guantanamo Bay Detainees Before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal

The Defense Department has released over 5000 pages of transcripts from the testimony of Guantanamo Bay detainees. This testimony contains names and other identifying information on the detainees. Read these transcripts online at: http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/index.html. To read some of the other documents the defense department has released due to litigation see: http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/other_related.html. These materials have all been released due to FOIA (Freedom on Information Act) requests by various groups, for more information on the Freedom of Information Act, check out our subject guide.

Supreme Court rules to require equal access for military recruiters

The Solomon Amendment (10 USC 983) states that for any school to receive federal funding they must provide military recruiters equal access to students. Schools that disobey this criteria cannot receive federal funding; such as Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, etc. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc., an association of law schools and law facilities, filed a case against the Department of Defense claiming that this Amendment violated their right to free speech. This group opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation and opposes providing access to the Department of Defense due to its "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. (Read this question and answer description of the policy: http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/command/TriFold.doc (in Word format).) The Supreme Court ruled today that the law schools did not have the right to ban military recruiters. They ruled that the requirement to allow recruiters equal access did not violate the law school's right to free speech. Read the opinion, transcript of the oral arguments, and briefs online.

Pesticides in the Nation's Streams and Ground Water

In a ten-year national assessment of the quality of the nation's water released March 3, 2006, the USGS found that pesticides are present in most streams in urban and agricultural areas but are less commonly found in ground water. While pesticide concentrations are not at levels typically harmful to humans, they may affect aquatic life or fish-eating wildlife. The report, The Quality of Our Nation's Waters: Pesticides in the Nation's Streams and Ground Water, 1992-2001 is available full-text online at the USGS web site. Also available are companion fact sheets and technical documentation.

The government on film

It's Friday and you want to do something other then read another government report? Why not check out some movies from the government instead? The National Archives has made 60 World War II Newsreels, 23 National and state parks features (1933-circa 1970), and 17 Space flight history films by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1962-1981) available online. Check them out on Google video or read more about them at the National Archives Archival Research Catalog.

Report on alleged illegal detentions and rendition flights in Europe

“Europe appears to be a happy hunting ground for foreign security services” claimed Terry Davis, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, in a press conference yesterday to announce the publication of the Council's report under Article 52 of the European Convention on Human Rights on alleged illegal detentions and rendition flights in Europe. The Secretary General found that most European countries lack legal provisions to ensure an effective oversight over the activities of foreign agencies on their territory and that procedures in place to monitor who and what is moving through European airports and airspace do not provide adequate safeguards against abuse. The report and related materials, including individual countries' responses to the Secretary General's questions, are available at the Council of Europe's web site: http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/Files/Events/2006-cia/

Research Methods in Ethnic Studies

This is a blog entry for the ETHN3500 class. Feel free to discuss census data collection or other issues from the class here in the blog. This blog is monitored by librarians, so feel free to ask questions of us as well as each other. The handout used in this class is available online.

Congressional Research Reports

We now have access to the full-text Congressional Research Service ("CRS") Reports starting in 1916 through LexisNexis Congressional (campus authentication required). CRS is the research arm of the Library of Congress and they write reports at the request of Congress. These reports deal with everything from environmental issues, such as global warming, to foreign relations. These reports are not available online from the CRS because while these are not classified they can only be released to the public by members of congress, generally this is done through a request from a constituent. For those of you without campus authentication, check out our subject guide which links to a variety of free sources of these reports.