Friday, October 31, 2008

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as oil and gas royalties, Check 21 Act, and export controls with China. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports

Related Products

Correspondence

Bush Administration Makes Last Attempts to Deregulate

In its waning months in office, the Bush Administration is making attempts to finalize deregulations that could weaken consumer protections and the environment. In today's Washington Post you can read about these final regulatory changes.

The Post reports that the "new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo." About 90 new regulations are under consideration, and the article states that nine of them could impact the economy "because they impose costs or promote societal benefits that exceed $100 million annually." The Post also notes that this large number of last-minute regulations would still be fewer than the number of regulations Bill Clinton approved at the end of his presidency.

You can keep track of the status of federal regulations through the Federal Register, which is keyword-searchable and freely available online via GPO Access. You can also check the latest press releases of specific federal agencies mentioned in the article, such as the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.

If you'd like to learn more about the process through which federal regulations are proposed, published, and made available to the public, see our guide to Regulations.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Health Insurers Discriminate Among Sexes

Yesterday the New York Times reported that new findings reveal a large gender disparity in health insurance costs. The article reports that according to new data from insurance companies and online brokers, women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies that offer identical coverage. Women still pay more than men for insurance even when their policy doesn't cover maternity costs. Some insurers justify this extra expense by explaining that women tend to visit medical offices more regularly than men.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission prohibits employers from charging higher premiums to women than to men for the same benefits, even if women as a class are more expensive. A handful of states, such Maine, Montana and New York, have also prohibited sex-based rates in the individual insurance market. This page from the EEOC discusses sex-based discrimination as it pertains to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

For more government resources on this topic, see our guide to Health and Medical Information.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

CRS reports, a day late

Sorry about the delay in posting. Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week only brings us a number of CRS reports on influenza, Iraq, the Navy, and much more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:
Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Government Websites Adopt Social Networking

We already knew that presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama had Twitter sites where they were keeping supporters updated on their campaigns. But it was recently brought to our attention that numerous U.S. government agencies and departments are maintaining Twitter pages featuring "tweets" with the latest news on their governmental goings-on.

In fact, there's actually a U.S. Government Twitter Fan Wiki that contains an alphabetical list of government agencies as well as links to their Twitter sites. Via Twitter, you can now keep up with the latest happenings at such disparate government departments as the U.S. Army, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our Congress is even using Twitter to keep Web 2.0-savvy Americans apprised of the latest votes in the Senate.

And government agencies have embraced other online social networking tools. NASA EDGE now has Facebook and MySpace pages as well as a blog. Argonne National Laboratory offers a NEOS Wiki, which it describes as "the ubiquitous online source for optimization."

Are you hoping that we've created a research guide on the government's use of social networking technology? Well, to be honest, this phenomenon is so novel that we haven't even thought to create subject guides about government blogs, wikis, and "tweets." But perhaps this is the new, hip, user-friendly form of government intelligence. Or an alternative to telecommunications. Let us know what you think.

Friday, October 24, 2008

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as enhancing social security number safety, environmental enforcement, and drug safety. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports

Related Products

Correspondence

Thursday, October 23, 2008

"Old" and "New" Europe Divided Over Greenhouse Gas Cuts

Yesterday, an Associated Press article in the Seattle Times reported that countries representing "old" and "new" Europe are at odds over European Union (EU) deadlines for laws that would cut greenhouse gas emissions. Most governments within the EU want to proceed with a December timetable for legislation mandating a 20 percent reduction in emissions by 2020, because they contend "that will send a strong signal to the U.S., China and other big industrial states to embrace a new global deal on reducing emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012."

Eight former Soviet bloc countries--Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia--feel that the EU's proposed timetable would have a far greater economic impact on them than it would on western European countries, which would not have to "play catch-up to compensate for decades of ruinous communist economic policies," the article states. Eastern European cities still must deal with environmental obstacles such as communist-era rubber-dye factories, pollutant-emitting lead smelters, and inefficient power plants as well as impoverished citizens for whom climate change is a low priority.

To find primary EU resources about global warming targets, see the websites for the European Environment Agency and the European Parliament. If you're still not finding the information you need, check out our guides to European Union Resources and Climate Change.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Government Awarded Small Biz Contracts to Large Firms, Post Finds

The Washington Post reported today that U.S. government agencies, most noticeably the Defense and Homeland Security departments, made at least $5 billion worth of errors in recent reports of contracts they offered to small businesses. The Post analyzed a sample of the $89 billion in contracts the agencies classified as small-business awards in order to meet a congressional mandate to award 23 percent of all government work to small firms. The article mentions that large firms such as Lockheed Martin and Dell Computer were incorrectly counted as "small businesses" on contracts.

The Post notes that businesses contracting with the government are tracked in the Federal Procurement Data System database, which is maintained by the General Services Administration. The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides U.S. government contracting assistance and reports annually on agencies' performance. Calvin Jenkins, the SBA's deputy associate administrator for government contracting, is quoted in the article, and the SBA website features his October 5 commentary on SBA data improvement. The Post states that SBA plans to issue a report today, although the SBA website did not contain any such report as of this blog post.

Need more resources on government contracts and procurement? See our guide to Federal Business Opportunities.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Justice Dept. Files Antitrust Suit Against Meatpacker

Yesterday the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against beef packer JBS S.A. in an attempt to stop its proposed acquisition of National Beef Packing Company LLC. Brazil-based JBS operates beef-packing plants in Texas, Nebraska, and Greeley, Colorado. You can read an article about the lawsuit in today's Greeley Tribune. The Justice Department's official press release on the lawsuit can be found on its website.

The attorneys general of 13 states--Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming--have joined the Justice Department in the lawsuit. You can access the Colorado Attorney General's website here. You can find the websites of additional states' attorneys general by going to the Council of State Governments website.

For additional resources on antitrust issues, see our guides on Consumer Information and Business.

CRS reports this week

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week only brings us a number of CRS reports on mortgage backed securities, NATO, Navy, and much more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:
Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Global Warming Increases Spread of Waterborne Pathogens

Scientists are almost positive that global warming will lead to worldwide increases in the spread of waterborne pathogens, the Washington Post reported today in this article. The Post references scientific studies indicating that global warming will lead to heavier rainfall, resulting in sewage overflows and tainted drinking water, and increased lake and ocean temperatures will allow bacteria, parasites, and algal blooms to multiply. Other problematic results of climate change will be fish and shellfish contamination as well as the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.

The article cites a 2007 report of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which indicates that global warming will lead to heavier rainfalls. You can find a PDF of the full report on IPCC's website. The Post article also references an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-commissioned study showing a correlation between heavy rainfall and waterborne disease outbreaks. You can read about the study in the article The Association Between Extreme Precipitation and Waterborne Disease Outbreaks in the United States, 1948-1994, which was published by the American Public Health Association. Also take a look at this report on the issue by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If you need more information on this topic, check out our guide on water resources, which features links to U.S. and global resources on water supply, treatment, quality, and other relevant topics.

Fun with Environmental Resources

We have been discussing lots of economic crisis materials and while there is bound to be all sorts of economic indicators this week and probably even some stock market jumps, but I thought today we could talk about the environment.

There are a couple new resources that have come out in the last few weeks from the United Nations that I wanted to bring to your attention. The first is one of the new titles from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Global Glacier Changes. UNEP produces many publications and while sometimes they are only available for purchase, many of them are available freely online. These online versions often also include dynamic links to additional resources on the topic.

The second resource is the World Database on Protected Areas, a new database on all the protected areas in the world (depending on the provision of data this may be a designation on the local, national, or international level). You can find maps, documentation and much more. For those of you who love to download data this site lets you do that easily and lets you play with it in tools like Google Earth.

Still want more environmental resources? Check out the library's guide.

Friday, October 17, 2008

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as indoor mold, effects of gas temperature at the pump, and risk-based capitol. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports

Related Products

Correspondence

  • Multiple Agencies Provide Assistance to Service-disabled Veterans or Entrepreneurs, but Specific Needs Are Difficult to Identify and Coordination Is Weak. GAO-09-11R, October 15.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-11R

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week only brings us a number of CRS reports on presidential succession, Iraq, federal workforce, and much more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by OpenCRS and Secrecy News:
Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Friday, October 10, 2008

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as green affordable housing, leveraged buyouts of U.S. companies by private equity funds, and the FDA's role in food labeling . If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports

United Nations Yearbook

For anyone who has been in an United Nations Depository (like CU-Boulder), you have probably seen the rows of red books, with UN Yearbook stamped on the spine. If you have been doing research on the actions of the members of the UN or particular resolutions it is probable that you have even used these books with their tiny type. Well, now you don't need to be in the library to use these wonderful resource, the United Nations has digitized them from 1946-2005. (Note: 2005 is the most recent edition, it takes 3-4 years to write one of these volumes.)

The United Nations Yearbook online lets you search across all the yearbooks or just one. You can also browse the volumes. You will find in here the work done by various countries to modify resolutions before the United Nations. Want to know who voted which way? You can find it here. When researching the UN and how it works this is one of the best source of information.

Interested in more UN resources? Check out the library's guide.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Voter Rolls Possibly Purged Illegally, NYT Reports

The New York Times has reviewed state records and Social Security data, and it reports that "tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law." You can read the report here.

The Times findings have been presented to the Social Security Administration, which has notified the Department of Justice about the problem and has sent letters to Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio election officials, asking them to make sure that they are not violating federal law. The Social Security Administration's press release is available on its website. The times article also mentions that Colorado, Louisiana, and Michigan could be purging their voter rolls illegally.

The Times article reports that in their efforts to comply with the Help America Vote Act of 2002, states have been removing names that should no longer be on their voter rolls. Some states are violating federal law by purging voter names from their rolls within 90 days of a federal election or by improperly using the Social Security database to check voter registration applications. Rosemary E. Rodriguez, the chairwoman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, is quoted in the Times article as saying that these voter law violations could create "extremely serious problems."

Need more resources about this issue? See our subject guide on Elections and Voting.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Judge Orders Uighurs' Release from Guantanamo

On October 7 a federal judge ordered that 17 Chinese Muslims (known as Uighurs) detained at the Guantanamo Bay military prison be released into the United States by Friday, the Washington Post reported. You can read U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina's court opinion here. It was the first time a U.S. judge ordered a Guantanamo Bay prisoner to be released as well as the first instance in which a foreign national held at Guantanamo has been ordered transferred to the United States.

The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing the ruling. Yesterday it issued a press release contending that Judge Urbina's ruling "presents serious national security and separation of powers concerns and raises unprecedented legal issues."

If you need more resources on the subject, see our subject guides on Crime and Justice and Terrorism.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

From the Congressional Research Service this week

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress's request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week only brings us a number of CRS reports on economic issues, national security, government employees, and much more. While these reports are in the public domain there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your Senator or Representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by OpenCRS:
Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.

Conflict Intensifies in Somalia

In the last week, American news media have focused heavily on the topic of financial markets. But while stock markets are plunging, many in the world are facing much greater immediate hardship. On Monday the BBC reported on the conflict that has been plaguing Somalia for the last several years. The article states that "the new situation has an intensity of street shelling and military atrocities that even this veteran war city [Somalia's capital, Mogadishu] has never seen before."

The conflict pits the Ethiopian-backed Somali government and Islamist and nationalist warlords against one another. The BBC article reports that the United States supports Ethiopian troops and contends that the Islamist warlords are connected with Al Quaeda. Mogadishu's population has dwindled as about 500,000 have fled to refugee camps. The fighting in Somalia has enabled piracy to flourish in the Gulf of Aden, through which more than 30% of the world's oil travels, according to a related BBC article.

Yesterday's BBC article also mentions that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is trying to restore peace in this war-torn country. In August the UN Security Council released a press release renewing its authorization of AMISOM.

For more information on the country of Somalia, see our country guide. Our subject guide on Emergencies, Conflicts, and Disasters provides links to some helpful governmental and nongovernmental resources on political conflicts.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Today's Last Day to Register to Vote

This is the last day to register to vote here in Colorado. If you want to register or make sure you are registered, check these sites out:
Still want more info? Check out the library's elections and voting guide.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

GAO Releases This Week

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is often called the investigative arm of Congress. This week they investigated a variety of issues, such as pandemic influenza, space acquisitions, climate change, and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Reposted Products
Correspondences
Testimonies
  • Defense Acquisitions: Fundamental Changes Are Needed to Improve Weapon Program Outcomes, by Michael J. Sullivan, director, acquisition and sourcing management, before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. GAO-08-1159T, September 25.
    http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1159T
    Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081159thigh.pdf

Friday, October 03, 2008

Wyoming Seeks to Protect Gray Wolves

The Los Angeles Times has reported that although Wyoming spent nearly a decade protesting the federal government's efforts to reintroduce gray wolves to the region, and the animals were eventually removed from the endangered species list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now attempting to relist the gray wolf. You can read the article here. See the FWS's press release about the wolf's reinstatement.

The FWS's website contains various documents illustrating the changing status of the gray wolf. In early 2004 the agency described steps necessary for delisting the gray wolf. In 2006 it issued this press release announcing that the wolf would remain on the endangered species list. This year FWS issued this 33-page report about the status, distribution, and management of wolves in Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park.

For additional resources on endangered species, see our guide on endangered species.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Senate Passes Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

All major and minor newspapers are reporting that the Senate passed its revision of H.R. 1424, the economic stabilization/bailout/stimulus that failed in the House last Friday. Numerous pundits are writing opinion pieces on the issue while countless citizens are weighing in with their own comments to newspaper articles (1,126 comments on the Washington Post's article alone). But if you're eager to read a copy of the actual bill as it was passed by the Senate, you can find it on GPO Access (along with countless other government documents, all of which are available for free from the U.S. Government Printing Office).

You can also trace the bill's voyage through Congress by searching in THOMAS, another useful website brought to you by the Library of Congress. To offer feedback to your state's senator or advise your House representative on how to vote on the bill Friday, check out the official websites of the Senate and House. On the Senate's website you can also read the roll call votes for and against the bill.

If you're still not finding the congressional information you need, take a look at our subject guide on Congress and Legislation.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Baseball, Author Signings, and much more

I could talk about the possibility of the bill on the economy bailout/stimulus, etc., but it has been a long week of economic news. If you must have more go to the Senate Banking Committee, I am going to have fun at the Library of Congress.

Did you know that Roger Maris hit his 61st homerun on this day in 1961? A feat that held until 1998, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa passed it within days of each other. You can learn this and more other exciting baseball trivia in the Library of Congress's Today in History. You can also find links to pictures, newspaper articles and much more.

The Library of Congress also hosted the 2008 Book Festival this weekend where authors came and talked about and signed their books. You can view podcasts from this event and others on the web site.

Finally, to close out our tour, why not run over to myLOC? This new site lets us those of us who live far away from DC explore the exhibitions, building and resources from the comfort of our own computers.

If you still need more non-economic news, why not check out the library's Historic Documents and Exhibits page.