Sunday, May 31, 2009

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 FEMA and national preparedness, U.S. public diplomacy, and Federal Reserve Banks and security controls. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Correspondence
Special Product

Thursday, May 28, 2009

ILO Increases Estimates of Global Unemployment

The UN News Centre reports that The International Labour Organization (ILO) increased its estimates of worldwide unemployment for 2009. The ILO's own web release projects an increase of 39 to 59 million unemployed people since 2007. It also states, "Updated projections of working poverty across the world indicate that 200 million workers are at risk of joining the ranks of people living on less than USD 2 per day between 2007 and 2009." The ILO's full report can be found in the Global Employment Trends - Update, May 2009.

The ILO was founded in 1919 and became a special agency of the United Nations in 1946. Its primary objectives are to promote worker rights, advocate acceptable employment opportunities, promote social protection, and improve communication in employment situations. Following are some additional ILO resources relevant to global unemployment:

For additional resources, see the international section of our guide to Labor and Employment.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

President Nominates Sotomayor to Supreme Court

President Obama has announced that he will nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Judge David H. Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. As this New York Times article explains, Judge Sotomayor serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and if confirmed she would be the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court.

You can learn more about Judge Sotomayor's background by reading her biography on the website of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (you can also do a search for court opinions made by Sotomayor; just enter her last name in the search box). The Law Library of Congress has created a web page with links to Sotomayor's publications and other online documents about her.

To find Supreme Court dockets and opinions or learn about current Supreme Court justices, take a look at the website of the Supreme Court.

For additional resources about the federal court system, see our guide.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Task Force Convenes in Denver to Discuss "Green" Jobs

Today the White House's Middle Class Task Force will hold its fourth meeting at the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver. See the Denver Post for a Colorado news account of the event or view the White House's blog post. In the town-hall-style meeting, Vice President Joe Biden, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan will discuss national programs and stimulus spending that would train workers for "green" jobs. According to the Post article, some of these jobs will entail improving energy efficiency in public housing.

The Middle Class Task Force was formed in January of this year. The Task Force doesn't mention plans or agenda items on its website, but it has issued two reports:

Looking for more resources on labor and employment? See our guide.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

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 freight rail security and the Endangered Species Act. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Correspondence
Testimonies

Friday, May 22, 2009

Government Puts HEAT on Medicare & Medicaid Fraud

The Justice and Health & Human Services departments are joining forces to crack down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The Washington Post reports that this task force was created on Wednesday to put an end to fraudulent claims on Medicare and Medicaid programs, which fund healthcare for the poor, elderly, and disabled. According to the article, the recent gloomy forecast for Medicare may have provided an impetus for creating this new task force: "The announcement comes a week after the trustees who monitor Medicare's finances predicted that the trust fund . . . will be depleted by 2017, a year earlier than previously expected."

The government has dubbed this task force the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), and you can find more information about the program on its website. On this page you can read the mission of and actions taken or planned by HEAT.

What constitutes Medicare fraud, exactly? The Health and Human Services website provides an overview.

For more information about Medicare and Medicaid, see our guide to Health and Medical Information.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Treaties in Force 2009 Is Now Online

Are you interested in finding a current list of all the treaties and international agreements in force for the U.S. and other countries? The 2009 edition of Treaties in Force is now available on the U.S. Department of State's website. Bilateral treaties are listed by
country with subject headings under each entry, and multilateral treaties are listed by subject (such as narcotic drugs, space, or taxation).

If you are on CU campus or have off-campus access via VPN, you can find the full text of treaties and agreements in the HeinOnline database. The text and status of treaties dating back to 1975 are freely available and searchable on the Library of Congress' Thomas website. Because the Senate is responsible for giving advice and consent to ratify treaties, the Senate's website provides access to information about treaties received, reported, or approved.

Need more resources on treaties? We provide additional information in our guide.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Senate Passes Bill on Credit Card Reform

By a 90-5 vote, the U.S. Senate today passed a bill, H.R. 627, that would put new restrictions on credit card companies, limit interest rate increases, prevent high "over limit" fees, and ban the practice of "universal default." A similar bill was passed by the House of Representatives earlier in May, and a reconciled version of the two pieces of legislation may be presented to President Obama for his signature by the end of the week. You can read the Senate roll call here.

To read a press release about the bill, see this piece on the website of the Senate Committee on Housing, Banking, and Urban Affairs. You can read a news article on the legislation in the Los Angeles Times.

For additional government resources about banks and credit unions, see our guide.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Mission to Space

Space...the final frontier... If you watch the new Star Trek movie you might be interested to check out a real space mission, such as the STS-125 mission going on right now. NASA does a wonderful job of putting up links to videos, reports and much more on their web site for the mission. Check out this page for some cool interactive features!

You can also learn more and look at cool pictures by checking out the Hubble Space Telescope web site. Did you know that the Hubble telescope has been in operation for 19 years? You can also read even more about the mission on these pages.

Want more astronomy and space resources? Check out the library's guide.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

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 aviation security, military depot maintenance, and Navy shipbuilding. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Testimony
Reissued Product

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Homeowner's Aid Program Develops Slowly

In two months, the Obama administration's Making Home Affordable (MHA) program has provided lower-cost mortgages to over 50,000 homeowners. But the program is being implemented slowly and unevenly, reports the Washington Post, and this has left many lenders frustrated. In fact, last week mortgage financing company Fannie Mae got a temporary restraining order from the South Carolina Supreme Court to halt the foreclosure sale of over 1,000 properties so it could give the MHA program more time to work.

Today, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan provided an update on the MHA program that contains new foreclosure alternatives and new protection alternatives for home price declines.

Want more resources about housing? Take a look at our guide.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

More Babies Born to Unmarried Mothers

The National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released trends on childbearing outside of marriage. The report "Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States" relates a few key findings, that 26% more children were born to unmarried mother then in 2002. Birth rates for unmarried women in their 20s and up have increased. In 2007, teenagers accounted for 23% of nonmarital births compared to 50% in 1970.

Want to read more about this report and reaction? Check out the Washington Post's "Report: Babies Increasingly Born to Unwed Mothers."

Want more health and medical information? Check out the library's guide.

India Finishes Elections for 2009

The month-long general election process in India , which was accompanied by violence in Calcutta (1 death and 17 injuries occurred as a result of clashes), is now coming to a close. A BBC News article reports that votes will be counted on Saturday, and new parliament must be formed by June 2.

For government details about elections in India, take a look at the website of the country's Election Commission. Here you can find information about voter registration, election laws, and past elections in India as well as current election information (such as this overview of India's election highlights). Once the new Parliament is formed, you can keep track of its activities on its website.

To find more resources, see our country guide to India.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress' request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week brings us reports on H1N1 flu, U.S. court nominations, the financial crisis, and more. Although 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 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, May 11, 2009

FDA May Gain Ability to Regulate Tobacco

The Washington Post reports that a bill making its way through Congress would allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco products. HR 1256, which has passed the House and is now making its way through the Senate, would give the Food and Drug Administration the ability to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco.

At present you can't find much on the FDA's website about tobacco regulation. If you search the site for the term "tobacco," your first search result is this FDA and Tobacco Regulation statement, which explains that "on March 21, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lacks the authority to regulate tobacco." In the Federal Register you can find more information about how the Supreme Court's ruling revoked federal authority over state and local tobacco laws and federal regulation of tobacco sales.

For further resources, see our guide to Health.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

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 hedge funds, financial management, information security, and graduate medical education. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Correspondence
Testimonies

Friday, May 08, 2009

Colorado Begins Updating Academic Standards

For the first time in more than a decade, Colorado Department of Education (CDE) is revising its academic standards for grades K-12. A Denver Post article reports that CDE made drafts available Thursday of its revised standards for mathematics; music; reading, writing, and communicating; and science. It is probable that these new standards will be incorporated into the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP).

You can find these drafts and other relevant information on the CDE website:

If you need help navigating the CDE website or want other education resources, take a look at our guide.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Congress Schedules Hearing on Torture

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has planned a congressional hearing on the torture of foreign prisoners, Democracy Now! stated in today's news headlines. The hearing, entitled "What Went Wrong: Torture and the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush Administration," is scheduled for May 13 and will be presented before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts.

Senator Whitehouse is chairman of the subcommittee in addition to being a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In this April 16 press release, he commended President Obama for choosing to release prisoner interrogation memos written by the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel (an office of the Justice Department).

In the past couple of months, we've posted a few more entries on our blog that discuss foreign prisoner interrogation as it relates to international law or current CIA action. If you haven't already, take a look at these for links to related online resources.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Obama Plans to Curb Tax Havens and Overseas Job Transfers

On Monday President Obama announced that his administration intended to crack down on businesses and wealthy individuals who avoid paying taxes by transferring their money or jobs overseas. His plan, which he claims would raise $210 billion in taxes over the next 10 years, was announced on the White House blog and is described in greater detail in this White House press release. For a newspaper article on this topic, see the Washington Post.

You can also find the details of the plan on the Treasury Department's website. President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner plan to reform the tax code by removing tax incentives for overseas investments and using some of that money to provide tax credits for "research and innovation in the United States." They also plan to crack down on tax havens for individuals and corporate subsidiaries. Both the White House and Treasury press releases cite a January 2009 U.S. General Accounting Office report stating that of the 100 largest U.S. corporations, 83 have subsidiaries in tax havens. This 63-page report is actually dated December 2008, and you can find it on the GAO's website.



For further resources, see our guide to Tax Forms and Information.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

U.S. Government Issues Annual Reports on Terrorism

Which groups pose a threat to the United States? How effective are various regional governments in combating terror, and how is the U.S. contributing to their efforts? The U.S. Department of State addresses these issues in Country Reports on Terrorism 2008, which the State Department published on April 30.

The Country Reports on Terrorism (CRT) are created to comply with Title 22 of the U.S. Code, Section 2656f, which requires the State Department to submit to Congress "a full and complete annual report on terrorism for those countries and groups meeting the criteria of the Act." Past Country Reports on Terrorism can also be found on the State Department's website (in 2004 this series replaced Patterns of Global Terrorism).

In the CRT 2008 you can find overviews for world regions, information about state sponsors of terrorism, a list of U.S.-designated terrorist groups, and statistics from the National Counterterrorism Center. The NCC has also released a 2008 Report on Terrorism.

If you need additional resources, take a look at our guide.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress' request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week brings us reports on Latin America, trade, Navy, and more. Although 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.

Monday, May 04, 2009

United Nations Web Site Updated

Happy Monday, for today's afternoon break why not check out the new United Nations web site? The new interface is designed to provide easier access to all the UN information you are used to finding on the old site. Here are some of the features:
  • In a bar across the top is a list of some of the top issues the UN works with: Peace and Security, Development, Human Rights, Humanitarian Affairs, and International Law. I like this setup because you no longer need to know who deals with these issues, you can instead click on these topics and get links directly to those organizations and news pages. My one complaint would be that Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs are two very related topics and for people looking for information on those areas they will have to go to both pages.
  • The In Focus feature on the right lets you link directly to UN news on a particular issue that is in the news. For example, right now you can see news on Influenza A(H1N1), Situation in the Middle East, and Climate Change. Note this is not news from all sources, just UN information.
  • There is an RSS feed to recent news from the UN news center, which covers all the UN organizations.
  • Finally, there is an update to the Global Issues on the UN Agenda, now simply called Global Issues. I have encouraged people for years to use this resource to find out the UN organizations that are working on a particular topic. The redesign of this resource now includes an overview of the topic, such as Disarmament, as well as links to the UN agencies working on that issue.
I hope you have fun playing around in this new design, please leave comments on features you like or dislike on this entry. If you want more UN resources, check out the library's guide.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

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 gender gap in wages, funding international students in higher education, and telecommunications. If you would like to know more about the GAO, check out the library's guide.

Reports
Related Products & Special Publications
Correspondence
Testimonies
Reissued Product

Friday, May 01, 2009

Chrysler Declares Bankruptcy

Failing auto-maker Chrysler filed for bankruptcy Thursday, and the Obama administration has laid out a plan for the company's restructuring, which will include an alliance with Italian auto-maker Fiat. You can find the details of the restructuring plan on the Treasury Department's website. According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, Chrysler plans to shut down six of its plants by the end of 2010.

The Free Press article states that Chrysler's bankruptcy will be the sixth largest in U.S. history. In the United States, bankruptcy is handled in the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, whose website provides a guide to Bankruptcy Basics. To examine every detail of federal bankruptcy law as put forth in the U.S. Code, see Title 11.

For further resources, check out our guide to Business and Economics.