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 month brings us reports on the budget, foreign
relations, military issues, and much 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. These reports were 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 dating 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.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE)/U.S. Coast Guard Joint Investigation Team (JIT) released its final investigative report on the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon explosion, loss of life, and resulting oil spill. Volumes one and two of the final report as well as earlier hearings, transcripts, multimedia, and fact sheets gathered during the investigation into the spill are available from the joint commission website.
In contrast to earlier evaluations of the accident, the final BOEMRE report issued on Sept. 14, 2011, assigns the major portion of the blame to BP while still finding fault with both Halliburton and Transocean. According to the report, BP took shortcuts to speed production at the site which was behind schedule and over budget. The loss of life and catastrophic oil spill were the result of "poor risk management, last minute changes to plans, failure to observe and respond to critical indicators, inadequate well control response, and insufficent emergency bridge response training...." The NY Times quoted a former Justice department official who speculated that the criminal charges may be brought against all three corporations.
With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 days away, many in the United States are reflecting on the many changes that have occurred since then. We have become more conscious of the intersection between homeland security and larger global issues. One place to look for information on these topics is the Homeland Security Digital Library. Since the University Libraries is a federal depository library, the university community has access to over 92,000 documents that the site has compiled from a wide variety of national and international sources. These include documents outlining the national strategy for defense of the homeland as well as other materials. Recently added document include Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism from the Pew Research Center and Oslo Terrorist Attacks: Analysis, Lessons Learned and Consequences from the Fondation Pour La Recherche Strategique in France.
With material from a wide variety of sources the site is a good place to start research into security-related topics. Links are available on the Government Information's Homeland Security page and from the Find Articles and More page of Chinook.
Outlining inequalities in the government's and the peoples' treatment of African-Americans, King declared that, a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, "The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination." He continued:
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
A video of the full speech is embedded below, and audio-only versions and transcripts are also widely available.
Hailed for encouraging Americans to protest peacefully for racial equality under the law, King's message was a sharp contrast to that of his contemporary, Malcolm X (née Malcolm Little), who famously demanded in 1965 that racial justice be established in the country, "By any means necessary." The two men continue to rival one another in practical and academic debates on how racial equality can best be achieved, but it was the philosophy of non-violence that garnered Dr. King the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and it was this same philosophy -- rooted in Dr. King's beliefs as far back as his high school years in 1944 -- cited by Congress in December, 1995, when authorizing the fundraising that would enable a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King to be built on Washington D.C.'s National Mall.
Sunday, August 28th, was to be the culmination of these efforts -- by Dr. King (and Malcolm X), to see racial equality brought to the United States; by the United States government, to give its citizens a voice in their destiny and representation at the fullest level; and by the work of many others, from those who were a part of the Civil Rights Movement to those who aided the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity in their goals to fund the monument. Until the interruption caused by Hurricane Irene, the day was to be the official dedication of the completed monument to Martin Luther King, Jr., located at 1964 Independence Avenue, on the National Mall.
The MLK Monument is unique in several ways. It is the first monument on the Mall that does not commemorate either a war, or a president, or a white man. It is the first on the Mall designed by a Chinese national (Lei Yixin), and was built using both labor and granite from China -- points of public controversy for a monument to an American historical icon, particularly one whose life work sought representation for marginalized groups in America.
These issues aside, there is a wealth of additional information available about the new MLK Monument. The Monument's Web site features information about the development of the project, as well as its conceptualization, including a virtual tour of the site (embedded below).
The Washington Post has compiled visual and statistical information about the monument and its individual components, and a photographic collage that allows viewers to explore the monument from all sides.
Click the image to view The WaPo's article on the MLK Monument.
One cannot argue with Coretta King in how rare Dr. King's accomplishments were. Does the Monument pay tribute enough? Taking the information above as a whole, what are your feelings about the Monument to Dr. Martin Luther King? How does it speak to his contributions to Civil Rights and to human rights? How has his work affected your own life, and how does Dr. King's work continue to progress the national conversation about race relations? Is there more work to be done?
When the new date for the official dedication is announced, an event where President Obama is scheduled to speak, we will add an update to the Gov Info blog. In the meantime, please feel free to use the comments box below to share your own thoughts about the Monument or about Dr. King's work toward racial equality.
Yesterday afternoon at 1:51 EST the east coast experienced a 5.8 earthquake centered near Mineral, Virginia. This earthquake was felt as far away as New York City. The image below is from the USGS and shows the intensity felt in the immediate area of the quake.
If you would like to read the technical jargon on this quake or see more maps, the USGS has a web page for this quake.
You will notice on the map above that the Washington, DC area is in yellow, indicating a stronger intensity in the quake in that area. This has resulted in the shutdown of the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral.
Interestingly, yesterday also brought a 5.3 magnitude quake to southern Colorado, but unlike the quake on the east coast, those of us here in central Colorado probably did not feel this quake.
This graph shows the distance in kilometers from the epicenter that individuals felt this quake, a similar graph for the Virginia quake still has reports of 2 on the intensity scale out to 1000 km (621.4 miles for the curious).
Want to see a map of all the various earthquakes happening in the world? The Earth Sciences Library has a kiosk right inside the entrance which lights up with the various quakes.
