Shopping Mall PC in Washington DC Newsletters!: beSpacific - January 22, 2007 Shopping Mall PC in Washington DC Business News letters and Political advice Blog!

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January 22, 2007

Headlines

Corporations and Environmental Groups Call For System to Combat Global Warming
Working Paper Addresses Value of Foreign News Coverage
House Republicans Unveil Strategic Benchmarks to Measure Effectiveness of President’s Iraq Strategy
Inter-American Court Decision on Access to Info Posted on Court Website
Poll Finds Company Guidelines Against Pretexting Lacking
Groups Request Records on Warrantless Mail Surveillance
CDT Releases 2007 Legislative Agenda
DOJ OIG Report on FBI's Response to Foley Congressional Page Case
CRS Updates Policy Guidelines for Working With the Press
DHS Designates State of the Union Address as a National Special Security Event
University of Texas at Austin Joins Google Book Search Program

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Corporations and Environmental Groups Call For System to Combat Global Warming

Press release: "United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) urges lawmakers to enact a policy framework for mandatory reductions of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions from major emitting sectors, including large stationary sources, transportation, and energy use in commercial and residential buildings. The cornerstone of this approach would be a cap-and-trade program. The environmental goal is to reduce global atmospheric GHG concentrations to a level that minimizes large-scale adverse impacts to humans and the natural environment. The group recommends Congress provide leadership and establish short- and mid-term emission reduction targets; a national program to accelerate technology research, development and deployment; and approaches to encourage action by other countries, including those in the developing world, as ultimately the solution must be global." [USCAP Consists of Market Leaders: Alcoa, BP America, Caterpil! lar, Duke Energy, DuPont FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, PG&E, PNM Resources, and Leading NGO's: Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, World Resources Institute.]

"Environmental Defense is one of three founding members of a group of high-level corporate and environmental leaders that made a groundbreaking announcement...that called for a cap-and-trade system to combat climate change. Their historic proposal, "A Call to Action," urges the federal government to set limits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to create market-based incentives and, most of all, to act swiftly and thoughtfully."

Topic(s): Legislation, Congress

Working Paper Addresses Value of Foreign News Coverage

Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy - Working Paper Series, Foreign News Coverage: The U.S. Media's Undervalued Asset, by Jill Carroll, freelance journalist, "a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor who was based in Baghdad in 2005-6."

Topic(s): Knowledge Management

House Republicans Unveil Strategic Benchmarks to Measure Effectiveness of President’s Iraq Strategy

Press release: "House Republican Leaders and key Ranking Committee Members today unveiled a set of benchmarks designed to measure the progress of President Bush's new strategy in Iraq, and to hold the Bush Administration and the Iraqi government accountable for their role in achieving success."

Related posting, Legislation and Reports Address Issue of Iraq Troop Escalation, January 9, 2007, and on LLRX.com, Commentary: The Iraq Troop Surge

Topic(s): Congress

Inter-American Court Decision on Access to Info Posted on Court Website

"The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has announced that the English translation of its decision in the case Claude Reyes et al v. Chile is already available at the Court's website: (link to the word document version)...in this case the Inter-American Court upheld that the right to access to information is a human right under the American Convention. [Eduardo Bertoni, Executive Director, Due Process of Law Foundation]

Topic(s): Legal Research, Civil Liberties, Courts

Poll Finds Company Guidelines Against Pretexting Lacking

Press release: "Despite recent legal actions against companies that engage in pretexting and other illegal techniques to investigate fraud, misconduct, or simply to obtain confidential competitor information, 42 percent of organizations responded that they currently do not have written guidelines against the use of such methods of investigation, according to an online poll conducted by Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP (Deloitte FAS)."

Topic(s): Privacy

Groups Request Records on Warrantless Mail Surveillance

Follow up to January 7, 2007 posting, Presidential Signing Statement for Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act Includes Power to Open Mail, see this press release today: "The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for National Security Studies today filed three Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the immediate release of records related to President Bush’s asserted authority to search Americans' mail without a warrant. The president claimed this unprecedented authority in a "signing statement" attached to a statute that expressly prohibits opening First Class mail without a warrant."

Topic(s): Privacy, Civil Liberties, Congress, E-Government, Legislation, Patriot Act

CDT Releases 2007 Legislative Agenda

"Center for Democracy and Technology today urged lawmakers to adopt an approach to Internet-related policymaking that protects fundamental civil liberties, reestablishes meaningful privacy protections and paves the way for the United States' continued leadership in technological innovation. In its Congressional Agenda for the 110th Congress, CDT offers both a broad overview of the challenges associated with policymaking in the Internet space, as well as granular, issue-by-issue recommendations for lawmakers."

Topic(s): Congress, Civil Liberties, Internet, Privacy

DOJ OIG Report on FBI's Response to Foley Congressional Page Case

Follow-up to previous postings on ex-Rep. Foley and the Congressional page scandal, released today by the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General; a Special Report, A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Initial Response to Representative Mark Foley’s E-mails to a Former Page, January 2007, PDF (Full Report).

Press release, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW): "In its report, the IG concludes that the FBI should have taken some action when CREW sent the Foley emails to the Bureau in July and it should have "notified CREW, the complainant in this case, that the FBI declined to open an investigation." The IG based this assessment, in part, on the fact that the language in Rep. Foley’s emails "fell within the type of behavior that the FBI warns against in its Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety."

Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government, Internet

CRS Updates Policy Guidelines for Working With the Press

Via FAS, CRS Policy Statement: Interacting With the Media, effective January 16, 2007.

Topic(s): Government Documents

DHS Designates State of the Union Address as a National Special Security Event

Press release: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has designated the President's State of the Union Address as a National Special Security Event (NSSE)."

Topic(s): Government Documents, E-Government

University of Texas at Austin Joins Google Book Search Program

Press release: "Known as the fifth largest academic library in the United States, the University of Texas Libraries house some of the nation's leading collections, including the world-renowned Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. Soon, researchers and history lovers all over the world will be able to search more than one million books and materials from the University of Texas, including selections from these unique works from early Latin American history."

Topic(s): Search Engines

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