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Free weekday coverage on current issues
June 24, 2007
Headlines - Debate On Public Access to Public Records Online Escalates
- Survey of DHS Intelligence Collection and Dissemination
- Washington Post Launches Blog Series on "Most Influential and Power Man Ever to Hold Office of Vice President"
- Special Report Examines Role of Info Industry Big Three in Web Security
- PWC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2007-2011
- Online Source of Consolidated Acts and Regulations of Canada
- Directory and Search Engine of World's Embassies and Consulates
- Encyclopedic Reference Work Cataloging all of the World's 6,912 Known Living Languages
- Skelton/Conyers Introduce Habeas Reform Legislation
- BJS Releases Report on Almost 2,000 Medical Examiners' and Coroners' Offices
- DOJ OIG Audit of ATF National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record
- DHS OIG Audit of Customs and Border Control Reponses to Chinese Human Smuggling in Maritime Cargo Containers
- Parents, Children and Media: A Kaiser Family Foundation Survey
 Debate On Public Access to Public Records Online Escalates WSJ free feature: When Public Records Are Too Public - Open Records Are an Established Tradition, But Does Internet Access Call for a Change?: "Property deeds, marriage and divorce records, court files, motor-vehicle information and tax documents are increasingly being digitized, and contain a wealth of information that few of us would want online: Social Security numbers, birth dates, maiden names and images of our signatures. Local governments have rushed to put those documents online for a decade or so, often without scrubbing them of such information. And that's made them potentially fertile ground for busybodies, stalkers and identity thieves." Washington Post Launches Blog Series on "Most Influential and Power Man Ever to Hold Office of Vice President" WashingtonPost.com: "Over the past six years, Cheney has shaped his times as no vice president has before. This...four-part series...explores his methods and impact, drawing on interviews with more than 200 men and women who worked for, with or in opposition to Cheney's office. Many of those interviewed recounted events that have not been made public until now, sharing notes,e-mails, personal calendars and other records of their interaction with Cheney and his senior staff. The vice president declined to be interviewed." Sunday, Part 1: Part 1 - Working in the Background: A master of bureaucracy and detail, Cheney exerts most of his influence out of public view." Monday, Part 2: Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power Cast of Characters - Read about the important people in and out of government who have had an impact on Vice President Dick Cheney's career. Narrated Photo Gallery - Cheney's Life & Career - Starting as a junior aide on Capitol Hill, Dick Cheney built unmatched Washington resume as White House chief of staff, House minority whip and secretary of defense. Narrated Photo Gallery - Cheney as Vice President: Vice President Dick Cheney usually wields his considerable power behind the scenes and is often the last person to talk to the president before important decisions are made. Special Report Examines Role of Info Industry Big Three in Web Security NEWS.COM Special Report: Wardens of the WebTalkBack: Global security challenge falls to an elite corps, June 25, 2007 "The job of policing the Web has been left to the corporate world by default. The burden weighs heavily on a trio of companies in particular: Google, Yahoo and Microsoft--the three firms with the most traffic on the Web. Their work, alone or in concert, will likely define what kind of security can be expected for e-mail, purchases, bill payment, other financial transactions and practically anything else involving personal information of the most sensitive nature." PWC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2007-2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers, PWC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2007-2011: "The leading entertainment and media industry forecast. Covering the US, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada. In-depth global analyses and 5-year growth projections for 14 industry segments." fee, but free industry segments' summaries are available. Online Source of Consolidated Acts and Regulations of Canada Online Source of Consolidated Acts and Regulations of Canada: "Welcome to the Department of Justice's new Laws Web site. This new site is the result of the conversion to a completely new technical environment for consolidating federal Acts and regulations. The new environment makes it possible to update the data more frequently than was possible in the past and to provide several new features. The site has also been reorganized to provide a consistent and intuitive navigation model." The new features include: Point-in-time access to consolidated Acts and regulations An advanced search engine that allows the use of complex search patterns, including word proximity and wildcard operators Regulations listed alphabetically on the new 'Regulations by Title' page Amendments "Not in Force" and "Related Provisions" An alternative view of the data using frames
Directory and Search Engine of World's Embassies and Consulates Directory and Search Engine of The World's Embassies and Consulates: "Serving the diplomatic community and the online community since 1996, EmbassyWorld is designed to provide a comprehensive list of contact resources for all of the world's diplomatic offices. Our goal is to provide an easy-to-navigate directory that is clearly laid out and fully cross-indexed. Our database is searchable via a bi-lateral search-engine to search both host location and hosted embassy from dual query boxes. It is our intention to make finding an embassy easy." See also Maps Of The World Incuding City Maps Encyclopedic Reference Work Cataloging all of the World's 6,912 Known Living Languages Ethnologue: "An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world's 6,912 known living languages." [This web edition of the Ethnologue contains all the content of the print edition and may be cited as: Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.] Far from the Madding Gerund and Other Dispatches from Language Log (Paperback) Skelton/Conyers Introduce Habeas Reform Legislation Press release, June 22, 2007: "House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) introduced legislation today which would uphold the principle of habeas corpus by amending existing law to allow individuals detained, often for many years without formal charges, to have their day in court... H.R. 2826 accomplishes two main goals. It upholds the principle of habeas corpus as applied to detainees, allowing them to challenge their indefinite detention without trial. Detainees who are being detained in active combat zones, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, will continue to not be allowed to file habeas petitions. The bill also permits habeas courts to review the actions of a Military Commission established under the Military Commissions Act." BJS Releases Report on Almost 2,000 Medical Examiners' and Coroners' Offices Press release, Medical Examiners and Coroners' Offices, 2004: "Presents key findings from the 2004 Census of Medical Examiners and Coroners' (ME/C) Offices. This special report describes the medicolegal investigation of death in the United States. It provides an overview of the personnel, budgets, and workload of these offices by type of office and size of jurisdiction. It also includes information on the number of unidentified human decedents handled by ME/C offices. The report examines record keeping practices and use of national databases for unidentified remains. Detailed data tables on topics covered in this report are available [see link below]." The report, Medical Examiners and Coroners' Offices, 2004, (NCJ-216756), was written by BJS statisticians Matthew J. Hickman and Kristen A. Hughes as well as Kevin J. Strom and Jeri D. Ropero-Miller, of RTI International." DOJ OIG Audit of ATF National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, Evaluation and Inspections Report I-2007-006, June 2007 (74 pages, PDF) "The NFA Branch has significantly improved the timeliness of processing NFA weapons applications and responding to customer inquiries since 2004. However, management and technical deficiencies still exist that cause inaccuracies in the NFRTR. NFA Branch staff do not process applications or enter data into the NFRTR in a consistent manner and do not promptly correct record discrepancies. Additionally, the NFRTR database has technical problems, and its software programming is considered by the NFA Branch to be flawed. The lack of consistency in processing procedures, combined with database technical issues, results in errors in records, reports, and queries produced from the NFRTR that affect its reliability as a regulatory tool in inspections of federal firearms licensees. Notwithstanding these concerns, we did not find evidence that individual weapons owners or federal firearms licensees were." Parents, Children and Media: A Kaiser Family Foundation Survey "Parents, Children & Media: A Kaiser Family Foundation Survey, is a national survey of 1,008 parents of children ages 2-17, along with a series of six focus groups held with parents across the country. The survey explores such issues as media content, media ratings and the V-Chip, media monitoring, educational media, advertising, and the Internet." Press release Report - Parents, Children & Media: A Kaiser Family Foundation Survey (42 pages, PDF)
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