beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology newshttp://www.bespacific.com
By Sabrina I. Pacifici - bespacific@earthlink.net
Free weekday coverage on current issues
September 03, 2007
Headlines - White House Website States Executive Office of President Not Subject to FOIA
- New Center Center Launched on Government Secrecy Headed by Former DOJ Information and Privacy Director
- Federation of American Scientists Posts 60 Year Archive of Public Interest Reports
- Nixon Tapes and Transcripts Now Available Online
- EFF Report - RIAA v. The People: Four Years Later
- 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation
- UN Conference on Building Blocks for Effective International Response to Climate Change
 White House Website States Executive Office of President Not Subject to FOIA Follow up to previous posting on Presidential Records Act Violations, FOIA within the EOP: "The Office of Administration [OA], whose sole function is to advise and assist the President, and which has no substantial independent authority, is not subject to FOIA and related authorities. OA is a distinct entity from the other components of the EOP. Please contact the separate EOP entities, that are subject to FOIA, individually, if you would like to make a FOIA request for their records. The EOP entities subject to the FOIA are: Council on Environmental Quality; Office of Management and Budget; Office of National Drug Control Policy; Office of Science and Technology Policy; Office of the United States Trade Representative; The EOP entities exempt from the provisions of the FOIA are: White House Office; Office of Administration; Office of the Vice President; Council of Economic Advisers; National Security Council; Office of Policy Development; Domestic Policy Council; Office of National AIDS Policy; National Economic Council President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board" New Center Center Launched on Government Secrecy Headed by Former DOJ Information and Privacy Director Press release: "The Center on Government Secrecy ( CGS) was created in August 2007 as a non-partisan academic center devoted to the study of government openness and secrecy. Established under the auspices of the Program on Law and Government in the Washington College of Law ("WCL"), at American University in Washington, D.C., it stands as the first such center of its kind at any law school in the United States. It operates in conjunction with both the JD and LLM/SJD degree programs at WCL and is designed to afford law students interested in this area of legal specialization the opportunity to gain both scholarly and practical experience, including in the growing field of international transparency. CGS is headed by former Department of Justice Office of Information and Privacy Director Daniel J. Metcalfe, who is a Faculty Fellow in Law and Government at WCL and also serves as CGS's executive director." Federation of American Scientists Posts 60 Year Archive of Public Interest Reports "The Federation of American Scientists posts its unique 60 year archive of public interest reports on science in the public interest, nuclear weapons and energy policy, biological and chemical warfare, government secrecy, military policy...Reports online range from 1946 to 2005. A year-by-year pull down menu is available here." [Michael Ravnitzky, Steven Aftergood] Nixon Tapes and Transcripts Now Available Online "Between 1971 and 1973, President Richard Nixon secretly recorded 3,700 hours of his phone calls and meetings. These recordings were made in the Oval Office (commonly designated by the abbreviation "OVAL"), his hideaway office in the Executive Office Building ("EOB"), the Cabinet Room ("CAB"), Camp David ("CDHW"), and on various White House telephones ("WHT"). Currently, approximately 2,100 hours of these tapes have been declassified, released, and are available to the public. However, neither the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) nor the Nixon Presidential Library has made official transcriptions. Instead, they have left this monumental task--a task that NARA once estimated took 100 hours of staff time to transcribe 1 hour of tape--to researchers. The purpose of this website is to make these transcripts available, side-by-side multiple audio formats, to members of the public who are not able to travel to the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland, or to the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California, to listen to and transcribe the conversations for themselves." EFF Report - RIAA v. The People: Four Years Later Press release: "In a report released [August 29, 2007]...the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) provides the only comprehensive look at the four-year litigation campaign waged by the RIAA against music fans. The report traces the RIAA campaign from its beginnings in 2003 against a handful of students at Princeton, Rensselaer Polytechnic, and Michigan Tech to the current spate of "pre-litigation settlement" letters being sent to universities nationwide." EFF Report - RIAA v the People: Four Years Later (25 pages, PDF) EFF website on Intellectual Property 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation "The National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation has been conducted about every five years since 1955. It provides information on the number of participants in fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching (observing, photographing, and feeding wildlife), and the amount of time and money spent on these activities. The Survey is one of the Nation's most important wildlife recreation databases. It is the only source of comprehensive information on participation and expenditures that is comparable on a state-by-state basis. It is used for estimating the economic impact of wildlife-related recreation for each state; for estimating the value of wildlife resources lost due to pollution or disease such as whirling disease in fish; for use in critical habitat analysis of threatened species; and for preparing environmental impact statements, budgets, and legislative proposals." 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, State Overview. July 2007. 32 pages, PDF. UN Conference on Building Blocks for Effective International Response to Climate Change Press release, 31 August 2007, Vienna: "A round of climate change talks under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concluded in Austria today with agreement on key elements for an effective international response to climate change." "A new United Nations Internet site, Gateway to the UN System's Work on Climate Change, that highlights the wide-ranging work of the various parts of the United Nations system on climate change has been launched. The new website makes it easier for Internet users to find information on climate change from across the United Nations system." Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group's Reports
Search beSpacific archives back to September 2002 at http://www.beSpacific.com Copyright ©2002-2007 BeSpacific® LLC. All Rights Reserved. BeSpacific® LLC, P.O. Box 3554, Silver Spring, Maryland 20918 |
