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By Sabrina I. Pacifici - bespacific@earthlink.net
Free weekday coverage on current issues
September 05, 2007
Headlines - Free Federal Court Opinions Website Now Searchable From 2004 to Present
- National Security Archive Announces Decisions in Two FOIA Cases
- Federal Highway Administration's Oversight of Structurally Deficient Bridges
- Archive Sues to Recover 5 Million Missing White House E-mails
- FTC Approves Issuance of Federal Register Notice Announcing Review of Mail Order Rule
- DHS OIG Audit of Exchanging Contract Information with Army Corps of Engineers
- White House FOIA Handbook
- New GAO Reports and Congressional Testimonies Today
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 Free Federal Court Opinions Website Now Searchable From 2004 to Present : US Federal District Court Opinions with Full Text Search: "We have put online the Federal District Court case opinions and orders that are available using the opinion report in the Federal Courts' ECF. These are updated daily. We have categorized the opinions by state, court, type of lawsuit and judge and combinations of judge and type of lawsuit. You can also subscribe to each of categories through RSS feeds to track a judge or court's decisions on different issues. And we also give the cause of action for each case. We are using Google's hosted Business Custom Search Engine for the full text search. Google is now OCRing PDF image files, so even PDF files that have images of scanned documents will be in most cases full text indexable and searchable. Like the OCR of Google's Book Search. You will need to look at the cached copy to see the highlighted searched text though, and then find in the original PDF to be 100% that what you are reading is correct. Google should be doing a pretty good job of indexing and ocring these court decisions, although it may take a few days for a new document to show up in the index. We have also noted on the federal district court case filing database when we have a judge's opinion (you will see a little gavel. The case filings are at here." National Security Archive Announces Decisions in Two FOIA Cases Court Permits CIA to Withhold Historic President's Daily Briefs, But Denies Categorical Exemption for PDBs: "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week held that the disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act of two Presidential Daily Briefs written for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s could "reveal protected intelligence sources and methods." The Court rejected, however, the Central Intelligence Agency's "attempt to create a per se status exemption for PDBs." Court Rejects Wiretapping Secrecy Claims, Orders New Index of Documents and More Detailed Reasons for Withholding: "The United States District Court for the District of Columbia today largely rejected the government's attempt to withhold without explanation all records concerning its warrantless wiretapping surveillance program. In a Freedom of Information Act law suit brought by the National Security Archive, along with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, the Court rejected the summary explanations and declarations of the government." Federal Highway Administration's Oversight of Structurally Deficient Bridges "The Inspector General testified on September 5, 2007, before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The Inspector General's statement highlighted bridge safety and funding as Federal Highway Administration's Oversight of Structurally Deficient Bridges. Date: September 5, 2007. Project ID: CC-2007-095. Summary: "The Inspector General testified on September 5, 2007, before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The Inspector General's statement highlighted bridge safety and funding as significant issues for the Department of Transportation, discussed previous work regarding structurally deficient bridges in the United States, and made observations on the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) actions to address prior OIG recommendations regarding improving its oversight of such bridges. The Inspector General called on FHWA to develop a data-driven, risk-based approach to bridge oversight to better identify and target those structurally deficient bridges most in need of attention. Additionally, the Inspection General described actions that can be taken immediately to strengthen the FHWA's oversight." Previous postings on national bridge safety issues Archive Sues to Recover 5 Million Missing White House E-mails Follow up to previous postings on missing White House e-mails and violations of the Presidential Records Act, this press release: "The National Security Archive today sued the White House seeking the recovery and preservation of more than 5 million White House e-mail messages that were apparently deleted from White House computers between March 2003 and October 2005. The lawsuit filed this morning in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia names as defendants the Executive Office of the President and its components that are subject to the Federal Records Act, including the White House Office of Administration (OA), and the National Archives and Records Administration (which is responsible for long-term preservation of federal and presidential records), under the records laws and the Administrative Procedure Act." FTC Approves Issuance of Federal Register Notice Announcing Review of Mail Order Rule Press release: "The Commission has approved the issuance of a Federal Register notice announcing the start of its decennial review of the FTC's Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, 16 CFR Part 435 (Mail Order Rule). As detailed in the notice, the Commission is seeking comment on whether to retain the Rule. To guide discussion of this issue, the Commission is seeking information on the Rule's costs and benefits. Assuming, based on the public response to the notice, the Commission decides to retain the Rule, it also seeks to determine whether it should make three changes to the Rule in response to changes in technology and marketing practices that have occurred since the Rule was last updated in 1993." Text of the Federal Register Notice: 16 CFR Part 435 - Mail Or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule: Request For Public Comment On the Overall Costs, Benefits, and Regulatory and Economic Impact of the Rule. DHS OIG Audit of Exchanging Contract Information with Army Corps of Engineers Exchanging Contract Information with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, OIG-07-65 (PDF, 4 pages). White House FOIA Handbook Follow up to September 3, 2007 posting White House Website States Executive Office of President Not Subject to FOIA, White House FOIA Handbook: "The Office of Administration, 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. This handbook is intended to assist you in making a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Office of Administration (OA), Executive Office of the President (EOP). For further details please refer to the OA FOIA Regulations which can be found at 5 CFR §2502. These regulations are currently being updated." New GAO Reports and Congressional Testimonies Today Defense Business Transformation: Achieving Success Requires a Chief Management Officer to Provide Focus and Sustained Leadership, GAO-07-1072, September 5, 2007, Full Report (PDF, 36 pages) National Flood Insurance Program: FEMA's Management and Oversight of Payments for Insurance Company Services Should Be Improved, GAO-07-1078, September 5, 2007, Full Report (PDF, 52 pages) No Child Left Behind Act: Education Should Clarify Guidance and Address Potential Compliance Issues for Schools in Corrective Action and Restructuring Status, GAO-07-1035, September 5, 2007, Full Report (PDF, 57 pages) Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks GAO-07-1222T, September 5, 2007, Full Report (PDF, 14 pages) Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks GAO-07-1221T, September 5, 2007, Full Report (PDF, 14 pages) Special Operations Forces: Management Actions Are Needed to Effectively Integrate Marine Corps Forces into the U.S. Special Operations Command, GAO-07-1030, September 5, 2007, Full Report (PDF, 43 pages) World Trade Center: EPA's Most Recent Test and Clean Program Raises Concerns That Need to Be Addressed to Better Prepare for Indoor Contamination Following Disasters, GAO-07-1091, September 5, 2007, Full Report (PDF, 79 pages)
Testimonies: Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks, by David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, before the House Committee on Armed Services. GAO-07-1221T, September 5, 2007 Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks, by David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. GAO-07-1222T, September 5, 2007
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