Part-Time Policy Wonk

From the Seattle Times:

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

Posted by Anne at 06:33 PM | Permalink

About the Fact Checker:

The purpose of this website, and an accompanying column in the Post, is to "truth squad" the national political debate in the period leading up to the 2008 presidential election. Our goal is to shed as much light as possible on controversial claims and counter-claims involving important national issues, such as the war in Iraq, immigration, health care, social issues, the economy, and the records of the various presidential candidates. When we come across a statement or claim that is at variance with the facts, as best we can establish them, we will point that out.

We see fact checking as a collaborative, rather than a competitive, effort. News organizations, including the Washington Post, routinely fact check the claims of political candidates. Fact check Web sites have been established by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, www.factcheck.org, and the St. Petersburg Times, www.politifact.com. We will draw on the expertise of these organizations, and report on their most significant findings. But we differ from them in one important respect: the success of this project depends, to a great extent, on the involvement of you, the reader.

Posted by Anne at 05:45 PM | Permalink

From the New Jersey Star-Ledger:

In the annals of New Jersey legislative history, Harry Runyon stands alone. Literally.

As voters in 1920 elected the first women and African-American lawmakers to the Assembly, Runyon was the only Democrat in the 60-seat house. Runyon, a World War I veteran from Belvidere, became a one-man political caucus. There have been none smaller.

Until now, however, Runyon's story has been relegated to the dustbins of history. In fact, there's no single book or other source that has information about all 5,405 lawmakers who have served in New Jersey since 1776.
Peter Mazzei wants to change that.

Mazzei, manager of the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services Library, is meticulously compiling a database on every lawmaker in state history. His goal: an online site filled with photos, obituaries, statistics and trivia. For those who prefer print, he wants to put it all in a book.

Posted by Anne at 05:43 PM | Permalink

From the Guardian Unlimited:

The public's free access to many of the most important original documents in world literature held at the British Library is under threat because of funding cuts.

In an article in The Observer, the chief executive of the world-renowned institution today urges the government to protect the centuries-old resource - 'the mind and memory of the nation'. In a strongly worded public plea to make the preservation of standards at the library a priority in the expected round of spending cuts, Lynne Brindley warns that Britain will soon be left without a resource that it has come to take for granted.

Posted by Anne at 05:41 PM | Permalink

From the Center for Democracy & Technology:

Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John Sununu (R-NH) have introduced a bill to reform National Security Letters -- demands issued by FBI agents without a judge's approval to compel disclosure of financial, telephone, Internet and other records. Under the proposed NSL Reform Act, the FBI could still use an NSL to obtain less sensitive information such as a person's name, address and account identifying information, but more sensitive information such as financial details or logs of the e-mail addresses would require a different process, such as a court order or a subpoena. CDT welcomed the measure as a response to some of the more egregious problems with NSLs that were identified in an Inspector General's report issued in March 2007.

Posted by Anne at 05:40 PM | Permalink

From Government Technology:

Winners of the European eGovernment Awards were announced today at the Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Lisbon. The city of Amsterdam from The Netherlands, the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform of Norway, the city of Besancon from France and the portal of the Federal Government of Germany each picked up one of the prestigious awards celebrating Europe's most innovative public services. The prize for the "most inspiring good practice" went to the State Police of Italy as a result of a public vote.

Posted by Anne at 07:53 PM | Permalink

From the OpenCongress blog:

In a major victory for all, President Bush today quietly signed into law S.1, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. While this bill is by no means a cure-all for the corruption and secrecy that has plagued Congress in recent years, It is a huge first step in the right direction.

Posted by Anne at 07:46 PM | Permalink

From the Seattle Times:

Senate officials have confirmed that a Republican senator is secretly blocking a bill that would reverse President Bush's 2001 executive order allowing former presidents to seal their records indefinitely. . .

. . . The House approved a bill to overturn the Bush order in March, on a 333-93 vote, far more than the two-thirds needed to override a veto. The Senate Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., agreed in June to a vote, and backers expected a floor vote before the August recess.

Suspicion for the hold initially focused on three senators: Ted Stevens of Alaska, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and George Voinovich of Ohio.

Aides to Stevens and Voinovich said Wednesday that their bosses are not blocking the bill. Coburn aides didn't respond.

Posted by Anne at 07:39 PM | Permalink

International Right to Know Day was established to mark the founding on 28 September 2002 of the global Freedom of Information Advocates Network. It was first celebrated on 28 September 2003, and 2007 will see the 5th International Right to Know Day.

The aim of Right to Know Day is to raise awareness of every individual’s right of access to government-held information: the right to know how elected officials are exercising power and how the tax-payers’ money is being spent.

Posted by Anne at 07:38 PM | Permalink

From ALA's District Dispatch:

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor will soon be considering reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In order for the SKILLs Act to be included in NCLB – that is, to place a state-certified school library media specialist in every school – each member of the House must co-sponsor the SKILLS Act.

The House has postponed mark-up for sometime in October and there is still time to call your Representative. The name of your Representative must appear on this bill! If your Representative’s name does not appear as a co-sponsor, please call his/her office immediately and request that he/she support the SKILLs Act. If your Representative’s name DOES appear on this bill, contact his/her office and thank him/her for the continued support of school libraries and school library media specialists.

Look for more information, a list of sponsors, and a flier you can post in your library about the SKILLS Act, all at the ALA Legislative Action Center.

Please contact your Representative immediately and ask him/her to co-sponsor the SKILLs Act

Posted by Anne at 07:35 PM | Permalink

From Wired:

International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years.

Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed for the trip.

More from the Washington Post: Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented

Posted by Anne at 07:34 PM | Permalink

From iHealthBeat:

Congress last week approved legislation (HR 3580) that aims to provide the public with better and quicker access to data on drug safety and drug development, Technology Daily reports. . . . . . The compromise legislation calls for FDA Web sites to make more drug reviews publicly available and would create a public, online registry of clinical drug trials and their results. The information is aimed at helping patients, providers and researchers make better health care decisions, Technology Daily reports.

Posted by Anne at 07:32 PM | Permalink

New from the Sunlight Foundation:

Here's your chance to investigate earmarks–those spending measures inserted by members of Congress into bills that direct taxpayer dollars to their pet projects. Are members using earmarks to meet pressing needs? Reward political supporters? Are they good public policy, or vehicles for pure pork? Every earmark is different, and we currently have over 3,000 of them online, ready and waiting for you to dig into.

Posted by Anne at 07:30 PM | Permalink

The Sunshine in Government Initiative has introduced a new database of news articles and stories that are based on documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests:

Countless media outlets, government watchdog groups and individual Americans have used the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain important information on how -- and how well -- their government operates, knowledge that is crucial to a well-functioning democracy.

SGI has collected hundreds of these stories in The FOIA Files.

Posted by Anne at 07:49 PM | Permalink

From OpenCongress:

We are really excited to be releasing our latest widget today. Our new "Congress, I'm Watching" widget lets you announce which bills in Congress you support or oppose, while also sharing links to clear, up-to-date information that encourages others to get involved the legislation themselves.

Any blog, membership group, or other organization can customize the "Congress, I'm Watching" widget to tell their readers -- and Congress -- which bills they want to see passed and which bills they don't. As with all our widgets, it's free, customizable to fit the look of your site, easy to integrate (just copy/paste a small chunk of html into your site), and can be set up in a manner of minutes.

Posted by Anne at 07:47 PM | Permalink

From the Sunshine Week blog:

The National Freedom of Information Coalition has released a study of the various ways states resolve access to information disputes without litigation. The report,"Mediation Without Litigation," reviews state models such as formal and informal resolutions, and mediation by attorneys general or government-sponsored entities.

Posted by Anne at 07:46 PM | Permalink

From the Federal Register:

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is proposing to revise its regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The proposed revisions update the regulations for access and release of information under the FOIA among NARA's archival holdings and NARA's own operational records.

DATES: Comments are due by November 13, 2007.

Posted by Anne at 07:45 PM | Permalink

From the DOJ:

In the past, although not required to do so under the FOIA, the Office of Information and Privacy (OIP) compiled summaries of the information contained in agency annual FOIA reports and made them publicly available. OIP is now resuming that practice starting with the annual FOIA reports for Fiscal Year 2006. Set forth below is a summary compilation of the information contained in the annual FOIA reports prepared by the fifteen federal departments and seventy-seven other federal agencies for Fiscal Year 2006.

Posted by Anne at 07:43 PM | Permalink

Global E-Government, 2007:

In this report, I present the seventh annual update on global e-government. Using an analysis of 1,687 government websites in 198 different nations undertaken during Summer, 2007, I investigate electronic government. Among the significant findings of the research are: 1) 28 percent of government websites offer services that are fully executable online, about the same as last year. 2) 96 percent of websites this year provide access to publications and 80 percent have links to databases. 3) 29 percent (up from 26 percent in 2006) show privacy policies, while 21 percent have security policies (up from 14 percent in 2006). 4) 23 percent of government websites have some form of disability access, meaning access for persons with disabilities, the same as last year. 5) Countries vary enormously in their overall e-government performance based on our analysis. The most highly ranked nations include South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Portugal, Australia, Turkey, and Germany.

Posted by Anne at 07:34 PM | Permalink

From ALA's District Dispatch:

As the U.S. Senate considers Appropriations measures this fall for fiscal year (FY) 2008, please take a moment to remind your Senators of your strong support for public access to publicly funded research and, specifically, ensuring the success of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy by making deposit mandatory for researchers.

Please fax a letter expressing your support to your Senator no later than Friday, September 28, 2007. Use the Legislative Action Center to get your Senator's contact information, as well as to send emails and faxes to Congress.

Posted by Anne at 07:31 PM | Permalink

From the Sunlight Foundation:

It looks like C-SPAN is now publishing a new index of its House and Senate floor proceedings -- The C-SPAN Congressional Chronicle. According to them the video recordings are matched with the text of the Congressional Record as soon as the Record is available. It only includes members who appeared on the floor to deliver or insert their remarks. The text included is what the member submitted. Each appearance has a video link where users can watch and listen to the actual statements.

Posted by Anne at 07:30 PM | Permalink

From the Salinas Californian:

The latest drive to strengthen the state's public records law has slipped off the main track and may be stalled for the year.

Assembly Bill 1393 would require state agencies to post information on their Web sites about how to request public records and to include a form to submit.

But the bill was stripped of enforcement provisions related to local governments in the Senate Appropriations Committee - and now the author fears that version of the bill may not even get a final Senate vote.

Posted by Anne at 07:28 PM | Permalink

TradeAgreements.gov is an interagency effort by the United States Government to provide the public with the latest information on America's trade agreements. A joint effort between the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, State, Treasury and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, this site will be regularly updated with news about existing agreements, as well as pending free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Posted by Anne at 07:26 PM | Permalink

Fair Use in the U.S. Economy - Economic Contribution of Industries Relying on Fair Use, September 2007 (45 pages, PDF)

Numerous studies have promoted the first half of the copyright equation – the value of copyrighted works, sometimes referred to as the “Copyright Economy” – but have overlooked the second part: the value that the U.S. economy derives from the limits that the Constitution, Congress, and the courts have placed on the rights of copyright holders like ourselves. This study seeks to ascertain the extent of this “Fair Use Economy.”

Posted by Anne at 07:25 PM | Permalink

From the Contra Costa Times:

The 2007-08 state budget is bad news for public libraries. Two major library programs suffered significant cuts, apparently in an effort to accomplish a budget with zero deficit. In Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's words: "I am deleting the discretionary $1 million legislative augmentation to the Public Library Foundation. ... In addition, I am deleting $7 million in order to further build a prudent reserve in light of the various uncertainties in revenues and spending that we face this year."

Posted by Anne at 07:23 PM | Permalink

From the Guardian:

In 2004, the government became so concerned about releasing nuclear secrets that the commission removed more than 1,740 documents from its public archive - even some that apparently involved basic safety violations at the company, which operates a 65-acre gated complex in tiny Erwin, about 120 miles north of Knoxville.

Congressmen and environmental groups have criticized the policy, and now the commission staff is drafting recommendations that may ease its restrictions.

Posted by Anne at 07:21 PM | Permalink

Federal Judiciary Press Release:

The federal Judiciary is seeking comment on the privacy and security implications related to public Internet access to certain documents in criminal case files.

The Court Administration and Case Management Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States is studying these issues so the Conference can develop policy guidance for the federal courts.

The committee is interested in comments on a proposal to restrict public Internet access to plea agreements in criminal cases, which may contain information identifying defendants who are cooperating with law enforcement investigations.

Comments are due by October 26, 2007

Posted by Anne at 05:40 PM | Permalink

From Open CRS (August 29, 2007):

The relationship between Congress and the Internet is complex and multifaceted. Today, scores of technology measures are introduced in the House and Senate, influencing the work of nearly all congressional committees and Members and spawning the growth of a new array of interest groups. The Internet's influence is evident within and between the chambers of Congress. Despite widespread discussion about how the Internet will revolutionize legislative politics and policymaking, Congress usually reacts cautiously to the use of new technologies. This report explores how new technologies are introduced to Congress; discusses the impact of the Internet on two key centers of institutional power -- committees and political parties -- and provides a number of summary observations about the internet and congressional governance. This report will be updated only if warranted by new developments.

Posted by Anne at 07:52 PM | Permalink

From the Washington Post:

. . . But party censors are now turning to China's booming Internet and cellphone networks with particular vigor. Given the easy access to technologies such as text messaging, censors have found it difficult to keep a grip on information.

Posted by Anne at 07:51 PM | Permalink

From the Washington Post:

In the wake of last year's controversy over the Alaskan "bridge to nowhere" and other notorious legislated programs, Democrats in Congress have made "earmark" into an epithet -- the E-word that they are reluctant to say aloud. But the taboo has not stopped either Democrats or Republicans from continuing to seek these expenditures while calling them something else.

Members of Congress are now resorting to less obvious tactics that allow them to get money to favored beneficiaries without acknowledging support for what others consider to be earmarks.

Posted by Anne at 07:50 PM | Permalink

From the FOIA Blog:

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided a case that sets standards that are much more pro-disclosure than similar decision of some of the other Courts of Appeals. This case revolves around Jesse Trentadue's attempt to get certain documents submitted by the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General ("OIG") concerning an investigation of the OIG by the Integrity Committee, a subdivision of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency.

Posted by Anne at 07:49 PM | Permalink

From NARA:

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is seeking public comment on its draft Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016. This draft plan outlines our planned strategies to digitize and make more accessible the historic holdings from the National Archives of the United States.

Posted by Anne at 07:47 PM | Permalink

FEC Press Release:

The Federal Election Commission announced today that it has unanimously resolved two complaints alleging that Internet blog activity is subject to Commission regulation, finding that the activity is exempt from regulation under the media or volunteer exemption.

Posted by Anne at 05:15 PM | Permalink

MIT Presentation:

Moderator William Uricchio sets the scene for panelists’ discussion of current copyright wars with a brief historical overview of copyright protection. In 1790, when news traveled by horse and carriage, copyright protection was good for 14 years. Today, when a digital, networked society enables instant transmission of data, protection lasts 70-plus years. Uricchio notes, “Bizarrely, the faster information circulates, the longer we’re extending copyright protection. It seems totally at odds with where our constitution framers and case law emerged from.”

Posted by Anne at 05:10 PM | Permalink

From the BBC:

The US Justice Department has said that internet service providers should be allowed to charge for priority traffic.

The agency said it was opposed to "network neutrality", the idea that all data on the net is treated equally.

The comments put the agency at odds with companies such as Microsoft and Google, who have called for legislation to guarantee equal access to the net.

The agency submitted its comments to the Federal Communications Commission, which is investigating net access.

Posted by Anne at 05:08 PM | Permalink

From the Star Tribune:

Investors owe publisher John Gavin thanks. His long legal battle with the SEC has made it more responsive to the public.

At first glance, it appears that the Securities and Exchange Commission defeated the nearly three-year lawsuit brought by John Gavin's tiny SEC Insight Inc., a research firm in Plymouth that routinely seeks information in SEC files through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Posted by Anne at 05:01 PM | Permalink

From the New York Times:

A federal judge yesterday struck down the parts of the recently revised USA Patriot Act that authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use informal secret demands called national security letters to compel companies to provide customer records.

The law allowed the F.B.I. not only to force communications companies, including telephone and Internet providers, to turn over the records without court authorization, but also to forbid the companies to tell the customers or anyone else what they had done. Under the law, enacted last year, the ability of the courts to review challenges to the ban on disclosures was quite limited.

Posted by Anne at 04:58 PM | Permalink

From the National Security Archive:

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.

Posted by Anne at 08:13 PM | Permalink

From the National Security Archive:

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.”

Posted by Anne at 08:12 PM | Permalink

From the Law Librarian Blog:

The American Constitution Society is making available online Kinkopf's Index of Presidential Signing Statements: 2001-2007 (pdf). The compiler, Neil Kinkopf, associate professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law and former special assistant in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, provides a comprehensive list of every provision of a law objected to by the White House in a signing statement, the reason for the objection, and a link to the relevant signing statement. The Index is a companion piece to an issue brief written by Professor Kinkopf, Signing Statements and the President's Authority to Refuse to Enforce the Law, that analyzes whether and when the President may refuse to enforce a law that the President regards as unconstitutional.

Posted by Anne at 08:09 PM | Permalink

From the Sunshine Week blog:

Access Info, a Spain-based organization dedicated to promoting and protecting access to information worldwide, is asking groups and individuals to sign on to a letter urging European officials to ensure official records remain open.

The letter to the Council of Europe focuses on gaps in what Access Info describes as "the world's first treaty to guarantee the right of access to information," the European Convention on Access to Official Documents.
For more information about the treaty and to sign on to the letter, visit the Access Info Web site.

View the current version of the letter (updated daily).

Posted by Anne at 08:06 PM | Permalink

From the Mercury News:

The Homeland Security Department scrapped an ambitious anti-terrorism data-mining tool after investigators found it was tested with information about real people without required privacy safeguards.

The department has spent $42 million since 2003 developing the software tool known as ADVISE, the Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement program, at the Lawrence Livermore and Pacific Northwest national laboratories. It was intended for wide use by DHS components, including immigration, customs, border protection, biological defense and its intelligence office.

Pilot tests of the program were quietly suspended in March after Congress' Government Accountability Office warned that "the ADVISE tool could misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism."

Since then, Homeland Security's inspector general and the DHS privacy office discovered that tests used live data about real people rather than made-up data for one to two years without meeting privacy requirements. The inspector general also said ADVISE was poorly planned, time-consuming for analysts to use and lacked adequate justifications.

Posted by Anne at 08:05 PM | Permalink

From the National Security Archive:

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.

Posted by Anne at 07:40 PM | Permalink

From the DOJ OIP's FOIA Post:

OIP is pleased to announce the launch of a new feature for FOIA Post readers -- summaries of new court decisions.

Each year the federal courts issue hundreds of decisions in FOIA cases, addressing all aspects of the law. These decisions shape the way the law is interpreted and applied by the many attorneys and access professionals across the government who handle FOIA requests, administrative appeals, and litigation. To aid those professionals, and to facilitate greater understanding of the FOIA overall, OIP will begin publishing summaries of FOIA decisions on a regular basis.

Posted by Anne at 07:39 PM | Permalink

From ALA's District Dispatch:

This past summer, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) moved its reading room to their new facility. This was after there was some concern that it would be closed. The reading room contains many valuable resources used by public safety groups, journalists, lawyers, and corporations, among others.

In earlier meetings with NHTSA, ALA learned that several important databases containing historical information have been removed from the Reading Room since last year and may be permanently removed from public access. We have recently learned that these resources remain missing and that the new reading room presents additional concerns-- it is very difficult to access for several logistical reasons; the microfiche machine is inoperable; and groups still fear the reading room could still be shut down.

Please see the attached letter from Safety Research & Strategies, Inc. for details on concerns with the new reading room.

Posted by Anne at 07:38 PM | Permalink

From the San Francisco Examiner:

Orchestra conductors, movie distributors and others who rely on works of art and music in the public domain will get another chance to challenge an act of Congress that extended some copyright protections.

A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court's dismissal of a challenge to an act that extended copyright protections by 20 years, meaning music would be copyrighted for 70 years after an artist's death. But the court also revived a challenge of another act extending that protection to foreign works, some of which were in the public domain.

Posted by Anne at 07:37 PM | Permalink

From Ars Technica:

Earlier this month, the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed a complaint with the FTC alleging that professional sports leagues, Hollywood studios, and book publishers were all using copyright notices that misrepresented the law. Now, the group has launched a web site called Defend Fair Use that shows they are serious about making the complaint stick.

Posted by Anne at 08:21 PM | Permalink

From Capital Eye:

For some lobbyists on Washington's K Street, the notion that time is money doesn't necessarily apply to timely disclosure of their work. Whether they're still trying to learn how to electronically file their required disclosure reports or define what constitutes lobbying activity, lobby shops big and small are sometimes guilty of being slow to report publicly when they have signed a new client—at times taking more than three years after the deadline to register them with the federal government.

Posted by Anne at 08:20 PM | Permalink