Part-Time Policy Wonk

From OMBWatch:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced May 21 that it is eliminating the only program that tracks pesticide use in the United States. The USDA claimed it can no longer afford the program, known as the Agricultural Chemical Usage Reports. Consumers, environmental organizations, scientists, and farmers oppose the move.

The Agricultural Chemical Usage Reports, collected by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), are the only publicly available data on pesticide use in the country. Since at least 1991, NASS has produced the detailed annual report widely used for scientific, consumer, and business research. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local governments have also depended on this information in developing chemical risk assessments and pesticide use policies.

The USDA announcement marks the final blow to a program that has been steadily eroded over the last few years.

Posted by Anne at 08:27 PM | Permalink

FEC Press Release:

The Federal Election Commission (FEC/the Commission) has introduced a new and improved version of its Presidential Campaign Finance map. Available on the FEC web site, the map now includes detailed information on each candidate’s campaign expenditures. It also provides a number of enhanced viewing and searching options for information about campaign contributors. The upgraded map is an easy-to-use online tool for obtaining detailed information about the Presidential campaigns and how they spend their money, including the payee name, purpose, date and amount of each campaign expenditure. These improved features were included on similar maps for U.S. House and Senate campaigns that were added to the FEC web site late last year.

Posted by Anne at 08:25 PM | Permalink

Robert Horton’s presentation at the Library of Congress on April 24, 2008 is now availble online. The presentation runs 50 minutes. From the Library of Congress:

Robert Horton, director of Library, Publication and Collections at the Minnesota Historical Society, discussed “A Model Technological and Social Architecture for the Preservation of State Government Digital Information.”

This NDIIPP-supported project is working with legislatures in several states to explore enhanced access to a variety of legislative digital records. Technology does not really make any of this easy, but it does make it possible, as appropriate within the disparate legal, administrative and financial contexts of the collaborating states. The project will identify the differences and emphasize the commonalities, so that other states can determine how to adapt the model for their own use.

Posted by Anne at 08:24 PM | Permalink

From InfoWorld:

A group of Belgian newspaper publishers wants Google to pay up to €49.2 million ($77.5 million) in damages for violating copyright law by publishing their articles on Google News and caching their Web pages.

Posted by Anne at 08:23 PM | Permalink

From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

The NDP [New Democratic Party of Canada] has followed through with its promise to introduce legislation to the House of Commons that seeks to keep the internet open and free from control by service providers. . .

. . . The private member's bill, C-552, is in reaction to moves by some of Canada's largest internet service providers (ISPs), including Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., to limit their customers' uses of the internet. Bell, Rogers and a few others say a small percentage of customers have been congesting their networks by using peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, so they have slowed the internet down at peak times of the day.

Posted by Anne at 08:22 PM | Permalink

From the Associated Press:

A federal judge refused to rush the release of Hillary Rodham Clinton's phone records from her days as first lady and, in doing so Tuesday, offered a conservative watchdog group a manners lesson straight from the playground. . .

. . . Robertson said the librarians were doing their job diligently and there was no evidence that the National Archives, which runs presidential libraries, was stalling the request.

Posted by Anne at 08:39 PM | Permalink

From Government Executive Magazine:

A bill mandating the creation of a federal contractor misconduct database is one step closer to becoming law, but a lack of support in the Senate has forced Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., its primary sponsor, to limit access only to government officials.

Last month, the House passed a database bill, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., with no such restrictions.

A McCaskill aide, speaking on background, confirmed that senators on the Armed Services and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees -- both in the majority and minority -- would not support the bill if the database were open to the general public. A stand-alone McCaskill bill, mirroring the House legislation, has stalled in Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel.

Posted by Anne at 08:38 PM | Permalink

From Information World Review:

MPs are demanding a UK government assurance that supplier Lockheed Martin's involvement in providing systems for the 2011 Census will not risk US seizure of information under its Patriot Act.

US-based Lockheed Martin is one of the bidders for systems to support the 2011 Census.

Posted by Anne at 08:37 PM | Permalink

From the DOJ:

In the wake of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, which amended the reporting requirements for agency Annual FOIA Reports, the Department of Justice, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, has revised both the content and the format of the Report and its corresponding guidelines. The revised guidelines, posted today, reflect the new statutory mandate. They also include new reporting requirements, including data on agency backlogs, which are an extension of the goals set forth in Executive Order 13,392, and are in furtherance of best practices in FOIA administration. The guidance also clarifies existing reporting requirements and further defines the type of requests to include in the Annual FOIA Report.

2008 Guidelines for Agency Preparation of Annual FOIA Reports

Posted by Anne at 08:36 PM | Permalink

From the Mercury News:

Wireless Internet service provider MetroFi, the company providing much-touted citywide service, is logging out of the business. The Mountain View-based company said it's discontinuing its free WiFi service because the business model of online advertising as its primary income has not worked out financially.

Posted by Anne at 08:35 PM | Permalink

From the Boston Globe:

A Maine public relations firm has been tapped to assist a grassroots effort aimed at stopping George W. Bush's presidential library, museum and think tank from being built at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

The Rev. Andrew Weaver, an SMU graduate from New York, says P&S Associates of Maine LLC has been hired to design ads and to coordinate the effort.

Posted by Anne at 09:08 PM | Permalink

From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

Ordered by Congress to re-open its shuttered libraries, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is grudgingly allocating only minimal space and resources, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is issuing a series of edicts placing virtually every aspect of library operations under centralized control of a political appointee.

Read EPA memo allocating limited space to “restored” libraries

See edict on the new centralized library authority

Peruse detailed rules on how librarians are supposed to respond to requests

Posted by Anne at 09:07 PM | Permalink

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

The latest Republican proposal to amend foreign intelligence surveillance law was announced yesterday by Senator Kit Bond , and included a purported "compromise" on the issue of whether telephone companies that illegally assisted in the government's warrantless wiretapping program should be granted immunity from lawsuits such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) lawsuit against AT&T.

"The purported immunity 'compromise' announced on Thursday by Senator Bond is a pure sham that's even worse than the original immunity provision passed by the Senate," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "The stacked-deck immunity determination to be made by the court apparently still doesn't include any meaningful review of the telecoms' conduct or the legality of their cooperation with the NSA, simply a review of whether the companies got a piece of paper saying that the president authorized the surveillance. And the deck would be stacked even more by the proposed transfer to the FISA court -- the most conservative and secretive federal court in the nation. Bottom line: it's still immunity, and this so-called compromise concedes nothing."

Posted by Anne at 09:07 PM | Permalink

From the Guardian:

First, some very good news. Civil servants revealed last week that the British government has begun work on a system to make all the geospatial data it holds on the natural environment available for free inspection and re-use. Now the bad news. In this context, "free" means we will still have to pay to download much key data, especially if it is to be published or otherwise used commercially.

Posted by Anne at 09:06 PM | Permalink

From Federal News Radio:

The "big scrape" of government web sites won't be happening this year. And watchers of government records collection are not happy.

The National Archives announced that they will not conduct an "open harvest" of federal agency web sites, as they did in 2000 and 2004. Each of those years, NARA "scraped" agency sites to record what those sites looked like and what information they contained at the end of a presidential term (the second Clinton and first Bush 43 terms). Now NARA is saying that they won't do such a chore in 2008.

NARA says they did the harvests with reluctance in 2000 and 2004, "because we had not yet issued records management guidance to federal agencies on managing their web records in accordance with the Federal Records Act." NARA says the January 2005 release of "Guidance on Managing Web Records" changed that. That document "addresses agencies' responsibilities for identifying, managing and scheduling web materials they identify as Federal records."

Posted by Anne at 09:05 PM | Permalink

From NARA:

Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein announced today the establishment of the "Controlled Unclassified Information Office" (CUIO) within the National Archives and Records Administration. Weinstein also announced that William J. Bosanko, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, will head up this newly-formed office.

The Office is being created in response to the Memorandum for the Heads of Departments and Agencies on the Designation and Sharing of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) issued by President Bush on May 9, 2008. The Presidential memorandum designated the National Archives as responsible for overseeing and managing the implementation of the CUI framework.

In creating the office, Professor Weinstein said, "I have provided Mr. Bosanko with a clear roadmap for the National Archives, as the executive agent and consistent with the President's direction, to ensure that only information which genuinely requires the protections afforded by the President's memorandum will be introduced into the CUI Framework."

Posted by Anne at 09:04 PM | Permalink

From the California Library Association:

Yesterday afternoon, the Senate Appropriations Committee met to consider its so-called "Suspense File." You may recall that the "suspense file" system is a process that has been implemented by the fiscal committees in each house, to allow the committees to annually prioritize each bill costing $150,000 or more (this year, $50,000). Several weeks ago, SB 1516 by Senator Simitian, was sent to the "suspense file" due to its significant costs. SB 1516 is sponsored by the California Library Association, and the measure seeks to place a $4 billion public library construction and renovation bond on the November 2010 ballot. Due to the state's dismal fiscal picture, we knew there would be a real possibility that the bond measure would be held in committee, despite its 2010 date. However, close to 2 p.m. today, the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to approve SB 1516-Simitian and send the measure on to the Senate Floor.

Posted by Anne at 09:03 PM | Permalink

From PublicKnowledge.org:

I never like to disagree with my friends in public; particularly friends like Larry Lessig, who I greatly admire and who, through his 24-7 work as the first populist copyright reformer, made the existence of organizations like Public Knowledge possible.

But it would be irresponsible of me not to respond to his op-ed on the pending orphan works legislation that appeared in today’s New York Times.

Posted by Anne at 08:39 PM | Permalink

From the Mercury News:

Cisco, Google and Yahoo vigorously defended their business operations in China, but skeptical senators and human rights advocates told the companies Tuesday they need to do more to protect user privacy and combat censorship around the world.

Posted by Anne at 08:38 PM | Permalink

From Yahoo! News:

Iranian authorities have blocked access to several websites and blogs of women's rights advocates and journalists critical of the government, a press report said on Tuesday.

The move follows a new directive sent out by a committee tasked with identifying illegal websites to Internet service providers, the reformist Etemad Melli newspaper said without giving a source.

Posted by Anne at 08:37 PM | Permalink

From Information World Review:

New government proposals for a database to store details of all phone and VoIP calls, emails and internet usage by UK citizens could force firms to look at their corporate communications policies more closely, according to experts.

The proposals are part of the draft Communications Data Bill which has yet to be fully released, and would extend the current requirement for telcos and service providers to store details of phone calls and text messages for 12 months.

Posted by Anne at 08:36 PM | Permalink

From Information World Review:

An Indian man is facing five years in jail for making an "offensive" comment after Google handed his personal data to local police.

Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid, a 22 year-old IT consultant, was arrested after posting derogatory comments on Google's Orkut social networking site.

Vaid was posting in a forum called 'I hate Soniya Gandhi' and was identified after the police asked Google to hand over his email address.

Posted by Anne at 08:32 PM | Permalink

From NARA:

Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein and Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com, today signed and announced a five-year agreement to digitize selected records from the vast holdings of the National Archives. The Generations Network’s Ancestry.com web site currently has the largest online collection of digitized and indexed National Archives content, including the complete U.S. Federal Census Collection, 1790-1930, passenger lists from 1820-1960 and WWI and WWII draft registration cards.

This agreement allows for the ongoing digitization of a wealth of historical content that will include birth, marriage, death, immigration and military service information. The new agreement will allow Ancestry.com (a division of The Generations Network) to place its technicians and scanning machines at the National Archives to digitize content for online access. Ancestry.com will make the digitized materials available via subscription. The Generations Network will provide free online access to the digitized materials in all National Archives research rooms nationwide. In addition, The Generations Network will donate to the National Archives a copy of all the digital images and technical and functional metadata that will enable retrieval of the material at the level of archival control.

Posted by Anne at 08:30 PM | Permalink

From the New York Times:

Congress is considering a major reform of copyright law intended to solve the problem of “orphan works” — those works whose owner cannot be found. This “reform” would be an amazingly onerous and inefficient change, which would unfairly and unnecessarily burden copyright holders with little return to the public.

Posted by Anne at 08:29 PM | Permalink

From the Center for Democracy & Technology:

The Congress and Administration should make global Internet freedom a top human rights and foreign policy priority, CDT said today in testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. The government should closely monitor and report on global Internet freedom and factor progress in this area into criteria for development assistance and conditions for trade agreements. CDT also called for greater cooperation between the U.S. government and the technology industry to better manage human rights risks associated with offering Internet services in repressive countries.

CDT Analysis of the Global Online Freedom Act of 2008 [H.R. 275]

Global Online Freedom Act of 2008 [H.R. 275]

Posted by Anne at 08:26 PM | Permalink

From the Dallas Morning News:

National Archivist Allen Weinstein, who oversees America's 12 presidential libraries, assured 2008 graduates of Southern Methodist University that the 13th will be an asset to their alma mater – despite being the greatest controversy during their time at the school.

Posted by Anne at 08:40 PM | Permalink

From the History News Network:

The president of the United States is often called the leader of the free world. It is no wonder that historians and political scientists consider the records related to presidential activities, policy, and decisionmaking so valuable for analyzing U.S. government policy at home and abroad. But over the last seven years there have been a series of moves by the current administration that may ensure that the records of the White House and the federal offices and agencies that work closely with the White House will not be available to historians.

The problem is twofold. First, the Bush administration does not value (or may even be hostile to) the preservation and disclosure of records. Second, we have seen advances in technology that have transformed the way in which we all communicate. The juxtaposition of these circumstances may mean that primary sources on the most important decisions and activities in the government may be lost, destroyed, or closed to the public.

Posted by Anne at 08:39 PM | Permalink

European Ombudsman Press Release:

The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has launched a consultation process within the European Network of Ombudsmen on access to information contained in databases. This follows a complaint from a Danish journalist about the refusal of the European Commission to disclose data on beneficiaries of EU agricultural subsidies. The Commission justified its refusal on grounds of confidentiality. Furthermore, it argued that the EU's rules on access to documents apply to databases only if the data can be easily retrieved.

The Ombudsman was not convinced by this approach. He therefore contacted his colleagues in the Member States to find out about "best practices" at the national level aiming to ensure maximum public access to databases. This consultation is particularly important given that this issue at stake forms part of the current debate on the reform of the EU's rules on access to documents.

Posted by Anne at 08:38 PM | Permalink

From the Mercury News:

EarthLink Inc. is pulling the plug on its troubled wireless high-speed Internet network in Philadelphia, once touted as a model for how big cities should deploy Wi-Fi.

The Atlanta-based Internet service provider said Tuesday that it could not find a buyer for the $17 million network and that talks to give it to either the city or a nonprofit organization had failed.

City officials have said it would cost taxpayers millions each year to operate the network.

Posted by Anne at 08:54 PM | Permalink

From the Center for Democracy & Technology:

Widespread errors in the use of National Security Letters requires legislative action, says a CDT paper released today. The documents are used by the FBI when seeking records containing sensitive personal information. Successive Inspector General reports have uncovered abuses and mistakes by the FBI in issuing the NSLs. The CDT Policy Post says that FBI self-policing doesn't work. CDT believes there should be a more exacting standard for issuing NSLs and that prior judicial authorization should be required when sensitive personal information is sought.

CDT Policy Post 14.5: National Security Letters May 14, 2008

Posted by Anne at 08:52 PM | Permalink

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Laura N. Gasaway, associate dean for academic affairs and a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, says that a lawsuit recently filed against Georgia State University regarding electronic reserves could have implications for how colleges distribute course material online. The suit, brought by three publishers — Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and SAGE Publications — alleges that Georgia State professors infringed publishers’ copyrights by “inviting students” to download, view, and print material from thousands of copyrighted works. Ms. Gasaway’s remarks assume the details of Georgia State’s practices, as described in the complaint, are accurate.

Posted by Anne at 08:50 PM | Permalink

From SLA:

On 15 May 2006, SLA wrote a letter to the Chairwomen and the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies urging support for a more fully funded Fiscal Year 2009 appropriation for the National Agriculture Library (NAL). The President’s proposed FY2009 Budget request of $18 million will significantly affect the NAL’s ability to maintain services at the current level, and is $4 million (18.8%) less than the 2008 budget and $6 million (25%) less than the 2007 budget. SLA states that the proposed reduction in funding will have a severe impact on the NAL. Read letter.

Posted by Anne at 08:48 PM | Permalink

GAO Report: Challenges in Implementing an Electronic Records Archive (GAO-08-738T)

Since 2001, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been working to develop a modern Electronic Records Archives (ERA) system, a major information system that is intended to preserve and provide access to massive volumes of all types and formats of electronic records. The system is being developed incrementally over several years; the first system increment is to provide an initial set of functions, with additional capabilities to be added in future increments. However, in 2007, NARA’s contractor acknowledged that it would not be able to meet the planned date for the initial operational capability of the first ERA increment. GAO was asked to provide information on the steps that NARA has taken to respond to the delays encountered in the development.

Posted by Anne at 08:46 PM | Permalink

From the National Security Archive:

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is overwhelmed and behind the curve, facing huge increases in both electronic records and classified records, according to Congressional testimony today by National Security Archive director Tom Blanton.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, chaired by Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), asked for the National Security Archive’s expert testimony for an oversight hearing on NARA under the title “Protecting Our Nation’s History for Future Generations.”

Posted by Anne at 08:44 PM | Permalink

From ResourceShelf:

The National Diet Library of Japan (NDL) has announced the publication of “Ensuring long-term preservation and usability of digital information” on its website. This page describes the needs to ensure long-term preservation and accessibility of digital information, including Internet resources and packaged digital publications such as CDs, DVDs and software.

Posted by Anne at 08:42 PM | Permalink

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The decision by a Sydney library to dump an exhibition about Palestinian refugees after a visit by counter-terrorism police the night before it opened has been criticised as an act of censorship.

Leichhardt municipal library was to launch the Al-Nakba pictorial exhibition last Friday. A local community group, Friends of Hebron, had developed the display of photos, poems and articles over eight months.

"We set up the exhibition at the library on Thursday night and the librarian … approved the exhibition, and said that it could be seen by children and other people who into the library," said Carole Lawson, a Friends of Hebron member.

But that night, shortly before the library closed at 8pm, officers from the police counter-terrorism operations arrived at the library.

Posted by Anne at 08:37 PM | Permalink

From Wired:

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is asking FBI head Robert Mueller to explain why the feds sought records from the Internet Archive, a digital library, using a controversial administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter, which is intended for a communications service providers.

Posted by Anne at 08:36 PM | Permalink

From the Electronic Frontier Froundation:

Orphan works legislation has returned to Congress, and the controversy surrounding the bill is just as heated as it was the last time around, in 2006. While a broad coalition of libraries, museums, independent filmmakers, public interest groups, and commercial arts organizations such as the RIAA and the MPAA back the bill, several prominent visual artists’ organizations have been rallying their members in opposition.

Posted by Anne at 08:34 PM | Permalink

From NARA:

This Strategy for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007-2016 builds from the NARA Strategic Plan (Preserving the Past to Protect the Future: The Strategic Plan of the National Archives and Records Administration, 2006-2016) in the area of strategies for expanding public access to our important historical holdings through digitization. We sought the input of our stakeholders and users last year on the draft digitizing strategy, and have incorporated it into this final document.

Posted by Anne at 08:33 PM | Permalink

From the Telegraph:

Today the High Court has delivered a damning verdict on the attempt by MPs to keep secret the details of their Additional Costs Allowance claims, which pay for their second homes.

I requested details of six MPs’ expenses in January 2005. Earlier this year, the Information Tribunal ruled that I should be given everything I asked for.

The House of Commons appealed, resulting in a one-day hearing estimated to have cost taxpayers at least £100,000. Ably represented by my legal representative, solicitor advocate Simon McKay, I argued my case as strongly as I could and I am delighted by today’s outcome.

Posted by Anne at 08:23 PM | Permalink

From LegiStorm:

LegiStorm has launched a new database of all foreign gifts (whether tangible gifts or travel) received by members of Congress and their staff in the past decade.

Our database covers from 1999 to the present. In that time, more than 450 gifts in all were reported having been received by congressmen and their aides by foreign governments. These gifts include tangible ones, such as a ceremonial sword, or travel, such as a ride in a military helicopter. Only gifts above what the law has determined to be "minimal value" is considered reportable. The Senate defines "minimal value" as $100, while the House and executive branch adjust the value by inflation. In 2008, the value for the House and executive branch was $335.

Posted by Anne at 08:36 PM | Permalink

From the New York Times:

. . . Times reporters use FOIA aggressively, and it has been central to two major stories in just the last three weeks — Bernstein’s and an article by David Barstow on April 20 about a Pentagon program to cozy up to military analysts on television and radio in hopes of generating favorable coverage of the administration’s war on terror. But it is increasingly difficult to pry records that should be open out of federal agencies. A study last year by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government found that FOIA requests were becoming more backlogged, waits for information were getting longer and agencies were saying “no” more often, using one of nine exemptions in the law for such considerations as national security or privacy. . .

Posted by Anne at 08:35 PM | Permalink

From Secrecy News:

The White House last week issued a long-awaited policy on “controlled unclassified information” (CUI) to provide a uniform government-wide system for safeguarding unclassified information that is deemed sensitive.

The CUI framework is supposed to replace the numerous individual agency control markings — “sensitive but unclassified,” “for official use only,” and over a hundred other designations — and thereby to overcome barriers to information sharing within the government.

But the new policy will do nothing to restore public access to government records that have been improperly withheld.

Posted by Anne at 08:33 PM | Permalink

From Open CRS:

Building upon a concept developed by the New York State Library and then the Wisconsin legislative reference department, Wisconsin's Senator Robert LaFollette and Representative John M. Nelson led an effort to direct the establishment of a special reference unit within the Library [of Congress] in 1914. Later known as the Legislative Reference Service, it was charged with responding to congressional requests for information. For more than 50 years, this department assisted Congress primarily by providing facts and publications and by transmitting research and analysis done largely by other government agencies, private organizations, and individual scholars. In 1970, Congress enacted a law transforming the Legislative Reference Service into the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and directing CRS to devote more of its efforts and increased resources to performing research and analysis that assists Congress in direct support of the legislative process. Joined today by two other congressional support agencies, including the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service offers research and analysis to Congress on all current and emerging issues of national policy. CRS analysts work exclusively for Congress, providing assistance in the form of reports, memoranda, customized briefings, seminars, videotaped presentations, information obtained from automated data bases, and consultations in person and by telephone. This work is governed by requirements for confidentiality, timeliness, accuracy, objectivity, balance, and nonpartisanship. This report will be updated as circumstances warrant.

Read the full report.

Posted by Anne at 08:31 PM | Permalink

Wednesday's Washington Post devoted the cover of its Style section and a full inside page to the National Security Archive, which the Post calls "the house that FOIA built and a mecca for document buffs."

For the full text, photos and graphics, see the article on washingtonpost.com.

Posted by Anne at 09:01 PM | Permalink

From WCSH Portland:

State prison officials have decided to allow a publisher of legal self-help books to distribute its materials in Massachusetts prisons.

The decision comes after mail-order publisher Prison Legal News sued Department of Correction Commissioner Harold Clarke. The Seattle-based publisher claimed Clarke was banning its publications in state prisons by refusing to add it to a list of approved vendors who can send books to prisoners.

Posted by Anne at 08:56 PM | Permalink

From NARA:

On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein submitted a report, entitled The Founders Online, to the Committees on Appropriations of the U.S. Congress. This report is the National Archives response to concerns raised by the Committees that the complete papers of America’s Founding Fathers are not available online. The Founders Online is a plan for providing online access, within a reasonable timeframe, to researchers, students and the general public. The report is available electronically at the National Archives website.

Posted by Anne at 08:55 PM | Permalink