The background information regarding U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor at our earlier posting has been updated to include her completed questionnaire which was delivered to the Committee of the Judiciary of the U.S. Senate on Thursday June 4, 2009. For those who have not seen it, that posting which…
Articles Posted in U.S. Federal Government Information
Cybersecurity: Reviews and Iniatives of the Obama Administration
Web based criminal justice issues cannot be addressed in a rational manner without also the establishment and ongoing maintenance of a trusted and resilient information and communications infrastructure. Realizing the paramount importance of these objectives the Obama administration has been engaging in a mumber related activities including President Obama’s recent…
Obama Delivers Critique Defending His Decision to Close Guantanamo
In Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Online News, Keith Perine writes: “…Obama, speaking with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as a backdrop, defended his order to close the detainee prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and outlined several tenets of his own counterterrorism strategy. The president tried…
FBI Releases Preliminary Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in 2008
In its preliminary statistics released on May 11, 2009 the FBI reports that 41 of our nation’s law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2008. All but five were killed with firearms. The number of officers feloniously killed was 17 fewer than in 2007. A…
Obama CIO Apointee: Obsolete Regulations Block Government Adoption of Social Media
The U.S. government’s CIO recently appointed by President Obama told Congress this week that obsolete regulations are blocking agencies from serving the people by participating in top Web sites and social media. Regulations governing the use of cookies and — ironically — disclosure laws are keeping government stuck in the…
AALL Washington E-Bulletin
Volume 2009, Issue 4 April 30, 2009 Published by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Government Relations Office Through its Washington E-Bulletin, the AALL Government Relations Office keeps the AALL membership abreast of governmnt policy news important to law libraries and law law librarians. True to form, the April…
Library of Congress Report: Information Technology Strategic Planning
Library of Congress Report: Information Technology Strategic Planning: A Well Developed Framework is Essential to Support the Library’s Current and Future Information Technology (IT) Needs The Library of Congress Office of the Inspector General. Library-Wide Report No. 2008-PA-105 March 2009. “The intent of this review was to access the effectiveness…
Brennan Center Report Grades Obama Administration on its Transparency Efforts
The Brennan Center at NYU Law School just released a report grading the Obama Administration on its transparency efforts.* There is a report card and a longer report at this link. http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/report_card_table _____________________________ * The above information is from an e-mail sent by Barbara Brandon of the University of Miami…
OMB Watch: Summaries of the First 100 Days of the Obama Administration
OMBWatch has posted four useful documents summarizing the Obama Administration’s record at 100 days.* The first link is an assessment of improvements on the right to know front. The second link is to a brief YouTube summary on the topic from Washington NGOs. http://www.ombwatch.org/files/obamaat100daysrtk.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp6AXSVBTR8&fmt=18 The second assessment is on…
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania Announces Switch to Democratic Party
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a Republican since 1966, said on Tuesday April 28 that he will switch to the Decmocratic Party and will run as a Democrat in 2010, thus presenting Democrats with a possible 60th vote and the power to break Senate filibusters. Here is a link to…