Articles Posted in David Badertscher

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This posting is prompted out of concern for the need to provide open, online access to public documents including CRS reports, two e-mails received during the past two weeks, and two recent requests for recent CRS report referenced in a previous post to this blog.

First the e-mails. About a week ago I received a widely distributed e-mail from Emily Feldman, Advocacy Communications Assistant for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) framing the issues related free online access to CRS Reports and emphasizing the urgency of taking action now to help get this accomplished. Emily can be contacted at either 202-942-4233 or efeldman@aall.org This was followed up today by an e-mail from a law librarian Susan Nevelow Mart responding to Emily’s e-mail and reinforcing Emily’s call for action. Here are the two e-mails

From Emily Feldman:

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On October 9, 2009 an Op-Ed article, A LIBRARY TO LAST FOREVER, by Sergey Brin, Co-Founder and President, Technology of Google Inc. was published in the New York Times.in which he discusses Google’s rationale for their book project. For the informaation I am including in this post the two final paragraphs of his article, a link to the article itself, and some randomly selected comments in response to his article. Accoring to Mr. Brin: “Google’s books project is a win-win for authors, publishers and Google, but the real winners are readers, who will have access to an expanded world of books” Others are not so sure.

FINAL TWO PARAGRAPHS:

“In the Insurance Year Book 1880-1881, which I found on Google Books, Cornelius Walford chronicles the destruction of dozens of libraries and millions of books, in the hope that such a record will “impress the necessity of something being done” to preserve them. The famous library at Alexandria burned three times, in 48 B.C., A.D. 273 and A.D. 640, as did the Library of Congress, where a fire in 1851 destroyed two-thirds of the collection.

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Hearing and listening to all of the media hype of the last few days, one could be convinced that the Baucus version released a couple of days ago is the only legislation being seriously considered in the present debate. Far from it. Not only do he have at least one House version of proposed health reform legislation, we also have another Senate version which was Reported by the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP on July 15, 2009 and introduced yesterday as the Affordable Health Choices Act S. 1679 by the Senate HELP Committee Chairman,Tom Harkin.

This bill certainly represents a different viewpoint on health care reform than the Baucus bill and we hope it will help to level the playing field in the ongong debates and discussion on health care. The HELP Committee legislation does provide for a public option. Here is some of the language from TitleXXXI Affordable Health Care Choices for All Americans that appears on page 43 of the proposed legislation:

”(3) OFFERING OF COVERAGE.-

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Today Sept. 16, 2009, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, released the first draft of the committee’s long awaited proposed legislation to overhaul the country’s health care system. The proposal is the result of more than a year of preparation and more than three months of intense negotiations between a small group of Democrats and Republicans led by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee.

The following are a few highlights of interest included in this 223 page proposal:

The bill includes a slimmed down price-tag of $856 billion over 10 years. Earlier versions of the health care legislation had come in costing $1 trillion or more

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In their September 8 article in Bloomberg News, Cary O’Reilly and Linda Sandler write that “[A]s the White House and Congress debate how to regulate financial crisis, judges have assumed the point position of punishing Wall Street for causing the worst recession since the 1930s.” O’Reilly and Sandler point out that while the executive and legislative branches of government continue to discuss the possibilities of implementing various reforms as a response to the financial crisis that began approximately a year ago, “judges are [actually] taking the first steps toward the same goal, punishing executives and issuing rulings with national impact.” In their article O’Reilly and Sandler go on to enumerate specific examples of how some judges have proceeded along this path.

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According to the Editors of The Crime Report, the movement to ban shackling pregnant prisoners is gaining momentum. On August 26, 2009, Governor David Paterson of New York signed a bill (now NY Chapter 411 2009) banning the practice for all but the most unruly inmates. What is happening in your state?

Only six states-California, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas and Vermont-have legislation regulating the use of restraints on pregnant women. Women detained in 44 states, the District of Columbia and the Federal Bureau of Prisons lack such legislative protection. Some state departments of corrections did not provide details on what type of restraints may be utilized during labor, nor did they provide their policy.

(Research provided by Amnesty International and The Rebecca Project for Human Rights.)

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After posting two articles on this Web site here and here related to the Obama administration seriously considering allowing much greater flexibility regarding the use of cookies and tracking devices on government Web sites, I thought I was finished with the topic. That is until this morning August 25 when I notices a well written and thoughtful editorial about “cookies” and the web in the New York Times. Since the editorial helped to clarify my thinking I wanted to share it with you here.

After a discussion of the issues, here in a nutshell are the concerns raised and approaches presented in the editorial:

1. More stringent requirements regarding the permanent and prominet display of notices on all government Web sites to clearly inform users that use of the Web sites is being tracked.

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Volume 2 Number 8 August 2009.

From the Desk of David G. Badertscher

Mmmm… cookies – chocolate chip and oatmeal with raisins! Cookies are one of the most popular snacks that exist today. Did you know you can get “browser” cookies almost every time you go on the Internet? These cookies help with Internet commerce, allow quicker access to web sites, or can personalize your browsing experience. However, there are some privacy and security issues to be aware of, so it is important to understand the purpose of a “browser” cookie and manage their use on your computer appropriately. This tip will help you understand what a “browser” cookie is, what it is used for and what risks might be associated with using cookies.

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David Badertscher*

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the White House is considering whether federal web sites should be permitted to use cookies and other web tracking technologies and is asking for input from the public.

According to Michael Fitzpatrick, an associate administrator with the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, “the goal of this review is to develop a new policy that allows the Federal government to continue to protect privacy of people who visit Federa(s)l websites while, at the same time, making these websites more user-friendly, providing better customer service, and allowing for more enhanced analytics”.To read this entire discussion about cookies policy for Federal websites go to the posting by Mr. Fitzpatrick and Vivek Kundra of the Office of Science & Technology Policy Blog To share your comments on the approach outlined in their posting, you can post a comment on the OSTP blog, submit comments directly in response to the Federal Register notice mentioned in the posting, or email them to: oira_submission@omb.eop.gov. Comments submitted by August 10, 2009 in one of these three ways, will be taken into consideration. Responding to this posting directly from the OSTP blog requires registration and other authentication routines before posting.

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As announced yesterday July 23, 2009, U.S. federal agents swept accross New Jersey and New York, charging 44 people (including mayors, rabbis and one alleged trafficker in human kidneys) of being involved in public corruption and international money laundering practices..

The following are links to some documents related to that two track investigation. For additional news and related information go to the U.S. Department of Justice website at: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/index.html

Statement: Two Track Investigation of Political Corruption and International Money Laundering

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