Bloggy Notion:

News of the Hastings Law Library

Have you ever wanted to call the member of a congressional committee to let them know your views on a piece of pending legislation? If so, then you know it can be daunting to find out the composition of the committee, and the correct contact information for each member. But all that has changed, thanks to the web site, Committee Caller. The site has been set up using an open source Asterisk PBX system to connect you to every senator or house member on a particular committee.

Just go to the website, select a committee or subcommittee, enter your phone number and click "Put me in touch with democracy!" You'll be called by their system and sequentially patched through to the front office of each member on that committee. If you want to add to the web site's informational database on accountability, you can even rate how each call went.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 02:13 PM | Permalink

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 mandated a user-friendly, searchable database of most federal spending , and the result, USASpending.gov, went live today. The White House budget office is responsible for publishing the web site, which shows taxpayers where their dollars go and which legislators, contractors and regions get the most.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 was sponsored by Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). The site was created by Robert Shea, associate director of the Office of Management and Budget. It was modeled on a site pioneered by Gary Bass, director of OMB Watch, which has been a harsh critic of the budget office. You can search the site by contracts and grants, contractor names, congressional districts and lawmakers. It is easy to download data, and there are charts and rankings show who gets the most money. The site will be updated every two weeks even though the law only requires updating every month.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 01:33 PM | Permalink

There is a recently published report by the Joint Economic Committee Majority Staff, titled War at Any Price: The Total Economic Costs of the War Beyond the Federal Budget. The press release about the report, dated November 13, 2007, states:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will join Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Chairman Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), and JEC Vice Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) [today [and release ] a new report exposing the hidden costs of the war in Iraq. The Joint Economic Committee report investigates the costs of the war in Iraq that are not included in direct budgetary appropriations, including long term veteran's health care, foregone investment, oil market disruptions and interest payments on borrowed war funding. The JEC estimates these costs could total in the trillions of dollars.

Here are some of the individual charts on the costs:

The American Family Will Bear Heavy Burden to Pay for Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

With No Change in Course, Total Costs Incurred per Family Reach Almost $50,000 by 2017

The Projected Interest Costs of Iraq War Alone are Higher than
the Cost of Children's Health Program and Health Research and Training

Taxpayer Spending on Iraq War vs. Federal Spending on Other Priorities

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 01:46 PM | Permalink

Are you interested in the types of terrorist activitites that have taken place in the United States? The FBI just released the latest edition of its report summarizing terrorist activities in the US, titled "Terrorism 2002-2005."

The report "provides an overview of the terrorist incidents and preventions designated by the FBI as having taken place in the United States and its territories during the years 2002 through 2005 and that are matters of public record. This publication does not include those incidents which the Bureau classifies under criminal rather than terrorism investigations. In addition, the report discusses major FBI investigations overseas and identifies significant events-including legislative actions, prosecutorial updates, and program developments-relevant to U.S. counterterrorism efforts."

The report includes a chart of "casualties of terrorism 1980-2005" and a chronological summary of the terrorist incidents in the US between 1980-2005.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 04:50 PM | Permalink

The Law Library of Congress has about 75,000 volumes of Congressional hearings. The library has partnered with Google, Inc. to digitize the hearings and make them freely available to Congress and the public. The first sets of digitized hearings have been released, at http://www.loc.gov/law/find/hearings.html. The topics covered are Freedom of Infomration/Privacy, Immigration, and the U.S. Census .

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 11:16 AM | Permalink

A partnership between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities called the National Digital Newspaper Program has released a new web site called Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers at http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/. You can read from 226,000 digitized pages from newspapers in California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Kenturcky, Utah and Virginia. The dates of coverage are 1900 to 1910. You can also search for information about newspapers published from 1690 to the present.

The National Digital Newspaper Program will continue the project over the next twenty years, to create a national digital repository of newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 from all of the states and territories of the U.S.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 01:36 PM | Permalink

Six federal agencies - the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency - have teamed up to bring you recalls.gov. Billed as a "one stop shop" for U.S. Government recalls, you can look at recent recalls, or search for all recalls. You can also sign up for email alerts.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 01:28 PM | Permalink

Should you be required to pay to find out information about federal government jobs? Is it a violation of U.S. law to solicit for foreign lotteries? Are you aware of the scams out there? If not, take the Grand Scam Challenge and test your consumer savvy.

Posted by Julie Horst at 08:49 AM | Permalink

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) captured House and Senate public web sites as they existed between November 13 and December 11, 2006. This "harvest" was intended to document Congressional presence on the World Wide Web during the closing weeks of the 109th Congress (2006).

The harvest, performed by Internet Archive (IA), a San Francisco nonprofit, produced a public reference copy of the web sites for the purpose of continual availability to the public, and also produced a record copy to be retained in the holdings of NARA.

The amount of information harvested is approximately 242 gigabytes of information. You can search the archive by:
○ Entering a search term which searches the combined House and Senate harvests, or
○ Browsing from the House or Senate home pages.
The website is http://www.webharvest.gov/collections/congress109th/

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:18 AM | Permalink

C-SPAN is a private, non-profit company, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service. Their mission is to "provide public access to the political process. C-SPAN receives no government funding; operations are funded by fees paid by cable and satellite affiliates who carry C-SPAN programming." So even though it's not strictly a .gov site, it's great for research.

C-SPAN supports initiatives that encourage greater public access to the court, including opening the court to electronic media. Access their Cameras In the Court Page here.

In addition to C-SPAN's tv and radio schedules, you can look at their Firing U.S. Attorneys webpage. Or check out C-SPAN's livestreams, podcasts and the video library. The video index lists the following areas: Congress, Defense/Security, Domestic/Social, Economy/Fiscal, International, Judiciary/Courts, Media/Press, Politics/Elections, Science/Technology, State/Local, White House/Executive and each index entry includes the title, date, location, summary, and length of the video. See Cal Ripken, Jr. talk about his book in the DOMESTIC/SOCIAL section. Watch Sarah Cohen & Gilbert Gaul, investigative reporters at the Washington Post, talk about their series, "Harvesting Cash," on waste and abuse in federal farm subsidy programs in the MEDIA/PRESS section of the video library.

Posted by Julie Horst at 03:48 PM | Permalink

Search the U.S. Government Recall website for unsafe, hazardous, and defective products. Search for or see a list of recently recalled food, medicine, cosmetics, motor vehicles, environmental products, boats & boating safety, meat & poultry products, and other consumer products.

For information on recent pet food recalls, click on Recent Recalls, and look in the Food, Medicine, Cosmetics section. There is a press release from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration regarding Del Monte Pet Products.

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:28 AM | Permalink

To find websites for defunct U.S. government agencies go to the CyberCemetery hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries. The CyberCemetery provides permanent public access to old websites of the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and Independent Commissions. Sites are organized by category or alphabetically, and include information such as how the agency or commission was established, who the members were, and where to find any publications they offered. Other links provide information on the topic of the agency. For instance, the charter of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission expired on October 3, 2001, but you can still find information about the commission and connect to other bioethics related links at the CyberCemetery website.

Posted by Julie Horst at 02:05 PM | Permalink

The Central Intelligence Agency publishes and updates the online directory of Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments weekly. The directory is intended to be used primarily as a reference aid and includes as many governments of the world as is considered practical, some of them not officially recognized by the United States.

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:10 AM | Permalink

A congressional committee may request a special study in a specific subject area relating to proposed legislation; these are called committee prints. Committee prints often provide valuable information such as statistical analyses or historical background research.

Here's more info from the Government Printing Office:
"Congressional committee prints are publications issued by congressional committees on topics related to their legislative or research activities. They are an excellent resource for statistical and historical information, and for legislative analysis. The subjects of the committee prints vary greatly, due to the different concerns and actions of each individual committee. Some basic varieties of committee prints include: draft reports and bills, directories, statistical materials, investigative reports, historical reports, situational studies, confidential staff reports, hearings, and legislative analyses.

The prints are generally viewed as internal background information publications and often are not announced for public distribution. Procedures for the printing and publication of these prints differ with each committee, and formats are inconsistent. Few prints have been allocated serial numbers, but most have not. The individual committee prints are not a part of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, because those documents come from the Senate and the House of Representatives as a whole.

Committee prints do not have a consistent numbering system or publication history, the reason being that these papers are printed copies of committee members’ work. The Senate has a numbering system for its committee prints, but the House does not (e.g. "S. Prt. 108-3").

GPO Access contains congressional committee prints for the 105th Congress (1997-98) forward. Documents are available in ASCII text and, in some cases, in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)."

Posted by Julie Horst at 10:11 AM | Permalink

If you're looking for the transcript of a Congressional Hearing, check out GPO Access, which has selected hearings from the 105th Congress to the current (110th), at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/chearings/index.html. Both House and Senate hearings are available. Most Congressional hearings are published two months to two years after they are held. Only hearings from the committees that are released to the Government Printing Office get published. If you want a copy of a hearing transcript from the last two months, the web page for the Committee that hosted the hearing is the best place to look. Be warned, though, not all hearing transcripts are released.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 12:04 PM | Permalink

The federal government is famous - or infamous - for creating acronyms. Entire sentences can be spoken in "governmentese" with only a few proper nouns thrown in. So if you need to know which FAR regulations apply to the RFP for the DOE, check out: GovSpeak: A Guide to Government Acronyms and Abbreviations.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 01:06 PM | Permalink

The Library of Congress American Memory Project contains materials from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, that chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America. You can read the thanksgiving proclamation of 1782 issued by Congress here. Other collections of documents include the US Congressional Documents and Debates,1774-1875 at the Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation page, and the Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 at the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention page.

Posted by Julie Horst at 08:47 AM | Permalink

The University of Michigan is making the full text of federal committee hearings (from the 1980s) which have been digitized by Google available through a link in its catalog, MIRLYN: http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/. If you're looking for hearings from a different decade, our library research guide will tell you where else to search.

Posted by Julie Horst at 10:34 AM | Permalink

If you vote in San Francisco and you need more information before going to the polls, you can view the voter information pamphlet at the San Francisco City and County Department of Elections’ website. Beginning tomorrow, you will be able to check election results at the same page. Note that results may change as absentee ballots and write-in votes are counted.

Official Election Site of San Mateo County
Elections/Voting in Marin County, CA
Alameda County Voter Information
Contra Costa County Election Department

Posted by Julie Horst at 11:13 AM | Permalink

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) from 1938 through the 1983 edition is now available through HeinOnline's Federal Register library collection in .PDF.

Included in the announcement is this description of the CFR:
"The CFR is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register (also available in HeinOnline from its' inception in 1936) by the executive departments and agencies of the U.S. Federal Government. The CFR is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to U.S. Federal regulation."

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:17 AM | Permalink

In 1787 and 1788, an anonymous writer, Publius, urged the citzens of New York to ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States. There were 85 essays published in New York newspapers, and you can read all of them online, or search their full-text by going to the Avalon Project. The papers can also be read online at Thomas, a Library of Congress website for federal legislative information.

It wasn't until 1818 that Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison were identified in print as the authors of the Federalist Papers. As you can see from the Thomas site, there is still some dispute about the authorship of a few of the papers.

if you're looking for original intent, the Federalist Papers are important source documents.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 02:13 PM | Permalink

Manipulating census information can be difficult, but Social Explorer and Queens College CUNY have created a wonderful interactive web site, at www.socialexplorer.com. You choose your region and the characteristics you are interested in, in any of the census years from 2000 back to 1940, and a chart or map will be created for you. This information is useful for paper topics such as immigration (foreign born) or homelessness (poverty) either for the US or a particular state. New census information is being added all the time, and the goal is to provide access to the complete historical census information for the United States.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 10:17 AM | Permalink

Want to the know if there is a toxic site near you? Check out the "Window on My Environment" from the Environmental Protection Agency at http://www.epa.gov/enviro/wme/

Put in your zip code and the site creates a map of your neighborhood which you can manipulate to show superfund sites, air monitoring sites, etc.

Posted by Julie Horst at 08:59 AM | Permalink

Do you like to keep up on the latest manufacturing defects? Worried about lettuce and spinach? The FDA has created a searchable archive of warnings, news and press releases. The FDA describes the scope of its regulatory coverage as being:

"responsible for regulating food (humans and animal), dietary supplements, drugs (human and animal), cosmetics, medical devices (human and animal) and radiation emitting devices (including non-medical devices), biologics, and blood products in the United States."

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 09:42 AM | Permalink

Looking for information on US Senate or House votes? The Washington Post hosts an impressive searchable database of every vote in the United States Congress since the 102nd Congress (1991).

This database is very easy to use and gives you access to congressional floor votes for bills and resolutions. You can track the voting histories of individual members of Congress and get notification of their current votes via RSS feed. The database includes biographical information and links to the full text of bills, public laws and legislative information at Thomas.

The database also allows you to see how congressional votes are distributed: By party | By state | By region | By boomer status | By gender | By astrological sign. BTW, we in the libary are eagerly awaiting to assist you with your note on Congress, baby boomers, and the zodiac. ;-)

Posted by Chuck Marcus at 02:32 PM | Permalink

When you're researching a legal topic, don't forget to look for relevant government web sites; they can be valuable sources of statistical information, policy reports, and links. For example, if your note topic is tracing the historical development of laws regulating sustainable agriculture, then the United States Department of Agriculture hosted site, Alternative Farming Information Center, Sustainable Agriculture Resources, might be helpful. Whatever your topic is, try putting your keywords into Google, and then add site:.gov to your search string. Your search will be limited to government web sites, and you should get very focused results. My search for government resources on sustainable agriculture was:
sustainable agriculture site:.gov

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 11:47 AM | Permalink

The Committee on Government Reform Minority Office hosts a database of legislation proposed by the House or Senate that would preempt state laws and regulations. The database includes legislation passed by the House and Senate since 2001. The database was created at the request of Henry Waxman, a Democratic Congressman from California

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 03:23 PM | Permalink

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 02:33 PM | Permalink

Did you know the CIA publishes basic information about every country, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, as well as some major regions, such as the Western Sahara? Go to the World Fact Book, at https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html to check it out. For each country, there is information on geography, people, the government, the economy, the military, transportation, communications, and transnational issues. Maps and flags of every listed nation are also online. The World Fact Book was just updated, so the information is current.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 04:04 PM | Permalink

The Committee on Government Reform Minority Office hosts a database of legislation proposed by the House or Senate that would preempt state laws and regulations. The database includes legislation passed by the House and Senate since 2001. The database was created at the request of Henry Waxman, a Democratic Congressman from California.

Posted by Blogger at 01:00 PM | Permalink

Are you studying for the Bar outside? Beware of getting too much sun or heatstroke. Check out the Environmental Protection Agency's extreme heat page for info about staying healthy during these extra hot days.

Posted by Blogger at 10:19 AM | Permalink

Presidential Vetoes (1789 to Present)

The Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives has a web site charting all presidential vetoes from 1789 to the present. The chart lists each type of veto a president has made, and whether or not a veto was overridden.

There are two types of vetoes. The one we most often hear about is the "regular veto," which requires each House of Congress to get two-thirds of its members to vote for an override. The other type of veto is called a "pocket veto, " and can not be overridden. The pocket veto becomes effective when the President fails to sign a bill after Congress has adjourned.

Guess who had the most vetoes of any president? Franklin D. Roosevelt!

Posted by Blogger at 01:15 PM | Permalink

The more fuel your vehicle burns the more greenhouse gases it emits, and even a small, extremely fuel efficient vehicle will still emit several tons of greenhouse gases, namely carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, in one year. According to www.fueleconomy.gov, in one year a 2004 VW Beetle with a 5-speed manual transmission will emit 7.2 tons; a 2004 Chevy Blazer automatic with 4WD will send out 11.5 tons, and a hybrid like a 2005 Toyota Prius will emit 3.5 tons of these gases.
In addition to greenhouse gas emissions, fueleconomy.gov has info about hybrid cars, gas mileage tips, air pollution ratings, and safety information for new and used cars.

Posted by Blogger at 10:14 AM | Permalink

The U.S. Census put together a webpage of fun statistics about Valentine’s Day: Nebraska and Texas are the two states in the union that have towns called “Valentine”, and you can find the town of “Romeo” in both Colorado and Michigan. Interestingly enough, even though there are 3,961 candy stores in the U.S., this country annually imports more than $420 million of chocolate from Canada.

Posted by Blogger at 10:35 AM | Permalink

Check out the U.S. Department of Labor's website. It's a great starting place for many areas of labor research such as: OSHA, statistics, international labor affairs, veteran’s employment and training, and ADA.

Posted by Blogger at 10:44 AM | Permalink