Commentary and Opinion

February 11, 2008

Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA Patriot Act

Report prepared by U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General

February 2008.

Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act), Public Law 107-56, directs the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) to undertake a series of actions related to claims of civil rights or civil liberties violations allegedly committed by DOJ employees. It also requires the OIG to provide semiannual reports to Congress on the implementation of the OIG’s responsibilities under Section 1001. This report – the twelfth since enactment of the legislation in October 2001 – summarizes the OIG’s Section 1001-related activities from July 1, 2007, through December 31, 2007.

February 5, 2008

Selected Documents and Web Sites: U.S. President’s Budget for 2009

by David Badertscher

DAVID BADERTSCHER

The following posting consists of a series of documents selected to hopefully help provide those readers interested with an overview of the budget and the budget process. It also includes a list of the web sites rererenced in President Bush’s Budget Message.To provide added context I have embedded some of the citation references within quotations from his message. Due to the size and complexity of this budget as submitted we can only include a few of the documents in this posting. The following includes links to the series of documents selected.

SELECTED DOCUMENTS:

January 29, 2008

American Association of Law Libraries: Washington E-Bulletin

by David Badertscher

The January 25, 2008 issue of the AALL Washington E-bulletin is now available at http://www.aallnet.org/aallwash/eBulletin12508.pdf. Reading issues of this E-bulletin is a great way to keep abreast of issues of interest and concern to law librarians that are being discussed and debated in Washington, DC. Enjoy

January 29, 2008

Fact Sheets for 2008 State of the Union Address

by David Badertscher

2008 State of the Union Policy Initiatives (PDF 189 KB)
Fact Sheets Released by the White House

January 25, 2008

Documents Regarding Economic Stimulus and the General Economic Outlook

by David Badertscher

Since issues related to stimulating the U.S. economy and the more general economic outlook are being so widely discussed in the news media, we thought it would be helpful to add context to the general discussion by posting a few federal documents which provide an added dimension to the topic.

The list of materials below is not meant to be comprehensive; most have been generated in the past few days by those involved directly in developing the proposed stimulus package. In addition, we have added two documents which discuss the general outlook of the economy.

Here is the list with brief descriptions. To gain access to these materials click on the links provided:

January 24, 2008

New on LLRX.com for January 2008

by David Badertscher

New on LLRX.com for January 2008, www.llrx.com

From Sabrina I. Pacifaci, Founder, Editor, Publisher LLRX.com

**Many thanks to all the authors whose work appears in this month’s issue.

January 18, 2008

Indexing Files for Your Paperless Office

by David Badertscher

QUESTION

“I am so ready to get into a full (or as close as possible) paperless office. I would like to create a hard copy index in the client file detailing what is in the client file on my hard drive. This way, when I have a senior moment and can’t remember if I wrote the client or opposing counsel about a certain topic, I can locate it readily without having to guess what all my, or my staff’s, abbreviations and shorthand mean. I use MS Word. Can anyone who has gone paperless share how they solved this issue or describe a better technique?”

ANSWER:

January 17, 2008

Beige Book: Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions by Federal Reserve District

by David Badertscher

Introduction.

Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic activity increased modestly during the survey period of mid-November through December, but at a slower pace compared with the previous survey period. Among Districts, seven reported a slight increase in activity, two reported ixed conditions, and activity in three Districts was described as slowing.

Most reports on retail activity indicated subdued holiday spending and further weakness in auto sales. However, most reports on tourism spending were positive. Residential real estate conditions continued to be quite weak in all Districts. Reports on commercial real estate activity varied, with some reports noting signs of softening demand. Manufacturing reports varied across industries, with pronounced weakness noted in housing-related industries as well as the automobile industry. Strong export orders and increased demand in industries whose products compete against imports was reported by some Districts. Demand for nonfinancial services remained generally positive, although some Districts commented on continuing weak demand for transportation services.

January 16, 2008

Implementing Knowledge Management: Key Planning Considerations

by David Badertscher

BY Brett Haywrd, Vice President of Professional Services for the Americas, InQuira

Summary:

Today’s consumers expect fast and convenient online self-service, and they demand knowledgeable, responsive support from contact center agents-anything less and today’s consumers are perfectly willing to take their business elsewhere.

January 16, 2008

Lessons from the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill: The Gold Mouse Report

by David Badertscher

The information below is from the Press Release announcing the Report, followed by a link to the complete Report:

Washington, D.C. – A new report from the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) on congressional Web sites says the overall quality “continues to be disappointing,” with more than 40% of congressional Web sites earning a substandard or failing grade. The report also contains recognition and praise for the best Web sites on Capitol Hill with the announcement of the winners of the 2007 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Mouse Awards.

“The good news is that 19 more offices won awards in 2007 than did in 2006, including 16 freshmen Members. The bad news is that there were 20 more D’s and F’s,” said Beverly Bell, Executive Director of CMF, a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded 30 years ago to promote a more effective Congress. “We were glad to see good sites getting better, but discouraged to see the bad getting worse.”