Dec 16
Once again the Washington State legislature provides access to new bills being proposed for the next session in 2009. You can find a list of pre-filed bills here and you can sign up to track certain bills once the session begins. The new session will be challenging as legislators grapple with a nearly 6 billion dollar statewide deficit for the next two year budget cycle. With this reality, keeping up to date on the latest developments can mean knowing where the cuts may fall.You may also want to follow the legislature through the Olympian coverage here. If you have further questions on utilizing the legislature’s website, contact the library at 206-296-0940.
Dec 11
In the flurry of the last few days of consideration of the King County budget, numerous proposals were heard to change or add fees for services provided by various County agencies. You can go the King County Council’s Legislative database and search for the proposals passed by the Council. Click on the Advanced search link under the Search box. In the Matter Type box, select ordinances, and in the Final Action Date box, type in 11/17/2008. Click on the Search button and you will retrieve a list of 15 ordinances passed on the 17th. If you click the ordinance title, you will see the legislative history of the ordinance, plus links to other documents such as fiscal notes or staff reports. Coverage of Council’s actions begins in 2001.
Dec 03
All eyes, at least in Washington State, are focused on our governor, Chris Gregoire, as she and her advisers work to address the myriad problems posed by the economic slowdown. If you’d like to stay informed about the Gov. Gregoire’s activities, add her office’s web site to your Favorites list. The Governor’s web site is easy to navigate and provides a great deal of up-to-date information about her work. The main page includes links to her priorities–the Washington Budget is foremost–and some interesting ways you can help keep yourself informed electronically by blogging with the Govenor and subscribing to her web site’s RSS feed. Many of the lower-level pages on the Governor’s web site contain extensive links to other web sites sponsored by Washington State government so even if the information you’re looking for isn’t on the web site directly you can usually find a link to another related source. On the lighter side, you can also view a few photos of the Gov. Gregoire’s family and even read about her Shiba Inu, Trooper.
Nov 25
LLRX posted a new article by Peggy Garvin on tracking information from various sources about what is going on in the new Barack Obama administration. These include the change.gov site, plus sites from news organizations such as the Washington Post and the New York Times. Check out her full article for more information and follow the transition as it takes place.
Nov 20
The Office of the Federal Register announced that it now has free electronic access to public documents. These are documents that have been filed with the Public Inspection Desk. While this may not be exciting news to most of you, I was thrilled when I saw the news release. In the “old days” the only way to see these documents was to physically visit the Office of the Federal Register in Washington, DC. I used to send messengers over to copy the files when a new regulation was about to be issued as we wanted to see it first and be prepared to advise our clients. So for me, this is terrific news!
Nov 19
A recent post on the Law Librarian Blog featured a short video from Thomson West detailing the editorial process for taking a court opinion and preparing it for publication on Westlaw. If you’ve ever wondered about how the process works, check it out!
Nov 17
I came across this new search site directory while preparing my Social Networking Investigation class. It has been in beta in Europe for months, but expanded to the United States in October. It claims to search Internet-based information in real time, but is also a social site where you can add information to every search result.
The site includes results from social networking information posted on the Internet, telephone and email directories and more. It works best with unusual names rather than common names. If you do not already have some information on the person you are investigating, it is sometimes difficult to eliminate results. But it does include some data I have not seen elsewhere.
I have added it to the Public Sleuthing links on our web site.
Nov 12
Renewing Government: Recommendations to President-elect Obama
and the 111th Congress
As President-elect Obama’s transition team gets to work, OMB Watch has teamed with dozens of organizations
and individuals to provide key recommendations on government openness, reform of the regulatory process, and
government performance issues. Started well before the 2008 elections, the projects that produced these
recommendations brought together diverse groups of people to work on some of the most pressing problems and
concerns that will face Obama when he takes office in January 2009.
OMB Watch convened a group of hundreds of individuals and organizations from across the political spectrum
to put together recommendations on government openness, information, and other transparency issues. The
recommendations stress the need for the Obama administration and Congress to move the federal government’s
information disclosure and sharing policies and processes into the 21st century, which includes the efficient,
effective use of modern Internet technologies. The recommendations fall into three categories: National Security
and Secrecy; Usability of Information; and Creating a Government Environment for Transparency. The group has also
lifted up a number of the recommendations as issues the Obama administration should tackle during its first
100 days.(From OMB Watch’s website:)
Read the report here: 21st Century Right to Know Recommendations
Nov 10
With technology allowing for easier access to electronic opinions of the courts, some have had concerns as to the extent to which personally identifiable information is included in these opinions. Some of these fears center around the social security numbers of participants in legal cases and purchased by third parties. Recently, the Government Accountability Office presented a report on this topic through its website.
Here is an excerpt from the report:
“Various public records in the United States contain Social Security numbers (SSN) and other personal identifying information that could be used to commit fraud and identity theft. For the purposes of this report, public records are generally defined as government agency-held records made available to the public in their entirety for inspection, such as property and court records.
Although public records were traditionally accessed locally in county courthouses and government records centers, public record keepers in some states and localities have more recently been maintaining electronic images of their records. In electronic format, records can be made available through the Internet or easily transferred to other parties in bulk quantities.”
To read the rest of the report check it out here: Social Security Numbers Are Widely Available in Bulk and Online Records, but Changes to Enhance Security Are Occurring. This information comes from a fellow county law librarian Joe Hodnicki’s blog called “Law Librarian’s Blog.”
Nov 03
The Washington Office of Secretary of State’s Digital Archives, in a partnership with Microsoft Research, is making available over 30,000 cassette tapes of committee hearings of the State House of Representatives for 1973-2001. This partnership allows for an innovative way to search through the audio recordings of these hearings. Approximately 6,000 hours of hearings are currently searchable. Over the next two years, the House will add approximately 10,000 more hours. The search engine allows you to search testimony given during a hearing. You can narrow your search by selecting specific committees and by selecting a date range. To access these tapes, go to Washington State Digital Archives detalied search screen. In the drop down box titled Record Series, select Audio Recordings. A search on the word audit brings up about 40 entries from various committees.
This tool can be an important adjunct to your state legislative history research.