The Federal Government Shutdown is Over

After 16 days, Congress and President Obama reached a deal to end the government shutdown and avoiding a default. Furloughed employees return to work today. For more information on this story, please read here.

LOC Shutdown

Seen on the Library of Congress home page today:

Due to the temporary shutdown of the federal government, the Library of Congress is closed to the public and researchers beginning October 1, 2013 until further notice.

All public events are cancelled and web sites are inaccessible except the legislative information sites THOMAS.gov and beta.congress.gov.

Bush Library will Close if Federal Government Shutdown Occurs

The George W. Bush Library and Museum will close if the federal government does not reach a budget to prevent a shutdown. The House and Senate can prevent this occurrence by reaching a resolution after the current fiscal year ends today at midnight. For more information, go here.

My Favourite Tipples
Via FreePint
http://web.freepint.com/go/newsletter/359
Politics in the news...Review of some websites that may help an individual review issues and find truths in American politics.

U.S. Statistical Abstract on the Chopping Block

Laura Orr from the Oregon Legal Research Blog has a good round up of article/links regarding the proposal to do away with the U.S. Statistical Abstract.

Gulf Oil Disaster report now available

The report is now available from the GPO.

Title: "Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster And The Future Of Offshore Drilling - Report to the President (BP Oil Spill Commission Report)"
Description and links to downloads at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?packageId=GPO-OILCOMMISSION

Description of the report:

On April 20, 2010, the Macondo well blew out, costing the lives of 11 men and beginning a catastrophe that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and spilled nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill disrupted an entire region's economy, damaged fisheries and critical habitats, and brought vividly to light the risks of deepwater drilling for oil and gas -- the latest frontier in the national energy supply. Soon after, President Barack Obama appointed a seven-member Commission to investigate the disaster, analyze its causes and effects, and recommend the actions necessary to minimize such risks in the future. The Commission's report offers the American public and policymakers alike the fullest account available of what happened in the Gulf and why, and proposes actions -- changes in company behavior, reform of Government oversight, and investments in research and technology -- required as industry moves forward to meet the nation's energy needs.

The Gavel

Speaker of the House's blog: http://www.speaker.gov/blog/. Good source to follow federal legislation, especially HR 1.

One stop Federal Register shopping

http://www.federalregister.gov/ - one stop Federal Register shopping.

Their catalog (http://www.federalregister.gov/Catalog.aspx) is pretty neat too, gives a description of each publication, link to the online version, and a picture of the print version or electronic version icon.

Manual of Patent Examining Procedure

Did you know that all editions of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure is now available on the USPTO web site?

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/old/index.htm
PDF Copies of MPEP Editions and Revisions 1948 - 2006

Energy bill signed today

Posted on the New York Times web site:

Bush Signs Broad Energy Bill
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 19, 2007
Filed at 12:15 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush signed into law Wednesday legislation that will bring more fuel-efficient vehicles into auto showrooms and require wider use of ethanol, calling it ''a major step'' toward energy independence and easing global warming.

The legislation signed by Bush at a ceremony at the Energy Department requires automakers to increase fuel efficiency by 40 percent to an industry average 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It also ramps up production of ethanol use to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022.
(cont.)

From whitehouse.gov:

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 19, 2007
Fact Sheet: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 President Bush Signs Energy Bill To Improve Fuel Economy And Reduce Oil Dependence

Today, President Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which will improve vehicle fuel economy and help reduce U.S. dependence on oil.The bill the President signed today responds to the challenge of his bold "Twenty in Ten" initiative, which President Bush announced in January. It represents a major step forward in expanding the production of renewable fuels, reducing our dependence on oil, and confronting global climate change. It will increase our energy security, xpand the production of renewable fuels, and make America stronger, safer, and cleaner for future generations.
(cont.)

This refers to H.R.6
SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007’’.

Conference reports

Unites States Congress Conference Reports
http://www.conferencereport.gpoaccess.gov/DefaultN.aspx

More information on this service: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/confrpts/index.html%20This This links to the current and previous congress's conference reports.

Tip of the hat to BeSpacific.com http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/016477.html

ERISA Fiduciary Advisor

ERISA Fiduciary Advisor from the Department of Labor. Introductory blurb:

The ERISA Fiduciary Advisor provides information and answers to a variety of questions about who is a fiduciary and their responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). This Advisor was developed by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) in its continuing effort to increase awareness and understanding about basic fiduciary responsibilities when operating a retirement plan. ERISA is a federal law that sets standards of conduct for those who manage a private-sector retirement plan and its assets.

The Department of Labor (DOL) developed the elaws Advisors to help employees and employers understand their rights and responsibilities under numerous federal employment laws. Each Advisor includes links to more detailed information that may be useful to the user, such as links to regulatory text, publications and organizations.

You may find this at http://www.dol.gov/elaws/ERISAFiduciary.htm.

First seen on BeSpacific.com

SOX whistleblower decisions

I saw a reference to this on Law-Lib today - US Department of Labor SOX Whistleblower decisions.

http://www.oalj.dol.gov/PUBLIC/WHISTLEBLOWER/
REFERENCES/CASELISTS/SOX3LIST.HTM

Attorney General resignation

Attorney General Gonzales resigns

According to this CNN report, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales plans to step down from office September 17, 2007.

Federal Public and Private Laws

Tip of the hat to - BeSpacific.com http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/014941.html

GPO’s Authentication initiative focuses on the primary objective of assuring users that the information made available by GPO is official and authentic and that trust relationships exist between all participants in electronic transactions. In furthering GPO’s mission to provide permanent public access to authentic U.S. Government publications, GPO is working to afford users further assurance that files are unchanged since GPO authenticated them.

The Public and Private Laws Beta application provides authenticated Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files for the 110th Congress only. Public and private laws within this application contain PDF files digitally signed and certified by GPO. These files have been digitally signed and certified using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology.

Source: http://fdlpdev.gpo.gov/plaws/index.html

The Spy Act

Ed Foster really keeps on top of legal issues that affect consumers in the computer world. Here's a few snippets from a posting today on H.R. 964:

Last week a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
approved H.R. 964, the Spy Act, which bans some of the more blatant forms of
spyware such as those that hijack computer or log keystrokes. The bill now goes
to the full committee for approval, and it's expected to move quickly as it has
strong bipartisan support.
...
Let's sum up. If the Spy Act become law,
hardware, software, and network vendors will be granted carte blanche to use
spyware themselves to police their customers' use of their products and
services. Incredibly broad exceptions will probably allow even the worst of the
adware outfits to operate with legal cover. State attempts to deal with the
spyware problem will be pre-empted and enforcement left up almost entirely to
the FTC. Gee, what's not to like in that deal?

E-Filing in the Federal Courts

Split Court, Inc. Launches the First Online Tool For Preparing PDF Documents For E-Filing In Federal Court

"According to their press release "Split Court, Inc.’s online pay-as-you-go application lets lawyers upload the large files and specify the Court-required file size. The program does the rest by splitting the exhibits into the optimal size. Attorneys can then download the separate files or have them e-mailed back to them for filing."

From the Legal Dockets Online Blog

Courts and opinions

One of my firm's librarians received this question the other day: do all courts post opinions or cases on their web sites? Specifically, the circuit courts and the biggest Texas courts. A quick survey later and we found:

• Texas Appeals Courts have several years of opinions on the site
• US District Courts in Texas usually offer opinions only via Pacer
• The Southern District (Texas) has an exception - it posts documents for Enron related trials and some other huge trials
• County Courts in Texas usually require you to order copies through the court and usually make it difficult to determine this from their web sites
• The US Supreme Court has opinions on its site. These are also available at other locations, such as FindLaw and Cornell Law School
• The Circuit Courts all offer copies of opinions on their sites. Most have a link to the most recent decisions as well.