Best-Selling Author, Tom Clancy has Died

Tom Clancy, best-selling author of novels such as "Patriot Games," " The Hunt for Red October," "Clear and Present Danger," and much more has died at the age of 66.  Cause of his passing are unknown at this time.  More information on his death and literary career, go here.

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.

New Constitution Annotated app

 The Library of Congress and GOP launched an app for analysis and constitutional law accessible for free to users with computer or mobile devices. Available at iTunes.

Press release: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2013/13-164.html?loclr=rssloc

Texas Stumbles on eFiling Portal — Rolls Back to Old System

Texas Stumbles on eFiling Portal — Rolls Back to Old System
3 Geeks and a Law Blog

It seems that the new Texas.gov e-filing system upgrade didn't go as planned...

Social Media for Government Communicators

The Social Media for Government Communicators' Conference will take place at the NASA Space Center in Houston, TX September 12-14, 2012.

Attendees will learn practical strategies, tips, and tools utilizing strategies in social media. If you are interested in attending this event, you can register here.

Call for Speakers – Gov on the Go: Mobile Apps

The Government Information Division of SLA is looking for speakers for a session on mobile apps in government libraries. The session is called Gov on the Go: Mobile Apps and will take place at the 2012 SLA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL, Wednesday July 18, 2012 at Noon. If you are interested in being a speaker, please contact Kim Schultz, Division Chair, at kim.yall@gmail.com.

Price of stamps to increase

2012 Stamp Increase - blog post from USA.gov. The price of first class stamps will go up to 45 cents.

FCC website makeover

Ars Technica reviews the beta version of the Federal Communications Commission website redesign (http://beta.fcc.gov/) The new design makes good use of fly out menus, and organizes different departments and documents into more user-friendly sections.

Reminder - the LRL has a new blog

A message from the Legislative Reference Library of Texas:

Hello ALL,

The LRL now has a blog, What's New, where we will post timely updates on legislative topics, new policy reports of interest, current events or hot topics, new or updated electronic resources at the LRL, legislative process and procedure, and interesting facts or useful sources that we uncover in our research. Recent posts include New interim reports, New laws taking effect January 1, 2011, Membership statistics for the 82nd Legislature, and Use Twitter to stay current on the Texas Legislature, and we have a regular Week in Review feature with new policy articles and reports.

We invite you to visit the blog often for updates, and add us to your RSS feed. We are also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TexasLRL .

Best regards,

Melanie Harshman
Administrative Librarian
Legislative Reference Library

More updates to THOMAS

In this post, Andrew Weber at the Law Library of Congress summarizes the most recent changes and updates to the THOMAS service.

Follow up on the new THOMAS Share Tools

In my previous post, I linked to an announcement of the new sharing tools from the THOMAS legislative web site. Here's an example of using one of the features.

Suppose you need to send a link to a house or senate bill status page to one of your patrons. The new Share/Save toolbar makes this easy.

• Find the house or senate bill
• Click on the Share/Save link
• Click on the Save tab
• Copy the URL and paste it to your email, web site, blog, etc.

Example: H.R.3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law No: 111-148).

Click on the Share/Save link, Save tab, and copy the resulting URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.111hr3590

You may also share via your favorite social networking tools, or even use their email tool to send to a patron.

THOMAS Share Tools

The Library of Congress has announced a new tool for the THOMAS legislative service. Here's the introduction to the announcement:

About the THOMAS Share Tool


The THOMAS Share Tool allows you to print THOMAS pages and search results, subscribe to regular updates from THOMAS, and share THOMAS content in a number of ways. You can post THOMAS links on social networking Web sites such as Facebook or Twitter, send links by e-mail, and post links to or embed THOMAS content in your own Web site or blog pages.

Read more at http://thomas.loc.gov/help/share.html

FederalRegister.gov goes live

FederalRegister.gov is now online, in time to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the publication. This new web site has a number of ways to find items in the FR:

• Search
• Browse
• Section
• Topic
• Agency
• Dates
• Current issue
• Notices
• Proposed Rules
• Rules
• Presidential Documents

Each individual document can be seen in HTML, with links to PDF and XML versions. Further, the HTML version has a nice box on the right showing official citation, date, type, document ID, and shorter URL.

Check it out and add comments to this entry on what you think of the new site.

Health care bill and debate available

Hat tip to BeSpacific for citing this press release.

HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL AND DEBATE AVAILABLE ON GPO’S FEDERAL DIGITAL SYSTEM


WASHINGTON—The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has made available the health care reform bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this past weekend in electronic form. The House floor debate leading up to the passage of the bill can be found in the Congressional Record. The authentic, electronic versions are available on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), named by Government Computer News as one of the government’s best Web sites.
 
(snip)
 
Direct links:


H.R. 3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590ENR/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590ENR.pdf

H.R. 4872, Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr4872EH/pdf/BILLS-111hr4872EH.pdf

Direct links to Congressional Record containing the debate and vote:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/CREC-2010-03-21/CREC-2010-03-21-pt1-PgH1854-2/contentdetail.html

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/CREC-2010-03-21/CREC-2010-03-21-PT2-PgH1891/contentdetail.html

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2010-03-21/pdf/CREC-2010-03-21-PT2-PgH1891.pdf#page=263

(cont)

Did You Know...

That the first issue of the Federal Register was published on March 14, 1936 and was only 16 pages? Next year the publication will celebrate its 75th birhday.

New TSA travel requirements

Source: http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2009/0512.shtm I've bolded a few key bits of info.

TSA’s Secure Flight Enters First Public Phase
Media Contact:TSA Public
Affairs(571) 227-2829

WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today that beginning May 15 the Secure Flight passenger vetting program will begin asking passengers to enter their full name – as it appears on the government issued identification they will be traveling with – when making airline reservations.

This is the first publicly-noticeable step in implementing the multi-phase Secure Flight program which shifts pre-departure watch list matching responsibilities from individual aircraft operators to TSA. The Secure Flight program satisfies a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, and congressional requirements from the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and the 9/11 Commission Act signed into law in 2007.

"By enhancing and streamlining the watch list matching process, the Secure Flight program makes travel safer and easier for millions of Americans," said TSA Acting Administrator Gale Rossides. "During this phase of the Secure Flight program, passengers are encouraged to book their reservations using their name as it appears on the government-issued ID they will use while traveling."

In the near future, small differences between the passenger's ID and the passenger's reservation information, such as the use of a middle initial instead of a full middle name or no middle name/initial at all, will not be an issue for passengers. Over time, passengers should strive to obtain consistency between the name on their government issued ID and the travel information they use for booking flights.

The second phase of Secure Flight begins August 15, 2009 when passengers will be required to enter their date of birth and gender when booking airline flights. Once Secure Flight's advanced technology is fully implemented in early 2010, enhanced watch list matching will be done by the government. Airlines will gather a passenger's full name, date of birth, and gender when making an airline reservation to determine if the passenger is a match to the No Fly or Selectee lists. By providing the additional data elements of gender and date of birth, Secure Flight will more effectively help prevent misidentification of passengers who have similar names to individuals on the watch list and better identify individuals that may pose a known or suspected threat to aviation.

TSA's goal is to vet 100 percent of passengers on all domestic commercial flights by early 2010 and 100 percent of passengers on all international commercial flights by the end of 2010.

Chrysler to file for bankruptcy

Chrysler to file for bankruptcy
Backed by $3.5 billion more in aid, Chrysler-Fiat to emerge in 30-60 days
By Justin Hyde and Greg Gardner • Detroit Free Press Business Writers • April 30, 2009

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said today that Chrysler LLC will file a historic bankruptcy shortly, backed by up to $3.5 billion in new government aid designed to allow a Chrysler-Fiat partnership to emerge from court in 30 to 60 days.

The move also sends a strong signal to bondholders at General Motors Corp. that the Obama auto task force will act on its vow to take GM into a similar bankruptcy if they do not agree to swap their GM debt for shares in a reworked GM. (cont)

The article further states that the bankruptcy will be filed in New York since they have experience with large bankruptcy filings, and that the warranties on the cars will be covered by the government.

Swine flu

A recent article from CNN:

73 cases of swine flu confirmed; hundreds more feared

More general information from the World Health Organization at http://www.who.int/en/

And from the Center for Disease Control at http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

And yet more from the Pandemic Flu site at http://www.pandemicflu.gov/

Another Financial Blog

A new blog from the government was released last week. Included in this blog is information on the the Financial Stability plan and it also includes financial tools and the resources.
http://financialstability.gov/

New Website: Recovery.gov

Check out this new website by the government. This site will help you keep track of where the money, courtesy of the recovery bill just passed by Congress, is being spent.

http://www.recovery.gov/

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be carried out with full transparency and accountability -- and Recovery.gov is the centerpiece of that effort..."--from the website.