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Update on Statistical Abstract
This just in from the Census Bureau via GPO:
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 11:43 AM To: Holmes, Mary A. Subject: FW: Fw: Statistical Abstract and the Consolidated Federal Funds Report Dear Mr. Lansky: The just released 2012 budget does not include funding for the Statistical Compendia Branch which would mean the elimination of not only the Statistical Abstract, but all titles produced by that branch (State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, County and City Data Book, USA Counties, Quick Facts). No new editions would be produced in print or online. We have already started work on the Statistical Abstract 2012 edition and are still working on the local area products (highlighted above). We will continue to work on these products and have a contingency plan to have the Statistical Abtract 2012 out by the end of September, due to our uncertain future. Sincerely, Branch Chief Statistical Compendia Branch, ACSD U.S. Census BureauContinue reading
ProPublica Links for Following Nuclear News From Japan
Our Reading List for Following Nuclear News From Japan, by Marian Wang, ProPublica (March 15, 2011).
If you're trying to follow the news from Japan, you may be finding that the news is coming out faster than you can actually read it. We've compiled a few resources that we've found helpful as we track this developing story. With the news itself overwhelming enough as it is, we're trying to keep it short so as not to overwhelm with quantity.... moreContinue reading
Upheaval at the National Archives
Upheaval at the National Archives, by Barbie E. Keiser, Information Today, (March 10, 2011).
Who knew that libraries, records, and archives could be so controversial? It’s rare to find an archive as headline news, but the first quarter of 2011 has not ended and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has seen its name in lights for two seemingly independent issues: Suspended development of the Electronic Records Archive (ERA) and closure of the Archives Library and Information Center (ALIC).Continue reading
Unnecessary Secrets
Sanford J. Ungar, author of The Papers & The Papers: An Account of the Legal and Political Battle Over the Pentagon Papers, which won a George Polk Award in 1972, president of Goucher College in Baltimore, and a member of the US Public Interest Declassification Board, writes in the current CJR about overclassification of government information.
- Unnecessary Secrets, Opening government, from Ellsberg to Manning, By Sanford J. Ungar, Columbia Journalism Review, (March / April 2011). Absent, at least from the government's public statements and actions, is any consideration of an obvious underlying problem: that the obsessive over-classification of US official information has reached a point where it is impossible to know with confidence what truly deserves to be kept secret and how that can be done effectively. The government’s instinct to protect so many "secrets" also hinders democracy by keeping vital information from the public. As it happens, the WikiLeaks drama unfolds as we approach the fortieth anniversary of the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and it is useful to think about secrets through that prism.
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