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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.
UFOs in the UK
Here is a catchy URL: ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
The files contain a wide range of UFO-related documents, drawings, letters and parliamentary questions covering the years 2000-2005. Find out more about the House of Lords' debate on UFOs, a flying saucer hoax that was treated as a potentially real alien invasion of the UK and how 1978 nearly became 'the year of the UFO'.Also see: Britain releases UFO sighting and policy files, By Michelle Martin, Reuters. (Mar 2, 2011). Hat tip to AHA Today. Continue reading
First comprehensive federal report on women since 1963
Last week, the White House released the first comprehensive federal report on women since 1963.
By bringing together data from across the Federal government, the report is one of most comprehensive sources for information on women’s lives today. This is the first such federal initiative since 1963, when the Commission on Status of Women, established by President Kennedy and chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, produced a report on the conditions of women.It provides a two-page narrative introduction for each of five broad topics (demographic and family changes, education, employment, health, and crime and violence), followed by a single page for each of the many indicators. With the "Detailed Sources and Notes" it provides a virtual index to detailed information from many agencies.
- WOMEN IN AMERICA Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, Prepared by U. S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration and Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget In cooperation with Bureau of Justice Statistics Bureau of Labor Statistics Census Bureau National Center for Education Statistics National Center for Health Statistics National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics for White House Council on Women and Girls, (March 2011). [pdf, 97 pp] "This report provides a statistical picture of women in America in five critical areas: demographic and family changes, education, employment, health, and crime and violence. By presenting a quantitative snapshot of the well-being of American women based on Federal data, the report greatly enhances our understanding both of how far American women have come and the areas where there is still work to be done."
GAO report on government program duplication and waste
Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-318SP (March 2011).
This is GAO’s first annual report to Congress in response to a new statutory requirement that GAO identify federal programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives, either within departments or governmentwide, which have duplicative goals or activities. ...The objectives of this report are to (1) identify federal programs or functional areas where unnecessary duplication, overlap, or fragmentation exists, the actions needed to address such conditions, and the potential financial and other benefits of doing so; and (2) highlight other opportunities for potential cost savings or enhanced revenues.Also see:
- An Rx for shrinking government, By Sean Reilly, Federal Times (March 6, 2011).
Mapping the American Community Survey
A person named John Boyle has taken a cool online tool, geocommons.com, and the American Community Survey data and created a map of Bike Commuters By County. (Note that the biking numbers do not include people who bike to bus, train and trolley stops or who bike to work fewer than three days a week.) The map has little popups tables that display use of public transit, numbers who walk to work, total commuters, and numbers of those who drive to work alone. Continue reading
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