State Agency Databases Activity Report 6/12/2011
We continue to have busy weeks at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project. You can find a blow by blow list of activity by visiting the project's related changes page. Highlights from the past week include: NEW PROJECT VOLUNTEERS The following people volunteered to adopt a page and have publicly claimed them: Rita Franks - LA Karen Kitchens - WY Chris Sharpe - GA Other people have volunteered but haven't put their names to pages yet. DATABASES ADDED Louisiana Addictive Disorders and Prevention and Licensing Database - Search by last name, credential number, or city for any certified substance abuse counselor, compulsive gambling counselor, prevention specialist, counselor in training, or counselor supervisor. Procedural Risk Database - This database describes risks and hazards related to medical care and surgical procedures. It was developed by the Louisiana Medical Disclosure Panel in accordance with Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1299.40. Search by the entire database or search for risks by procedure category. Continue reading
Pentagon Papers on C-SPAN
C-SPAN will have special programming about the Pentagon Papers this weekend:
On June 13th, 1971, the New York Times began publishing the "Pentagon Papers," a top-secret Defense Department study on the United States political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 through 1967. On the 40th anniversary, this Monday, June 13th, the government will mark the study as declassified and release it to the public in its entirety. On Saturday, June 11 at 6:00pm ET, tune in to C-SPAN Radio to hear the landmark 1971 Supreme Court Oral Argument as the Nixon Administration attempted to prevent the New York Times and Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers. On Sunday, June 12 at 5:20pm ET, tune in to American History TV on C-SPAN 3 to view a panel discussion from 2006, marking the 35th anniversary of when the New York Times first published the story. Panelists included Daniel Ellsberg who first leaked the study to the New York Times. Along with C-SPAN, and C-SPAN 2, both C-SPAN 3 and C-SPAN Radio are available to stream LIVE online, anytime: http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN3/Continue reading
Searching More Than 24K Pages of Email Messages From Sarah Palin Administration
The archived email messages were released earlier today and are now beginning to roll out into searchable databases and/or PDF files. Scanned pages are being added to databases as they become available. Many news organization are asking the public for assistance in reviewing all of the pages. Yet another example of crowdsourcing government records. Here are three of several source provin 1. NY Times Search NY Times: Palin E-Mail Search http://projects.nytimes.com/palin-emails/date/2008-08-01 2. MSNBC/Mother Jones/ProPublica Search: MSNBC/Mother Jones/ProPublica http://palinemail.msnbc.msn.com/ Updates at @openchannelblog and #palinemail MSNBC Live Blog With Additional Information as it Becomes Available. Also, info about documents being withheld. http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/10/6825771-heres-your-live-blog-for-the-palin-email-release-the-first-emails-are-online-now Background from Bill Dedman at MSNBC http://msnbc.msn.com/id/43281157/ns/politics-more_politics/ 3. Washington Post PDF Files of Raw Email Messages (#1) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/palin-emails/pdf/Dec42006-Feb202007.pdf Additional Material http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/sarah-palin-emails/post/for-micro-updates-check-atpalinemails-palinemails/2011/06/10/AGPwBuOH_blog.html#pagebreak Continue reading
Thomas Drake’s Plea Deal
Secrecy News has details and documents about the plea deal in the case of former National Security Agency official Thomas A. Drake who says he shared NSA information with The Baltimore Sun in an attempt to save taxpayers' money and strengthen national security:
- Settlement Reached in Thomas Drake “Leak” Case, by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News (June 10th, 2011).
- The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an enemy of the state?, by Jane Mayer New Yorker (May 23, 2011). Binney expressed terrible remorse over the way some of his algorithms were used after 9/11. ThinThread, the "little program" that he invented to track enemies outside the U.S., "got twisted," and was used for both foreign and domestic spying: "I should apologize to the American people. It's violated everyone's rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world." According to Binney, Drake took his side against the N.S.A.'s management and, as a result, became a political target within the agency.
Planning for a digital release of the Pentagon Papers
As noted here earlier "NARA is planning a digital/textual release of the Pentagon Papers for the week of June 13, 2011. This simultaneous release will be conducted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library, and the National Declassification Center at College Park." We're waiting for details, but NARA says that they "are looking to host a digital version on the archives.gov website, and the three Presidential libraries (Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon) are planning their own access to the same digital version." NARA will maintain its own preservation copies of digital records but will not be sending copies to GPO. http://blogs.archives.gov/ndc/?p=126 Update The archives has announced that "The materials will also be available online at http://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers/ June 13, at 12 noon EDT." According to the New York Times NARA announced Tuesday that the 11 words, which it had said would be redacted on one page of the Papers, would be published after all. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/us/08pentagon.html Continue reading