Agencies Violate Law On Online Information
The newest from the National Security Archive: "Ten years after Congress enacted the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments (E-FOIA), only one in five federal agencies actually complies with the law, according to a new survey released today during Sunshine Week by the National Security Archive." Agencies Violate Law On Online Information National Security Archive, 12 March 2007.
Only One in Five Federal Agencies Meets Congress's Requirements 10 Years After Electronic Freedom of Information Amendments "E-Delinquents" Include Air Force and Immigration/Customs; Education and NASA Rank as "E-Stars" with Excellent Web Sites Knight Open Government Survey by National Security Archive Covers 149 Federal Offices, Concludes "File Not Found"Continue reading
DOJ Report on FBI’s Use of National Security Letters
A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Use of National Security Letters (199 pages, 36MB) U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General March 2007 Other copies: PDF at Washington Post, and a compressed version of only 12 meg at FAS; and an html version at cryptome Continue reading
In the News: Memorandum of Understanding Between the United States and Brazil to Advance Cooperation on Biofuels
Thanks to my colleague Shirl Kennedy at DocuTicker.com for posting direct links to this "in the news" document. Memorandum of Understanding Between the United States and Brazil to Advance Cooperation on Biofuels Also online is this DOS News Release. Continue reading
Near Real Time Info: Amtrak
We took care of near real time information for airplanes yesterday. Today, near real time information for Amtrak trains. Enter a city pair OR a city an train number. A page with one or more trains will appear. Select the train of interest and click "resubmit." Another page, with departure/arrival info will appear along with any info about delays and estimated departure/arrival info. Btw, don't worry about the potential error message at the top of the page. [Update: correct link is here. Thanks to the anonymous commenter who alerted us!] Continue reading
Near Real Time Info from the FAA
One area (of several) in the info retrieval world of extra special interest to me is real time and near real time access to information. Some of the largest providers of this type of data are governments. I will plan to post on several of them throughout the month. We will begin with near real info from the FAA. There are MANY sources of it but I'm going to focus on two. Additionally, some cost money. These two services are available at no charge. I use both of the two services listed below. Each has its strengths. Both are worthy of your attention. It's a case of which one works best for you. + Flight Aware http://www.flightaware.com Near real time info and historical info (free) for aircraft in the U.S./Canadian database. Search by Airline, Tail #, Airport. You can also access: + All flights in the air by airline + by aircraft model + others Maps and pages that auto-refresh if you're logged in to the service. Examples: Current Planes departing/arriving Boston's Logan International. Data for a specific flight also includes minute by minute lat/long, ground speed, altitude. All planes in the air this minute, by fleet. + Flight Stats http://www.flightstats.com/go/Home/home.do Widgets for several sites, RSS feeds. Mobile Site http://mobile.flightstats.com/go/Mobile/ Note: Flightware.com works and looks OK on a mobile browser. Historical ontime ratings (also on the FAA site) Airport info Maps Airport delays (also on the FAA site) http://www.flightstats.com/go/Airport/currentAirportDelays.do Flight Status by Route, Flight, Airport, Alerts Airports and airlines of the world lists Hide or view codeshare flights. Example (O'Hare Departures) Continue reading