From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving ahead this summer to shut down libraries, end public access to research materials and box up unique collections on the assumption that Congress will not reverse President Bush’s proposed budget reductions, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility [...]
Archive of entries posted on August 2006
EPA Begins Closing Libraries Before Congress Acts on Plan
Google refuses to hand over data to Brazilian authorities
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Brazilian prosecutors have asked a federal judge for permission to file a civil lawsuit against Google Inc., alleging it was withholding user information required for a separate criminal investigation.
The prosecutors want Google to pay a $US61 million fine and asked that if it refuses to comply with its information request, its [...]
U.S. sues Maine officials for probe on Verizon, NSA
From the Washington Post:
The U.S. government sued Maine officials on Tuesday to block their demand that Verizon disclose whether it gave the government’s spying program access to its customer data, documents showed.
Access to Information Canada: Annual Report
Thanks to ResourceShelf for pointing to:
Access to Information Canada: Annual Report, Information Commissioner, 2005-2006
Countless individuals reported that senior officials, both political and administrative, find various ways to deny providing information to the public.
The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age
Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2006-09 (August 2006)
This foundational white paper reports on a year-long study by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, examining the relationship between copyright law and education. In particular, we wanted to explore whether innovative educational uses of digital technology [...]
The Archives Sleuth Had a Secret
From the Washington Post:
Amateur historian Matthew M. Aid made news this spring by exposing a secret federal program to remove thousands of public documents from the National Archives. It turns out that Aid harbored a secret of his own.
Twenty-one years ago, while serving as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force in England, Aid [...]
BioMed Central opens access to Chemistry articles
From Information World Review:
Open access publisher BioMed Central has launched Chemistry Central, a site that the London based company hopes will see chemistry become as prolific in the open access arena as physics.
Access to Chemistry Central, and its sister site BioMed Central is available through a newly-launched portal, Open Access Central, which will provide a [...]
Officials Seek Broader Access to Airline Data
From the New York Times (registration required):
United States and European authorities, looking for more tools to detect terrorist plots, want to expand the screening of international airline passengers by digging deep into a vast repository of airline itineraries, personal information and payment data.
A proposal by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would allow the United States [...]
Homeland Security chief promises privacy safeguards
From News.com:
Privacy rules will be closely regarded as intelligence gathering and sharing get a boost, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said.
Collecting more information and correlating data from various law enforcement agencies is crucial to national security, Chertoff told reporters Friday after touring a new, high-tech law enforcement center in this Los Angeles suburb. But increased [...]
3 AOL employees leave in search data fallout
From the Mercury News:
AOL’s chief technology officer left the company and two other workers were fired in the aftermath of a privacy breach that involved the intentional release of more than 650,000 subscribers’ Internet search terms.