NASA - Report of Columbia Accident Investigation Board, Volume I

Reid names chairmen for next Senate session

Mon Dec 15, 6:37 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kerry will be the next Foreign Relations Committee chairman while Sen. John D. Rockefeller will take over the committee that will help write the economic recovery package, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Monday.

Kerry, D-Mass., the former Democratic presidential nominee, will take over the committee that has been headed by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, D-Del.

Reid’s recommendations to the Senate Democratic Steering committee will be formally approved when the 111th session of the Senate convenes in January.

The major lineup changes result from Biden’s departure and the decision of 91-year-old Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to step down as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, which crafts annual spending bills. Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii will chair Appropriations, and Rockefeller will move up to chair the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that Inouye had led.

Rockefeller will leave his post as head of the Select Committee on Intelligence, to be replaced by Dianne Feinstein of California. Feinstein in turn gives up her position as Rules and Administration chair to Charles Schumer of New York.

The chairmanship of the Small Business Committee, which has been held by Kerry, will go to Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Other positions will not change. They include:

Tom Harkin of Iowa at Agriculture; Patrick Leahy of Vermont at Judiciary; Carl Levin of Michigan at Armed Services; Chris Dodd of Connecticut at Banking; Kent Conrad of North Dakota at Budget; Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico at Energy and Natural Resources; Barbara Boxer of California at Environment and Public Works; Max Baucus of Montana at Finance; Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts at Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Daniel Akaka of Hawaii at Veterans Affairs; independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut at Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Byron Dorgan of North Dakota at Indian Affairs; and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin at the Special Committee on Aging.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081215/ap_on_go_co/senate_chairmen_2

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) has released a report entitled "Cost of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other Military Operations Through 2008 and Beyond."
http://www.csbaonline.org/4Publications/PubLibrary/R.20081215.Cost_of_th
e_Wars_i/R.20081215.Cost_of_the_Wars_i.pdf
Since it is a long link, be sure to copy the whole thing into your browser or go to http://www.csbaonline.org/2006-1/index.shtml

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism has published a survey - "Public Response to Terrorism:
Findings from the National Survey of Disaster Experiences and Preparedness."
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/sciprc/pdf/NC+START+Descriptive+Report.pdf

December in the Downtown Library

House report - Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity

The House Oversight & Government Reform Committee approved a report "finding that President Bush made a "legally unprecedented and an inappropriate use of executive privilege" when he directed Attorney General Mukasey to withhold Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's interview of Vice President Cheney from the Committee."



The draft report and appendices and related information can be found at
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2282



The information related to the entire investigation can be found at
http://oversight.house.gov/investigations.asp?ID=115

The Genocide Prevention Task Force has released its report Preventing
Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers. The direct link for the full report is
http://www.usip.org/genocide_taskforce/pdf/FINAL%20REPORT.pdf



The main website with the report broken into parts is http://www.usip.org/genocide_taskforce/report.html



The Joint Forces Command released is Joint Operating Environment 2008 report. This report outlines threats and opportunities U.S. joint forces may confront in the next 25 years. The JOE 2008 report is available at http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2008/JOE2008.pdf

Greetings to all.

We hope everyone had a fun & refreshing Thanksgiving holiday. Ours were well spent with family and plenty of good food however we received some distressing news upon returning to work. We learned that the Nevada State Library and Archives has decided to eliminate the position, Head of Government Publications. The reason we are distressed is because this position is crucial for the capturing, cataloging, and dissemination of state publications and we fear that without the leadership that this position provides Nevada publications will slip into oblivion to the detriment of the people – the people whose taxes pay for this research and are therefore entitled to the opportunity to access this information.

Below is a letter of protest that you can cut & paste into a new message to send to Ms. Daphne DeLeon and Mr. Michael E. Fischer. Please feel free to edit the letter to personalize it or write your own. Don’t forget to sign your name at the bottom complete with your organization and title.

Here are their email addresses, please include both in the “Send To” line:

Daphne DeLeon, ddeleon@nevadaculture.org

Michael E. Fischer, mfischer@nevadaculture.org

One last thing, please send a blind copy of your email to Ian Campbell (icampbell@washoecounty.us) and Lisa Printz (lprintz@washoecounty.us).

Thank you and hopefully together we can make a difference,

Ian and Lisa

Attn: Daphne DeLeon, Division Administrator, Nevada State Library & Archive

Michael E. Fischer, Director, Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs

It was with shock and dismay that we learned about the Nevada State Library's decision to eradicate the position, Head of Government Publications. And it is with the great concern stimulated by this decision that we are writing to request that the state reconsider what we believe to be a short-sighted decision that will negatively impact current and future Nevada residents' access to critical information. When one considers that the federal government produces 70% of the world's information it becomes apparent that federally funded information is invaluable and since tax-payers dollars purchase or support these research endeavors the citizens of this nation have a right to access this information. Much of the states' research receives partial funding from the federal government and therefore is included in the figure (70%) given above. Compounding traditional problems of access to government funded research are the changes in the dissemination of this information to the populous. Due to advances in technology and in an effort to save money most government funded research is only available online therefore, capturing and cataloging this information for the purpose of retrieval are vital to the community's information needs especially since governmental agencies are not obligated to maintain access to this information. So, much of this information is ephemeral in its availability unless someone captures and catalogs it. Currently, there is a phenomenal amount of previously released information that needs to be captured and cataloged in addition to the present research being released now and future research that will require capturing and cataloging for without this work preserving access to federal and state research will not be possible. While there are many individuals attempting to apply order to federal documents, there are far fewer that work towards capturing, cataloging, and disseminating state government publications. This position, Head of Government Publications, fulfills this role and provides much needed leadership in the enactment of the NRS 378.170 and for the state of Nevada in developing a Nevada state publications depository to ensure the permanent retention of state publications. We feel that this position, Head of Government Publications, serves a critical and vital gap in the public's information needs and we therefore, strongly urge the Nevada State Library to reconsider this decision.

Thank you and sincerely,