Utah State Law Library

The Blogs from the U.S. Government website offers a list of federal government offices who are blogging. Topics are wide ranging and the agencies are varied and include:

• Business and Economics
• Defense and International Relations
• Health and Nutrition
• Public Safety and Law
• Travel and Recreation

New blogs are added all the time, and you can sign up to receive an email whenever pages are updated.

Gov Gab is a one-stop federal government blog. Each day a different blogger posts in the areas of home and family, health, money and travel. Blog posts examine everything from the visa lottery, hand washing vs. hand sanitizers, the importance of sleep and the benefits of calcium.

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As a Federal Depository Library, we receive select U.S. Government Printing Office publications at no charge. One recent acquisition is the 2009 Guide to the Freedom of Information Act. FOIA, 5 U.S.C. §552, establishes which records federal agencies should and can make available to the public via request and which records can be withheld.

The annotated 2009 Guide covers all aspects of the Freedom of Information Act, including:

• Procedural Requirements for filing a FOIA, including fees.
• Records exempt from a FOIA request, as described under 5 U.S.C. §552(b).
• Litigation Considerations, including a general description of a FOIA lawsuit.
  

If you don't have time to stop by the law library to read the guide, you can find the full text online at the U.S. Department of Justice FOIA page. You can also find links to FOIA pages from a variety of federal agencies and a list of Federal Agency FOIA contacts.

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The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has recently announced on its Federal Digital System (FDSys) blog that several collections have been digitally signed and authenticated, including the Weekly and Daily Compilations of Presidential Documents. Several of the FDSys collections are already authenticated with digital signatures, including the Congressional Directory and United States Statutes at Large.

What does digital authentication mean? Documents published online can be manipulated or copied, so there is a risk of finding inaccurate government information online. The U.S. GPO adds digital authentication signatures to ensure that its online publications have not been altered or copied. When you open any digitally authenticated document on GPO Access or FDSys, you will see a pop-up box giving you detailed information about the document's authentication status.

You can find out more about digital signatures of government publications at the U.S. GPO Authentication page.

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Health Care Reform has been everywhere in the news lately. No matter what your opinion is on the subject, you can read the full bill online at GPO Access. H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, is the official text of the health care reform bill.

Don't want to download and read the entire 1,017 page PDF document? You can browse and read specific sections at THOMAS.

If you're more interested in the news surrounding the bill, OpenCongress.org lets you follow news and blog postings about the bill from diverse sources.

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Ever wonder what the National Labor Relations Board does? It's the federal agency that handles disputes related to the National Labor Relations Act, including the rights of both employers and employees. You can learn about workplace rights, case procedures, and file a complaint or petition against an employer or union online.

The NLRB has created two new videos to help the public learn more about the organization and its website features. The first, a Site Tour, helps people learn about the organization and what the website offers, such as filing case documents online. The second, Using CiteNet, instructs people in how to search the Classified Index of NLRB Board Decisions by unique subject heading, digest, or case number.

The Utah State Law Library has print volumes of National Labor Relations Board decisions, which we receive as a Federal Depository Library, spanning from 1942 to 2008. If you can't come into the library, you can browse volumes online and read any full text opinion from 1936-present.

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Last Thursday, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., nominated by President Obama to be Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, appeared before the U.S. Senate Commitee on Foreign Relations.

Confirmation of Gov. Huntsman's ambassadorship could occur as early as this week, according to reports from the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.

In case you missed the nomination hearing, you can watch recorded video from the U.S. Senate Commitee on Foreign Relations's hearing page for Thursday, July 23rd. Click on Nominations to start the recording.

You can also read Gov. Hunstman's statement to the Foreign Relations Committee.

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The official U.S. Code is completely republished every 6 years, with annual supplement volumes published between editions. The complete 2006 edition is now available from the U.S. Government Printing Office.

The official U.S. Code is notoriously slow to be published, as you might have guessed from the news that the 2006 edtion has just been completed. As a Federal Depository Library we receive the paper copy of the U.S. Code, but our 2006 set is not yet complete.

Bluebook rules require citation to the offical U.S. Code whenever possible, but researchers rely on commercial annotated versions - U.S. Code Annotated (USCA) from West, or U.S. Code Service (USCS) from Lexis - for current federal law.

The U.S. Code is also available online from a variety of sources:

• The official U.S. Code (1994-2006 editions) are available from the U.S. Government Printing Office website.
• The U.S. House of Representative's Office of the Law Revision Counsel provides the official U.S. Code back to the 1988 edition.
• Cornell University's Legal Information Institute website provides an unofficial version based on the U.S. House of Representative's website, and provides a "How Current is This?" feature which helps you figure out when the section you are looking at was last updated.

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Did you know that the Cayman Islands have an estimated 17,000 cellular phone lines in use? Or that Indonesia has 652 airports? You can learn these and other facts about each country in the 2008 CIA World Factbook, which we recently received in the law library.

The World Factbook has a fascinating history. It was first an annual supplement to the CIA's National Intelligence Survey. In 1962, the first classified Factbook was published, and the first unclassified version was published in 1972. It became available to the public in 1975.

The Factbook lists each country in alphabetical order, and each country's entry is divided into several sections including Geography, People, Government, and Economy.

You can browse the CIA World Factbook on the CIA's website.

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President Obama recently nominated U.S. District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Confirming a Supreme Court Justice is a historic event. Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constution states in part: "[The President] shall have power . . . by and with the advice and consent of the Senate . . . [to] appoint . . . judges of the Supreme Court . . . ."

It is U.S. Senate's responsibility to confirm Judge Sotomayor's nomination. Her nomination hearing starts July 13, and the hearings will be available via webcast.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has information about the nomination process, including its history. You can learn more about the nominee by reading the mandatory bipartisan Committee Questionnaire, which a nominee must answer and return to the Commitee before nomination hearings begin.

Want to get an idea of what may happen at a Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearing? GPOAccess has links to full text hearings from 1971-present.

Additional information about Judge Sotomayor and the confirmation process is available from the Law Library of Congress' website.

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On February 1st, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia STS-107 was returning to Earth after several weeks in space. Disaster struck and the shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry over Texas, and all seven crew members were lost.

We have just received NASA's Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report from the U.S. Government Printing Office as part of our Federal Depository Library collection.

You can read this report at the State Law Library, or you can get the report online. The report analyzes every component of this tragic event, including structural malfunctions and crew training.

We also have the 2003 Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report in our collection, and it too is available online.

If you're interested in more information, NASA maintains a website dedicated to the Columbia, including crew member profiles, news reports, and records released under the Freedom of Information Act.

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On June 1, 2009, U.S. citizens will have to present a passport book, passport card, or other travel documents approved by the U.S. government in order to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda.

In an effort to help people get the required documents before this change goes into effect, regional Passport Agencies and local Passport Acceptance Facilities will be open Saturday, March 28th as part of Passport Day in the USA.

From the press release:

U.S. citizens will receive passport information and can apply for their passport at “Passport Day in the USA” events. For this day only, appointments and expedite fees are not required for those applying at a Passport Agency. Applicants can expect to receive their passport in approximately four weeks for routine service and about two to three weeks for expedited service.

These Utah passport offices are participating in Passport Day in the USA:

Davis County Clerk/Auditor
28 East State Street
Farmington
(801) 451‐3213

Iron County Clerk
68 South 100 East
Parowan
(435) 477‐8340

Uintah County Clerk/Auditor
147 E Main
Vernal
(435) 781‐5361

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Every year at this time library staff all over the country ask one burning question: "What color will the Code of Federal Regulations be this year?"

We now have the answer for 2009: light olive green.

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is updated annually on a quarterly schedule. The set has now begun its transition from last year's salmon to this year's olive green.

The latest CFR - and previous versions back to 1997 - are available via GPO Access.

If you're a State of Utah employee, you can access the entire historical collection of CFRs (back to 1938) via HeinOnline from your work computer. If you're having trouble accessing HeinOnline, contact us for assistance.

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The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) recently launched FDSys (Federal Digital System), a portal to online federal government information.

FDSys will replace GPO's current website - GPO Access - by the middle of 2009. You can search available collections by basic keyword or advanced search options such as publication date, branch, title, or full-text. Collections currently available include the Federal Register and Congressional Record (1994-present).

FDSys is available as a public beta, which means you can test its features and help improve this valuable website! The public is encouraged to email feedback to pmo@gpo.gov.

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The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is now the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents. This change became effective with the new presidential administration on January 20, 2009.

Whatever its title, this is the official publication of executive orders, proclamations, presidential statements, messages, remarks, and other materials released by the White House Press Secretary, and is published by the Office of the Federal Register.

From the Daily Compilation page you can browse documents by date or search by keyword.

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One of our most recent federal document acquisitions is titled Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007. This book, published by the U.S. House of Representatives, presents biographies on all African-Americans who have served and currently serve in the U.S. Congress. Feel free to browse this book at the law library, or access a full text version available through the U.S. Government Printing Office.

For those who may be more interested in this historic topic, The U.S. Capitol's Office of the Clerk has even created a website for the book with extra features, including lesson plans for teachers.

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